better angels

Mother is 91

Well a while back in May, but we were away, so finally took her out to lunch in Grundisburgh where she polished off a huge pork chop with rhubarb and apple mash, then sticky toffee pudding.

We wandered over to the village church afterwards, where mother gathered detailed information as usual.  The 14th century wall painting is of St Christopher carrying Christ across the river.  Old guy told us that is where the name came from, "Christ over" but even he admitted it was possibly a dodgy derivation. The hammer beam roof has angels if you look carefully.

Best news is we have found our next puppy.  It is over a year since Hattie died.  Gert and Daisy are well settled so in 2 weeks we hope to add this little black pudding.  She is in Norfolk with her mum and 7 brothers and sisters. We had to go to Norfolk to find Hatters so this is a good omen.  Mother a collieX and father a drug sniffer labrador.  Mum is called Tiber, and as we have been on the Med. trip we are looking for a Italian name; Hattie was named after Hathor the Egyptian goddess to remember our Nile trip. 

So far we have thought of Florence and Rubicon............

This lady is our sole evidence of the Jubilee, as apart from watching the Flotilla and not watching the Concert, we didn't take part.  Very un-English, chose to watch Andy Murray instead of going to the village fete and scarecrows. Found this posh bird still waiting for us as we walked through the woods.

 Lots and lots of foxgloves in the woods, birdsong, Spring smells -  very English.

 "They" are going to resurface the Main Road through the village, so "we" were informed that they will do it over night and redirect the traffic down our lane, with the aid of traffic lights. Never before!  "We" that's the royal "we" and doesn't include us, rose to their middle class heights and pointed out that the young people are doing their exams and there is no way they can be kept awake at nights with noisy mechanicals.  The event has now been postponed to October. Hopefully by then we will have persuaded the cats to don their tin hats and remain behind the barricades.

story time

We got back from the trains from Barcelona at 11pm and then stayed up till 2 watching the Eastenders omnibus which was on for some strange reason on a Saturday morning. Sometimes I do think my life is just in my head, why should an hour and a half of Eastenders be on just when I couldn't sleep.


The Cruise was an experience.

We went with Gre*t Railw*y Journeys - and they weren't;  first class, but cramped and long, with no luxuries. Our Tour "manager" was fun, she had no sense of direction, organisation or basically - brains. But she was very sweet. There were 16 Brits in the party, quite an experience in itself, and they named her Walter Mitty. She certainly believed she knew all these foreign languages, but didn't, and any situation was met with confidence collapsing into confusion, but she was very  friendly.

 Chewing gum mosaic in Livorno [presumably tourists visiting Juliet balcony- wasn't she fictional?]

The ship was huge, mostly Americans. We didn't dress up and eat with the Brits each night, or anyone else, as there were many restaurants and we just went to the relaxed one. Several different menus available each nigh served by very smiley crew, easy to put on weight. Two swimming pools, hot tubs, library, and the blessed relief of a cabin with a balcony so we could sit out in the sunshine and marvel at the blueness of the waters.

Rained in Dubrovnik, who thought we would ever go to Croatia, Venice was as gorgeous as ever, Greek island variable [500steps up a cliff on a mule on Santorini was a highlight -came down on cable car, can't make up my mind which was more frightening] mount Etna was -interesting, mostly black cinders and Pompeii was as ever.

Read so many books and went to the movies once on the boat [My w/e with Marilyn] spent evenings watching films on TV, much like home really. Only Fox news, CNN or BBC world news [which isn't].

Thought I would never sleep with noisy air-con and waves and engine………….but after initial hysterics and Kwells I settled down.

Quite a lark really, very tiring [poor old girl] and now I am home and hit the Jubilee, oh dear.

trains and boats, no planes

 Long corridors on ship were very scary, I kept imagining them filling with sea water.

 Hours on trains actually makes me appreciate planes.

