warning - bears in the woods

Baby and parents have survived the night and are moving towards the stage of familiarity, I already feel redundant, which I suppose is good.

New father is fashioning a beard from an abandoned Halloween party costume, so he can take a photo of baby thus enhanced, as all his friends were convinced his offspring would emerge as hirsute as his father.

Baby's auntie came today, with her just out of Boot-Camp-Marine-son. He is on a short visit before flying off to confront the men with serious beards. He looks almost as young as Baby, and has even less hair, as he is shaved to the brain. A very sweet agreeable young man, but I guess if he can get thru Boot Camp he is sterner than he looks.

We don't really know the news here, television is almost unwatchable with adverts so often. We caught a glimpse of the bombings in India, it did make the front pages of most newspapers, even saw a small titbit about Gordon Brown and his pre tax budget, but on the whole we are floating in a bubble.

My sleep pattern got awry last night so i read a whole noisy murder book, thus a trip to barnes and noble [i am now holding baby and so cannot do capitals,] where i loaded up with a mrs gaskell to give the gore a rest, plus 3 other paper backs - excellent store.

Fire eater

Baby having finally put in an appearance this morning, I can at last use the time honoured phrase "we are a grandmother".
He was only five days late and only put his ma thru seven hours of torture, contractions coming on too quick and strong for the promised epidural, so daughter ploughed on womanfully and produced "au natural" which as a g'ma I could smile smugly and say "by far the best way dearie".
The midwife was very sweet and supportive, daughter had to request I exhort less loudly so she could also hear what the midwife was advising.
Now we have 10 days to pass on the lessons of a lifetime before leaving the little family to fend for itself.
It is a gloriously sunny day today, after a couple of cloudy rainy ones, the blue skies twinkle in my celebratory star earrings
Having fended off 3 sweet looking ??Jehovah's Witnesses, or maybe another variety, I didn't really give them time to get into their stride, I will blog on.
I have the house to myself, as all are engaged elsewhere at the mo, except for 2 dogs and ?4cats. I am sitting on the verandah/porch and the birds are making their usual din as they settle for the night in the garden trees.
If it wasn't so cold it would be idyllic, but it is November, which makes baby a Sagittarius, I don't know many of those.
Daughter, Man Who Works and I are all water signs, new father is a Virgo like my son, an earth sign, but new babe is a Fire sign, hmmmmmmmm just as well I don't believe any of it, except MWW and I always live and holiday by water, well almost always, g'mas are allowed to be a bit addled in their logic I expect.
We will go back and see the fiery little chap in a while, hopefully he will have latched on by then, which is all he needs to achieve for a while.
The ancient inherited family cot/crib sprung a crack this week when stuffed with a new mattress, so we have splinted it for now.
When we went to BabesRus or whatever the huge emporium was called I was flabbergasted at the amount and expense of doodahs one can buy for a new person these days. Awesome as they say, repeatedly, over here.
Young father was keen to spend up all the vouchers, given at the baby shower, before the shops went bankrupt in these uncertain times, but I suspect babies will keep appearing, and the habit of bedding them down in a drawer and handing down clothes seems to have been abandoned.
So i guess the remaining vouchers will still be bankable in a few weeks time, when daughter needs a bit of a pick you up. Altho daughter has been given piles of Onesies, as they call baby grows over here. by young mothers who swear they will never need them again.

waiting game

Here I am in Reno, a surprisingly pretty "biggest little city in the world", one day when i have the technology I will post some pics to prove it.
At the mo I am using my daughter's Mac laptop, which she insists is easy! but they do things differently around here.
The journey in all ways was straight forward. Virgin were their usual chirpy selves, I was allowed my stitching paraphernalia without fuss, but as I watched 3 movies and read one book I didn't get much done.

Pause while daughter's computer died, husband's Dell expired on flight over, so he impulse bought a Eee, whatever that is.

Small is what it is, but mighty.

Daughter is still awaiting birth, as is half of Reno to judge by today, many friendly grins and questions as we make our rotund way around.

