Night time visitor

I have been doing some more work on the Indian ladies - the tricky bit now is to get them sewn on to the background. I am quite pleased with the way it is going so far and I do hope that my prospective purchaser will still like it when it is finished! I really want to get them finished as we (MESCH) have an exhibition coming up at Art Van Go in Knebworth and I would like to get some more work done for that. MESCH is the new group formed by the five artists who left Small CHAT last year - Marian Murphy, Liz Evans, Margaret Starr, Vanda Campbell and me - the H at the end.


When I went to bed last night I turned down the bedspread and went to have my bath. When I came back into the bedroom there was the biggest, blackest spider you can imagine on the bed!!! I know that if you wish to live and thrive you let a spider run alive, and I would never kill one, but this was a bit beyond me so I had to call for George. Now HE normally picks them up in his hand and puts them outside, but this one he approached with a glass and an envelope!

Of course, I spent most of the night imagining him (the spider, not George) trying to get back into the house and back into my bed. What is more, I bet he has a wife and six children behind the headboard.

On the bright side, I picked three big ripe figs off the tree today plus a load of beans, apples and tomatoes. The pears are still very hard and the greengages have been overcome by wasps. Now I am a good (well, trying to be) Christian but I am sure that wasps are proof positive that God is a man. No woman would have created wasps, ants, slugs, snails, snakes or woodlice. Furthermore, a female God would have made sure it only rained at night thereby ensuring that washing got dry during the day and garden parties did not get spoiled. Ergo, God is a man - I am happy with that.

But I am not happy with this spider lurking about!

Summer vegetables

Who is a clever girl then! Picked in my garden today - in fact, we picked a bucket load of greengages (more correctly, George picked them because I am allergic to wasps!) Forgot to put some of my tomatoes in. No sewing done - I had to make cakes this morning because the Book Club met at my house and home made cakes seem to be the requirement! Sorry, Gina, I didn't take a photo before the big cake was cut into and it looks very sorry now, but it was a lemon & ground almond sponge with marscapone & apricot filling and was delicious. The scones were a bit hard, I find them temperamental. Any tips?

We discussed Engleby by Sebastian Faulks - we gave it 8/10 - it was a very dark book but quite compelling and I liked the fact that it was mostly set in Cambridge. We sat out in the garden under two big umbrellas, it was perfect.

Now I am going out to lie on the table in the garden and watch the shooting stars!

Indian summer - a little early

Ugh - it has been so hot and sticky today, I think we should have a storm. I had a glorious massage this morning and smell deliciously of rose oil! What decadence! The trouble was, it made me feel very lethargic so I had a little doze after lunch - well, that is one of the benefits of being retired.

Then I decided I had better get cracking. On the first morning of Open Studios, a lovely Dutch lady walked in and fell in love with a big piece of W.I.P which I had put up at the last moment to hide the back of my sitting room curtains. It was very rough, all pins and loose bits of cloth but she wants it, bless her. So for the last week I have been working on it, I am anxious to get it finished especially with my Bernina repair bill hanging over me.

Today I have been working on the water pots, the background (below) is more or less done but the pots are very fiddly. I have made a lovely mess but my dear husband is very tolerant (he has just brought my Campari in to the computer so he is a real poppet) So I suppose I had better go and cook him a meal - my favouritest dish in the whole wide world - chicken risotto! Do you think I can serve runner beans with it instead of salad? I am over- run with them.

DD1 is on her way beck to Market Drayton with her family plus cat and dog and wounded Jeremy - next big milestone is William's A level results. DD2 has just phoned to suggest we have a day out in France to stock up on various necessities so I shall really look forward to that - she is a serious shopper, just like me! The only trouble is she is so slim and looks marvellous in everything she tries on and I still think I am 35 and want to wear the same things, but I can't!

Off to be a domestic goddess.

Eventually the ladies will be put on here - watch this space.

I cannot let that Gina think she is the only Domestic Goddess in the area - I, too, slaved over a hot stove yesterday and made some Plum Chutney which is going to be delumptious with cheese or anything else, really. George loves chutney, especially home made. The other picture is a collage which I called Aubade and which I have just sold following on Open Studios. It was one of a set of six musical pieces, all gone now except the last one Nocturne, with a violin stitched on Romeo. I just had the presence of mind to take a photograph of this before it went. I must learn how to edit the pictures! All this technology, I could do with young Jeremy here.

