Topics this month were Statue and Teddy Bear. Since I have failed miserably with teddy bear and the blossom which was May’s challenge has come early, I have added Blossom to this month and will continue my search for a teddy bear to photo. So May will have three topics too, Blossom, Teddy Bear and ooh I shall like this one–Tea Room. Do share a post of any pics you took for Statue, Teddy Bear or of Blossom this month.
Not sure I can count this as a statue- a hurricane plane on display in Windsor. Is it a statue?
Is this a statue- garden ornament in an Evesham garden centre.
War memorial in Evesham. This is a statue for sure.
Taken last Saturday, a lion rampant I believe in front of the Palm House in Kew Gardens, London.
But my favourite was
A gardener taking a breather also in Kew gardens.
Now onto blossom.
Evesham from the Abbey grounds looking towards the river.
Never knock what is just on one’s own doorstep, two minutes from home , this beauty.
This probably doesn’t count as blossom being a rhododendrum, but gosh isn’t it pretty. Kew Gardens again. Walked 6 1/4 miles round the garden and saw just a fraction of what I could. Slept 8 hours straight afterwards!
Please leave a link in the comments to any photos of statues, Teddy bears or blossom you captured this month.
I have been enjoying the lovely Spring weather this week, spending time in the garden tidying it up and planting things out. But not so busy there was no time for knitting and reading.
The book
The author was recommended on a blog. A new to me author so I thought I would give her a go. Enjoying the book a great deal, but starting on book 16 is a bit confusing as the assumption is one knows the backstories and the people. But it’s still good.
The Knitting
Miss P’s cardigan. the back is complete and I have begun the left front. Progress is slow because I am cross stitching a bookmark which has been hanging around way to long. I have made so many mistakes doing it and had to unpick so much you wouldn’t believe it. Hopefully I’ll be done this week.
The next week is pretty full on for me, but thenI have a slower May so I can spend time outside.
I have had email problems meaning I have had to change my email address. WordPress has only coped with this partially. I know when you have posted but my comments look as if they are vanishing into the ether. If they do appear they seem to be coming up anonymously, and may have gone into spam? I keep working to sort it out.
Spring has finally sprung here in England. The rain stopped on Friday and we have had two lovely sunny days and what a difference that makes. I have spent them in the garden digging out two dead fruit trees and replacing them with a rose and a mock orange shrub. Hoping both will flower this Summer when I will share the fruits of my labour here.
Meantime much to my enormous surprise three of the acorns I gathered last Autumn have actually germinated and I have transplanted them into larger pots. What I will do with them I can’t imagine.
They are living in the porch for the moment but can’t stay there for much longer as it gets too hot. I’d put them outside but I don’t trust the squirrels, slugs and snails not to eat them. Thinking…any ideas anyone please?
Meantime the garden is blooming- the mass of blue are forget-me-knots. Once they have seeded I shall scatter them over the wildflower bed in the front, along with packets of seed I have waiting to scatter.
The new tulips I planted last year are so pretty.
Just six dotted around. The nasties don’t seem to like tulips, so I shall plant more each year, till said nasties decide to relocate to someone else’s garden.
Meantime I took a one day coach trip to the Vale of Evesham in Worcestershire. It was supposed to be a blossom trail of the fruit orchards there , but we were at least two weeks too early. However, we did also stop off at the small market town of Evesham, where my parents lived and worked when they were first married. You could say I was Made in Evesham!
Anyway we didn’t have much time to explore so I headed off to the little museum. It has won some significant funding from somewhere to do some repairs and refurbishment and will close temporarily later in the year. I think I may have to make a return visit before then, as I only had chance to whizz around the exhibits. I just love small museums. They are the best to my mind.
A building that old is going to need a lot of expensive maintenance. It was originally the almonery of Evesham Abbey, and is only one of two parts that survived the ravages of Henry VIII. The old fireplace is still in situ. Lighting inside was pretty dim so my pictures are even more dire that usual.
The majority of this little treasure of a museum is given over to the telling of the town’s story, major employment was sheep farming and the woollen industry and tanning leather. The exhibits have been donated by local people. This is a Victorian schoolroom, although I clearly remember sitting at double desks in my infant/junior school. And the single desks in senior school. Children these days seem to just have lockers and sit at tables. It’s a sad state of affairs that children can’t leave their possessions in such desks these days.
Sometimes I know I am old!
I don’t know if you can make out the little tables and chairs in this cabinet. It melted my heart and here’s why.
My grandparents lived in the town of Alcester barely nine miles from Evesham and where Dad grew up. When my parents moved to Yorkshire my grandparents followed, as it was in Pickering that Granny grew up. At some point in the short ten years I knew her Granny gifted me an identical set. When Pickering opened it’s own museum Dad persuaded me to loan the museum the set. Now I have never seen a set like them anywhere else. and I do visit a lot of museums. Could by chance the set in Evesham and “my” set have come from the same shop or market? It seems likely to me!
I mentioned that two parts of the old Abbey remained.
