Long To Rain Over Us..........

                                                                       Very Wet Lovage

No, not a spelling mistake, just a comment on the state of play,weatherwise, for the past 15 or so hours, and no let-up in sight. Not wishing to labour the point.........

                                                "Raindrops on Roses....tra la la...."

                                          Ladies' Mantle sparkling away prettily

Ok enough with the rain. Here's what we cheered ourselves up with on the supper front last night.

                                                 Chinese Fish Broth with Noodles

No, bear with me, it was great. I sauteed off a very thinly sliced red onion, red pointy pepper, 3 cloves garlic and a few button mushrooms. Threw in a handful of cherry tomatoes. Added a couple of hefty shakes of Chinese 5-spice. Laid a freshly caught and cleaned rainbow trout on top and covered with fish stock.  I chopped and added the usual garden herbs - parsley and lovage I think. At the last minute I thought to add a couple of anchovies in oil. When it was bubbling I broke up a good handful of spaghetti and bunged that in, then tore up the remains of the spinach from the salad drawer, lid on, slow oven. When ready to eat, I removed the trout, deboned and chunked the flesh, and served. Bloomin' good it was too!

So while we're enjoying the colour, here's what I found between the living room and my sewing room, all old stuff but bright and.....er....beautiful? Well, I thought so at the time!

My Caravan Blanket. No, we don't have a caravan.

                                       My version of Lucy's Granny Stripe Blanket

                                                              My Lucy Bag

I did make leaves for the flowers on the original bag I made, but unfortunately I crocheted it in acrylic wool which s..t..r..e..t..c..h..e..d until it was HUGE enough to hold my entire wool stash; it is buried at the moment under quilts so fortunately I can't show it to you! Second time round I used cotton and it held its shape, but by the time I'd made the flowers I had had enough!

Here are some crazy patchwork bags I made back in the dark ages - I used to teach a workshop on making these - Exotic Embellishment - Not for Minimalists! was the title.

                        Notice the beads at the bottom - I called this Muggers Beware!

                                            Details from a couple of smaller bags

        I was really into making machine-wrapped cords, too. I made yards and yards of them!

 

It seems I was never off my machine in those days. Now I only use it to whizz up a few seams and binding. Oh, and a little free-machine writing and scribble embroidery. But that's only recently, and for the craft fair. Nowadays I am much more into Slow Cloth, having become entranced by the work and words of Jude Hill - check out her blog Spirit Cloth, especially her archive.

Well, folks, I really hope the colour has added a little cheer to your day, and most importantly, for those of you involved in any outdoorsy happenings for the Jubilee - I do hope this rain stops for you and you have a wonderful, DRY celebration!