A difficult day emotionally

 Well, I am back home waiting for Tam and Rosie to arrive.  I'm all set up at the Fair though I could have done with a little more room.  We used to have a triple pitch, and that gave us room for Keith's militaria (two tables, one behind the other) and my end had room for some chairs/small pieces of furniture.  Ah well, I have more stock in a box under the table and can replace anything I sell.

It was hard going into the big Glass House - this time last year Tam and I took Keith . . . It was pre-Covid when Keith and I last had our stand there.  It was nice to see old friends, and have hugs, but I did feel lost without Keith.  Fortunately Brita had laid on some young and willing helpers so I didn't have to carry anything heavy to my stand, and as a consequence, don't feel as shattered as I expected.  The drive home was OK too, as in bright sunshine, and not like a previous time when I came from Carms, when it was nearly dark when I left and I had to drive home being dazzled by car headlights till I was past Llandovery and heading up into the hills.

I'm a bit worried about whether the car will start tomorrow, as it didn't want to today.  It took 3 goes, and has started each time since (but the engine was still warm).  I went into the garage before coming home - they checked the battery (OK, replaced recently) and said it might be the starter motor.  It would need to come in for tests.  Meanwhile, park it on a slope and cross my fingers!

On the way home, I drove along the A40 and was suddenly hit SO hard by past memories when Dryslwyn Castle came into view and I was taken back to the first time we ever drove that stretch of road, back in March 1988, going to explore Llandeilo for the first time.  My eyes filled with tears and I let out a choking moan of loss.  

After feeling  that I just COULDN'T manage this weekend (tiredness etc) this morning, I am now feeling more confident again, and will try and keep up that positivity.  Meanwhile, Tam and Rosie have arrived so will go and keep them company.

Girding my loins

 . . . for the Fair.  The last sworn-over stitch has just been sewn in the Damnation Quilt.  It is as it is.  I doggedly repaired all the holes, but there are some bare cardboard patches.  Tough.  I can see all the repairs but hopefully they blend in enough to be overlooked by any potential buyer.  NEVER again will I take on a Parlour quilt like this - or if I do, NO repairs will be done.  After I'd changed the bed linen, I had a quick look through a big bag in the bedroom which had a 1980s Laura Ashley hand sewn hexagon quilt in it (been trying to sell this for years).  As it is a deep royal blue and white, it doesn't fit many decors these days. I will drop the price yet again.  I also found another 1970s unfinished hexagon quilt - rather brown but with some colourful "gardens" in it.  That is going too.  I'll price reasonably and hope to sell. So that's half a dozen quilts to make my stand look colourful.  I have a double wall stand so just hope I have room to display quilts AND paintings . ..

A corner of the stall from a Builth Fair last year.

I'm just having a rest (call it lunchtime) and then I will start loading.  At least it is dry and sunny out.  Tam and Rosie arrive again tomorrow and are here for the weekend, to hold the fort. I've got some Gammon Steaks out for tea on Saturday, and tomorrow I have a tasty mince and rice mix using up the tasty pasta topping I made this week.  I had some for tea last night. 

LATER: All sorted and loaded.  I am shattered - have done so little lifting of anything of any weight over the winter (since the last Fair in fact), and it has taken its toll today.  Ah well, will just have to get on with it, and hope there's a lot LESS to pack to come home with!

I have found another series to enjoy on Youtube, where a chap has bought a couple of stone cabins in the Italian Alps and is renovating them.  This follows on nicely from one Tam showed me, which is a Dutch woman who has bought an old cabin (and other smaller sheds) in the Swedish forest (looks remote but probably isn't) and she is a whizz at woodwork.  We can't bear to watch the Welsh/Irish ones where people come in to "restore" a cottage or house "sympathetically" and then rip every bit of character out of it. One Welsh one took every internal wall out too!

