Glad that I live am I

This, some of you may remember, is a little fabric book I made years ago, using my own hand-dyed fabrics, and ink-jet printing on fabric. It contains the words of a childhood hymn, written by Lizette W. Reese (1856 -1935) I always thought it came from St Francis of Assisi but that's not correct. The words of this hymn came spontaneously to mind the other morning, for no particular reason. It made me think of all the words we use for 'gladness' - gratitude, thankfulness, appreciation ....perhaps you can come up with some more. This led me on to think about other Bloggers who periodically include in their posts a short list of 'things to be grateful for'.  I think it's a salutary practise to acknowledge the things in life that we appreciate, on a regular basis. So that is what this post is about. Of course, the 'givens' are family and friends, reasonably good health and a comfortable standard of living, but other events and material things come along for which I may not regularly express my gratitude. So here goes.

First up is this lovely little collection:

Ceramic buttons! Made by clever Cathy Daniels at Potter Jotter blog. They arrived the day I got back from Burwell, and they are Sooooooo gorgeous. Look at the detail on the two below -

The foot, I think, was a little joke recalling the operation I had last year - Cathy you should have put a bandage on it! They are fab, and I am really grateful for them and for your kindness, Cathy!

Ooops, slightly out of order...but you know how it goes. Other things I am grateful for can be found in the garden .........

The hollyhocks are popping up all over the place, beautiful colours. And on the veggie side, though it has been  poorer than usual crop-wise, we have had some brilliant courgettes - and I know others have noticed the same in their gardens too. This is just one small patch, there are more in the greenhouse and more in the main veggie-patch.

And a major thing I am appreciating at the moment, is our new little caravan being at its new home in Wales. Look at the site, isn't it wonderful? Jim said the scenery is breathtaking.

            Here we are, at a temporary spot, we'll be moving to another plot in a week or two.

                                           Loving the greenery and the spaciousness of it all.

    And how's that for a view each morning? Whichever way you turn there are mountains and trees.

And this is the reception centre on the side of the farmhouse. I'm really looking forward to going across and spending a few days there. Who'd have thought - me in a caravan!

And I especially appreciate No. 1 Son, who towed the van most of the way to Wales and taught his dad how to do it safely. I know Jim was quite anxious about the thought of doing this on his own, but now he feels a lot more confident. Thanks Mike for taking the time to help the Old Man out and put your Ma's mind at rest!

So there you are. Perhaps I should add my thanks and gratitude to all my Burwell Bash friends who made the week so enjoyable. So many things to appreciate. And thank you for reading my blog!

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.