When I was little, Parties had already begun to change. Girls had party dresses, but I'm not sure the boys wore ties.
We did play all the party games; oranges and lemons, blind man's buff, and hunt the thimble;
It took me a surprisingly long time to spot the thimble in the picture.
......
So what's this bit of nostalgia all about? Well, it's becoming a bit of a habit; BB unpacks the grocery delivery, comes back into the sitting room and then suddenly stops an announces 'I've lost my wedding ring again'.
After an anxious half hour we found it in the vegetable drawer in the fridge. His ring seems to have developed a bit of an affinity for potatoes.
Today everything I read at the beginning of the day was encouraging me to stop procrastinating and get going on my task list;
'One step at a time'
'Getting it done was a lot easier than not doing it at all'
and so on.
So I powered up my laptop and submitted reprar prescription requests, fired off email left right and centre, printed off and filed documents as well as saving them from email attachments to folders in my computer, making phone calls, leaving messages, placing the grocery order (oh, did I order yeast? I'd better check).
A friend came round unexpectedly; I nade tea, and she carried the tray while I got an oxygen cylinder and we went and sat in the sun under the apple blossom and caught up on all our news...
It felt MAGNIFICENT!!!
After lunch I thought I'd walk round, yes, walk! to the corner shop post office to extract some money and post a letter...
But I fizzled out, did some knitting, read some of my book...
This piano piece exactly matches the day! You can hear it fizzle out at the end.
.....
Poulenc trois movements perpetuals, no 1, played by Alexandre Tharaud
The day began with an unscheduled magical mystery tour along lanes I'm sure we've never travelled before. The main road was closed, and the back lanes were quite a challenge. I think, I hope they are dealing with the state of the road surface which has been steadily going from inconvenient to bad to worse to properly dangerous over the winter.
Meanwhile I enjoyed visas of bluebells glowing under the greening woodland canopy, while BB dealt with steering the car between narrow hedges and potholes.
The purpose of our expedition? It's covid vaccination time. Done and dusted this morning, that's it for another six months. So far, so good; I'm fine, BB has a bit of a sore arm.
Today Me was grateful to Last Month's Me for poaching several chicken breasts, slicing and freezing them in portions. It meant producing stir-fry chicken in satay sauce for lunch took very little time.
Today Me had more cause for gratitude as supper was tomato and vegetable soup with some fried pancetta, and toast. I add a bit of cold meat, or some pasta or rice, or any leftovers, to vary these batch cooked soups.
Now, of course, I'll need to replenish the freezer for Future Me.
How about another flashmob? I love Carl Orff's Carmina Burana. And I love looking at the expressions on people's faces
I've worked out it's the Vienna Opera Company, and I think it's the main train station;
SolistInnen, Chor, Orchester der Volksoper Wien boten im April Fahrgästen und Passanten eine besondere Performance. Die KünstlerInnen lösten sich aus der Menschenmenge - eine "Passantin" begann, weitere "PassantInnen" - sowie als ÖBB-MitarbeiterInnen verkleidete KünstlerInnen - setzten nach und nach ein.:
Aren't these gorgeous! My April flowerbe box arrived today.
The cup and saucer have sentimental value for me. I remember my parents buying boxes and boxes (so it seemed) of this pattern; plates, bowls, cups and saucers, in a market on holiday in the Netherlands when I was about ten years old. It's a good thing our car had a decent sized boot. (Might have been the Triumph Herald Estate).
These dishes were to bulk up what was left of a set with a very similar pattern. That set came from. Cornwall, and I know it was bought in around 1930 by my grandmother. I've got the half dozen bits from it, and still use one of the last breakfast cups and saucers for a proper cup of tea.
Good heavens, I've just worked out they are nearly a hundred years old!
Verdi's drinking song from La Traviata... though I don't think this song is about tea.
Italian opera stars spoof customers at Australian market. This is an effort to tease and bring classical opera out of the symphony hall and to the masses who may not normally see and hear it.
