November ....


Wet, windy and dull this morning ......








but later sunny and dry enough to collect a few lovely leaves from the garden.

NO sun--no moon!
No morn--no noon!
No dawn--no dusk--no proper time of day--
No sky--no earthly view--
No distance looking blue--
No road--no street--no "t'other side this way"--
No end to any Row--
No indications where the Crescents go--
No top to any steeple--
No recognitions of familiar people--
No courtesies for showing 'em--
No knowing 'em!
No travelling at all--no locomotion--
No inkling of the way--no notion--
"No go" by land or ocean--
No mail--no post--
No news from any foreign coast--
No Park, no Ring, no afternoon gentility--
No company--no nobility--
No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,
No comfortable feel in any member--
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds--
November!

Thomas Hood 1789 - 1845

I don't think Thomas Hood got it entirely right - though we do have a postal strike just now!

.. more Autumn colours ..

I haven't been blogging often recently as I'm in an unsettled mood, not doing anything very interesting or original ...
I had a lovely collection of red fibres from Carolyn, love-stitching-red.blogspot.com recently though and really enjoyed sorting out a few bits and pieces to send to her.
Some of the fibres I found were lovely Autumn colours so I made yet another mosaic, adding a couple of pics of an Assisi piece I did some years ago - it's now in Priscilla's dining room in New Mexico, www.flickr.com/people/farmgirlinnewmex.
The red fibres are lovely for Christmas work - hopefully I'll get inspiration to use them soon.

Wessex Stitchery

Mini Sampler


Yesterday I completed this - only 6x9cm but it took several days,
stitching with Caron Wildflowers variegated thread.



The centre flowers are a design called Pembroke, in Gay Eaton's book, 'Wessex Stitchery'.
The outer patterns are my own, done randomly and copied at the opposite edge.
This technique is new to me.
The history of the stitching is interesting - the patterns are challenging - working on finer weave than usual I need a magnifier - I think I'll try another piece!

Autumn













Yesterday we went to the local common for a while before having a lovely lunch at a country pub.
It would have been nice to walk a little way - the sun was warm and lots of 'seniors'
were out taking in Autumn - but I enjoyed taking a few photos from the car park - nearly as good.
Many thanks to all my friends here and on Flickr for your recent good wishes - yes Carolyn, I do try to "enjoy the moment" every day - there's always something to perk me up!

Autumn

This month has come and nearly gone.....






I haven't done much crafting as it has been an unsettled time.
Several hospital visits, a short stay for Femoral Balloon Angioplasty, some days feeling sorry for myself, and still no improvement in mobility!
I'm hoping things will be better in October - next consultation soon - hopefully about having a back injection to improve things.
The Autumn mosaic is from a fabric postcard I made a year ago - I'll shake myself up soon, get positive, and stop moaning.
I have ideas but they don't seem to be coming together - and Christmas crafting is around the corner ......
Do something silly woman!

Belle Epoque










Today is our wedding anniversary - two years ago a friend gave us a rose bush for our Golden Wedding Anniversary.
It hasn't had many blooms so far but each one is gorgeous.
I need a few notecards so I'll make them from this photo.

Blackberries .....
About 50 years ago we bought a 'Himalayan Giant' blackberry plant and planted it 'out of the way' at the end of the garden.
What we didn't realise was that, OK, we have had lovely big blackberries for cooking each year - but - we have also had blackberry briars growing everywhere in the garden and they take a lot of digging out!
I guess most of our neighbours have plenty too!
Well we have enjoyed pie, crumble, bbs with custard, bbs with meringues, bbs with apples, bbs with pears, and bbs in the freezer for later, over & over & over.
50 years on and I've decided we deserve something more original. So I Googled and found new ideas .......several I'll try, though I'm not too sure about Blackberry & Apple Yorkshire Puddings!
There are lots - one link to 42 recipes is below - sorry I can never get a click link here, but copy and paste works if you are interested.
www.bbcgoodfood.com/search.do?keywords=Blackberry&searchType=recipes

Oh! I nearly forgot - mashed up, the berries make a lovely fabric and fibre dye!

"Fresh as a Daisy"

I have taken photos, drawn, and stitched daisies for years and have a daisy "gallery" of cards and pictures.


The fabric picture has old & new lace, (old from a charity shop table cloth in bad condition),
braid, beads, buttons, & stitching and it will be
framed for the "gallery".
It has been looking at me, just started, for about two weeks so I finished it today.





The small watercolour pencil pictures are old.

PC-"This & That"


Some years ago I started a "This & That" collection in a large plastic box.
Odds and ends, bits and pieces ..... this and that, have been added and it's now full.
I'm not sure whether it's a treasure chest or a box of rubbish!
I recently looked through and took out fabric and lace scraps, small cameo, friendly plastic motif, small drawing, buttons and fine ric-rac braid.
So, another fabric, or multi media postcard - still lots left in the box though!

Days have come and gone since I was last here .....
I have been very unsettled, waiting for results of an MRI scan and impatient to have some relief from back problems and hopefully being able to stand longer and walk more.
When I feel this way I can only stitch from patterns so I have been sitting for days doing small cross stitch and blackwork pieces.
The cross stitch flowers are stitched on Rustic Aida from a pattern in an old magazine,"Quick & Easy Stitch & Craft", for a birthday card.




The blue jugs are from an old magazine,
"New Stitches" - a set of ten.
The frames are from picnik, for display here.
I hope I'm not so bored that I do all ten - the stitching needs concentration and it relaxes me but what would I do with them? lol
I'll try to shake myself up next week and do something a bit more original.