What a show

As I waited in the long (stationary) line of traffic yesterday morning, I spotted the first signs of Autumn in the trees overhead.  I even had time to fish my camera from my bag and take a quick snap!

I was on my way to Moreton Show, where I had some judging to do.  I always enjoy this particular show for the rich variety of interesting things to see.  Above all, I love to get up close and learn a little about the farm animals which form a large part of the event.  In particular this year, I was looking forward to meeting an old friend and catching up on things with her.

I’ve judged at this show for several years, taking the occasional break as recommended, but usually accepting the invitation with pleasure.  Yesterday, I enjoyed the company of a WI colleague and between us, we made our judgements and left helpful and encouraging advice to the very talented competitors.  This little couple of foxes were sitting, waiting for us and looking utterly charming in their sweet knitted clothes.  I thought I had seen at least one of them before at the show I judged last weekend, not a million miles from here, but looking at my photographs, only the pattern was the same.  I don’t know about you, but I think this pair rivals the knitted originals in terms of cuteness!

(and yes, of course I went to the website and bought the pattern – couldn’t resist!)

Once the work was done, we braved the elements and after a long chatty lunch, decided to explore the show.  Having satisfied her shopping needs whilst I was judging, Sue was happy to follow the sounds of the farmyard with me.  Being a creature of habit, I tend towards the same places each year (evidenced here and here) and yes, we started by seeing some familiar characters.

The judging of the Hereford cattle was coming to a close and the interesting commentary drew our attention for a while.

But some other natives attracted us over, standing patiently waiting their turn in the spotlight.

I love to observe all the chatter and social interaction in these places where people with shared interests gather.  It’s good to see the next generation being so involved too.

I was quite pleased to see this pen empty!

I’d not ventured into the goat section before and was charmed by these pretty little pygmy goats.  What expressions!  But what a racket they were making!

The Gloucestershire Old Spots were out in number, of course.  Thankfully, they couldn’t see the sign on their pen advertising sausages.

We wandered back towards the show ring, where the winners of each cattle class were parading, ready for the “best in show” judgement.  Look who was there, decorated with his champion’s regalia from the Hereford class.

We marvelled at how placidly these huge creatures walked, around and around the ring, showing off their star attributes!

But our Hereford friend was to be pipped as Best in Show by this rather gorgeous Limousin, who paraded proudly around the ring one more time.

The commentator had a word with the winning farmer afterwards, though someone else didn’t want to be left out!

As we left, the winners were being taken to the main ring for the parade of champions.  I listened to the commentary setting the scene: “You will see the best of British breeds here this afternoon: Herefords, Angus and South Devon amongst them. These are the breeds which Britain exported to the world, which have been bred to feed America, Australia and beyond.  World class cattle here in Moreton; you will see no finer examples anywhere”. 

There was a ripple of applause.

“They graze on the best grassland in the world, too”.

As if nature was listening, the heavens opened and the essential factor for such excellent grazing fell from the sky.  Not that it bothered anyone there. 

We’re British.   

Treasure

We have the best friends.  No argument, no question of that. There are some we see fairly frequently and others we see only occasionally.  We’d not seen Jordi for several years though we keep in touch and when we do get together, we take over where we left off, wherever that might have been.

We share a joy in so many similar things.  I know what will float her boat (which is why we carried an enormous bag of Cadbury’s chocolate and Bassetts Liquorice Allsorts all afternoon) and she knows what hits the spot with me.

We had shared our planning of this year’s Road Trip with her, because we knew that she had a great deal of first hand experience of some of the places we’ll visit.  She made recommendations, spoke to her friends and gathered information for us which she shared in a long email conversation.

She also made us a little gem of a book with details of three cities inside.  Our own, hand made guidebook, tailor made for our trip and jam-packed with personal recommendations.

Each listing comes with a few special details, gathered from those who know about these things.

And the whole thing is an absolute joy to read!

She even left some pages “intentionally blank” for us to add a photo, perhaps, or our own observations.  I can hear my Mum saying “Ooooh, I don’t want to spoil it!”

No guidebook or online forum can possibly offer this kind of detail – what a treasure!

The thing is, our friends know us rather well.  When it came to choosing where to have dinner last night, Jordi suggested Cabana, a “nuevo latino” style restaurant she thought would suit us well.  She was right, too.  Not only did we enjoy the best Margaritas (!) the food was great too – not that we could manage it all.  The starter in the picture above – Baccalaitos (Crispy-golden salt codfish cakes, served with an avocado salsa) was enough for the three of us really and main courses were equally enormous.  But fresh, tasty and served with great spirit – loved it!

It was only when we returned to the hotel later and I was blogging that a little bell rang in my head.  Hadn’t we been here before?

My hero and I racked our brains to think…we didn’t think so and yet…I searched my blog for details but found none.

Then it came to me.  I spotted the three locations of Cabana: Midtown Manhattan, a couple of other NY listings I wouldn’t have been and Del Ray Beach in Florida…of course.  Our friends Jane and Allan took us to the Cabana in Del Ray Beach when we were with them and sure enough, the restaurant we recalled (and have frequently referred to because of the amazing cocktails and fabulous food) is one and the same Cabana.

Good grief.

Did I say we have great friends who know us well?

(See you in Charleston later, Mary!)

One step at a time

Remember this?

Just before we went off on my birthday jolly to Carcassonne, I was playing about with a jelly roll of fabric which had been on my shelf for a couple of years.  I didn’t know what to do with it, but then I came across this and simply had to give it a try.

 

I didn’t get very far though and ever since then, the stitched and cut blocks have sat by my sewing machine. 

