bird man

Went to visit the birdtable man today, as a couple of friends Need to own one of his one offs.
He lives with his wife and dog in a tiny cottage, we found it by knowing the right area then looking for a garden with one of his tables on show.

He works in his shed down the garden, his wife does patchwork and knits.

They have just had the phone put on so people can phone them, so I can now arrange to take friends down there.
It was lovely to talk with people who also have this insane need to "make" things continuously.

long February weekend

Yesterdays walk in the sunshine, glory be praised, was in wellies thru icey mud.
The gorse is bravely in flower once more and lunatics were sailing, have you ever been on a yacht - it is freezing at the best of times.

Went to a Textile show on Friday, the Three Disgraces went too as a homing beacon on our Forum table to all stitchers with a rebellious frame of mind. Seemed to work, but maybe I wasn't there to witness the more critical responses to work that was so merrily bodged.
Not merry today, rain is p*ssing down, sky is overcast [as it would be to maintain a logical world view] and I have a headache.

Can't remember what this intense line of concentration was viewing, obviously some fascinating technique, most of the stall holders seemed to have sprouted eccentric headgear this year.
Re-upholstery seems to be a good practical craft to learn, also good for the hips it seemed as the demonstrators had the tightest leanest jeans on show.

gnomes in spring

Another cold wet day, with what was possibly a hoar frost this morning over the river and the fields, looked very mysterious and attractive but made us all wet.
Sue has put some Spring cheer up on her blog, these catkins will add to her her aconites and buds.
The primroses are coming thru but looking fairly weak and wobbly, but the snowdrops are thrusting in a very bold manner, encouraged no doubt by the resident gnomes. They are not all mine, next door abandoned them when they moved away and new neighbours binned them, which seemed unnecessarily tough. The frosts haven't harmed them unlike several pots which are cracked or losing chips.
The daffs are playing a waiting game, only one in bud, the rest still staying short stemmed and unobtrusive.

poo to everyone

Lots of cold wet rain. Mother has chosen today to go on a coach trip to Kings Lynn, I suspect she will wish she hadn't.
However i am sat at home whinging, so not much fun here either.
We walked Hattie the dog round the Long Fields, RP in his new hat and moi under a woolly hat tied tightly under my chin, and then with my hoodie over the top. {I noted that hoodies are not viewed with negativity or anxiety in the States, everyone there seems to wear one at one time or another, burkas in Reno would probably cause a flutter however].
My shoulders, as they do, got cold and wet as the rain tipped mercilessly down, alos the knees as the water puddles down off the jacket. Thick bed socks in my wellies saved the day tho.
There was a new notice, thanks to the Parish council, decorating Pages Wood requesting that poop scoopers do not throw their full bags into the spinney, as the plastic is not degradable and the scoopers will disappear before the bags do. Cheering thought.
Maybe we should choose one tree and decorate it with used bags to exhibit that we can be thoughtful ramblers.
Why aren't the bags degradable anyway. Surely eventually in landfill the contents will warm up and explode. Hopefully.
I am not in a good mood it seems.

snow again

Winter Summer house

Snow is still enough of a novelty to take notice, even celebrate - especially as I am designated stayer in today to await delivery of RP's new hat while he and Hattie the dog have a trudge.
They claimed they delivered it yesterday and we weren't in at the time, which was a lie, RP is ranting and may get up to the Court of Human Rights [to have a new hat] before he is satisfied.

I took this shot from the upstairs window today as horse and I are wearing matching colour jumpers, but you can't see mine as it is several layers down.
Daughter rang late last night to claim the GG is much recovered, and I could hear him chortling in the background so I think he may be on the mend.
Have been making figures for my new Group, Gossiping Goddesses.This may one day be Venus plus shell

This one is going to be Kali
I am also working on Hathor at the instruction of Hattie the Dog, as she is her namesake.

cough, cough, cough

Lots of light, bright snow today, not thick yet. RP keen to 4 wheel drive up the hill - till we slid sideways, but fortunately we just scraped the holly tree and kept going up.
The horse in the field opposite has his coat and a very dour expression on, arse end to the wind. We went out to lunch and loaded up on good hot food so we feel ready to face the worst, as long as we are home and in the warm.
Daughter phoned to report on the GG and his poor old lungs which are suffering a respiratory infection, not doing too well at the mo, the doc offered hospital, but if Daughter felt Ok she could keep him at home to see how he goes.
As he is taking on water and eggy bread so he is holding up well, they are going to see how it goes. Of course his temperature shoots sky high at night, and neither of them are getting much sleep.
Hopefully he will improve before the w/e, or it may be best to take him to hospital, just because things always get worse Friday nights when everything is closed down.
Feel very helpless so far away.

