Saturday

On Saturday I went, voluntarily, to another AGM, this time for the local Guild. Of course I arrived late and left early - before the lecture on African Beading, I would have fidgeted.

There were about 60+ members in the Hall, all no doubt so much more mature and less fidgety than I. As you can see, they enjoyed the occasion and no doubt added to their sum of knowledge.
However i asked a couple of questions of the officers - just can't resist twisting the tail of authority, even if it is only a hapless committee member.
But more importantly purchased some sequins and beads, sewing needles and some blanket squares. The latter were cut into4" [maybe] squares which I thought I could stitch into the blessed grandsons' first [possibly not] reading book.
Appliqued Duck plus word type thing, hopefully I can think of some slightly more droll icons.
The Daughter sent us a video via You Tube today of the tiny genius nearly walking and talking.
On the way home yesterday, clutching my booty and the steering wheel I saw a notice for a Yard Sale in one of the posher houses in the next village; they had arrayed on the grass verge outside various baby hardware [cots, playpens, buggies] and a toilet.
The latter was adult sized and I felt quite drawn to it as I have long dreamt of a second loo, instead of the outside coal shed, so Retired Gardener Person doesn't have to trek mud thru the house every time he wants to widdle.
Male apparatus does not seem to have the patience of the female.
However he values his coal hole
So I bought some jeans and dungarees and jackets for the young one, and now have to enquire whether to keep them till arrival, or send them as will he have outgrown them by then.
The master of posh house maintained close attendance, tiny moustache twitching, while young wife and chirpy toddler diverted themselves on the lawn. I asked if they were moving away, but he said no, just clearing out.
Obviously Little Chirper was to remain an only child.
In the evening I watched Russell Crowe in State of Play on SkyBoxoffice TV. It was OK, at least I understood all the plot this time as Hollywood seemed to have dispensed with at least half a dozen sub plots that were woven thru the drama when it was a six week serial on the British gog.

boxed in

Having taken a look at Frances' new old machine, here is my old girl. I bought her for £20 at a street market as I couldn't bare to see her sit abandoned under a tree. I haven't tried using her, maybe I should, i don't even know which model she is.

This little tin beauty was in a car boot sale, and cost half the above; if we had a bigger house I would visit more buying opportunities, but these two keep me good company
along with Aggers
It's been cold today so I have lit the fire this evening and happily watched Project Runway where they had to make an outfit from newspaper and not be too bitchy. Mostly they succeeded in the former.
I recorded a Sky Art programme Talking Threads, but it was actually pretty basic silk painting. It may have excited a viewer somewhere, but not here.

Spent some time cutting a card frame to fit in the wood frame for Birdies, but carefully placed a big black smudge on the finished article, so had to go and buy more card.
It is the local Arts and Craft show next weekend so have to finish Birdies, plus pull the big Dancers into some kind of shape. I should never have sewn into the blissfully soft pre-felt as it is now getting woolly. Always good to learn, wash your hands and your felt.
A double click on my Scarlet Woman may make more sense of her - or not, but I am really enjoying chewing on her each evening.
I am not sure how/if to present my Crowded Tube, I'm sure I could develop it somehow.I think they probably should combine with this face in a box.

squashed

Halloween isn't big round here, too few kids and no street lights.
There are about a dozen butternut squashes waiting in the summer house, which will slowly be transformed into soup, or roasted vegetables. But these green monsters............I suppose I could dig one out for a candle - so the only 2 little kids around, living in a cottage below us, could see the light............
In the spirit of greater grandma-ing I have sent a ghastly orange and green pumpkin suit to the little one, it's his first birthday next month, I was a bit alarmed at the size of pumpkin required, he is obviously growing fast.
Hopefully his parents are growing up too as they are at logger heads at the mo as to the beer consumption of one of them, the worker bee demanding his right to relaxation. Why can't men relax without beer.
A bit more stitching all round might be beneficial.

Felts for Frances

I thought this was rather fine at the Knit and stitch?
and this is rather creepy.

mataeotechny

Big ungainly word for unprofitable science, vain, useless art or skill - hmmmmmmmmmmmm
Lots of mataeotechnists at the Knit and Stitch, maybe.