The first two strips of the experimental cardigan almost completely sewn together. Another three to do and I will have finished the back.
and sewing;
the next quilt-as-you-go is underway, and more prosaically the elastic in my pj's trousers has stopped being elastic. Still a bit of sewing to finish stitching up the waist band.
and continuing to binge read through the Dr Nell Ward thriller whodunnits. I'm on to book three; A Mischief of Rats. In about twenty minute's reading time I should have reached the bit where Nell's life is in danger - it's always just after three-quarters through the book!
Now, after a 'sitting down' day I need to do something about my woeful step count 🤔 before bedtime 🌙
This was originally a box of Christmas chocolates from M and S, a present from my father several years ago. When the lid was opened, the picture inside lit up and it was full of delicious chocolates.
The box was far too pretty to throw away, so we used it for 'chocolate o'clock' treats for several years. Then the lights eventually stopped working, but still we kept the box. Which it just as well, as I was looking for something to keep my perle threads in, where they wouldn't keep unravelling and tangling.
I'm able to fit them all inside the box! How lucky is that!
BB gave me some attractive sewing notions one year, bought at an exhibition at the V and A. They included the best needle threader I have ever owned;
And a little wooden container of self- threading needles. I rather ignored the needles for a while. They looked too large and thick for ordinary sewing.
But I am a complete convert. I would definitely use finer traditional needles for 'proper', fine sewing, but for everyday stuff they are brilliant. I've found they work well with ordinary thread and perle cotton, but are not so easy the thread with stranded embroidery floss.
Here's a diagram I found that shows how they work;
You just pull the thread through the gap at the top, until it rests in the centre space. Some kind of magic stops the thread from freeing itself as you sew.
They have certainly made it much easier for me to thread needles, especially in the evenings.
Reading...
I have been enjoying the Dr Nell Ward thriller series, so when I saw the latest book 'A tribe of tigers' was 99p on kindle I only took seconds to click on 'buy now'. It's about number eight in the series, ando I don't think it would make much sense to readers unless they started at the beginning with 'A Murder of Crows'. Nell is an ecologist, and in the course of her work - advising on conservation and rewilding etc - gets mixed up in murder...
I'm also reading 'All the colours of the dark' by Chris Whitaker, another 99p download. It is... odd, but strangely addictive because of the characters of the young girl, Saint, and boy, Patch. It's centred around the abduction of Patch, and Saint's efforts to find him, and now I'm reading about how their lives are changed by the experience. I'm a bit apprehensive at the moment because they both look set to marry the wrong people for the wrong reasons, and I'm hoping that's not going to happen...
Cloudy start, 40% probability of rain, temperature feels like 9°C, sunny periods later...retty normal for April. We wrapped warmly and set off to meet with Son and Daughter to celebrate his birthday (belatedly) and Easter (even more belatedly)
And hurrah! The sun shone and the temperature rose. Every met-up is an occasion, whatever the weather... but especially when it's spring and there are flowers and little lambs and sunshine.
So I've had plenty of fresh air today, enough for weeks!
....
Before we left, and after we came home, I managed to finish three things;
The first of the strips for my experimental patchwork cardigan. I'm enjoying it, because the rows are short so it's easy to pick up and put down, because the patterns are simple and change every six inches, and I'm using a variegated yarn which keeps changing colour, all exactly right for my butterfly brain.
I have completely finished this patch now. I managed to talk myself into outlining the flowers and it has hade such a difference.
Finally I sewed up the hat. It's too big for me, and I don't like the colours, so I'll save it for the shoebox appeal at Christmas time.
Finally, Next-door's cat has found a new hiding place in our front garden;
at least he's away from our bird feeders. The RSPB are saying we should stop feeding the birds now it's warmer, so we'll put them away now.
Peter and the Wolf by Prokofiev; the cat theme;
My favourite moment is listening to the orchestra illustrate in sound when Peter lowers the rope over the wolf to capture it. I used to get the children to listen out for it, and watch for the smiles to appear.
