Pottered down onto the beach today, largely sandstone, brown sucky old river mud, lines of black seaweed and almost fluorescent lichens. Found one trainer [rejected] and one bicycle seat - so thoughts turned to Picasso......... banged out the wildlife secreted in the spongy underside and put aside for another day.
Did wonder if we would come across the wet cyclist, but fortunately not.

Clevedon Pier was a surprise, such a fragile but elegant structure, made by the Victorians in Cast Iron.
Piers are in such trouble these days, we have seen Brighton's West Pier a burnt out shell, and the main pier survives mainly on the Fairground terror ride on the far end.
Southwold Pier has fascinating automatons including a weird clock but is threatened by the changing tides which are undermining the coast.
Hastings pier is just Shut. It was bought by a company but they now seem to be about to go bankcrupt.
Clevedon pier has absolutely no attractions except itself and the Pagoda TeaShop at the end........ and the anglers club...but when you look more closely the planks are studded with sponsored brass plaques, which pay for the upkeep of the Pier..
Most of the plaques are Birth, marriages and Deaths, many of the last.
It's a bit depressing, like when you stagger after a long walkies to sit on a helpfully placed bench, only to find it commemorates someone else, deeply missed, who also loved this spot.
Makes one feel uncomfortably temporary/disposable.
.
But quite a few of these plaques were amusing, sweet or straight strange.

there be dragons

Today we crossed the river into foreign lands via the beautiful Severn suspension Bridge. Toll £5.40 but that covers return trip too. I have vague memories of when I was a little kid being sat on the fence of the old Severn Bridge by my father being jolly - I was terrified.

I guess this is the old bridge, we stayed away from it
We headed for Tintern Abbey, lots more left than usual after Henry VIII had his wicked way, basically it seemed they knocked off the roof and supporting pillars so it wouldn't be replaced..
This seems to be the extent of risk in the abbey these days

A double click reveals all

It was a lovely day and I got a Tshirt for Coffee Spoons g'son and mine [they both may need to grow into them.
.

light and white

The bedroom windows are quite dramatic


The dining room - with candles, but who has matches these days



This graceful white bird flying away from me is a Little Egret .


There it is - on the other side of the pond. Last time we saw one of these we were in Egypt.

We can see the Severn Bridge from here, it is rather beautiful white and graceful like the egret, if you have the binoculars to see it, of course we have left ours at home.

East to West

So here we are on the other side of the island, but not as far as Wales, tho we can see it across the river there.
RP drove us [Hattie the dog and me] 230 hot miles across country, storming round the M25 is no fun, so instead we took in the rural roads skirting round Milton Keynes, Bletchley, Oxford till in the end we had to drop onto the M4 to get to Bristol and on to Portishead - overlooking the River Severn.
Oh my Goddess I am turning into one of the wrinklies having a "routes conversation" .....with myself.
This is a three storey town house, quite new, a neat column of tiny rooms obsessively and exclusively decked out in black and white. It feels like being in a bad film made in the ?80s, 60s? but the sharp ethos includes Wifi and two [yes count them] black evil flat screen televisions, with more than 4 channels. Usually holiday cottages are lucky to have one creaky TV in colour.
The view from the balconies across to Wales are stunning so I hope the sun continues to shine in the morning so we get the full effect.

amoebas are us

Listened over night, as I couldn't sleep, to Obama's speech about changing the American Health Insurance System.
Now, this afternoon he is commemorating 9/11. Both depressing, tho hopefully something good will come out of both.
We were on holiday in Cornwall when we saw the TV when we returned from a happy trip out in the sunshine - to see, what at first, i thought was a disaster movie.
When I realised some of what was happening, looping thru again and again, we made frantic phone calls on our poor little mobiles, such a seemingly fragile connection, to our kids in the States. Neither were in New York but at the time no-one knew for sure what was or was going to happen.
I note Coffee Spoons is reading old magazines about the Second world War. We have g'dads big red mock-leather books here [badly flood damaged] binding together magazines about the First World War.
I have started and now stopped reading a book about Churchill/Stalin/Roosevelt at Yalta; too much detail of unbelievable cruelty as armies crushed and re-crushed Poland, to want to continue.
But, although it is all ghastly and we may end up wiping ourselves out as Margaret Atwood suggests in her new book, I still think in the main we try hard.
We are just animals, in the paper today it says even amoeba betray each other!! so each time one of us does a generous thing it is a tick and I will cherish it as long as I can.

making a mark

Arrived safely in Cambridge, the gallery looks quite nice but not on the main drag, so we may have to "drag" people off the buses as they trundle past. Saw plenty of passengers peering out of the top deck windows down into the brightly coloured gallery windows.
initially we were made to feel very Female/useless as there was no electricity,the fuse box looked forbidding and there was a note about the air conditioning having blown a fuse the previous day so we called for the electrician.
Fortunately he was the jolly artisan sort, made it work and left clutching a poster. I nearly said "for your wife" i was so mired in the little woman role.