We were on 4th deck, Crows Nest deck was on 11th level.  Fortunately lots of lifts, they changed the carpet in the lifts every day, they reminded you which day it was, like a tufted calendar.

cruise views

Scarlet woman

I have painted my toe nails, so it is definite we are going on holiday................shame to leave the garden behind, but I am hoping to see Pompeii and Etna and lots of sun...............

Video 47

write this

tigger

An exciting day as I had to go and see if the aches in my boobs meant the cancer had come back.  Hint - cancer doesn't usually ache. Anyway as you can understand it was a tense time until it was pronounced that I have instead - Costochondritis.  They are not sure what this means, it seems maybe just inflammation of the rib cage, which affects the nerve ending right along the breast.
Nothing to be done, just wait for it to go away, and maybe get him indoors to lift the coal scuttle in future.
Now I am bouncing around with stray adrenaline. A
Already told the Open University to shove their degree, as their tutors are always MIA.  Mine claims her Broadband keeps going down.  I think she is trying to avoid my story.
I wasn't going to carry on after I have finished this course anyway, just wanted to learn how to tell a  story, which maybe I have, a bit.  This last assignment, if tutor doesn't set fire to it is the start of my first novel, 4000+ words
 I have no intention of trying to get it published, as if I could, I just like writing.  Which is why i do this blog.

riots in the countryside

This is the best our fritillaries have ever been. We first saw some in a farmers field and thought they were so lovely, we bought some seeds some years back. The farmer was having an Open Day to show them off, more exciting than we expected as it was a wet year and most of the visitors cars had to be towed out of his yard with a tractor because of the mud. All the plants and trees seem to be doing exceptionally well, unless this is their last hurrah. We saw a cotoneaster [I think] hedge today up the lane that was a total riot of acid yellow flowers, the magnolia has been wonderful, mother's cherry tree is covered in blossom and the all the gardens look gorgeous, can we please use our hose now? when it stops raining of course.

Altho it is quite dry here, it certainly isn't the drought they claim, and we have had rain every day since then any way.

When it does rain we have been playing magnetic scrabble, not very well but it does take some of the boredom out of the kitchen work.

to remember

may the long time sun shine upon you


all love surround you


and the pure light within you


guide you all the way on.

Daunting Daughter and the Glorious Grandson

Saving up to go and see them in the Autumn.

M&Ms

This is my stitched self portrait required by next exhibition. I can't decide whether to add all the angry thoughts that are obviously whizzing round my mind!

probably I was thinking about my "novel" have to submit the first 1000 words by Thursday [to the OU, not an agent]. The story hasn't been too painful but writing the "commentary " as to why and how is a real pain.Only 1 more assignment to go [another 3000 words] and then I am free to spend as long as I like whittling about them, and never actually finishing, but it keeps me out of the kitchen and the cleaning cupboard and other useless activities so it has its value..

I guess I did know about Margaret MacDonald but I was quite bowled over when I saw her work on the gog on a programme about Art Nouveau. Much derided at the time apparently, critics called it spooky, which was not a good thing it seems. I guess it has been taken up and diminished by fantasy illustrators, but they would have to go some to match her draughts-womanship.

I am toying with ideas about Minerva and Medusa who had a moment, I hadn't realised. I like the Minerva mask lots of potential [but not the Victorian pushed back on back of her head]and of course the Medusa snakes, must be something in there for a series......................

Went to Kent.

Had a lovely week in Cranbrook, very gorgeous, didn't realise so many people owned such beautiful big old houses, many white clapboarded. Little sign of Credit crunch in this neighbourhood.

Gardens were all in Spring flower, daffies, forsythia, primulas and all the trees with delicate green buds. Sissinghurst wasn't covered in blooms as it will be later but neither was it deep in coach parties, so we enjoyed it.

Vita did her writing in the tower in the garden, I sneaked a pic. It was glorious sunshine all week, amazing.

Our cottage address was 2 Horse Entry, reached down a little passage way between shops leading to a mish mash collection of cottages and houses built every which way. Tiny old place, 3 floors, attic bedroom reached by a ladder, fortunately there was no falling out - [or off] requiring a separate bed.

