Crafting Open Day

 I had noted that Brecknock Spinners, Weavers and Dyers were having an Open Day at Llangorse Community Centre today.  I debated whether to go, because of the price of fuel, but decided it was only held once a year, and I wanted to do a recce as I was thinking of joining them.

There was what looked like a hail storm by the Brecon Beacons.

I was glad I was not out walking the footpaths that way . . .

The group covers spinning, and weaving and dyeing, and knitting, crochet etc.  Quite a wide range of crafting interests.  I want to get back to spinning again but need someone to set my wheel up as it needs oiling and tensioning.  I also want to have lessons in drop spindle spinning as I have gotten cack-handed at that.  

This beautiful piece is all crochet, and was fabulous.  Apparently straightforward to work as well as just a couple of the basic stitches used.

Isn't this lovely?  It normally hangs in the church.

Apparently you don't need to rett the nettles to get the fibre from them - you can just dry the stems and the fine fibres are inside.

The needle felting was well done too - I especially liked the Fungi.  Did I feel tempted to join them?  Yes I did.  First meeting will be 24th April and I am looking forward to it.

Here is Rosie, taken on Thursday.  "It's MY house"!!!  She looks like a disgruntled barmaid :)

Finally, just before a heavy shower, my Variegated Pieris - SO pretty at the moment.

I have got all my clothes and things organized to go to Denmark.  Gabby will come here after work tomorrow. 

L. Whale had one lot of antibiotics (in butter) but has refused any more and isn't keen on eating anything I put down for him.  Pam, who is feeding them for me whilst I'm away, is not going to be able to tempt him either.  Yeesh. I will be fretting all the time I am away.

I don't have to cook tonight as Ed and Sam have invited me down for a belated birthday meal.  They are such good neighbours.  Sam isn't always there but when he is he has been helping Ed do the improvements to the house.  So, I had best put my bra back on and get into jeans instead of sloppy joe pajama bottoms!

Another vet's bill . . .

 

This time, L. Whale again.  A sliver of his stripped claw has regrown and is piercing the pad again.  The vet tried to get to it to see if it would slide out, but no.  I have two weeks of antibiotics for L. Whale.  Whilst I am away, friend Pam will have to be trying to get them down him. Since he is being SO picky about food, I have bought a small pack of Whiskas poultry in jelly for them all and see if they are back on THAT again, at least he would be eating then as he is going round the other cat's bowls at the moment.  

However, it looks like he may have to have that toe amputated - which will be another £420.  Do they think I am made of money?  I don't want to have the old boys put down when it is relatively minor problems, but I can't go on much longer with forking out my month's pension in short order for these treatments.  They know people love their animals so much and have you over a barrel.

She has cleaned the pad up and he hasn't got a dressing on it (this is a photo from February, when he had his last op).  If I had known that all these expenses were going to kick off, I wouldn't have booked Copenhagen, which is my holiday for this year.  Too late to back out now.

So, heaving big sighs here . . .  

A lovely birthday

 My birthday started with a lovely long across-the-world video call from Rosie in NZ.  It was so good to see her and speak to her again and we are so fortunate to have this lovely way of communicating now.

The girls and I didn't have to go too far to celebrate my birthday today.  We booked a meal at Tomatitos in Hay-on-Wye.  I had never had Tapas before, and we chose a lovely selection of plates including Potatos Bravas, Gambas Pil Pil (prawns in garlic sauce), Fresh anchovies (totally different to tinned!!), meatballs, Crackers with Membrillo and a lovely goats' cheese, chicken wings, and a couple of others I can't recall.  Scrummy.  Mind you, two glasses of Rioja at lunchtime = very tired birthday girl by the time we got home!!  We chatted with some lovely people on a nearby table, and when she heard I'd been to Petra, she recommended a book which she knew I would love, The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman.  Well, I had a rash moment when I got home and Mr Amazon is sending me a paperback copy tomorrow.  I will need to "work nights" to catch up on all the books I have to read :)

I was looking in the window at Addyman's and they had the classics beautifully bound and with painted edgings.  Gabby treated me to my favourite Bronte novel . . .