I liked this portrait, the use of the over lapping nets for shading, the flick of the fingers.
This tea cosy has character too. I rarely make a pot of tea these, I use a tea strainer for my gunpowder green tea [pouring off the boil water over and into the mug.
Teabag for "builders" usually trying to pour water mid boil over it, tho I doubt it matters given the quality of the sawdust in the bags. Coffee is boiling water again over "Lazy Sunday", two scoops of the purple plastic scoop. We have two cafetieres and one of those little Italian pressure doovries but we never use them.
Never have "instant" too much formaldehyde.
This was the winning quilt, "Black Pearl", very clever, lots of oohs and ahhhs. Lots of labels integrated into the designs, recycling and reclaiming from Mammon.

Knit and Stitch part 1

Went up to Alexandra Palace to the Knit and Stitch show on Thursday. Mother decided not to come with me so trekked up on my own. The trains were good, arrived at Wood Green for the free bus up the hill to Ally Pally in two hours.
They do run coaches from most towns round the country, which take probably three hours from here, depending on the traffic, but I can't read on coach or car without feeling sick, whereas the purple prose of James Lee Burke's "Swan Peak" made the train journey fly by.
Coming out of the tube station a little budgerigar of a woman chirped up at me "Are you going to the Alexandra Palace?". How had I made it so obvious?
Apparently she identified me because I had the flowery fabric bag my daughter made for me slung over one shoulder. Such things are not usual in the city it seems.
She said she was an unemployed florist and was using her spare time to go places, she didn't even know which exhibition was on and was a bit non plussed to be told it cost £11 to get in. Hopefully she enjoyed the colours at least..
Audrey Walker was there supporting Rozanne Hawksley's exhibition. I'm not keen on the work of the latter but it was good to see the two of them enjoying each others company, two real doyens.
I was excited to speak briefly to Alice Kettle without stuttering too much - a fragile size 8, but capable of the largest bold work.
She has got new work up which has given me some ideas on what to do with the collection of lace and damask cloths I seem to have accumulated but I didn't have the nerve to ask to take a photo of the white on white.
In some places photography was allowed, in some for personal use only but in lots Verboten. Which led to lots of us ladies scurrying around taking crafty snaps.

There is a very large naked woman on the plinth at the mo.
She, Suzanne P, looks just like my nude, if only I had a long arm for my camera, about 90 miles. She is a truly statuesque naturist. Frustrating. It is dark, wet and windy so she is extra brave.
She has a mac on the table in front of her and is talking to a guy in Los Angeles.
Strange world.
Aha found her portrait on the site [one&other]

rain

When it is sunny the cows are stood up and friendly. [bullocks?]
but when it rains they lie down and ignore everyone.
So you can tell that the rains have finally arrived and we and Hattie the dog are mooching round the Clamp, hoods up and wellies on. Well not Hatters obviously. The green shoots of recovery/winter wheat are a welcome sight after two months of drought. The Other Retired Person likes to potter about collecting the sweet chestnuts at this time of year, so we can spend hours with sore fingers preparing them and then forget to get them out the freezer for the turkey stuffing. This year they look rather thin, perhaps lack of rain. The apples and pears were very good so I guess it must all be a matter of timing, as is so much in life.

october

The mobile library van obviously was shaken by my disloyal visit to the main library in town this week, and coughed up three new books still warm in their new protective plastic jackets.
Plucked up the new Faye Kellerman; Swan Peak by James Lee Burke and The Silent Man by Alex Berenson - The last defence against the world's deadliest threat - that should take my mind off things.
Prior to this I finished the latest Ian Rankin [The Complaints] I thought it was OK, the main character is a bit of a blank tho and as usual I got lost in the intricacies of the plot. Usually Rebus and Edinburgh carry me thru without worrying too much about exactly what is going on. Without Rebus it was a bit low energy..... I really disliked the last "caper" Open Doors, so i hope Mr Rankin is not being distracted too much by the high life on Newsnight Review.
Guess the big news is that I lit the sitting room fire last night, mark the date, can't remember if it is earlier than usual.
It was RP's Grandad's birthday [he built this house] so we clipped some Michaelmas daisies, white Iceberg roses and some late big white daisy things form the garden for his grave, and some on his sister's next door. The bunches of flowers look well in the sunlight, and hopefully the yew tree will protect them from the wind for a while.
When grandad walked the peninsula he used to keep his eye open for likely logs, and drag them home. As he got older he used to just balance one on the grate and just push them into the fire as it burned. He'd sit there in his little woolly hat refusing to turn on the radiators his daughter had installed, watching his little b/w television, knitting squares for Oxfam.