We've had several days of sunny warm weather which has been enough to let the countryside erupt into greeness. Bluebells in the woods, leaves on the trees, hedges filling out. Some friends came home from holiday landing at the local airport this morning, and noticed how green the countryside looked from the air.
I thought we'd go out yesterday morning for a coffee and a sausage sandwich. Unfortunately I became hopelessly confused about which Village Stores we were heading for; Alfold, Kirdford, Loxwood, Plaistow, Ifold.... we drove round in circles going to all of them in the end - they are close together, linked by leafy crinkle crankle narrow lanes, narrow bridges overcstreams, shadowed by bluebell woods... and finally arrived at Kirdford Village Stores. BB was very patient, said it helped to keep his skills driving skills sharp.
They didn't have any baps; to their consternation I picked up a packet of hamburger rolls, and asked 'if I buy these, will you put our sausages in them?' After some thought they said they could, so we sat outside with our sausages and dr8nks, soaking up the sun and lovely countryside.
There were these two large carved wooden garden ornaments beside the apple tree trees, aren't they wonderful?
Today we did - nothing.
No, that's not entirely true; I finished knitting that hat and it just needs sewing up. If I knit another I shall buy double pointed needles and knit it in the round; I do so dislike knitting rows of purl!
I'm also a good away along the first of the five strips which will make up the back of the next cardigan I'm hoping to make.
For supper we had sausage baps again. I cooked three sausages and some sliced onions in a dish in the airfryer (30 mins at 180, turn halfway through), and toasted the baps. Then, I put a smear of chutney, the sausages and onions and some spinach leaves in each one. They were delicious!
We had a long long morning, or so it seemed; traipsing round Curry's electrical superstore to look at ovens, mini ovens, built in ovens and hobs... then moving three stores along to look at new kitchens (Wren). Finally to another superstore to look for buttons!
I would reckon BB was very relieved that I was near the end of my stamina, so we just went in, found the buttons, paid for them and came home, with barely more than 5 minutes of eyeing up the yarn in passing...
I was very pleased with myself for knitting a small swatch with a buttonhole in it. So much easier to tuck into my little bag than the cardigan! Here's the Completely Finished Cardigan;
Those are BB's hands holding it up. It is still too warm for me to put it on for a fashion shoot. You can see how the back is longer than the front.
Here's the photographs on Ithe pattern so you can see it's supposed to be there
I'm using up a ball of super chunky left over; I'd bought an extra one, thinking I was going to run out, but fortunately I didn't need it as I'd bought the wrong colourway! Here's it is;
Being a variegated yarn the cable panel doesn't really show, which is just as well because I'm not used to doing them at all. I'm using a 10mm crochet hook as a cable needle, to match the knitting needles and it's working very well.
Finally, I have embarked upon this cardigan
The pattern is a freebie from Lovecraft, and uses a paintbox super chunky yarn. Except that I'm knitting it on thinner, Sirdar Jewelspun yarn on smaller needles. It's knitted in vertical strips of different patterns, so I reckon as long as my strips are the same width and length I might be ok. I'm not thinking about shoulder and neck shaping yet. Inspiration will come in due course...
And now here's a sweet little story; apparently Borodin's daughter came and sat on his lap when he was at the piano, and played this well-known tune, and he improvised and then wrote down this duet part;
I used to base an entire music lesson, several, perhaps, on this piece. I'd give the children two chime bars, or boomwhackers each or whatever was to hand. I'd arrange them in groups of four; the first person would play the first line, then the second person the second line, etc. Slowly, slowly we would work away until everyone could play their line in time with the recording.
I was going to say you could have heard a pin drop, they were concentrating so fiercely, but of course it was actually far too noisy!
Today I caught up with last week's daily Lent email course...
and now I'm putting up this month's photograph of my tree, the little witch hazel in a pot, which I was planning to post on the first of the month.
BB took the picture for me on Sunday. Just look at all those leaves, all new and crinkly! Those are red tulips in the background.