Today, I felt rather virtuous.  I’d not only done some of my (paid) work, I’d cleared my mending pile and there wasn’t much ironing sitting and eyeing me with that threatening look that only a basket of ironing can manage.  So, I switched on my sewing machine and prepared to begin.

Except I’d forgotten what I was doing.  There was no printout in the bag with those blocks either.  What a good job I blog about such things and include the links!  I worked out what I’d done, where I’d stopped and what more there was to do.

I soon had quite a pile of 5 1/4 inch squares and spend a few minutes trimming and squaring them off.

It’s a clever pattern that looks way more tricky than it really is.

So now it’s time to sew four squares together to create a larger block.  But there’s a decision to make.

Do I take the control freak’s route and choose the placement of the colours carefully?

Or go random and let the colours fall as they will?

I can’t decide.

Step into Christmas

We’ve been enjoying the company of our sweet friend and honorary sister Mary these last few days and following tradition, made our way to Daylesford to get into the spirit of the season.

We fall for the cool white and silvery beige tones every time: Such a contrast to the bright, gaudy decorations everywhere else.

But taste is a curse and such minimalism comes at a price.  Still, it costs nothing to look, does it?

The antidote to rampant consumerism on “panic Saturday” came in the form of Carols on the Hour at Gloucester Cathedral and as we sat listening to the Stuart Singers do their two gigs, we admired the “knitivity” (especially the cheeky camel!)

Poor Mary looks totally cheesed off by the whole affair, don’t you think?

We stepped into an altogether different Christmas at Abbeycwmhir on Sunday.  Don’t be fooled by the sober exterior.

Inside has been truly decked with not only boughs of holly but everything else as well.

After the muted elegance of Daylesford, believe me, it came as quite a shock.  52 rooms, all decorated for Christmas…

At least one tree in every room, each individually decorated to a theme.  This is the library tree.

This one stood in the billiard room amongst a range of stuffed animals.

The craft judge in me just had to take a closer look at that trailing braid to check if it was cross stitched (it wasn’t).

There was the crystal tree, with miniature pieces of crystal glinting in the light from the window.

A tree full of timepieces.

And a tree set amongst Royal Doulton figurines.  Many of them!  This is a house owned by collectors and one half of the couple, Paul gave us a great deal of background as he showed us around his home.

Because the remarkable thing is, Paul and his wife do really live here.  Not only that, but no door remains closed – this is a corner of one of the kitchen rooms.

Quite how they live in such an abundance of decorative “stuff” is a mystery to me.  I know that I would need to paint one room white and empty it of all the clutter just as a refuge.

But they must be used to it by now and of course, it’s their choice! 

When I reviewed my photographs, I was amazed that I managed to take one which had no sign of Christmas whatsoever.  That was quite an achievement, for as you can tell, Paul and his wife do not hold back with the decorations!

There was one room which would haunt me, however.  Filled with these knitted figures which are so frequently seen at village shows, they are every WI Craft Judge’s nightmare!  Yes, loads of work.  Not easy knitting.  Tricky construction.  But no play value whatsoever and what person do you know who would like one to grace their home?

I’ll take the cute camel every time.

Eventually

I got my act together and started working on my December Journal!  Well, it is the 5th…

It’s been a funny old week.  Of course, I began it half way through really, since we were in Berlin until Tuesday night and Wednesday disappeared in a mountain of unpacking, washing and general sorting out.  On Thursday, it was my WI Christmas lunch which is usually a jolly affair in a local hotel, but this year we were a little subdued.  The husband of one of our dear friends had died a week or so ago and his memorial service was in the little village church on Thursday morning.  Though she wanted us to carry on with the Christmas lunch as planned it was strange without her and of course, she (and her dear departed husband) were both on everyone’s mind.

Of course, there was shopping to be done and a Christmas tree to choose – even though it won’t be brought inside until next weekend, we know there won’t be any more to choose from later in the week.  So, we decided to go and sort that one out before the weekend rush and were glad we did – first one we saw, we liked  (but of course, we had to look at another couple before we could settle!)

I loved these juniper hearts for the door, but really couldn’t justify spending so much on one, however lovely they are.  I shall hope for calmer weather tomorrow and find a few bits in the garden to make one instead.

And all the week, I was aware that I hadn’t even started my December Journal.  I hadn’t looked at any of my goodies from Berlin and hadn’t really done anything in my studio since the girls came to play a couple of weeks ago.  I knew that the longer I left it, the harder it would be to start.  So today, I decided to do nothing else until I had got it up to date.

First thing was to get the Christmas bits out.  Much easier to complete a page a day if it’s all there at my fingertips, so I pulled a few things from my stash and added them to some new things from this year and settled down to begin.

I knew the colour scheme I’d chosen but decided to leave the covers till later – maybe until the end?  So, right now, it’s not looking especially promising!

But inside is a bit better: a page about advent calendars, one about making my Christmas cards the other day and a few bits and pieces from the Christmas lunch (cracker jokes are usually pretty reliable for that page!)

There’s a photo of choosing the tree and a page about the Christmas cards which are now arriving by every post.

There are still piles of “stuff” on my other worktops though, including a set of numbers for next year’s advent calendar found in Karstadt last weekend, the empty packaging from a box of Advent tea we found: a different tea for every day of the month, individually packaged in a numbered envelope.  I feel sure I can find a use for those (the paper envelopes I mean – of course, we’ll drink the tea!)

Last but not least, the hotel where we had lunch was decorated with paper stars which caught the attention of the ladies around the table, who now want me to show them how they’re made at next week’s WI meeting.  Well, though I’ve made them years ago, I just had to check that I could still remember how…so samples have been prepared and left, half finished on my worktop.

The good thing is, because it’s been such an odd week, I keep thinking today is Sunday.  That means, I get a bonus day tomorrow!  Woohoo!