my friend oscar

Ho Ho Ho, I am amazed that as someone who rarely tips out into the cold night air to the cinema these days, I have actually seen 2 of the 10 nominations for Best Film......Inglorious Basterds and surprisingly District 9. Saw both on the planes to and from America, how starry.
I have also seen Sherlock Holmes in the States and In the Loop on the gog, they have been nominated in various other sections.
Inglorious Basterds was a very odd concoction, but it got me back across the Atlantic, [once I had read an entire book] so it gets a tick.
District 9, an Indie film was even odder in a way, in a better way - tho very gory. Neither film was subtle, the gore count was lower in IB, in District 9 it was fairly horridly high, it was also funnier as well as knowing, but still tense and engrossing, which where giant insects are involved is clever.
They both had a message I suppose, one that hardly needed subtlety - naughty Nazis and Apartheid [+scifi] is also naughty.
Both went about their story in a singular fashion, and were well acted but i prefered District 9, but not on a full stomach.
Sherlock Holmes did look very good, [inevitable as it was led by Robert Downey jr]I think it is up for Art Direction, and In the Loop for adaptation, however I think the TV programmes were better.
I don't fancy Avatar, even tho I expect it is beautiful, the story line looks crap. I would like to see the Hurt Locker maybe, tho it must be gory as it is about dismantling roadside bombs in Iraq. The director is a woman, interestingly the ex of Avatar's director, so it should be worth seeing to decide if gender does affect POV.I hope she wins as i doubt any of my films will.
In our Big Textile Group we are having trouble keeping people trapped in the committee to do the grunt work. Creative women are probably not the correct profile for knuckling down to making executive decisions in the main, and those that are possibly shouldn't be.

clean up

Just spent the whole morning destroying cobwebs and viciously laying about me with the hoover. I hate cleaning, it is never finished.
I could hear Thoreau laughing at me for having so many objects and things that needed dusting. I love to have things around me, to be able to see all my colourful stuff.
Retired Person took responsibility for the bathroom and kitchen. As we left after two weeks here with daughter and child for America, then spent two weeks there, then had a week's jet lag the detritus has grown and probably bred.
It is winter, we have coal fires, pets, gardening, stitching and long hair that winds round the hoover brushes and binds everything together.
Di the Cleaner gave up on us about a year ago, retiring as a cleaner with clinical depression, I rest my case.

hair today

Bit of powdery snow last night.

Took Hatters for a walk, my first since return so must be recovering. Managed to slip over in the Lane however, but that is what buttocks are for, as I have been eating more to keep out the cold I was better cushioned than on warmer days.
Birds are enjoying the sunshine, saw some chickens and ducks in a garden queuing up and muttering while they waited for the ice on the pond to melt.
Pigeons are stalking RP's broccoli, but he has hastily covered what is left of their feasting while we were away and left only decoy broccoli still surviving in the seed bed. Sounds technical, hope it works. purple sprouting is delicious and good for one [and pigeons I guess].

Farm reservoir is unneeded at the mo, as whenever the temperature rises we are getting bucketing rain, depressing.
The farmers are gathering the sugar beet into mini mountains and annoying all other road users by chugging it around in their own secretive ways. Also just to say up yours to us townees much manure is being spread, the smell pervading even when it is cold. Bad news for nose already the only part of my body exposed to the elements.
It feels far colder here than in Nevada, it's the damp what does it.
Before we went Daughter forced me to buy hair straighteners, [because she hadn't got hers obviously]

Nevada is very kind to my hair, being so dry, and daughter struck again by sending me back with 2 different and expensive conditioners. Today a I wore a big knitted hat, much the best solution.

income & outgoings

Largely Women went really well it seems. Did manage to crawl over and help take it down, but otherwise the other SLAPPERS managed admirably without me!
I think we all sold well, despite the weather, two of my big and expensive pieces, "Thinking of Frida" and "Boxed in" were hauled off to new homes, plus two ceramics.
Of course now I miss them, but at least the money will help to pay off my American Bills.
The gallery owner kept two more ceramics to sell, but "as a potter" critised my glazing. I Hate glaze, it rarely does what I want and sometimes does something entirely opposite.
One ceramic of two young people struggling, their hands tied to each other behind their backs {I know, weird - I made one like it when I was young and commissioned myself to try it again...anyway some guy apparently asked if he could commission one of two men in that position - No.
Several people liked Lust for Life it seems, which was Not for Sale, and wanted to commission another, no chance - If I did try I would have no confidence of how it would turn out, and thankfully I don't have horrendous bills that often, so I can make what I feel like doing at the time.