Then in the other Addyman shop, more . . .  I treated myself to Tess, my favourite Hardy novel.

The wool was from Booth's and is for the brim of my work-in-progress bobble hat.  Now I can back to the inner brim, which apparently I should have started with!

Too nice not to take a photo of.  Made from old sari fabric.

I took a photo of titles so I could check them out back at home.

Temptation.  Fortunately I have LOTS of embroidery skeins.

The bar had a lovely atmosphere.  Would love to go there again.

It was market day and Tam bought herself a couple of plants and treated me to a White Foxglove.  She also brought me a bottle of my favourite cider from her local Deli, along with Crab Pate, which will be my special treat for tomorrow's lunch (and until it runs out).  I will buy a good loaf of crusty bread from the Baker's in the morning.

Of course, a lunchtime drink is fatal and I had to have a Time Team nap when I got back and the girls had gone home.  I have had such a lovely day and chatted to friends in Hay.  It has always felt like a second home to me!

Tomorrow is going to feel very flat!  I've just subscribed to History Hits though, which was my joint present from my kids.  That will give me something to look forward to every day and it doesn't take up any room!!!

Tah-dah!

 

I did this by way of rest yesterday.  Dresses up the little crib a treat.  Sorry the colours aren't very good but strong morning light was on it.  I have hand-quilted the pillow.  Now I'm a third of the way through the the quilt.  I know the pillow has larger patches on it, but I can live with that.  Sue in Lancs and Jackie - it's 22 1/2" long and 6" wide.  Needs a long skinny doll!!

When I was outside yesterday, I noticed I have a pair of Swallows, and they are to and from the middle stable, where they nest.  They put a smile on my face.

Tam & Rosie are arriving later.  I need to go out and do a quick shop.  Gabby's arriving tomorrow morning and we are going out to Hay for my birthday lunch, to a Tapas bar there.  

Another glorious day of sunshine, which is bringing out the leaves on the trees.  I love spring.

More Malvern photos

 This morning my left shoulder is complaining about hauling an increasingly heavy trolly around with me yesterday.  Who can blame it?  So I am going to sit down and start on a little patchwork quilt for the dolly's crib pictured.  It's sunny out, so gardening will happen later.  With the price of fuel, I don't know if I can go to Malvern every month, so I bought some extra things to put out throughout the year - it is always the new stock which sells first.  Sod's Law.

Above and below - the stall with old dolls etc.  They have bought well and clearly do lots of auction shopping (though perhaps some things are bought online).

This looks like the witch's house in Hansel and Gretal . . . and that has just bought back a memory as my best friend Trish had the nickname of Hansel (from her sister Pauline).

It was a day for rocking horses and ones on trolleys, in varying states of decay!

A pile of beautiful Paisley shawls caught my eye.  One was priced at £180 . . .

When we lived in Dorset, Keith and I used to go to auctions every week.  We loved the ones at Sturminster Newton, and Dicky Bird (Burden really but he was known by all as Dicky Bird) had these little hand-made babies' nighties every week.  I would have loved one, but didn't get tempted.  They used to sell for £22 then, week in, week out.  This one - £7.  Not a good investment.

French pots.  Clearly easy to buy over there - everyone has them.

This chap knew his onions when it came to African pieces.

I rounded off my day out with a visit to Great Malvern Priory.  I came in a different way because the main road into Malvern is STILL closed for road works, and it will be for even longer as there has been another landslip which is what caused the initial closure/repair.  I won't take that route again, but at least I found out where the Priory was (having gone hunting for it a couple of times on previous visits to the Fleamarket, and not found it).  So now you know what the next couple of posts will be about . . .  Ragged Robin - I think I remember you visiting here too.