The old gatehouse. If this is the gatehouse just imagine how splendid the rest of the Abbey must have been.
We only had 45 minutes here. I shall have to go back. I have done some digging through Dad’s account of his working life and I now know where both he and Mum worked. Dad records that they rented a furnished house in town, but I was certain Mum had called it a flat. I’d love to know the exact address, but shall have to do some more research. Possibly there is a local library.
This week whilst not gardening I realised that knitting was becoming a bit stale on me, so I fished out two not yet started projects. The first I acquired sometime in 2017or 2018 from a wool event in York. Needlefelting fairies.
Everything was included in the kits but I found there really was insufficient pink wool to follow the instructions, the dress fell short so I added some white and made her a sash. I had the most fun styling her hair. In the instructions it was loose, so I just let my needlefelting needle go.. I think she looks like Cinderella’s fairy godmother myself.
The second one was easier but I found it hard to make the wool stretch enough without gaps round her body.
This one had wings too, and again I styled the hair myself. into plaits.
No idea what to do with them, but they were fun!
Second NYS off the blocks was a project that came in my Autumn needlecraft box from Corinne Lapierre.
It was actually quite hard to stitch into a wooden box, but I got in a rhythm and apart from trying to thread the ends through the stitching at the back found it ok to do and I enjoyed doing something different.
So now I have a useful box to put scissors and needles in when doing the rest of the Autumn box.
A have a few quiet days at the begining of next week which I’ll spend in the garden , then life gets busy again.
Hope you have good weather and lovely projects to work on. Love to hear about them.
I’ve had computer issues since Saturday. I think they have been cured, but with changes for how I have to do things now. Why is life so complicated these days? Thank goodness for knitting! And a bit of nonsense. The Snail of Happiness owns a shop in Wales- she sells surplus craft materials, ends of rolls of fabric , dicontinued yarn etc. She yarn bombs the bollards outside her premises. This Summer she has been planning an ocean scene for her shop window. She has run groups who have made coral reefs. I volunteered to make a
Fish. This little bit of fun has brightened my week. Here she is front view on
Please give me an aagh! Soon as I finish writing here, I shall pack her up and sending her swimming off to her coral reef.
Meantime I have been reading
Another book mentioned by Richard E Grant in his TV programme about books set in Italy. This one has an Italian author whom I had never heard of. It’s about a life long friendship of two girls, set in Italy. I am finding it to be a perfect bedtime book. What more can I ask? After I post the fish I shall be trundling down to the library, they have a Ghost story book waiting for me next. Whoopee! This one is by Susan Hill. I wondered if anyone had a ghost story/book/author they love?
Happy Easter Monday and 1st day of April. Just read three books last month. Time ran away with me!
Margaret Atwood- Surfacing- The Little Room of Rachel, said her notes on this book made her want to push two characters in the Lake. Frankly I’d have pushed three of them. A Young woman takes two friends and her boyfriend into Northern Quebec to the remote island of her childhood to look for her father who is missing according to his friends. Gradually she looses touch with reality and submerges into the past and the countryside trying to find her childhood. I enjoyed it till nearly the end when her friends behaved in an appalling fashion and she went a bit weird.
Agatha Christie- The Murder of Roger Ackroyd- a re-read for me of what I believe is her best Poirot novel. Once read though you don’t forget the plot. I was intrigued to see the skill of her narrative and one of the characters- The doctor’s sister is very much a prototype for the lovely Miss Marple, observant, bit of village gossip and she knits. Thoroughly enjoyed it again, but I shall pass on my copy.
Patricia Highsmith-The Talented Mr Ripley – Tom Ripley travels to Italy to convince an acquaintance to return to the USA and take up a position in his father’s business. He fails, but meantime is seduced by the glamorous lifestyle in the 1950’s. Initially all is well and he and his acquaintance have a wonderful time. But the friendship falters and sours so Tom takes an unthinkable path to live a life of leisurely travel. Parts of this felt familiar so I think I have read it before. An enjoyable read.
Hope you are having a great Easter. Mine is lovely, but..always a but. My email address is being a pain in the you know where.. currently receiving but not sending emails. I have an awful feeling I shall have to set up a new email address and it’s going to be, well a bit of a hassle!
Love to know which if any is your favourite Agatha Christie novel. My favourite Miss Marple is Sleeping Murder.
Happily finished the blanket in time for my Big Knit group.
Thrilled that it was chosen to go onto the groups Facebook page.
I’m a bit tired of crochet blankets so I am now knitting a men’s hat ready for next Winter for the project. Not got far with it yet.
I’ve got two inches of ribbing to do before getting to the main body of the hat.
Reading wise, well Shirley by Charlotte Bronte is a bit of a struggle if I’m honest. Four chapters in and we’re still with curates, vicars and mill owners and the destruction of weaving looms.
So.. there’s a new to me TV series on at the moment with Richard E Grant called Write around the world, in which he visits different countries and talks about book set in the location he visits. I resisted the temptation to try to read all the books he featured, but this was one set in Italy, and looked the perfect foil to Shirley.
