It has come on to rain steadily this evening, so no moon to be seen, Atkinson Grimshaw or otherwise. We managed a walk up the valley this afternoon.
Close-up of bubbles in the little feeder-stream which gushes into the river at the bottom of the hill.
Colours were looking very demure and tweedy under an overcast sky.
Unfortunately, our arrival home coincided with the early beauty parade of cattle coming down for milking. . . .Here are some recent upholstery projects:
An old swivel office chair which has gone into auction now.
My re-covered Victorian footstool (and yes, I did manage to get the pattern upside-down and not central. Dolt!)
This is the current one (which is my husband's chair, and was pretty beat-up when we bought it). All the springs were shot and the bar across the back had broken , so now I have it stripped down, that was one job we could fix today, and in place of the broken dowels, my husband has put four BIG screws.
As you can see, Snowy thinks it is in the kitchen purely as his new bed . . .
Down the back of it I found a half sheet of the Daily Express dating from 22nd August 1939. Sadly, the bits that were remaining weren't terrifically interesting - advertisements for Steradent powder, Radio Rentals advertising the latest (1940 designs) of Consoles, Radiograms and All-wave sets from the amazingly low rental of 1/9d (reducing to 10d). Phone Royal 2585 (the address was Regent Street, London).
A little piece entitled: Boy, cakes, POP, PAIN (The story was told at Ilfracombe (Devon) Juvenile Court, yesterday, of a -
BOY of ten who took 3s from purses at his home, treated his school pals to
CAKES (a large number of which he ate himself) and to ginger
POP (a large quantity of which he drank himself); and then had such a
PAIN in his tummy that he did not go home to dinner or back to school
- and the magistrates bound him over on condition that he goes to bed at eight every night for two years. (!!!)
The paragraph which fortunately survived was this one:
"This period, neither peace nor war, through which we are passing, has many of the attributes of war on a world scale. Certain it is that the magnitude of the preparations, the immensity of the cost and the universality of the effort compares with conditions prevailing in 1915-1917."
And they were right weren't they?
Your projects are looking good and how wonderful to see darling Snowy. Give him a kiss from us please :)
ReplyDeleteI soooo love the Highwayman poem, thank you for sharing it. I knew some of it, but not where it came from. Of course, it inspired that song by Mike Oldfield, didn't it? Umm, Moonlight Shadow, that's the one.
I like to think that we are a superior breed, those of us who daily trudge about outside recording the nuances of seasons and weather. I appreciated the reference to "tweedy" colors in the landscape. Years ago when I did a good deal of tailoring, I had a source for good woolen tweed remnants. I made a blazer of a heathery one which I loved--unfortunately I eventually "outgrew" it.
ReplyDeleteI wondered if Snowy was still with you. I see he looks a bit rough, but how nice that he is still enjoying the warmth of the kitchen and your companionship.
I could covet that desk chair! Can imagine your exasperation to find that the pattern on the footstool had got off-centered. I have to cut embroidered medallions for place mats at the shop--I've done literally hundreds but occasionally my brain goes on holiday and I find I have cut one wrong--sometimes I can "save" it by adjusting my center line. Best way I've found is to fold and crease for the halfway point all around--but it surely helps if I'm paying attention to the distance to measure from center to edge. I washed a 10 year old quilt this week and while it hung on the line I glared at the block in it which is a quarter turn the wrong way for the pattern. I consider picking stitches and righting the block--then I think that might be a bit obcessive a task for a none too special piece of work. The cats don't notice that it is off!
Went back to enlarge the cows. They look to be in their right minds although the odd one out--the red one--has a certain look in her eye. Seeing the "roan-y" one stirred memories of the dairy farm--and driving through fresh cow slurry is always a joy--think cow poop baking on the hot car muffler--delightful!
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