The other day we watched an entire series of Pioneer Quest, set in the 1850s, and the folks they had in to do it had a hard time of things at first.  The two BIG Percheron horses they had for pulling the wagon and ploughing, thought ploughing was meant to be done at a trot and the poor people behind the plough (one with the reins, the other steering the BIG plough) were nearly ploughed and buried in short order!  The film company had been done over too, and instead of a dozen hens or whatever, they had been given a high proportion of Cockerels!  They didn't teach them to make bread until month 7 (WINTER) when they also taught a basic patchwork technique.  I know, but it keeps my brain ticking over when it's chucking it down with rain outside and I am kept inside these 4 walls.

You will smile when I tell you that Rosie can now CLAP!  Obviously playing Patacake with me gave her this new skill. :)

There will probably be an on-line silence until the weekend is over.  Off to collapse in a heap now.

 

Nipping procrastination in the bud

I did a good morning's work before Tam and Rosie arrived.  I vacuumed the entire ground floor of the house (ok, well the bits I could reach in the Library!), mopped the kitchen floor, then listed the entire Militaria collection for the Probate.  That took a while, but is a job well done.  It came to more than I expected, but I had to use Keith's selling prices as some things were traded with/without money on top.  He tended to mark up so he could offer a good deal. To value each individual item on line would mean an awful lot of work.

I will need to start getting sorted for the Fair today.  What to take etc and I will start packing a few things in the car in readiness so I'm not doing it all tomorrow. Setting up day is on Friday.  I shall be very relieved when it's over, as there's a lot of driving. Tam is coming to hold the fort here.  

I am hoping that February won't be a "fill dyke" one with even more rain as I need to start tidying up in the garden. Especially on the Bank and you wouldn't believe I ever cleaned between the cobbles.  I have those 100 bulbs/corms to plant too!!  Bring on spring.

Rosie made me laugh last night, we were doing "Patacake" over and over (she is insistent) and she holds my hands in hers, and at the end wanted me to clap louder, so pulled my hands further apart :)  She's a smart one.

When mum's back is turned . . .

 

Young Rosie this morning, clearly thinking her breakfast was inadequate!  Tam left the room for a minute, came back and Rosie was chomping on a pork pie!  Swiftly removed, I might add. They are on their way here shortly, so I am having a big tidy up and vacuum.  I hope to list Keith's militaria for Probate once I've mopped the kitchen floor.

£5 spent - value for money!!

 After it had finished belting it down with rain first thing, I drove to Llandod to get my groceries for the week.  I had to go and buy some white embroidery floss from Bonne Marche, and across the road is a cheap as chips charity shop, so I thought I would at least look through the window.  It was busy (mainly as I think new stuff goes out for Monday).  I could see two ladies fossicking through a box of what appeared to be craft things.  One walked away from it, so I went in and took her place.  I am glad I did!  When I paid,they told me that the chap had literally only just bought that box of stuff in, so I did time it right!  Here is what £5 bought me:

42 x Anchor embroidery flosses;  7 Madeira ditto; a skein of green perle floss; 6 heavier cotton embroidery floss.  A fat quarter of pretty daisies on a black background.

Four quilting stencils.

An unusual set of rulers which I thought of for a Christmas tree skirt, rather than the very complex looking design at the top (there are 20 similar patterns with this).  Retails at £27.50!

2 metres Moda? patchwork fabric in cream and white.

Didn't I do well?

All the things I had ordered also arrived today.  My Fungi design metal drinking bottle; the wooden easel I need for Fairs, bringing me up to 3, plus my Cotton Trader parcels of slip on shoes and crop jeans, and thermals.

Danny and his mate came yesterday and took the big birch chest of drawers from the kitchen, so for the first time since we moved in, I don't have anything on the angle of the L-shape turn.  I can feel the energy flowing properly now, instead of being blocked.  I can just walk across and turn the light on without leaning over anything.  (I don't now who decided to put the light switch behind the upright beam).

