Triette and a Book Cull

A real boost to my spirits after all the glumness of the preceding weeks, was a small gig in Norwich with Triette, my melodeon tutor Nick's band comprising himself on melodeon, Nic Zuppardi on mandolin and tenor guitar, and Ida (pronounced Eeda) who flew over from her home in Sweden especially, who plays fiddle and Hardanger fiddle. Those of you who've been reading my blog for some time will be familiar with them, and you can google them and listen to some tracks on their cd "Triette".

After a first half of stupendous music we pushed the chairs to one side and there was dancing! French or rather Breton dancing. Wonderful fun. There were some folks from the Norwich-based Pied à Terre dance society and also quite a few members of the Kickwitches molly dancers who know about Breton dancing, so there were plenty of dancers.

Jim, unfortunately, does not dance. You could not pay him enough money to get him onto the dance floor. I, on the other hand, love to dance, but don't know french dances. This lovely lady, called Pasquale, saw that I was desperate to dance and came and pulled me onto the floor and taught me some basic steps. Here she is with her regular partner.

She then handed me over to him and off we went, Schottisching away. Three to the right, three to the left, four slower steps round and round. With the occasional variation if you are up to it. Here you can just see me in my black leggings and green tunic. Pasquale grinning at Jim as he tries to get a good shot.

It was SUCH FUN!! Gosh I did enjoy myself. We even managed a variation! I wanted to dance all night. Sadly, I am not up to the polskas and mazurkas yet - maybe one day!

Pasquale did say I should join Pied à Terre but I think that is something I will leave for summer months maybe. I'm aware that it looks a bit empty - there were many more people at the gig and about a dozen or so couples dancing, but we seem to have caught a beer break!

We drove home later and I was still buzzing with the excitement of the dance, and the great music. Even Jim, who is a blues, not folk, music fan, really appreciated and enjoyed Triette's playing. Do check them out you will be amazed how good they are.

So I feel I have turned the corner and am feeling much happier; and despite the news from the hospital telling me my appointment will take about TEN WEEKS to arrive, I had a great evening playing music with Soiree friends Marj and Rob which really bucked me up no end. Thank you all of you who sent such lovely messages after my last post, it was quite heart-warming to read them.

Over the weekend, Jim and I culled some more books. You may remember a post from last year when I had a good old clear out, but look how many we sent to the recycling centre!

FIVE crates! And believe me, some of them were very difficult to get rid of. Even now I wonder why I sent the Reginald Hill books away - Dalziel and Pasco police TV series, excellently well written books, MUCH better than the Morse books, which  I think are not particularly well written though the TV series is excellent. And all those old Patricia Wentworth "Miss Silver" books - and many others I wasn't QUITE ready to let go - but they are taking up so much space, and to be honest I have read every single one of them over and over. They will all go to good new homes. Once upon a time you could sell them to the second hand book shop owners but these days there are so many books sloshing about they won't take them. Anyway, there is less clutter - and more room ......for more books I guess!

Do you find it difficult to get rid of books? Do you keep them and re-read them? Happy book-worming these chilly evenings, until next time.

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.

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!!

Darning, cooking and reading

My favourite cardigan, hand knitted using hand-dyed yarns by a Newcastle lass called Lorrie Marshall. I have three of her pieces and wish I had a dozen more; when I can afford them I buy them at the Knitting and Stitching Show. This one has been worn and worn and worn, and, indeed, has become very worn - into holes. You can't tell in the photographs but the yarn is very fine.

Ooooh, not a good thing to happen at all. Funnily enough when I discovered these holes I happened to read a blog-post about darning, I THINK written by Sue at The Quince Tree. It spurred me into action.
So I thought I'd do a spot of darning, using some hand-dyed (not by me!) yarns,and I think it worked quite well.

And I did one hole and was quite pleased with it, when I spotted some pieces of silk velvet knocking about the sewing room. Aha! Thought I, I'll PATCH the other holes. So I did, and I love the look. In fact, I'm not going to worry if any more holes appear, I shall continue to patch this garment until it is more velvet than yarn. How lovely will that be?

On the cooking front it has been soup.....roasted buttenut squash, mmmm.

I'd like to say I wiped the edges of the jug before taking the photo but have deleted the wrong one! Hah!

And this  someowhat brown, worthy looking sloppy mess on the Rayburn is actually a mixed grain risotto, to which I added some seafood , along with the leeks, garlic, mushrooms and spinach. That was GORGEOUS! The change in the seasonal weather has made us long for rib-stickers and warmth!

On the book front, I have been in a bit of a dry sterile kinda place, and unusually for me, unable to settle to read much. So I was putting some things away upstairs in the spare bedroom when I paused by the book shelf and picked up an Iris Murdoch; I suppose I've got about eight of hers. Anyway I started The Bell and really enjoyed it all over again - must be about twenty years since I first read it! Now I'm half-way through The Unicorn. Murdoch's books, to me, seem quite formulaic, in a very Intellectual Manner. For instance, she sets them always in a very rarified environment, with an isolated group of characters who don't seem to have any existence away from the plot. There is always an air of menace and sexual repression, and High Anglicanism or Roman Catholicism play a large part. Lofty academics are in abundance, and there is usually a stray homosexual with self-doubts to add to the boiling pot. They are books of their time, and would not and could not work today; attitudes have changed so much.(Fortunately, in the main!) I am enjoying the writing, though. I remember buying the first one, An Accidental Man, from a book club when we were first married and penniless. I had never heard of Iris Murdoch, and it was like a door opening for me into the literary world, though I had always been a reader.

Since starting to re-read these, I have been introduced to two new (to me) authors, from Blogland: first The Cornish House by Lisa Fenwick...thanks to Maggie at The Reading Corner,(bookloversplace.blogspot.co.uk) and also Red Bones, by Anne Cleeves which is from her Shetland Trilogy. (Actually I have read the first one, Raven Black, I remember now.) I found this reference on someone elses blog but I'm afraid I've forgotten whose.....leave me a comment if it was you, it was definitely one of my regular favourites!

Oh, and on the Listening front, I have mostly been head in the clouds listening to the new cd by Triette, my melodeon tutor's band which is absolutely wonderful. I now want to learn ALL the tracks on it!  wish there was some way I could enable you to listen on my blog, but you can hear three tracks if you go to www.triette.com and have a listen. I am struggling to learn the last track, Special Reserve, it is so lovely! Have a listen, they are superb!

Well, that's your lot this time, you'll note it was going to be a short post.....(sigh) oh well, I hope you enjoyed it! Catch up again soon..........