But Jeremy rang this evening from their holiday home in Northumberland to say that he came off his bike yesterday and finished up in hospital with stitches in both arms, badly grazed legs and lots of bruises. Both arms are in bandages although nothing is broken. He is feeling very sorry for himself! Fortunately he was out for a bike ride with elder brother William who is 18. William immediately rang for mother who used to be a nurse, so I daresay she was very calm and competent. Isn't it funny to think that last night we were having supper with DD2 in Shelford whilst DD1 was in A&E with Jeremy and I did not have any inkling that anything was wrong. Is my antenna losing it's touch?

My beloved Bernina is coming back on Thursday, it had to have a new circuit board - £192 !!! Ouch. Mr. Woods said the damage could have been caused by me using the wrong bobbin - so BEWARE! Only use bobbins with 7 holes, not 9, or it could be an expensive mistake. Good job I sold Aubade but what a shame the person did not buy the pair!

I have just finished Sebastian Faulks 'Engleby' ready for discussion at the Book Club next week - what a strange story! I enjoyed the fact that it was set in Cambridge but not much else, a dark tale and quite sad.

Well, more rain tomorrow we are told. Heigh ho.

Open Studios -whew, it is over! Three weekends of Cambridge Open Studios - it has been quite an experience. I have had wonderful support from my friends and neighbours and fellow textile artists, the weather could have been better some days but just look how lovely my garden looked from my studio today!!! I have to confess that I have been as delighted with the compliments about my garden as I have with the nice things people have said about my work! Especially as, having had an operation on my knee last month, I have not been able to do any real work in the garden so it is looking very 'cottagey'.

My neighbour George (not to be confused with husband George) has also enjoyed the OS experience but we both confess to being exhausted. Being on your best behaviour from 11 until 6, and saying virtually the same things to every visitor is quite tiring but the combination of the two studios together has worked really well. This is George's lovely wife Brenda standing in my garden - the instructions to visitors were to 'follow the bunting' which led across the garden beyond the summerhouse to the gate between our gardens. Will we do it again? Well at the moment I don't know, but maybe when the time comes to sign up again we shall be more enthusiastic! Now I am going to fall into bed because tomorrow I MUST tidy everything up and do some very necessary housework.

I have been really busy since I last wrote - not that it matters, really, as I do not have any followers! I have had my 12 year old grandson Jeremy staying with me and I have also done two of three Open Studio weekends. Marian Murphy came to cast her expert eye over my

'studio' and then came and spent a couple of hours with me on the first morning, I was so grateful as I was quite nervous. Jeremy was in his element ushering people around and making sure they went through the gate in the fence to my next door neighbour George Meliniotis to see his paintings. Gina Ferrari visited me, as did Margaret Starr, Brenda O'Carroll and Lizanne van Essen - I was delighted to see them all. Marian had suggested I had a Visitor's Book and some really nice comments have been written. We have had quite a lot of visitors, I think it helps having two studios at the same location. One weekend to go - I just hope the weather is better as the bunting (lent by Marian) is looking somewhat bedraggled and I may have to make her some more! Heaven forbid. The little chap on the left is the White Rabbit of course, another in my Alice series.

I have just interviewed an elderly couple in the village for a 'profile' for the village Magazine, typed it up and sent it off to the editor and this evening there is a meeting of the Trustees of the Almshouses, so more typing up tomorrow. If it were not for all these other activities I could get on with some stitching! Jeremy has gone back home now and I do miss him, although I don't miss the constant feeding, I am amazed how much a 12 year old can eat - and remain skinny! It's SO unfair.

this is me and my neighbour George Melionotis posing rather self - consciously for the Royston Crow! We are opening our studios next weekend (and the 3rd and 4th weekends also) as part of the Cambridge Open Studio event. George has done Open Studios before in Hertfordshire, but it is my first time and I am wondering what I have let myself in for. My 12 year old grandson is staying with us and is being roped in to help. Having just come back from a school trip to France he insists he is going to greet people in French - which should be interesting, especially as his vocabulary seems to be somewhat limited.