And today I learned…

That the comments aren’t working properly on my blog.  Thank you Lesley and Marion, for emailing me to alert me to that news.  I’ve been in touch with my blog host, Squarespace, and they have engineers working on it as we speak.  In the meantime, I’ve made a slight adjustment which will hopefully resolve the immediate issue until a new, permanent fix in in place.  Please, let me know if things are still not working.

Today, I went to the hairdressers and had another reminder that September is here when I turned the corner and met a long traffic jam at the bottom of the hill.  School is back.

What a difference the school run makes to the traffic flow around here.

Children of the Autumn

Here we are in September already and I know that I’m not alone in looking fondly at those soft cashmere sweaters, the cosy slippers and wondering how soon I can reasonably think of putting the warmer duvets on our bed.  It’s not that I don’t like the warm Summer weather, just that I prefer the cooler days and a chance to snuggle in on darker evenings.  As my German friend Karin observes, “born in September and October, we are children of the Autumn”.

She’s right.

I like the cool starts to the morning, the more so if the sun gets up and brightens the day, as it did in Cheltenham on Saturday.  Not long now before those gardens will be covered in marquees and bookshops; I must set a reminder to sort out our tickets for the Literature Festival when booking opens tomorrow.

I’ve been putting one or two summer things to bed over the last couple of days.  First, my road trip journal from our Mid West adventure, which was especially hard to finish because I lingered a little too long and allowed our Irish jaunt to overlay the memories.  A good job I’d taken notes in my little book, then!

I actually created a keepsake from our Irish jolly too, but for now, I’ll keep it under wraps as it’s a little “different”.  I took my inspiration from the Waterford Charter and have had fun speaking stern words to our printer as I fed fabric to it.  I’ll share a few pics in due course, I expect

Whilst travelling through Iowa, we dropped into the Woollen Needle and unable, it seems, to leave such a shop without making a purchase of some kind, I fell for one of the cute felt cushion/ornament.  The darker skies brought out the urge to embroider and so armed with a box of odd bits of thread and a needle, I set to work.

But as I began, I looked at my stitches in horror.  What?  Have I lost the ability to create neat, even stitches?  Of course, stitching on heavy, woollen felt it isn’t easy to keep everything looking crisp and neat, but even so…

Almost finished, it’s not at all perfect.  It looks likely to give trainee craft judges plenty to get their teeth into when the next course begins!

It also provides me with the first theme of my annual September project because, oh yes, it’s that time of the year again.  I don’t think that it’s really something new, strictly speaking, but I learned that it’s worth sticking with something, even if it isn’t quite perfect, otherwise nothing would get done, would it?

Normal life!

Back home again, life continues in a bit of a blur.  Catching up is always a bit of a challenge; getting back into the swing of things rather pleasing, in a funny kind of way.  I always come home eager to refresh and revitalise a house which has stood closed up for a couple of weeks, wanting to throw open the windows, get some air in the place and get it all shipshape again.

This time, I really couldn’t wait to open the windows, because once again, our (spare) freezer let us down.  Thankfully, it wasn’t the freezer in the kitchen, which has our main stockpile, but the fridge freezer downstairs in our storeroom, which failed earlier in the year when we were on our cruise.  As a result, it wasn’t jam-packed, thankfully.  But it did have one or two larger pieces of meat in there, plus a few other bits we’d put in there as our confidence in the repair man’s work grew.

And of course, it takes only one large joint of pork to defrost and …well, I’ll let you imagine.

Yuk.

The repairman is coming this morning and we’ll give it another try, but I’m loathe to put anything in it which I care about until hopefully, our confidence is (again) restored or, more likely, we replace it!

As we drove home along the M4, I’d listened to Pete Wilson’s Sunday programme on BBC Radio  Gloucestershire on my phone and once at home, was pleased to be able to listen again on a proper radio.  A couple of weeks ago, Marion and I met Pete at the Folk Museum in Gloucester, to talk about the WI Centenary exhibition.  Though I know Pete well enough to trust him to put together something good, nevertheless, there was that small niggle in the back of my mind that I might have said something daft, incomprehensible or simply been too relaxed to put on my best performance.  You know how it is.

Thankfully, the end result was respectable!  I think Marion and I gave a good account of ourselves and hopefully, our enthusiasm came through enough to tempt people to go along and see for themselves.  I believe it’ll be possible to listen again for the next four weeks if you missed it so far (but I don’t know if that link works outside the UK, sorry).

 

Not all surprises on our return were nasty ones, thank goodness.  One nice one was a box of goodies from Citrus Twist following an email conversation I’d had with their owner whilst we were away.  For several years now, I’ve subscribed to a monthly kit for my Project Life from Studio Calico, who have recently changed their policies in a way I didn’t care for.  As a result, I cancelled my sub and moved my allegiance.  I’m now going to have fun with some new and fresh designs and think that perhaps SC did me a favour

One thing we miss whilst we are away is the occasional chatter from Edward, updating us with what’s going on in the world of our government affairs professional.  A recent source of much delight has been the publication of one of his books in Kindle format, the more so since it has been so well received.  Edward has always been a writer and enjoyed creating alternative history scenarios since he was at school, but so far, has restricted his publishing to an online forum and a few self published books for family and friends.  However, a group of like minded writers have got together and created a collection of their work and have started to market it under the Sealion Press imprint, with great results.

OK.  I know, proud Mummy speaking here, but those rankings are pretty amazing, don’t you think?  (And not only did I not write the stonking 5* review, I didn’t pay anyone to write it either!)   Bravo Edward!