The peony that had apparently started flowering last week turned out to be red tulips buried among the vigorous tall late daffodils. That's a bit of a relief!
'It will be finished for ChristmasNew YearEpiphanyValentine's DayEaster Day Bank Holiday Monday...' and so it was.
I could look back and see when I started this - or I could not... too long ago. I finished knitting it (after many fits and starts and adjustments) several weeks ago, but stalled out at the sewing up stage. Partly because I didn't trust myself to do a decent job, and partly because I always lose confidence in the fit, even after obsessionally measuring everything at least half a dozen times, and holding it up against myself.
It's come out fine! Not exactly like the pattern - I hadn't intended to choose the cuff option for the sleeves, but it looks like I have, and the original pattern has a lower neck, which I wasn't keen on, so I'm quite happy that this has come out somehow with a high neck. I was also trying to alter the pattern because I didn't care for the way the back was intended to be longer than the front - some kind of design statement? - but what will be, will be. I won't be able to see 'the statement' when I'm wearing it...
I just have to source some 2 inch buttons. At the moment those are stitch markers dangling from where the buttons are to go.
The day between Good Friday (sad, solemn, subdued) and Easter Sunday (joyful, laughing, exuberant) seems neither one thing nor another.
So I've been doing a bit of this (sewing) and that (reading) and the other (making a crockpot of soup, and a loaf of bread). In-between activities.
And all the time eyeing up the one Lindt mini egg left from last weekend, which I decided to keep until Easter. It's 8pm, I only have to hold out for 4 more hours.
Yesterday I caught the last bit of The Sound of Music, from when the family sings 'Goodbye, Farewell' at the competition and then escape. I don't think I've watched it for at least 10 years. I remember we were taken to see it in London on a school trip when I was about 9 or 10 years old. I was at a convent prep school, and I think I realised even then that the nuns who lead the trip were buzzing with excitement. We had to wear our summer dresses, white ankle socks, blazers, straw hats and white gloves.
Today this little clip caught my eye;
They dance so beautifully.
Our family used to occasionally holiday in Austria with an Austrian family, friends of my parents. Their children were the same age as us and they all spoke very good English. The children, teenagers by now, all learned the traditional dances (waltz, landler, etc) at school, as they were expected to dance them at the school end of year prom, clearly a much more formal occasion than ours.
It's raining, somehow appropriate for the mood of today.
Bernard Daddi (14th Century). Mary sits to one side, exhausted, John on the other, watching her. Jesus is no longer here; his body is just a grey husk.
Thank heavens, thank God, for 'spoilers' as they are called; we know, as they do not, that this is not the end, but the gateway to the beginning.
This is one of the pictures the Patrick Bringley discusses in 'All the Beauty in the World'.
Tenebrae singing 'Crucifixus' by Antonio Lotti (1687 - 1740) conducted by Nigel Short, in the Sainte-Chapelle, Paris.
Still too cold to sit out today, unless you are swathed in hat, coat and scarf. Which I wasn't, so I didn't. But I did stick my nose out of doors for a few minutes to see what I could see.
Lilac in leaf, wallflowers almost about to flower, and my peony is already flowering, rather recklessly. I thought they didn't come out until later. I can't see the flower though, because it is completely hidden by a clump of tall vigorous daffodils.
I've been reading 'The Violin Maker's Secret' by Evie Woods.
How would I catergorize it? There's the backstory revealed as the book progresses, tragic romance, passion for music, and the present day romance/thriller, and the whole thing shot through with a kind of magic.
It was one of the options suggested (not by me) for the Book Club. I'm not sure if all the group would gave liked it; it's what I think of as an easy, light-weight book. Fine by me - I enjoy this kind of easy reading as a contrast to weightier tomes. I do like a happy ending.
....
Here's some 'light-weight' music; Anitra's Tanz from Grieg's 'Peer Gynt' Suite. This has always seemed to me to be as light as air...
