Snowdrops and Vincent

Until last year I had a veritable carpet of snowdrops, a delicious spread of brave little white heads in the grass under the trees where I could see them from the kitchen window. The -----squirrels have systematically rooted them up in their quest for the nuts they buried in the autumn. They have NO idea where they put the nuts, they just roam all over the garden digging here, there and everywhere in the hope that somewhere along the line they might unearth something. In the process they dig up all the bulbs and leave them lying on top of the soil, with their poor little green tips of shoots going nowhere. Stupid animals - rats with fluffy tails and good publicity, Beatrix Potter has a lot to anwer for So now I do not have a carpet, nor even a rug, but I do have clumps here and there and I still have a nice variety of flowers, open, closed, double, spotted, tall and short - what a joy they are.
And the hellebores too, are doing well - it is amazing just how much there is in the garden at the moment even though it is still so cold.

GUESS WHERE WE'VE BEEN !!! That's right - yesterday we went up to London to see the wonderful, magnificent, superb Vincent Van Gogh exhibition at the Royal Academy. What a feast for the eyes - it took us over two hours to go round, there is so much to see and read, for of course his letters to his brother Theo are all there with delightful little sketches of the paintings he had just done. Little works of art on their own. It was quite overwhelming to see so much of his work all gathered together and so well displayed -we enjoyed it so much, despite the crowds. My lovely friend Sandra works at the RA as a volunteer and we met up with her after
we had been round and went off for a much needed pot of tea with scones! Sandra says that every time she goes on duty she goes back to gaze at her favourite canvases. Which to choose though, if you could take just one home with you! Anyway, I bought the catalogue and I cannot wait to sit down and have a good old read. We then went on to have a very good Chinese meal and finally got home at about ten o'clock exhausted but very happy! I do love a day in London but I am always so happy to get back home!

Now then, Vintage Rock Chick, you said I could upload the new version of Blogger but I am such a wimp that although I have searched I cannot find this 'ere facility. What do I do? Where is it hiding?

So much to do, so little time

We have just come back from the Preview evening of George Meliniotis's exhibition at The Tavern - and a very nice exhibitionit is too! I am accustomed to seeing his paintings as they evolve when I pop next door, but seeing them in a gallery situation is quite a different thing.Most impressive. Now my feet are getting even colder as I anticipate our MESCH Preview in one month's time! Here is MaryLou, or SherriLee as I think she will be, complete with freckles and the shadow of my camera -ooops. Not very professional. And this is another thing I have been working on - a Matisse-type portrait. This is stage one

and oh dear, even less professional, she is sideways on. And if I delete it and go back to my camera and turn it round, when I download it it will go to the top of the page and not here where I want it. PERLEEESE can someone tell me how to get the download where I want it in the text !!!

Anyway, you can see where it is going (sideways). I am in too much of a hurry to get the post done and get on with the Community Hall accounts, as we have a meeting tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. Then Gardening Club AGM which I was going to give a miss, but have just had a telephone call urging me to go. Then a 'cinema evening' when we are going to watch The Time Traveller's Wife' at a friend's house with a takeaway. Friends coming to dinner on Saturday - cooking all day - and another friend's birthday lunch on Sunday.
And our exhibition opens on 1st April...........

Well, it was a funny old week, last week. I feel quite wrung out ! I was thoroughly fed up by Thursday, and then on Friday we had to brave the M25 to go to a funeral in Surrey which turned out to be a very odd affair - I understand that the will had upset the applecart. Honestly, families !!! But then things started to get better, on Saturday we drove up to Birmingham to hear Will play in another concert - an interesting programme of brass music, including Tam O'Shanter's ride by Dennis Wright and Glasnost by Dizzy Stratford, neither of which I knew, but both of which I enjoyed. All the family were there and Will had booked a table at a Nepalese restaurant where we had a very nice meal. Then we had to drive back to Cambridge through thick fog. Ugh. No chance of a lie-in as we had to be up early for church on Sunday morning, after which some friends came back to the house to sample our damson vodka and sloe gin. A little nap after lunch seemed a good idea. Then the lovely Brenda, who knew I had had a rough week, rang to ask us to join them for supper (which was roast pork) so Sunday was a good day as well.

Here are some of the bottles of Carlini wine - a lousy photograph but the wine is a lovely clear colour and actually tastes good. Brenda has designed some labels which we had a look at over dinner and we reckon we might be drinking it in a couple of months! What an achievement.

It has been a glorious day here - lovely sun shining on all the snowdrops and aconites blooming in the garden. I actually put sheets on the line and they dried - I do hate having to use the tumble dryer. I went out to lunch with some of the church ladies, we go and have a meal every time someone has a birthday, and now the husbands have decided they are not going to sit at home with baked beans so they meet up at another pub at the other end of the village. That's brilliant 'cos I didn't have to cook this evening!

I did some sewing this afternoon - I think the clue is 'Yee-haaa'
-

She has turned out to be quite a sturdy lass and is probably called MaryLou or SherriLee! I cannot decide whether to leave her as she is or paint her, like the old lady with the parrot. I quite like the simplicity of the brown stitch on the cream calico. I shall sleep on it.

Well, here we are in March already - I cannot believe it. One day of sunshine and you really do feel that spring might be in the air.