winter woollie thinking

Went into town today to put my posh frock into the Cleaners, it cost nearly £8 and will take a week! fortunately my social calendar is not over full.
Library cards now work all over the country, so i took mine on a trial trip to the town library [as opposed to the mobile]and was over stimulated by access to so many books.
Also the local toddlers group was doing a very enthusiastic song with the actions group amongst the shelves.
Could hardly concentrate what with the elderly brain cells and tears in the eyes as the little poppets screamed with pleasure and triumph at touching "ears, nose, knees and toes" several million times.
Backed accidentally into a young woman in a burka and screamed, only because I thought I had stood on her, but I expect she felt I was frightened of her as a terrorist, which was a shame.
After RP had had his eyes tested and been told to take his glasses off to use his computer. The optician moaned because he claimed the govt. pay for the free eye test didn't cover his costs - if people then went off to SpecSavers for their fancy frames. Persuading RP he didn't need computer glasses didn't help load his coffers poor independent professional.
We toddled off to a shoe shop where RP immediately reverted to his 12 year old self, sulked and refused to try anything on, I remained very mature - just, and swep out [I wouldn't like him telling me what to buy either i suppose]
There seems to be only one shoe shop in town now - Clarks. All the others have closed and been subsumed into the fashion shops, which means almost everything for female feet is shiny and has a 4inch heel. Which I would love to wear, as it looks so wonderfully prancey.
Big Business is now establishing and exploiting a lucrative foot fetish where shoes no longer are for walking, thus also boobs are no longer for feeding babies but for ramming into pointy shapes as sex objects.
Boys are obsessive about their pecks, little girls are entirely in pink and we are all going to hell in a hand cart, a shiny one with a big horn.
Finally to M&S where RP redeemed himself and bought 3 cardis! One for the garden, one cashmere for lounging and one for £15 because he had a voucher.
I bought a jumper.

we can - or can we

Bit of an autumnal harvest today, lots of butternut squash and

pears. Last year they got some weird kind of virus that turned them funny shapes so we didn't eat them.
This year they look fine, which is a relief as the new neighbours planted pear saplings last year and looked very askance at our monster fruit. But this year we look normal so they can watch theirs grow with an easier mind.
Our apples are a sorrier lot, almost two months without rain obviously doesn't agree with them. The oldest and best apple tree has gone and died which is sad and a problem as it needs removing before it falls down the bank. We are not good at getting "someone" in to solve practical problems like this. We assure ourselves we can do it, but like Obama - it all takes more time than one would think.

boo

Home again - and sulking.
I reckon - I am retired so every day should be a holiday, but as soon as I get back ping go the neck muscles and a vague but pervasive atmosphere of guilt at that which I have not done [or have done] descends.

climbing the walls

If this pic of D's is enlarged one can chose who should win the "Wreck of the Hesperus" award. My mother often used to say I looked thus, or "pulled thru a hedge backwards" so encouraging that generation.

Today we had morning coffee in Bath, it was a lovely sunny day, the buildings glowed with self satisfaction

The Abbey is just gorgeous
This bloke had an ingenious contrivance to enable him to play the violin and the guitar at the same time and make a nice noise
Lunch in a tiny pub run by two gay guys who enjoyed their work

Searched for some time for the W bookshop, and when we did eventually find it they had unbeknownst to themselves run out of the new Ian Rankin, is that any way to run a bookshop!
I treated myself to 2 other tomes, for one of which they over charged me, so the Retired Person had to march back and remonstrate..... sometimes he feels my responses may be counter productive.
Got a bit lost traversing Bristol on the way home, so many cars, so little road space.

five go adventuring

Lots of walkies today, even tho it rained lightly and persistently all morning

after a lot of diddling around trying to find a road that would lead down to the coast, finally RP dove down the right rabbit hole and we could walk along the coastal path [dog shit alley] to Redcliff Bay.

RP is also an ace camera man having achieved what every older women craves - an Impressionist picture [or out of focus]
Or the Long View - of the Three Damsels

Back in the sunshine after lunch we caught these teenage swans looking for theirs.

back "home" we had lots of tea and long discussions about Life and what to do with what we have left. More cheering than it sounds.
D didn't swim again.

This is not a dalek on stilts

Nor is this, they are two small light houses at each end of our doggie walk, if you are really determined and keep going.

Hopefully this should show both lights - well maybe if you double click and use imagination. We did the walk in 2 parts today with S&D who are visiting for a couple of days, unfortunately they bought cloudy weather with them, but in true British fashion we congratulated ourselves that at least it wasn't raining.

D googled Portishead and discovered it has a swimming pool, however it proves to be an Open Air pool, so maybe his cossie won't be getting wet this time.