This lion was a protective male symbol for the rest of the day we ladies stewarded. I remember I once as a kid drew a card for my parents anniversary where my dad was a lion and my ma was a thistle. Hmmmmmmm.
I really like these "vessels" and actually have her book, but so far haven't managed to read the instructions sufficiently well to exploit the idea.

M was stewarding with me, but became incensed very soon when she spied that they had hung her four pieces in the wrong order and charged the wrong price. Whoops. As work was screwed to the wall it wasn't something that could be rectified. Goodness knows what happens if someone wants to buy something and take it home. Fortunately there was little danger of that as we took 50p [postcard] before the lights were turned on and about a 310 I would reckon for the rest of the day.

We were closed in the afternoon tho, for a Private View to be opened by Mary Cozens Walker, textile artist, easily recognised as her husband and she are both members of the RA and he paints her and himself in "amusing" situations.
She said some nice things about being true to ourselves as artists which is all very well but I would guess that many of us feel we are so many people/roles fighting or conniving for survival, especially of the identity that makes time for "making" as opposed to making do.

Elizabeth's stitched words.

I am so excited as i received a reply from the V&A today with the full transcript of Elizabeth Parker's stitched words attached.
If anyone is interested I have put it in full on my accompanying Embroderers' Blog.

East to West

We had a windy couple of days, but only one rainy day. Grass is yellowing all over the county, trees are looking autumnal already. This spindly old tree gave up the ghost and collapsed across the path by the boat yard.

The big plastic tents on the right cover several boats in the yard. I know in the States houses are covered like this so the termites can be fumigated, [the people leave for a few days I suppose]. I think I have heard tell of some termites down in Cornwall in old buildings and we have "death watch beetle" in the timbers of church roofs, but I think these boats are just being laid up
Hattie the dog and I just trundled round the Long Fields and didn't pay much more attention.
Today we delivered my and M's work to the gallery in Cambridge. A very busy town on a sunny Sunday, the traffic is ghastly. I guess it must have been as bad when we used to go to college near there, but I think that then my mind was on young men in punts most of the time.
The gallery looks quite sophisticated, smokily engraved windows, white walls, but it is a little off the main drag, I would guess only those who know of it will go past.
I have put the dancers in
and the Three [Dis]Graces
The Dancers look pretty heavy in their frame and I very much doubt that anyone will want to shell out £175, the price I plucked out of the air.
The gallery will take 30% so I figured I would just go for it.
I have put the Three Disgraces in Not For Sale, because I like them. I have to pay £25 hanging fee for each piece so it doesn't make a lot of sense, but I have tried putting a large price on a piece so I can show it without losing it, and the bugger always sells.
I took the camera and the movie camera thing with me, but as I am now an old lady I totally forgot to take any pics.
I have to chug back again on the train next Wednesday and steward for the day, so i guess i will have time to record the scene at my leisure.
It is No 1 [and only] son's birthday today so I will ring him soon. The time change to California means I have to be careful not to wake him up............and now I have just remembered he is hunting deer today in Nevada with his sister, bro-in-law and my baby grandson.
Oh my lord.
Hopefully he will have forgotten to turn the ring tone off and if I time it right the noise will startle and save Bambi..

fruit and veg.

Finally got some rain last night, but altho more was forecast today it missed us again.
The chillies [potato family] in the greenhouse are flashing warnings that they might be getting pretty hot, we dry them in a very low oven and then use them throughout the year to perk up the cooking. They can be rather variable in strength, one day one will be mild, and the next an extra half will be fire in the blockhole.
RP doesn't like surprises in his cooking, only known herbs and spices and maybe a dozen or so recipes - unless he is cooking, when he sometimes likes to experiment, following a new recipe like a chemical experiment.
No complaints here, it usually turns out OK and after years of family meals [variants of vegetarianism, carnivore, everything except cannibalism] led to me often cooking 3 different meals at each sitting I am sanguine now with serving up successions of chops and roasts.
When in the midst of the chaos of a young family it all seemed vaguely manageable, especially if I took Delta the dog for a calming walk in the park opposite after slaving over hot pupils, then snatched a 20 min snooze while the kids watched Blue Peter. Looking back I am amazed I stayed sane, but glad we had that bustle and togetherness.
The tomatoes [potato family] have done well in the garden thanks to a lot of water carrying. I have read that the potato family is bad for arthritis so I don't eat many, which is a shame as they are brilliant little jewels.
Cucumbers are OK, but I prefer aubergines which we haven't grown this year [potato family]

