I know it's late .......

I know! I've done it again.... so sorry, 'stuff' just gets in the way, and believe me, you non-bloggers, once you get out of the daily habit of checking out the blogs and thinking about your own, the days pass amazingly quickly with nothing written, no photos taken, and people saying 'where is your latest blog post??' Which is very nice in one respect, but then it's a mad dash to put something together if you haven't got something planned. Which I do, sometimes, honest!

So......   right, here are some tiny blooms in the pot next to the back door; and here are some larger ones neath the beech tree .....

NOT my favourite flowers AT ALL, those awful massive great leaves floppin' about all over the place, but Jim likes them so, hey, he does the gardening.

And on the subject of flowers, here are the lovely daffs - I don't know why but I want to call them Jonquils - but then I know nothing about flowers really. They just look beautiful in my Siennese jug, and they come as usual, from Victoria: many thanks Victoria.

Not a great day to be taking photographs but the splash of colour is welcome, isn't it? (Oooops, have just noticed the bedraggled basil plant dying gracefully on the right there .... sorry about that!)

What else have I been doing? Quite a bit of music playing as it happens. I am in a frenzy of learning a new and somewhat difficult tune, so lots of teeth gritting and a few mild expletives when it doesn't sound right, also getting some tunes together to send to Stephen who organises the Burwell Bash each year . HURRAH!!! Have just booked my place and this year I will be in the new MELODEON class so it is bye-bye to the fiddle group and 'HELLO ANDY CUTTING!' Yessssss! There is a smidgeon of mild hysteria going about at the moment on that score but I'm sure we will all settle down soon and start behaving like adults. We need some tunes which melodeon players like to play, so the fiddles and guitars will be ok with them, the flutes and whistles might find some of them a bit awkward. But it is give and take - a lot of whistle tunes will be impossible for the DG melodeons, wrong key.But this is just in the evening sessions, and they are always a bit of a free-for-all. So I am having a bit of a re-cap on tunes I should really already know, but have slipped off the playing agenda of late.

I have been kept up to the mark in the stitching department, as I need to have more completed items for May's Open Studios and time passes quickly. Here is what I've been working on the last couple of weeks.

The wool throw is becoming more appliqué- filled, though it has a long way to go yet.

And this cushion cover is nearly there .....

Apart from pincushions and bangles, I don't enjoy making more than one or two of anything, but this cushion "One Bird Upon a Hill Beneath a Star" is quite popular, I have sold three, and funnily enough I do love stitching it. I make tiny changes each time I make it so actually they are not identical.

I promise to have a one or maybe two posts at the end of the weekend, very textile related, so I hope to get back in your good books!

And speaking of books, how are you getting on with your A Year in Books book? I have read two and need another to get me to the end of the month when I can begin March's book. I must say, it is never a hardship finding time to read. I hope the week is going right for you all and the weather is as kind as we can expect it to be in Winter.

Post-Christmas Post

Here we are, in that strange no-man's-land between Christmas Day and New Years Day. A time of clearing away, finishing off, sales fever, and reflection. I'm sure there will be many blog posts about New Year Resolutions, and reviews of Old Year, and I may or may not go down that route later on, but for now I'll just keep it low-key and local.

Above is a post-Christmas view of our little tree, sans the splendour of all the presents round the base. We don't do 'large and natural' these days, this pretty good artificial has done us proud for a good few years now, and the size s just right.

Christmas cards are, apart from the tree, the sum total of our decorations. Oh, and a wreath on the door.

Oooops! Did you spot the reel of elastic nestling between the cards here? Luckily it is not the knicker variety, I don't know how it found its way here!

The sunny view out of my sewing room window this morning, across the nursery field to where the cattle are chomping at hay bales. It is gorgeous here in West Norfolk, but very cold outside!

The garden in the sunshine looks a bit thread-bare this time of year. Jim spent yesterday afternoon hoovering up the fallen leaves. Well, most of them!

I've done a fair bit of embroidery on the quilt - sometimes in my sewing room listening to audio-books, sometimes in front of the television while we watched a bit of Miss Marple, or a video. Can't say the Christmas tv has been all that spectacular.

Finished the applique on this, ready for stitching  into a cushion cover. Need to find a cushion form!

And here is my ready-to-go box for bangle-making; it's handy to just grab the box and bring it into the living room in the evening.

So, are you tuckered out with turkey and trifle, or have you got rid of all the left overs? Planning your New Year Resolutions, or firmly forsaking the very idea? Back at work, or at least back in the old routine, or still enjoying a little peace and quiet before reality kicks back in? I'm pleased I've got back into the swing of blogging, and I shall now go and catch up with what you've been writing on yours. If I don't manage another post before next Thursday, Happy New Year to you all!

A Loom with a View

I know, I know, I'm a sucker for an awful pun. And no, I haven't taken up a new instrument, but Nick my melodeon tutor has - he has become a Weaver! Already an accomplished spinner and knitter, Nick learned to weave, and is currently giving demonstrations on a reconditioned 19th Century loom at the Bridewell Museum in Norwich. I was fascinated to hear about the history of the Flemish weavers in the city, he does a good talk as well! This loom is now ensconced in their tiny terraced house in Norwich- he has VERY understanding house-mates! I think there is another demo this month, if you are in the area, check out the dates on-line. And for those more recent blog-followers, you can hear Nick and his band Triette playing fantastic music on their website. I don't know where he gets his energy from. OK, yes, being young helps, but even so. 

By contrast I have had quite a quiet few days - apart from zipping back and forth to Norwich. I'll tell you what else exhausts me, and that's the speed at which some of you bloggers are getting your posts out! I can only manage one every three days or so - and sometimes I hardly have time to read and comment and you've posted another one - enough, already!! Anyway, I have been mainly doing :

A bit of stitching ....

Applique nearly finished, lettering to complete and cushion make-up.

A bit of painting:

Viewed from Jim's chair, the re-vamped cheap magazine rack. I used the same paint I did the dining room chair with, but wanted it more green so I  ..er...squeezed some acrylic emerald children's paint into the tin of vinyl matt .....yes, I know. You shouldn't do things like that, but I got away with it.(I had visions of the whole tin ending up like cake mix which has separated) (phew).So the other chairs will be slightly greener than the first one. No I am not going to repaint the darned thing. Yes, I know you would, and I should, but again, this is too much like unpicking stitches: don't go there.

I did a little flower picking:

Sweet, huh?

A spot of straining and bottling:

Yes, it was time to bottle my Wild Garlic Oil, after 18 days of macerating in a dark cupboard. I have to say it is milder than I expected, just quite a gentle flavour, more chivey than garlicky I'd say. I'm quite chuffed. I couldn't bear to waste the squeezed leaved, so chopped them into the mashed potato which covered the fish pie we had for supper yesterday, and I think I will just freeze the rest and bung it into a risotto or something. I have been amazed at the number of references to Wild Garlic I have come across recently - in magazines, novels, newspapers, on the television .... perhaps it's time for the next Big Thing!

Oh and I did a little bit of preparation for an upcoming workshop which has been long in the pipeline for various reasons - New Zealand being one of them, and the shop needing the space for an unexpected property exchange requiring storage space. We will get there, honest! Anyway this is what I shall be teaching :

 Just a little stitched and appliqued sampler I did last year; several people including the owner of the shop have asked that I teach it as a workshop so that's what'll be happening.

And that's what I've been  up to; Bank Holiday is going to be very relaxed, and I'm hoping for more sunshine - we had a few rain showers today, what's that all about, hey?? Hope you have a good weekend.