Avocet was sold over Xmas by a Gallery in Felixstowe sadly not my bloomin Snape Arches which apparently no-one [wisely] wants. May give it to ma for her birthday.

mixed reviews

Well I have found my car keys so i feel I am finally settled at home. The flights were delayed by stormy weather but otherwise it was straight forward, if extremely long.
We definitely didn't sleep for 24+ hours, so the first night in my own bed was wonderful, except I wasn't conscious for 12 hours so don't remember.
Next night I woke at 3am and stayed as wired as a demented squirrel the rest of the day. Last night we made it thru to 5am and had done the big shop at Sainsbury's by 10, so I guess by the end of the week I shall be back to slouching around complaining I am bored.
Dunno why this goes sideways. Heard today GG is sprouting a back molar, which took me a while to identify as a tooth description. I have been too long out of the game.
We went food and thrift shop shopping most days in Reno. it was either sunny or wet, no snow.

Just looks like every other wet shopping day. Daughter drives with one hand, and elbow it seems, sort of leaning on the wheel. It seems to be the accepted nonchalance.
Tried it today when I drove to collect RP from garage but I haven't the air of confidence that enables the body to assume the position. {His car is in for MOT, ouch, this is not the year of the Ox, it is the year it was skinned to make a wallet and that is now empty. Two new tires and brake pads]
Year of the Tiger coming up, so definitely Daughter's year, I hope.
Reno supermarkets are bigger possibly, but mostly because they have such wide aisles

As we would go in the middle of the afternoon it encouraged a placid dreamlike response, dreamily rotating [GG our first item in our trolley entranced by the mountains of colours]
All the employees are super polite, which raises my hackles in deep suspicion that they are taking the piss, being more used to being ignored or snapped at back home].
They don't have our current obsession with not providing plastic bags. Years ago I used to enjoy the brown paper bags that would snap open and be packed with military precision into a satisfying solid block.
The check out is of a whole different cultural technique, requiring several manoeuvres I didn't dare to try and master.One can look a right idiot not being able to perform the simplest task that everyone else has practised since birth.
We had to fly over the Sierras as they were blocked with snow. If I was brave I would provide a pic of their majesty but I am terrified of looking out of the window, in case I suddenly understand what the hell I am doing.
San Francisco was very wet. All the TV commentators were out standing under bucking umbrellas to prove it. We ate Thai and had a look round the Asian Museum which was pretty amazing. Each culture expressed in sculpture and pottery.
No pics of course, but i did buy a Warrior Woman string dolly! to clip to my handbag zip. She advises me to pick my battles wisely.
As it happened this was good advice as Number One and Only Son has been going to therapy lately, he wanted to know if I blamed myself for anything in the way he was dragged up.
Oh good, where is his father to deflect the coming deluge, dead. Typical.
I wanted to say "I left home when I was 18, and just got on with it" but as P says - our mistake has been to be friends with our kids,so they still talk to us and tell us things, everything. Certainly things I would never tell my mother even now - but I did try and be supportive until I got fed up anyway.
Fortunately Daughter is still pleased with us at least.
But even tho we had to wait six hours at the airport, I was quite glad to be pointing East again.
And Hattie the dog was very pleased to see us.

Daughter has 2 cats, Little Boy and


Little Girl. He disdains to even speak to us, but Little Girl will sit on my lap in the evenings.
Ishtar is an elderly chow who loves to walk with us to Starbucks for our morning coffee, but this trip we have had to leave her behind as it is too cold to sit outside with her and I am anxious she will be dognapped if we leave her outside, she is such a beauty.

Snookums on the other hand is older than Mrs Methusula and has awful breath, she too loves to walk but her back legs are so arthriticy that she can hardly stand some mornings, so even a short stroll means she is aching for days.
There was once a snake, who possibly died of cold and there are still some gold fish but I haven't been introduced individually. They live in GG's room, so at night the lighted tank glows and bubbles in a very reassuring way.

side saddle

The days are slithering by, I have taken to waking at 3.50a.m. and reading my medieval who dunnit [Susanna Gregory] which confuses my poor brain even more.
Nana and grandpop are certainly feeling the pace of small mobile and verbal offspring.

Daughter has a chronic sinus cough so goes full pelt for each objective then crumples into a heap demanding hot soup.

Today we went to the Hunters bat cave to buy feathers [they use them to make flies and lures for fishing], but daughter plans we should knock up some "fascinators" on some cheap alice bands we bought for the purpose..........partly pre-planned but partly because we went shopping in this ladies bat cave where oceans of second hand/retro and adjusted clothing is for sale.
Daughter has always wanted to get into this form of retail as it combines her skills at blagging and her arty clothing making.
Of course I came out with a purchase, in the "steam-punk" genre apparently, a fitted band boy style jacket in brown aged suede look with brown lace.
Unlikely but true. Now if I could only get to attend one of our exhibitions I could look the part - arty eccentric is my aim, more likely - raddled Victorian whore in an old cowboy film, where is Hopalong Cassidy these days?
I will add a pic if I can find one that won't frighten the horses, important to cowboys and girls.
PS Tonight we have heard that 10 days of snow are forecast, so goodness knows how we will get over the Donner Pass in time for our flight from San Francisco on Thursday.
It seems every time we jump one fence on this trip, another springs up and the horse threatens to refuse. It is very tiring.