We took Ishtar to a dog park which none of us enjoyed much. A bleak field, no trees [imperative for doggies on would have thought] and lots of woofers, little, large and larger careering around.

Ishtar [a beautiful but elderly chow] did not appreciate the variety of noses shoved up her bum in an enquiring manner, so we did not stay long.

Another day [who knows what day it is] we took a walk with Ishtar along the Truckee river right in the centre of the city, lovely golden trees in the autumn sun, ducks and geese and "strange fruit"

moving on

To be stupid, selfish, and have good health are three requirements for happiness, though if stupidity is lacking, all is lost. - Gustave Flaubert

Maybe that is why I am a bit miserable at the mo, I am not stupid enough.

Here I am about to be a grandma and all I can do is whitter and slither, and wish I could stay here and watch "I'm Celebrity get Me out of Here". Excitement and risk from a safe distance.

I am stupid.

Proved by gleefully watching such rubbish.

But not stupid enough - to get onto that plane and sit comfortably miles above the jungles without a care. I don't want to get into that tin can, I don't want to leave the ground.

Flying is the safest way to travel, even driving to the next village to the mobile library van just now, was probably more risky but I chatted cheerfully all the way, blissfully [stupidly] at ease.

And when i get there........at least the new generation will look at me slightly out of focus and not judge me, yet.

What will my two make of their aging p? Will I be calm and steady, rock like in my support through post natal depression, chef like in dishing up eatable meals to all and sundry.

It is universally acknowledged packing is a pain, and I haven't started yet. What to take, what to leave. Against all instincts there is a huge book shop in Reno, and a small second hand book shop within walking distance. But I can't make up my mind which books I Need, to make sure I have with me, and should I keep them safe in hand luggage or risk them in the hold.

Grand-baby has a rather large new shawl I have crocheted, that must travel with me; auntie [grand-auntie?] Cinders' teddy bear can just busk it in the hold; I guess my mothers knitted bootees and helmets should go with shawl................decisions.

M newly back from Bogota puts me to shame, all cheery and bright from her colourful experiences, she has given me a security blanket to lull my nerves. Doesn't double as a parachute however, so it won't.

Shoes!!! how many? Daughter has battalions, roughly my size, but all have high heels which my feet will no longer sustain.

Oh dear.

destination nevada

I had a Mrs Bean of a morning.

Started by stopping by the bins awaiting collection, to add one more thing. Car door swung further than I expected, bumped into our bin which in turn toppled neighbours bin. Garbage all over driveway.

At docs I tried to avoid garrulous acquaintance and failed when she inadvertently managed to ignore all other chairs and sit next to me. Newspaper did not provide sufficient cover, and it is the Guardian too. Failed in this case.

Doc gave me some ointment for sore eye, and doggy and I cavorted off for walkies, avoiding bins, till screeching to a halt, having remembered I hadn't picked up the Working man's pills from pharmacy.

Return to docs with disappointed dog.

No Money.

Scuttle to Post Office and have to queue for centuries behind jovial mad man depositing his life savings in small change plus as many merry quips as he could dredge up.

Finally collected pills and arrived at river bank where a change into wellies at last achieved our dream.

Back home in the afternoon i argued with mother to keep us both in trim and became Disgusted Customer when the two jumpers I ordered have not turned up, man on phone said he wasn't allowed to reveal possible delivery date....................helpful.

We are somewhat nervy this week, contemplating what to pack for the trek ahead, not two new jumpers obviously.

M advises taking full luggage allowance, then when a big dirty pile of worn clothing has been compiled, post it back home and buy lots of lovely new clothes to pack in the space made available for return flight.

Probably not, with the state of the £ v $ at the mo.

We have had to upgrade the hire car to a 4x4 when we remembered we have to drive over mountains up to 8000' to get to daughter, that's an extra £300. Not that they ever give you the same car they promised.

Poor Working Man has to remember how to drive an automatic on the wrong side of the road and get us safely out of San Francisco at the same time.