I made some Banana Muffins yesterday.  They called for Buttermilk, which I never have in, so I used a small tub of set yoghurt (Vanilla) which needed using, combined with milk to make the right quantity, and they turned out really well, and rose amazingly.  I will put up photo and recipe tomorrow.

I know some of you do Family History.  I belong to a Genealogy group on Facebook, and enjoy reading about other people's research problems - and there's always lots of people happy to help.  There was a mention of someone's middle name she was struggling to read.  Turns out the child had been called Daisy Deepsea (then a surname after).  I bet that was a unique name!

I spoke to the Heating Engineer company this morning and they offered me £30 towards lost food.  Works out £36 with less VAT so I accepted that.  I've left the little freezer turned off for the moment so just got Scampi and frozen Smoked Haddock to go in the main one.

Oh, and it was a day for nice things, as the fruit trees are on offer at £7 each (2 for £12) at Tesco again, so I bought a Cox.  They also had 100 pink and purple bulbs for £10.  I thought that a good deal and they are so pretty.  The ones I bought last year (50 for £5) put on a great show in planters.

Back in the morning.

More than blardy DAMNATION being said here today!

 I've jut gone to get some sausages out of the small freezer for Danny at lunchtime, to find everything floating around in blackberry juice - the entire contents will have to be chucked as it would appear that the heating engineer unplugged it for some reason on Wednesday and never replugged it.  (The other plug is for the washing machine so I don't now what he thought he was unplugging!) About £40 worth of contents (including my planned tea tonight) gone west.  I have just written a sharp email to them . . .  Now I need to remove contents, photograph for them, and chuck out later when it isn't raining sideways and being Storm Hermione!

The Damnation Quilt - sewing through cardboard

For the word "Damnation" you may substitute something  of a more Anglo-Saxon origin - I am just trying to stay ladylike!  I am MAKING - no, FORCING myself to sew two diamonds on it each day. (12 more to go). This takes me all morning or afternoon.  The bitch lady that made it sewed it together using the cardboard piecing method, and never removed the cardboard, which is now rotting in parts, as is the silk fabrics used.  She also used what appears to be extra-heavy black thread, damn her, but thinking on it that is probably just ordinary cotton thread back in the day - not like the polyester rubbish we have now. I am having to use snipe-nose pliers to pull the needle through.

It is very fragile and very difficult to work with.  Oh, and did I mention she put a canvas backing on it?  Cow . . .   I am at the "I want to abandon it" and sell-as-is stage, but I have started so I will damn well try and do my best with it/for it, as it IS beautiful still.

These faults won't be ignored by potential buyers, who will use them for bargaining. . .

Oh yes, the canvas backing! Bet she'd been told to clear her stash . . .

Ladies of leisure.  I wish I could join them.  I need to get out for a walk to get some exercise and clear my head.  I've just put the lamb in the pressure cooker for my Lamb Biryani tonight.

Storm Eowyn (144 mph gusts in Ireland) isn't too bad here - trees just shaking a bit and occasional stronger gusts.  Tam's power went out again but it turned out it was just one tree down across their line and it's been restored now.

Off to get some fresh air now. Stay safe all.

Update :  Practice nurse never phoned to make me an appointment for my holiday jabs, which means it's going to be into next week and I daren't have it until the following week now.  After the Fair.

Sharon - think I will take your advice and draw a line under it.  Each mend is taking hours and still not to my liking (e.g. invisible mend).

In honour of my dad, who died today 45 years ago, I have been doing some Family History.  I have - FINALLY, I have a tendency to procrastination - blown the dust off the big 10 generation printed chart and have been filling in the details of his family today.  I was checking out Nancy Stumbles again (my 3 x g. grandmother, born 1785) and looking for newspaper links.  The scanning of these turns up some odd words at times (e.g. they don't exist) but I just HAD to check out a Mrs Hairy . . .  turns out it was Harry!!