Bits of it strike me as rather familiar so I think I must have read it before but a long time ago before I started to record everything I read. Never the less I am enjoying it. It is a library book and I have ordered another two he mentions..but then my year long subscription for requests runs out next month and it will be back to reading books from my own shelves. The plot briefly- set in Italy in the 1950’s a young man Tom Ripley wants the good life, money, clothes, art, travel without having to have that boring thing called a job, and he doesn’t have any qualms about how he achieves his aims.
The TV series is currently broadcast on BBC4 and is also available on IPlayer.
I’ll be back on Friday with my photo challenge for this month- Fence and Post box.
The days are warmer, longer , lighter and brighter, presenting the opportunity to go outside, and start on the garden again. The area I want for the wildflowers is prepped. I have sewn seeds this morning for my herb garden and a few flowers. Outside will soon be producing lovely things for me and the birds and bees.
Most importantly for me I have finally finally got on with the garage sort out. This afternoon I have an appointment at the recycling centre for all manner of tat. I have booked a collection for the chest freezer which has lingered in the garage ever since our move here in May 2020. A broken dehumidifier and an old sewing machine of my daughter in law’s will also go..I thought I could use it for machine embroidery but its unlike anything I ever encountered. Then one more skip should finally clear the rest of the stuff. My efforts are now yielding results. I feel quite proud. I may even be able to put the car in there next Winter. Wouldn’t that be a thing!
At the weekend I donated some ornaments and four of my own books to a charity shop. I am in the mood now for letting go of things..it’s taken me a long time but it feels Good.
I have been for two walks this month, one with my sister in law in Falmouth, and one with my son and Little Miss P. I’ll be back on Friday to share my photos from my challenge to take a picture of a Fence and a Postbox. Do join me then if you have been participating.
I thought April was going to be a less busy month. Looking at my diary I see I am wrong. However, I will find time to Yield , whether it’s producing something myself or giving away things.
Hurrah! We are now into Spring proper, the days are noticeably longer and warmer. It’s finally stopped raining. I have spent time in the garden. I have cut the grass for the first time this year and spotted the odd bee.
Grape Hyacynths- the slugs and snails don’t seem to like them
nor the wall flowers. But the bees love them.
Primula-not quite sure how these haven’t been molested- oh no I spy a dandelion.
And the first tulip has appeared, with much evidence of it being something’s dinner!
I have mentioned the poetry appreciation group I go to. Next weeks’ theme is Renewal. I have chosen a poem by Wendell Berry from his Sabbath poems collection. I was wondering if anyone knew what the flower he refers to called Twinleaf is please? Here’s the poem.
Lift up the dead leaves
and see, waiting
in the dark, in cold March,
the purplish stems, leaves,
and buds of twinleaf,
infinitely tender, infinitely
expectant. They straighten
slowly into the light after
the nights of frost. At last
the venture is made: the brief
blossoms open, the petals fall,
the hinged capsules of seed
grow big. The possibility
of this return returns
again to the seed, the dark,
the long wait, and the light again.
I like it because it really encaptures the joy of seeing the flowers emerge after Winter.
I wondered if anyone has a favourite poem about thr renewal of the seasons?
Another lovely busy week for me. My son and his family have successfully moved house.. the usual hiccoughs as they get things like the internet sorted, but they are very happy with their new home. It’s galvanised me into a bit of action on the garage tidying front etc. It’s just such a filthy and unrewarding task trying to understand what all the wires and gadgets that were essential to Mr E and mean nothing to me,are and deciding whether I can safely part with them. Anyway I have assembled a pretty random set of objects to take to the recycling centre next week!
Meantime my daughter -in-law Mrs T and I went to a floral garland workshop.
Binding the wires and the flowers. Yes that is a wine glass you see- we were given a glass of fizz.
OK two glasses, but one was non- alcoholic.
We are supposed to wear them! But I turned mine into
A table decoration. I salvaged the unused flowers for my vases. A fun afternoon.
Meantime I plod on with the crochet blanket. I am now adding a bit of a border.
I’ll stop when I have run out of the yarn.. hopefully all done by Saturday and the knitting group.
Reading wise I have just begun a book that has been on my shelf for quite some time.
My choosing this pretty much at random coincides with a Radio 4 programme about the Luddite movement of mill workers who set about destroying the new equipment brought in by mill owners which would deskill their jobs. Interestingly Charlotte Bronte has started with the mill owners perspective, which thanks to Napolean, and European trade wars with America had made for very difficult circumstances for the wool industry in England.
On a differnt tack completely to all those who have been beguiled by old English Manor Houses such as Avebury and Kelmscott. The BBC is currently repeating the the series To the Manor Reborn which details how the house was brought back to life by the BBC, the National Trust and an army of volunteers and students.You can find it on the IPlayer or BBC2. I watched the first episode yesterday and it was wonderful to see the before shots to how it is now.
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