Daughter says she is 1cm dilated, but head isn't engaged, much the same here.

conference

There has been a mighty Forum formed, mostly of ladies of a certain age and freedom. To give ourselves the confidence and status of how things are done we have conferences.

The last one recently was "How to make money from your work", fairly basic one would have thought, but us ladies aren't that sure we actually want to soil our hands with trade, no that's not true, more likely we haven't the confidence to put our creations to the test.

Or maybe we just want to continue to be creative in our later years and the garden is cold in the winter and the grand children really are very tiring at times. Stitching is such an adaptable activity, can be put down at any time when any one elses priorities intervene..........had a big argument with a member who denied my fears that the cost of membership and fees might be too much for some women.

She insisted we/they must get their priorities right, with which as a demanding female myself I concur. But I can remember when i had kids, and later was a single parent and all the other permutations women have to deal with.

I insisted we could keep our costs down to ensure we were accessible to stitchers who may not be able to place our work at the top of their list.

Funnily enough there aren't any men in the Forum! I also notice that more men are using textiles in contemporary art, or at least they are the ones we hear about, obviously they are able to sort out their priorities. Hunter gatherer syndrome I suspect.

The winner of Business woman of the Year gave us a lecture about presenting ourselves and our work with panache.

We spotlight two members, one produced some of her quilted pieces, totally home grown never had a lesson in her life.

This one was inspired by a friend getting mugged, and he heard Chief mugger shout the vertical line in black. "There had better not be blood on my trainers"

The other Spotlight was based in stitching on dissolvable, where Carol had taken the design key from Tudor lace, and produced crowns, tiaras and 8ft long columns of metallic "lace".

But her most evocative pieces where made after she heard a story about a 19th century husband who decided his wife had been replaced by an evil spirit because she was not being as agreeable as usual.

The cure for this was to torture the "fairy" out of her body which after 14 days resulted in his wife's death. Carol noted the words the poor woman said as she was protesting her innocence and again on dissolvable stitched the words into a long pillar of white.

We saw it through our tears. I will add a pic if I can get one as it was also truly and terribly beautiful,

Barry, Gordon and Sarah go adventuring

Stayed up to hear Ohio, then slept till 5 am when I woke in serendipity to hear Barry's speech, lying in bed tears leaking down my face.
That poor man sure does have a weight on his shoulders, I saw him with some of his new proposed colleagues next day and suddenly had a flash of a defeat. Can anyone achieve what he must?
Here our great leader had a rain-check on his ignominious surrender as he won the Scottish seat we all assumed he would lose. I guess his status has swelled as we see him striding thru the financial morass where he feels comfortable and capable.
Maybe he will develop the confidence and transfer some of that good judgement to not introducing things like the 10% tax debacle or the future fiasco of trying to introduce identity cards.
Meanwhile what of Sarah Palin, a welcome target for misogynists and her own lack of............education? Who knows, she could find a home in Fox News I suppose, become a shock jock or maybe just read a few books, or even newspapers before she tries again in 4 years.

Had a good birthday few days in Walberswick.

A November sea, glistening with sunshine, it didn't rain, us Scorpios have to take what we can get.

Doggy enjoyed it greatly, which is obviously the main thing.

Bought a fitted indigo quilted jacket from Blue Willi [Scandinavian they can't help it] and a "boiled wool" capey coat from Oska - also foreign and all the better for it when you look at what is in the High street these days, mutter!

That's more or less the end of the birthday money, tho i may squeeze out a pair of boots.

Followed up with yet another Textile exhibition. We SLAPPERS [Stitchers, Lacemakers And Patchworkers Practice Embroidery in Suffolk] motored over to Braintree and saw Zero3, which was interesting. This person's was my fave , she paints and prints with bleach. With this one sh had just "marked" the cloth with a felt tip, felt a bit guilty there was no stitching and machined some lines. Always a dilemma for a textile artist oh dear, I have not done any sewing, is paper fabric? etc. The last was done in layers and prints from very old children's' clothes pattern packets, if you see what i mean.