Today, I’m at home, hoping to catch up (and maybe finish?) my American Road Trip journal.  I really wanted to finish it before we overlaid those experience with Irish ones, but you know what happens to good intentions?  My only commitment this week was a meeting at Denman College yesterday, where as I sat chatting over lunch I caught sight of a(nother) familiar, friendly face.  Claire Muir was teaching her Beautiful Butterflies and of course, having caught up with the gossip, I had to go over and see what her class was up to.  Such things always make me want to come straight home and get my machine purring away…but must get those journals done first!

I’d already bumped into Janice, a GFWI colleague, who was honing her Jacobean embroidery skills in a class with Julie Walsby.  Sight of such things always reminds me of my C&G tutor’s comment regarding my own sub-optimal efforts at the technique: “not really your strong point, is it?”   Of course, Julie’s work is breathtaking and actually, that of her class pretty stunning too.

So, no time for mischief around here, then?  hmmm…

Back in the groove, I was mulling over the clothes I tried on in the Eileen Fisher store in Chicago and one item in particular stuck in my mind.  I kind of regretted not buying a long, sleeveless shirt kind of thing, thinking that it’d be ideal as another layer in this funny, chilly weather we’ve been having.  I went to look on the .uk website to see if it was available here but as I did, my eyes fell upon something else…

Now, the internet is a wonderful thing and yes, I could have bought this lovely boiled wool sleeveless coat immediately and had it delivered to me here at home – at a price.  But friends and honorary sisters are even better, especially when their plans for the day not only include passing an Eileen Fisher store but their travel plans include coming here in the next couple of weeks.  Time zones and suchlike meant that my late afternoon web surfing worked well with Mary’s early morning online reading and within hours, the deed was done.  My pocket money spent.

Yes, indeed, life is good.

With a working freezer, it will be even better

Sunday morning invitation

Every time I’ve hung the washing out recently, a couple of bits of “garden wreckage” have irritated me.  Not only did the things themselves irritate me, but also, my apparent inability to actually do something about them and clear that little corner up.  Having spent yesterday afternoon cleaning the garden furniture ready for the season, I decided that before I did anything else this morning, I’d clear away a few things.

So, with the soles firmly fixed on my Mahabis I went out into the garden before I began anything else this morning.  You might have spotted the adverts for these on facebook?  I did, so dropped hints around my birthday last year and sure enough, lucky girl that I am, a pair came my way.  They are comfortable and the detachable sole is a great idea but the quality of the felt doesn’t match that of other felt slippers in my collection and it has bobbled and pilled already. I’d give them 8 or of ten.

Anyway, spotting this little chap on the edge of the step, I grabbed my camera and having spent all of fifteen minutes dealing with the wreckage, I took a little walk around.

The advantage of having separate clumps of the same plant is that when some are past their best, there are still some in full flower.  I love the lily of the valley we have here and there.

My main reason for grabbing my camera was this iris.  I’d spotted it yesterday afternoon but the light was going and I decided to wait until today to take a photo.

The deep, velvety petals were what caught my eye but a closer look reveals the details.  Gorgeous.  What’s more, there are at least a dozen buds there, ready to bloom, too.

The “installation” created by my clever artist friend Paulene is continuing to disintegrate.

In places, it’s almost disappeared.

Other bits of garden wreckage are allowed to remain because they look a bit better than an old growbag!  This pot, made quite a few years ago cracked and broke in the frost, but the design still amuses us anyway.  So, it stays, upside down near the summer house and perhaps someone – something – has made a home inside.

I don’t look too closely

On this fine, May morning, the valley is looking lush and green.

The great zoom lens on my camera means i can spy on the neighbours!  One of them is doing a bit of gardening, Cotswold style.  I can assure you, a garden spade is no use here and though a pickaxe will do, a little digger is even better!

Even so, the new rose planted recently is doing well and has the most glorious scent.

A well established rose isn’t doing so badly either.  It’s another one with a heady perfume but on this chilly morning, you’d never guess.

The newest rose of all needs a little time to get going. 

Just like my Hero and I it seems.  I mentioned that it took me no more than a quarter of an hour to clear that untidy corner, even though it has been a source of irritation for several months.  It seems I wasn’t the only one to find it irritating, either, since my Hero tells me he’d been meaning to do something about it as well.

We are both expert procrastinators!

The answer to finding my mojo

is to spend money on fabric.  But then, that could be the answer to so many issues, couldn’t it?

Since we finished Edward’s room, we’ve recognised that there needs to be a bedhead of some description there.  The Aerobed is terrific and works perfectly.  Both users have reported it super-comfortable and it’s quick and easy to get out and put away.  However, a fixed bedhead would look odd when there’s no bed there and having thought about cushions and other solutions, I came up with the idea of making a quilt/wallhanging.

The room is plain white with dark grey curtains and just a flash of colour in a couple of cushions.  I took one of them with me to Higgs and Higgs yesterday to choose some fabrics.

At this stage, I had a better idea of what I didn’t want than what I was really looking for.  I didn’t want flowers, didn’t want anything too geometric that was going to reveal my inability to piece precisely and was hoping to avoid anything too kitsch.  Fortunately, there was a collection of Hemingway fabric there which fitted my brief perfectly.

(Except the price)

Bearing in mind this wasn’t intended to be a work of art (!) but a simple, practical solution, I didn’t dwell too long on design and concept.  I drew a few rectangles on a piece of paper, scaled it up to the right proportions and cut a few pieces of fabric. 

I’d like to say that the slight wonkiness here and there is simply the single layer of fabric slipping on the wooden floor.  But it isn’t.  It’s the bit of quirk that comes with a hand made item.

Isn’t it?