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.

Green Shoots.

There was a discussion this morning on the radio about 'the green shoots of recovery' , all about the supposed economic recovery which we ought to be celebrating, according to some politicians. I'm not going into a political rant, don't worry, although I would say that there are very many UK families who are a long way off feeling the fiscal benefits of the period of austerity we have been experiencing.

No the green shoots I am pondering on are the literal and the symbolic in my own life.

Our garden is bustling with green shoots at the moment, the grape hyacinths, crocus, and chives are well on their way. Much as I am thrilled to see them, I worry that we will be getting some hard frosts and possibly snow and ice which will at best, stunt the growth of this brave young greenery.

CHIVES

GRAPE HYACINTH

CROCUS

DAFFODILS!

More symbolic green shoots are the direction my stitching is taking me. The last six months of 2013 saw me abandoning fabric for wool and wool felt in the sewing room, and moving away from quilts towards smaller items such as the pin cushions and bangles. I am having so much fun making these items, and they seem to be finding favour with quite a few people.

Staying with the wool, I'm working on this throw which may end up having some kind of quilting stitchery on it, but it isn't really a quilt, and won't have wadding ....probably.

Another new direction is Open Studios which I am dipping a tentative toe into with Yvonne when she opens her home in May when Open Studios begins. I've no idea how successful  will be..it all depends who walks through the door, doesn't it? But I know it will be enjoyable and I'm thrilled to bits to have the opportunity to join in . Big thanks, Yvonne!

Musical green shoots is the development of the Red Cat Sessions, the traditional music session which began round my kitchen table last year and has now moved to our local pub. It is a very tender young shoot at the moment, we have a small number of us, and if two or three folks don't turn up we feel the loss quite acutely, but we make a decent noise and the paying punters seems to enjoy our being there. We are learning new tunes each time, sharing our own favourites and discovering new ones. I hope we encourage other players to come and that we grow and evolve over time.

Sometimes green shoots develop at the expense of other things dying off. Sadly, for a multitude of reasons, I have resigned from Ouse Washes Molly Dancers; I shall no longer be playing fiddle for them. I will of course be following their progress through the year, but won't be there with them. It's been a lovely two years and last year in particular was filled with fun and festivals and I will miss all that. Happily, my lovely fellow Mollies have said that I must never say never, and consider it as having a sabbatical, which other people have done on occasion.

So there we have it, are there green shoots appearing on your own horizon?