It was a beautiful spring day (though frosty to start and I did wonder about the sanity of several men in shorts at 7.30 when I arrived and it was a bit parky).  On my drive home, I saw a Small or Holly Blue butterfly, Small White ditto, Green Woodpecker and disturbed a magnificent Red Kite who had alighted on road kill (Squirrel of course).

I walked my legs off at Malvern.....

..... 13,000+ steps round the showground this morning.  I will sleep well tonight!

Quilts.  I didn't look at prices I'm afraid.

I have to say I thoguht these were goddam awful, especially the plastic/resin/whatever saddle.  YUK.

Some more tasteful German? ceramics.

I loved the little toy horses and their trolley.  Below - the house clearance anything goes type stall . . .

I am as weary as a weary thing.  I had all the cats join me on the bed around 3.30 a.m. - that should have alerted me to the fact that it was cold out but all the same I was surprised to step outside to a frosty windscreen. I was up at 4.45 and out the door an hour later.So I had to sort that out before I could get started.  Then I noticed that the attic light was on - and had been since I was up there last week, so I went back indoors to turn it off.  I had a good run through though, and there was the most amazing sunrise . . .

I stopped just before Clyro to capture this.  

More photos tomorrow, as I have to have a TimeTeam nap now . . .  I got some nice things anyway, will share in the morning.

A challenging day

 There is something about setting an alarm clock which automatically sets your brain on sleep alert.  If you wake up in the night (guaranteed at my age) then your brain won't rest after that for fear of missing the alarm.  I woke at 1.30 a.m. and that was IT for the night.  My mind kept going over a YouTube post of Neil Oliver's I'd watched the previous night, and then a Facebook post about a concrete factory in Derbyshire having a pipeline taken crosscountry to the sea near Liverpool, where work was being carried out to store the CO2 it produced in an underground bunker.  (Compulsory purchase orders of farmland all the way . . .) W.T.F???

My stand yesterday, which included some of the attic pieces.  The big teal vase on the left has been on my windowsill for about 3 years now, but I decided I could live without it . . .  The Art Deco bowl to its right attracted everyone - if I'd had £1 from each person who touched and admired it, I'd have done really well!  I have small stools etcc on my list for tomorrow, to try and get things on different levels.    I have display stands but they don't have "the look" that other stands (with a lot less pieces to display, I might add) have . . .

To say it was busy yesterday was an understatement.  There were rarely fewer than 15 or 20 people upstairs all day long!  Apparently 720 visitors were throgh the door, which has only been surpassed on the first Fair after Lockdown, when there were 800.  So much for me worrying that the price of fuel etc was going to put people off.  They wanted to buy yesterday.  

I was very weary - around lunchtime I could have easily laid down on the floor for some kip! - but no chance of that.  Everyone did well apart from a friend who had bought no smalls, and it was smalls that were selling yesterday.  A favourite customer who has bought from me since the pre-Covid days when we met up at the Botanic Gardens Fair, finally bought herself the Swedish Inger Person dish she had been in love with the last few times we'd met.  I gave her a good deal on it and when she came back up the 4th or 5th time, I knew it would go home with her :)  I was SO pleased when she bought it, as it had definitely gone to the right home.  

It took me 15 minutes to pack up and then another 15 mins to fetch the car and for the lads who help out, to pack it for me.  Makes a big difference to have help, especially at this end of the day, but not having to carry big boxes upstairs at the start is a bonus too.

The wind was just getting up as I drove home, and it was a pretty gusty night.  I had my tea, but had to have a sofa nap just to last me through until bedtime.  I was bone weary, and not much better today.  I have to set the alarm tonight of course, and will need to be up at 4.45 a.m. in the morning as the first hour of the journey will be in darkness, so a slower drive.  I need to make some breadrolls today for my chicken with stuffing slices for breakfast (eaten around 9.30 at Malvern - I just grab a cuppa and a chocolate bar before I leave, as no time for a proper breakfast.)

I am meeting up with Tam and Rosie at the Elan valley for a walk later on.  I have to unload the car in a little while though.  This afternoon will be resting up.

I hope you are all having a nice Easter.