fire and water

At last it is raining, hopefully it will carry on all night and maybe tomorrow, sinking into the sandy soil to be sucked up by grateful roots.
It said in the Guardian it has been raining on the Isle of Skye for the last 47 days, maybe that is a bit much I suppose.
The Los Angeles fires are on the news, Athens too, but maybe the result of arson. Sometimes, it seems, they start these fires to get rid of protected trees so then they can build houses. Bastards
Now they [TV] are talking up swine flu again, why do I watch the News, it is rarely fun
This morning I went to the monthly textile group meeting, no doubt it was very ordinary but by the time I got home I was screaming with frustration. There is a lot to be said for the artist isolated in the traditional garret. I am tempted but I guess I would soon be screaming with sense deprivation I suppose.
To cheer me up we went out for a curry. We both took books so we could relax without having to endlessly entertain each other after all there is no good news. I have started the new Sebastian Faulks, a "Week in December" which promises much cleverness, but decided i needed to be gripped by a more demanding plot so started the new John Harvey "Far Cry" which is definitely all consuming.
Haven't seen the new Ian Rankin yet, the reviews haven't been totally enthusiastic, and i didn't think much of his last caper, so I am feeling the loss of poor Rebus.
The new Lee Child is also available in hard back, but they are such a frantic, tense read that I hate to spend all that money when it will all be over so quickly.

head case

Chalkhead my son's lunatic friend and fellow bicycle messenger in San Francisco has managed to have a head on collision with another biker. There was some discussion as to whether this was the safest part of CH to damage, as his skull is reputedly solid bone, however he ended up in intensive care in a coma, so smart remarks were pocketed for a while.
Fortunately CH's grandma left him a sizable legacy so before doing a round the world trip for his honeymoon, he bought medical insurance, - hopefully the Scat scans etc will be covered.
He is awake now and back on the general ward with various broken bones and a headache, they are keeping him in for another week. He is refusing to see or speak to anyone but his wife, so there is some concern in case the head injury has affected his personality, but hopefully the hospital is just keeping him quiet for a while
The arguement between USA medical insurance and UK NHS seems to be getting quite explosive at times. Neither system is perfect, but I worry for my son, as he regularly gets stopped suddenly by car doors opening as he cycles by, and my daughter is concerned that her husband may be made redundant just when they hope to have a second babe, what happens when they can't afford insurance?
The NHS takes a lot out of ones salary each month, but at least when it is needed it is there.
Now I am an old girl I don't have to pay for prescriptions - or bus fares. Sometimes I think I and my mates were really lucky, we missed the war, got free education, fairly good employment prospects, largely paid off our mortgages and in the main look forward to a decent professional pension. I never imagined it would all change.

Suffolk Treasures

The local Guild booked the Freemasons Hall for the show, Jane,Su and I stewarded on Thursday afternoon, occasionally there were more of us than there was of them which gave us time to wander round and see what there was.
No pins allowed in the walls etc so work was either hung from the top ridge of the forbidding wooden panelling round the room, or attached to the wonky white fabric suspended on posts in a hotch potch of rickety room dividers. It looked rather like laundry day, with lots of brightly coloured pieces festooned amongst the crumpled sheets like exotic lingerie.
However it is a salutary lesson that people I sometimes dismiss as, Lord help us, boring, can have rich imaginations and superior skills compared to my bodge jobs.

I was present when this piece was in the planning stage,some years ago, so it was satisfying to see that Sandra has finally bought it to a triumphant conclusion.It is taken from a large mirrored building in town, which has the saving grace that at least it reflects what is left of the medieval buildings that weren't demolished to make way for it.
This great landscape was one of my friend Ruthie's.
This box was interesting; it was called Hadrian's Wall and very trustingly had several authentic roman coins inside.
This an arty piece by Mary, it is a metre wide and about 6" deep; she calls it Hide and Seek, it is oddly compelling.
The Freemasons look on benignly.