Gigs and stitches.

The last ten days or so have been fairly action packed one way or another. First up I promised some photos of Ouse Washes Molly side at Gressenhall for Apple Day. You can just make out Nicky in her red dress, and melodeon, and me next to her looking very black with my fiddle! My dress does have lots of red satin (tasteful!) but it doesn't show. This obviously is a dancing action shot.

This is at the end of the day, following the Wassailing to the apple trees. Colin, Nicky and I then led the crowd  (many more than you can see here) in a Circassian Circle dance. Despite the cold it was a very successful day, and the organisers were profuse in their appreciation for the contribution Ouse Washes had made to the overall entertainment.

Then my trip to Bungay to watch Triette supporting The Old Dance School at Fisher Theatre. I had a brilliant time. Here you can see Nic Zuppardi and Nick Wiseman-Ellis, who were superb.

And here is a not very clear photo, sorry, of The Old Dance School, who played some really fine music, I had to treat myself to one of their cds!

I pop a quick one of me here, to show you the new hair colour....or rather the old hair colour! There are so few photos of me as I'm not keen on seeing myself (unless heavily disguised in Mollie-garb). And I notice two things - one I have no make-up on and this is not a great look! And two, I am wearing the same top I was wearing in my profile photo, taken two years ago! (The top-hat is new........)

Ok, a spot of slap...perhaps overdid the eye-treatment, never mind.This will possibly be the last photos of me to go on this blog! (Massive sighs of relief shake the Blogosphere!) I have to say, Jim really likes my hair in its natural state. Men eh?

Here is a strange little tableau, my original kitchen knife set, bought in a hardware shop in Gosport when I was in the QARNNS and about to be married. Yes, this hardworking set is 42 years old! We celebrated our anniversary last week by me being in Norfolk and Jim being in Wales doing something official with a crowd of other flyfishing chaps! Never mind, we had a romantic phone call...I expect I'll get taken out for a nice meal eventually!

A quick catch-up on the wool cushion progress - the embroidery is finished, just have to make up the cushion cover. Oh, and I found an old piece today which I'd been searching for - Jim had unearthed it and put it on display on the cushions in the porch! Without telling me and I hadn't noticed. I wanted to show you because we were talking about getting obsessed with one stitch when I did Teena's workshop at Dragon Hall the other week. Her obsession was French Knots, mine was feather stitch.

Sorry the light is horrendous. I used all my own hand-dyed fabrcis and created a design which I won't show in full as I no longer like the overall design. But I still LOVE the colours and the stitching! I hand- appliqued the shapes and heavily embroidered with seeding and feather stitch and beads and shisha mirrors.

I used various weights of thread and loved working with the variegated colours. The stitching became hypnotic, almost meditative, and although it was completed about 10 years ago I can still remember the pleasure it gave me to be working on it.

And then there's been music. Music music music. I find I'm having to drag myself away from it in order to do some stitiching. However, I'll say more about that next time. I'll leave you with the thought that although we here in the UK complain long and hard about our weather - it is a National Pastime, after all - we have not been suffering the extremes our friends and relations in the States have been experiencing. I hope if you've been directly affected that you are safe and unhurt, and that the chaos will soon subside and your lives return to some kind of normality. Til next time.

Autumn Interlude

A bunch of photos, in the main this time round, as I'm waiting for some photos from the Apple Day dance out by the Ouse Washes Mollie Dancers yesterday,  at Gressenhall; I'll blog more next time.

The garden is looking pretty ropey at the moment - Jim has been round doing the autumn prune and tidy but what with the dratted leaves and the general bedraggledness of everything, it is not the prettiest of sights. However, on my way to the compost heap the other day I did notice there are a few blooms hanging on here and there.

And in the greenhouse, a profusion of green tomatoes and a few little brave red ones. Terrible summer has done for them, unfortunately. Green tomato chutney, anyone?

Such a shame. I'll try and encourage them with an apple or two, see if we can coax a little blush out of them.

On a different tack, I found myself shelling out £12 YIKES!!! for this chunky publication:

Now I'm not really into the vintage vibe too much, and have resisted the other new vintage-type mags. This one caught my eye though and there is quite a bit of interesting stuff in it; if you collect ephemera for collage and journalling as I do there is a fair amount here, and some interesting articles and photographs. It will certainly be a one-off for me. I did my usual sniffing and tutting in Smiths this morning having a quick flick through the outrageously priced Selvedge - I know it is rated by the textile cognoscenti but frankly it is really just an upmarket Mollie Makes at twice the price. There are a couple of good articles now and then, but I seldom find more than one item of interest just a lot of nice pictures. I shall get a lot out of 'Pretty Nostalgic' and it will be canibalised quite thoroughly, I can tell you!

Right, time to put this 'to bed' as they say before the BT engineer arrives (and he's cutting it pretty fine) to install the new hub for Infinity. He's already 3 days late, and only coming today (We hope) because Jim complained long and loud after being let down with no apology on Friday. How to run a business, eh?

To end on a good note...I am going to Bungay (provided I can find my way in the dark!) tomorrow to the Fisher Theatre to watch TRIETTE! Yes, they are supporting the Old Dance School, a really great folk band. I'm staying the night with Mollie friend Elin who is roadie-ing for Nick! Should be a great night. But there are still tickets if you fancy coming with us!!