We are in...

...I'll let you guess.

If you have visited my 365 blog, you'll have suspected that we've hopped off to a concert, tomorrow night. But we couldn't resist an extra day in one of our favourite places and though we don't know this particular city as well as other parts of the country, it's lovely to be here.

The view from our window is of the mighty Rhine, in full flow and proving quite a challenge for the smaller boats as they struggle upstream. The huge barge that just went past had no problem!

Portrait of the Artists

Catching up with one or two favourite blogs and coming across an interesting link on the Photojojo site which ages an image to look as though it was taken sixty years ago. Of course, the artists themselves remain as young and vibrant as ever....

A day to play

Today, two friends came to play and oh my goodness, what creativity was in the air!

Sue was working on a project for a competition, and worked on the Embellisher for much of the day. Myfanwy, we missed you!
Liz explored the bind it all machine, having watched the DVD to get the tips and hints first. Sensible lady... As she was doing this, our friend Dorothy Skyped in to see how we were getting along. Of course, it was all her fault we got into the bind-it-all in the first place - wasn't it Dorothy?

As for me, well I had a new toy to play with, thanks to Liz - and did I read the instructions first? Since they were in Japanese that wasn't really an option, but with an expert on hand, I dived right in and with her help, look what we made!

Twenty-four cards for our friends...

Such fun to get together and share ideas and enthusiasms. We'll do it again soon (I hope)

oooh, look....!

Still excited by stumbling upon this in Waterstones, Bristol yesterday!

Would that be Salman Rushdie's work alongside mine, by any chance?

Quiet?

I've been quiet since we arrived home, but things around here have been anything but.

I'd already agreed to teach on Monday, in Devon, which was fun and the Spring weather made the drive rather more enjoyable than it might have been. Even the M5 looks great in sunshine! Tuesday was set aside for a full day's commitment to work - always good to be amongst colleagues, especially in such comfortable surroundings. So it was Wednesday before I even opened my suitcase!

A charity lunch meant that the middle of the day was a sociable affair and I'd planned to spend morning and late afternoon sorting out the washing, putting things away and all of those post-holiday jobs which result in piles of stuff which need to be dealt with. A phone call soon denied me that pleasure!

To cut a (very) long story short, a TV channel wanted to do a report on the new "make do and mend" - could I gather some friends together to darn socks and so on. Sure I could - but for tomorrow morning? A challenge I could have done without but being a "say yes, wonder why later" kind of person, I agreed. Then immediately regretted, because the rest of the day was taken up by making phone calls, calling in favours and trying to rally the troops. Not easy at less than 24 hours notice.

After a restless night and panicky morning, I got a call to say they'd decided not to run the story after all. Thanks.

Why do we do it?

Somewhere in there, too, I agreed to participate in a mammoth knitting project for a TV company as well. Will I never learn?

Once I'd settled down yesterday morning, I took a walk around the garden. Though the sun was shining and it looked glorious, it was freezing cold, so my walk was a brief one. Not too brief to miss an amazing display of self seeded primulas which have been flowering since Christmas but seem to be coming to the most glorious finale right now.

It's good to be home!