Would have liked to visit Great Dixter too, but it didn't open until 1st April, totally ignoring our anniversary requirements.

Did make the trip to Hastings, [Retired Person again refused to let us move to the Old Town, so unreasonable] but we did get to see the new Art Gallery opened this week [better timing]. The fishermen still have their posters up agitating about losing their fresh fish trade on the Stade. One told me all he saw was people with cameras, not bags of money. The gallery fits well next to the tall black net huts and the views of the sea from the windows are even better than the work on display. they have a local artist Rose Wylie, and a general exhibition of paintings, including an Augustus John and Stanley Spencer so I was happy, even if the fishermen weren't.

code

I suspect those weird slanty letters codes we have to copy to sign into the computer to prove we are not one, are really to weed out the old and crumblies who can't quite see any more, one day soon that will be me.

Woodbridge library

TAGS one of the textile art groups I belong to put a small exhibition at Woodbridge library for this month.

These are some of the Artists directories we made, each page being for each artist in the group 20+ women, stitching away.
We had to make 4 books each. They didn't go too well at the summer show, so we are giving them another outing at the library, seemed appropriate, but at £15 each I think we may be pushing it a bit.

I put Shadow Dance up, and Sea horses, plus In the Night Garden, of which I have omitted to take a picture, and Hollyhocks , which I do not like - so I do hope somebody else does.

It was along afternoon, stretching and teetering putting the stuff up above the library shelves, of course the librarians moved some of it afterwards. Wish they had just put it all up in the first place.

We put up Lizzie's tea bag coat, which looks magnificent. She dyed and painted and stitched the tea bags onto a sacking coat after studying African designs. It truly is strange and wonderful.

It is also a very light and lovely little library so everything looks fresh and artistic in the main.

fortunate

Can avoid my short story this morning for reason no. 567, there are men in the garden.........putting in a new pipe for the water. Much noise and disruption and lots to look at through my window behind this computer.
The buildings here are originally Victorian and so are the pipes I guess. When they put the water meter in some years back, [which we refuse to have connected just cos we want to make a stand for expensive self defeating individualism], they showed me the connecting pipe, two thirds full of gunge. Yuk, explains our dribble of water pressure.
Some years later after losing continuous arguments with Water People, we have ganged up with the 2 neighbours and are paying for same Water Board sub-contractors to put in a new pipe privately.
Police, NHS, Education - private enterprise is all the rage.
Just fortunate that we can afford it.
Quite funny yesterday tho, we had agreed with church that it will be OK to dig pipe line across church yard. Yup, they checked, no funerals, christenings, weddings [no income at all] so we had the go ahead.
Sadly they had forgotten the Women's Day of Prayer.
Irate woman berating bemused pipe men as they drilled and dug right outside.
Just fortunate I was out.

work shop

Have been working on the flowery dell for some time. every Sunday mother comes to tea [but doesn't have a cup, "I'll wait till I get home"] and I sit and stitch another flower, as long as I am doing something I can keep my hands to myself.

This somewhat nightmarish scene involving the dancing ladies perhaps should speak for itself, goodness knows what it is saying.

The woodland scene is quieter and I am enjoying the seemingly endless task of hand stitching and whiffling around it. It came out of a workshop I led using gesso splodged on the calico and then scrim dragged across which gave me the trees. very enjoyable.

I am hoping to try a companion piece of the sea.

We were at Aldeburgh last week picking up the in-laws after their w/e away. sadly pa-in-law fell and the paramedic had to be called. Good old NHS, still functioning, hope it lasts till i start tripping.

It may seem I am working hard, but I suspect I am working hard at avoiding writing the 2,500 words my tutor is expecting in a couple of weeks.

It was interesting to see this embroidery by Boetti [or rather the Afghan women].

It was done in 1986 but I think Gavin Turk must have seen it recently as he is turning out many versions of the above, don't know if the Afghan women are accessible at the mo tho.