Cottenham

Well, we five MESCH members thoroughtly enjoyed our three days at Cottenham - and congratulations to Pauline Verrinder for pulling off another really successful event. It was lovely to meet so many old friends and to make new ones, and it was amazing how far some people had travelled to be there. Two intrepid ladies had come down especially from Edinburgh! This is our bird tree, Marian Murphy on the left, it caused a great deal of amusement and interest which was exactly what we wanted. And here is a picture of it at the end of the show when many of the birds had been sold, but you can see it more clearly against a blank background. Everyone was most complimentary about our little exhibition and said it was a breath of fresh air! I sold a picture and several other items which was good.

Of course, it goes without saying that we were exhausted by Sunday evening, both Vanda and Marian had tutored workshops, and it is surprisingly tiring to be standing and talking all day! I did a bit of retail therapy and bought one of the delightful African baskets - of course, I REALLY need another basket -but I know I shall enjoy this one. I would take a photo of it now, except that I know that when I download it it will mysteriously go to the top of the page and I shall have to start all over again. HOW do I get the darn thing to come in where I want it, like here :-

Anyway, meanwhile back in real life the bottling has taken place and the wine is really very palatable. The bottles had to soak in Campden tablets in my George's bath for a couple of days

but George and Brenda from next door have been over this evening and the bottling took place. Brenda and I kept well out of the way. The wine will be called Carlini - a cross between The Carlings and Meliniotis. And I think the label should show my mad old lady with the parrot superimposed over one of George's landscapes on the label, Brenda is working on it. The bottles have been removed to the garage and then in due course we have to carefully select those people who will come to a party and be privileged to drink it.

I am feeling really seriously depressed today, a combination of weather, tiredness, February etc.

And the knowledge that we have five weeks before our next exhibition at The Tavern Gallery in Meldreth. My get-up-and-go will have to get up and come pretty quickly if I am to deliver the goods. Onwards and upwards.

Textiles in Focus

I have been at Cottenham most of the day with the other members of MESCH setting up our exhibition - and very good it looks, too! Well, that's what we think. The theme was birds - hence the parrot in the cage, who is looking very annoyed because Madame has taken his best tail feathers for her hat and left him with a bedraggled tail. It is an extension of the 'When I am an old woman I shall wear purple' which I did in a much smaller scale for a recent birthday. In the centre of the room we have a large garden umbrella strung with birds - I will try and take a photograph of it tomorrow, I was so tired when we had finished covering the screens with calico and hanging the pictures that I forgot. Here are two

more birds - I really enjoyed sitting and doing a little gentle hand sewing after the intensity of machining this fellow strutting his stuff -

I am on duty for the next three days, I live closer than anyone else and I am sure I shall enjoy meeting all the people coming in. Will someone please tell me how to download a photograph so that it goes in the right spot ?! I have just decided to put in the photo of the lovely visitors book which Margaret Starr made for the group and the wretched thing has gone to the top of the page. Bother. So much to learn still!
Dear George, who spent the morning helping us set up, has gone out to a meeting. He took himself off for a proper lunch so did not need feeding this evening and we are out to dinner tomorrow - hurrah. So now I am going to sit down with my feet up and have a cup of coffee
and watch my Big Fat Gypsy Wedding.
I am really looking forward to this weekend!

Back in circulation

I cannot tell you how much I have missed all your lovely blogs - Gina, Silver Pebble, Dottie Cookie, Magic Cochin et al - we have been off line, apart from one day 24th January, since 14th Jan. DO NOT ASK !!! Someone decided to save money by changing to Talktalk, but they did not cut the mustard and the trauma involved a 5 3/4 hour (YES, that is right) conversation with Mumbai and even four days without a telephone ! We took it in turns to go to the loo or have a drink! However, BT have taken us back and on a slightly better package so here I am. I have really felt disenfranchised.

Am desperately busy with hundreds of emails to deal with, getting ready for Cottenham, had the family here for halfterm and have just left the bedrooms as they all walked out of them! My mother would have a fit. So I don't suppose I will surface 'til Sunday evening but I'M BACK.

Parrot in a cage

We have had no internet for a week and it has been really odd - I had not realised just how much we use this wretched machine ! When the new router finally arrived yesterday and we went on line again 170 emails came through, quite overwhelming, emails concerning George's Rotary Club, the church, Open Studios, Luncheon Club, MESCH, etc. quite apart from mail from friends and family. And DD1 came for the weekend so it was only this afternoon that I got to my sewing machine and produced this little fellow. It is part of the work I am doing for Cottenham Textiles in Focus, this is the third attempt as after I had disolved the Romeo the first two did not seem colourful enough. I then had quite a struggle to get him safely behind bars -

but I got him there eventually although he does not look too happy! I have called him Kevin and I am undecided whether to leave him like this with a rather weird stunted tail or to add a few feathers like this -

What shall I do? I think I am inclined to go for the feathers.

It has been a funny week, no computer, miserable weather, the funeral of a friend who died very suddenly, rotten news in the papers, a wonderful massage from one of my favourite people and a nice supper party. So a really mixed bag. I have just finished reading Marrying the Mistress by Joanna Trollope, I think it is the first book of hers I have ever read and I really enjoyed it.

My daughter brought me a super little gizmo which I saw in my grandson's flat at Uni - a sock dryer. It has 20 pegs suspended from a ring and I can peg all the socks onto the one hanger in the warmth of the kitchen then whop it on the line where it is easy to retrieve if it starts to rain! I'm tickled pink with it - it doesn't take much to please me! Funny though, when I came to peg the socks on somehow I had 21 socks, now how can that be? Why is there always one sock which lurks in the laundry basket? Another one of life's great mysteries.