Currant crazy

Look Kelly P, it's a whole year since you were here doing this in Harriet's garden. There weren't any red currants this year only black. Now I've been franticly googling for recipes to use them all up. We still have a few jars of jelly left over from last year..thus the jar sitting on my thigh of "one I prepared earlier"...




The only time we had to pick was really early this morning so we had to tiptoe into the garden so as not to wake Harriet.

Smaller than usual cushion

I got inspired and made a pin cushion what do you think?
No pins in it yet as I want to go and get some special pearly ones. All mine here in the workroom are melted from the iron or bent like crazy.
Cute little bottom huh?

I have been working on a major project and have been taking photos all the way but I don't want to post until it's all done.....I'll keep you in suspense 'til then.

xxx

Green vestments

Yesterday evening we went to a tiny nearby village Church in a place called Little Ellingham. Where the set of green vestments that I've recently finished were blessed. How many people are lucky enough to have their handiwork blessed?

Weddings galore

Ages ago Ricardo the Magnificent accepted a gig with our friend Paul to sing at a wedding. He was thrilled as Paul is a great musician and loves the same kind of Swing/country music that Richard does.
However a few weeks ago we realised that it was actually on our wedding anniversary.... I brought out the stiff upper lip and said it was fine, we'd celebrate it in a couple of weeks time when we had some more time & money, after all we've been married for 5 years now.

As the day got closer though I'm afraid I suffered the girly kind of wishing and hoping that I usually hate in girls. It looked like there wouldn't be any kind of weddingy stuff happening on the day. I went to Norwich yesterday and bought a wee pressie and a card & strengthened my resolve.
Knowing Richard as I do, I should have known all bases would be covered....I came downstairs this morning and discovered somehow he'd hidden a dozen of these in the garage.
And had somehow found the time to make this card out of a piece of veneer he had.... (five years is wood)


Then we didn't do ANY work on the boat and went out to Wyken vineyard for breakfast. Here's a really bad photo of me looking relieved. (Did I really bag this guy after waiting 43 years? How can he stand someone who wears so much concealer?)
After that we went to Ring bells for not one but two weddings. By the end of it all we were feeling suitably romantic. So here without further ado I bring you some photos of our BIG day 5 yes five years ago...







And a poem by e.e.cummings from a beautiful book that the indomitably romantic beau bought at Wyken...

'I carry your heart with me'

I carry your heart with me (I carry it in
my heart) i am never without it (anywhere
i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing, my darling)

i fear
no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) i want
no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)

e.e. cummings (1894 - 1962)

I hope this leaves you all feeling suitably romantic...

Morning bike ride

For a few months now the 'Buns-of-steel' or B.O.S. programme has been a morning bike ride with my buddy Caryll. We usually huff along the back roads near our village avoiding the hills as much as possible. We are gradually getting fitter though (well I think Caryll's getting fitter, I'm finding it harder to keep up with her). First we go through the forest and the green is amazing with bracken, oak and beech trees, sometimes we see deer, it always smells fresh & clean. Then we ride on past the pigs which smell bloody awful but always make me laugh. They probably think we're pretty funny in our cycling getup. Most days they run as fast as they can to get away from us but this morning they didn't seem to care.
There are a few typically Norfolkian Flint houses along the way with wonderfully neat vegie gardens that always make me wish I had the time & space to cdreate one of my own.
Then the landscape opens out into classic Breckland with Scots pine & fields of gold. There are poppies galore at the moment and the wind in the wheat always takes my breath away with a kind of sob. Can you hear it?
There are beautiful wild flowers on the edges of the fields, Caryll says the purpley blue one is a kind of cornflower....of course it would be. Just a few more shots of the poppies. They made a red carpet as far as you could see.
We really have the most beautiful countryside to ride through.
When photographing stuff I always think there's a bit of Divine intervention...sometimes the sun comes out at the perfect time & you just get the right shot. I think this shot was the definitive one.

Kimono arrival

Just as I finished writing the last post there was a knock on the door. It was a parcel I thought would come in maybe a fortnights time. The most beautiful Uchicake or wedding Kimono that I bought in a rash moment on ebay (are there any other moments on ebay?). It far exceeded my expectations. The only problem is that I thought I would cut it up for cushions...how on earth am I going to put the scissors to this beauty?

New cushion

I just finished this and thought you might like to see it..


It's a marvelous tapestry that a friend of a friend gave me ages ago to make into a cushion. It's taken me ages to find the right colour combination to put together. It's an unusual mix of orange yellow and blue. Aren't the owls amazing. She did the design herself, none of this buy it off the shelf business.

More frocks

You asked for it Kelly. Here is the whole catalogue of dresses from beetle wings to Beatlemania. xx
Here is the oldest one complete with it's beetle wings.

I presumed everyone here in Harling would know what these beetles looked like but they don't have Christmas beetles here, so it was all the more exotic. Do they have these kinds of beetles in the States?

This lovely Kate Greenaway inspired dress in a transparent muslin from the 20's.
Val Dangerfields Mum's dress from the 40's. (The one I really wanted to try on)...
The wartime bride with sailor groom....
This beautiful wild flower garden behind them...
A sensational one from the 50's supposedly but it looked older to me...
Incredible bead work on this one.. here's a closer look.
This was the dress worn by our good friend Betty Wood in 1958, we put Richard's blue suede shoes next to it to evoke that rock & roll era...
My dubious bouquet next to it...don't tell anyone I've never done this kind of thing before...
One of the most recent dresses with a huge red velvet train. Hmmmm maybe we should consider renewing our vows and I could borrow this.
These are the mediaeval figures that I painted for the beginning of the display outside in the porch....Anne of Harling and her first husband welcome you into the Church. Don't look too closely.

In my next incarnation after this weekend ....
Making a 1950's floral number with absolutely no idea of what I was doing.
Cutting & pasting a lot of tiny pieces of fabric onto my mediaeval figures.
Making two batches of Lamingtons for the refreshment tent.
Stewarding for 2 hours on Saturday.
Ringing the bells for 4 services.
Attending & singing for two services on Saturday
Attending & singing for two services on Sunday (one evensong almost all in Latin).
Helping serve refreshments for 2 hours on Sunday.
Packing up the bouncy castle on Sunday after evensong.

I intend to come back as an Atheist.