Thursday 30 December 2021

Late on parade today

 I woke at about 5.30 and tried to get back to sleep.  I obviously dropped off again as it was nearly 9 a.m. when I woke, due to one of the cats clawing at the door and signifying breakfast was in order!  When I moved my hips were SO sore again - I'd spent several hours sewing yesterday and I think the angle of leaning under my craft lamp is not doing me any good - I'll have to try and reconfigure it today.  Plus a nice long walk to get all my muscles moving again. Here's the progress on the William de Morgan tile design anyway:




Whilst on the Arts & Crafts theme, middle daughter gave me these lovely coasters and the butter dish I'd asked for (design is William Morris's Pimpernel).


Plus gorgeous Christy towels in a colour which goes really well with the new bathroom tiles. I am trying to replace the towels I inherited from my late m-in-law and have some I actually chose and like (e.g. NOT BEIGE!)


We love these beautiful mugs from our son, who commissioned them from a girl he knows who is a potter.  Isn't the glaze gorgeous?  Almost too nice to use!


A strange coincidence over this little Edwardian? keepsake which Tam found for me in Aberystwyth.  I had seen one just like it at an Antiques Fair and nearly treated myself, but didn't.  It's up on my bedroom mantlepiece now.


Here is the newly skimmed wall painted, but it needs a few bits touched up in places.  I will do that today and carry on with the wallpapering too.


It wouldn't be Christmas without books and of course, I asked for the latest in the Outlander series.  It will take me a while to get through it though.


Tam brought me a trilogy from this new-to-me author.  I have the first one upstairs, and am deep in the Rebecca Riots now.


A book I've only dipped into so far but don't think I will try the recipe for Ginger Biscuits with beetroot in (this was during WW1 rationing).


I'm looking forward to reading this again. She was an exceptional lady.


I have the pheasants in the garden . . .!

        Well, another dreary grey and wet day today but I need to get out and stretch my legs.  K and I will have our normal toodle in the park and then I'll go a bit further afield.

        I have found that the Church at Garway, Herefordshire is a Templar Church, and so we will have to explore that one as a New Year treat.

            I am surrepticiously going round and removing the Christmas decor now that Christmas is properly behind us.  The tree will be taken down on New Year's Day, so we can have the curtains open again and life can go back to normal. I've decided to have the groceries delivered by Asda for a month or so until the Omicron variant has peaked and things have calmed down again.  It is spreading so rapidly that it's pointless pushing my luck by going to the supermarket, and Aldi is rather cramped, unlike the airy Tesco with its wide aisles.

        Time to get myself organized again - I began with the ironing, now it will be moving books as we are having new carpets laid in January and one room is the Library.  Wish me luck!



16 comments:

  1. Good Luck!
    Plenty reading to keep you busy too :), we went out first thing for a dog walk as we knew the weather was going to turn wet (again!) and now back it is dark and grim yet again - think baking and house work (and gentle tidying away chrimbly stuff) is in order :)

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    1. Thank you kj. Today has now turned into a walk OR decorating as we were up so late, and it takes my husband so long to get up/dressed/breakfasted at present. Despite the wetness, a walk is probably the order of the day.

      Enjoy your baking and the gentle tidying away.

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  2. Surreptitious seems to be our shared word of the day :-)

    I LOVE those blue glazed mugs, it's funny because you know how much I like green things but a lot of my handmade pots are in a blue glaze there's just something that really draws me to them.

    You have a lot of good reading to look forward to for the dreary January days, I hope you can sink into them all and relax.

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    1. I can survive another Lockdown with my stockpile of unread books, that's for sure. Plus lots of walks still to explore, on our doorstep.

      Blue has been my favourite colour all my life, but jadey-green floats my boat too.

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  3. Those mugs are absolutely gorgeous, I love that glaze. Love the look of the Wild Harvest book. Hope your hips are ok today, enjoy your walk.

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    1. Aren't they? A very clever choice of gift. Beautiful things can be enjoyed over and over. Anything of Hope Bourne's is worth reading - I think she wrote half a dozen books in all. She lived VERY frugally and sustainably.

      Hips survived the walk but clothing got a bit wet!

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  4. I see a colour theme in all your recent decorating and gifts--the bluey-greens. Love the WM design and colours and the glazed mugs are gorgeous.

    Having remodeled two bathrooms this year, I took paint chip samples with me when I looked for new bath towels (like you--most of my towels were decades old and none would work in the new bathrooms). Was lucky enough to find towels that perfectly matched the colour in one bathroom and bought thick white ones for the other bathroom when I couldn't quite match up the other colour. Donating old towels to local animal shelter.

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    1. I shall have to see if I can drop off the old towels to Many Tears Sanctuary when we are next down in Carmarthenshire. Great idea. I am definitely in a bluey-green phase at the moment. Healing colours I believe.

      Glad you had the idea of taking paint chip samples with you for towel shopping. I just used my colour eye when G showed me some towel colour choices.

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  5. You have some fascinating books there. I hopped over to our interlibrary loan website to see if I can request them, but unfortunately they're not available.

    The coasters and butter dish are gorgeous!

    Blessings~

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    1. Hi there, what a shame you can't request any of those books. I am sure that the Hope Bourne ones would be available on UK Ebay, but the postage might be a big ask. Just checked on Ebay USA and you can buy it there for about $11. Hope you can find it in a Library somewhere, to request.

      Glad you like the coasters and butter dish. They give me such pleasure to use.

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  6. You were well-gifted. I do like the glaze on those mugs.

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  7. Indeed, thoughtful and useful gifts and I will think of the family who gave them every time I use/read them.

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  8. Love your pottery bits, I got gifted a lovely piece made by a local artist who sadly passed away this year

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  9. It's lovely to have artisan made pieces. When we were doing Fairs regularly, I always looked for nice pieces of Studio pottery.

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  10. Today is my organizing day. I have a friend who substitutes pureed beets instead of oil in her cakes. I could not tell the difference, really.

    I got two Christmas books and it will be a constant temptation not to lose myself in them today. I've got things to do.

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    1. I use stewed apple instead of eggs in some recipes which call for it. Cakes, ok, but biscuits need flour to hold them together? Perhaps I should try the recipe.

      Hope you can sit down and have some time for yourself today. I failed miserably at that yesterday!

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