Various toads in various holes

Somewhat to our surprise we find ourselves back in the Casino, as daughter's plumbing has packed up, possibly an excess of wet wipes down the loo by a previous visitor.
So GG, daughter and us have decamped while Son in Law paddles in the crap trying to unblock things.
Could be said to be an allegory of the marriage, but we shan't dwell on that.
Casino rooms are very cheap, as they want you to book in as long as possible and then descend to Valhalla to gamble away your life savings and future earnings.
Valhalla is no longer burning, but the smell of smoke in the gambling halls is strong, as casinos are the only buildings in USA that still allow smoking, a special dispensation.
Fortunately we don't gamble, so we had supper in the Mel's Diner [I had meatloaf with gravy and sliced carrots and courgettes and mash, my favourite American meal] and then adjouned to the 11th floor to watch the gog

Last night we had a dinner party for the friends that have aided Daughter and GG in their extremes, to say thanks.
First D&I took Bonnie to the movies to see Sherlock Holmes, which was fun, while RP cooked a huge toad in the hole for us and Randy when we returned home. They were delighted the food did not actually include frogs legs, which was all they had been able to surmise from the title.
Unknown to us the plumbing was plotting, but did not revealed its dastardly plan till today.
Daughter did her first counselling session yesterday too, she took to the ancient Wise Woman who suggested most of the strategies we had murmured of, but this time they seem to have made an impact - so we have hopes......and a counselling bill no doubt.
Son in law is hoping kind acts will overcome obstacles, such as shit shifting, but daughter is determined he should get some counselling too before the nest is re-feathered.
Some guys in the corridor were just in a slanging match, one shouted - I am just a f***ing milk carton in a f***ing grocery store to you, the other replied - give me my f***ing guitar. Intriguing.
Security soon appeared and calmed the savage breasts, sadly, before we could learn more.

S.L.A.P.P.E.R.S

Stitchers Lacemakers And Patchworkers Practise Embroidery Regularly in Suffolk

Just before we flew away we put up the Largely Women exhibition, without shedding blood or ego, the group of us largely women were very solid.

Of course since then we have been snowed on so I don't think we could open up till Sunday, and possibly arty farty doodahs were not uppermost in peoples minds at the time, more likely a dash to the supermarkets.



The gallery, like the V&A has an ace cafe attached so we are hoping a bowl of hot soup or a coffee will tempt some of the great British public out.

language

Escorted Glorious Grandson to Playgroup today.

He made friends with Jonathon, who unexpectedly is Mexican, as are lots of people here and all over. The two group leaders were fluently bilingual with Spanish, such a fast language.
Frequently Americans cannot understand the English accent tho, and fail to gush as much as they used to about how wonderful it is. I tried to order a cola ice cream float this afternoon and i might as well have spoken in Chinese as the guy was totally perplexed.
We went to the supermarket on the way home and reading the magazines by the till I discovered that our own dear Duchess of Cornwall is a lush and Charley wishes he had never married her, and that Mr and Mrs Obama are rowing, that's when they can get a word in edgewise round Brad and Angelina whose doings occupy the same status as Jordan in UK.

Sleeping with a monster

Daughter is hosting us in her basement which in the main remains unclaimed to civilisation.
We sleep surprisingly comfortably [and appropriately for a textile artist] in this tiny room, festooned with a multitude of fabrics to disguise the basic bare walls.
Outside our padded cell is the rest of the cavern stretching away the full size of the house.

Just the other side of our wall resides this apparatus, the heating monster, which periodically lurches into a long and heartfelt burble on it's troubles 24 hours a day. I am very intolerant of noise when I have aspirations to sleep and assumed we would have to de-camp to the frowzy embrace of a sound proof casino room after one night. However it possibly has hidden charms as we have slept well every night.
Daughter marches away her frustrations on this treadmill in another part of the gloom, watching a big TV usually waiting for the snow to melt.
However since we arrived the snow has fled and reappeared in Suffolk, which seems odd. Mother is getting extremely ratty that she can't get out of her bungalow to supervise village doings.
Have, as yet, not stitched a stitch, tho I have read the new Lee Childs on my K*ndle [thought it was a disappointment and gratuitously detailed in it's violence]as part of a Great Download Frenzy as all copyright problems are defunct now me and K* are in the States together.
NB I see from various blogs that snow dyeing is now a craze, not here it ain't.