Making an Effort

I was moaning last Saturday that the unrelenting heat and the disinclination to do anything was worrying and depression must Not be allowed to creep in just because the weather is too hot to do much. 

So I've been trying to be positive all week and it's been a tad cooler - except for Thursday and yesterday, which helped.

But annoying things kept happening............

• The greenhouse door was very stiff to slide open and when I felt along the metal track at the top I found what I thought was a stone, but it turned out to be a small washer and nut and the next thing I knew the door was right off it's top track, I lost the nut in the grass and  had to lift the door off the bottom track and lean it against the fence. I managed to find a tiny nut and washer and the runner wheel was just on the ground but it needs more than two hands to get another bit off so the door can slide back on again - help needed from BiL sometime. Hope we don't get strong winds to get into my door-less greenhouse and break the glass!
•  One of my plastic watering cans has sprung a leak - seeping out of the joints on the base if it's left standing with water in it. I've got another and a heavier metal one so it won't be replaced.
•  The  indoor slip on shoes/sandals that I wear all the time fell apart and luckily I'd bought a new pair online in the sales last year right ready. They are one of the only  things I can wear  without arch supports.

However...............trying to be positive................

1. The garden is full of baby Blue Tits and Goldfinches chitter chattering again - this must be their second hatchlings of the year. I'm glad I carried on feeding the sunflower hearts as there's probably  a shortage of food for them with everywhere being so dry.

2. I got the two scrapbooks out and went through my loose stamps and pictures to fill up some more pages. Each page has a theme rather than just random and it's sort of old fashioned scrapbooking rather than the newer idea.

Old bikes and motor cycles

Books and reading

Wartime

Night and sunset

People and chairs

Post

It's nearly five years since I started playing with scissors and glue and I like how the pages look, there are still spaces in some places to fill but only 4 more completely blank pages. I'll need to look out for another cheap watercolour book or scrapbook sometime.

3. I'm thinking about hobbies that I used to do and maybe get going on them again - it's been ages since I spotted a half-finished tapestry kit at a boot sale or charity shop - they used to turn up quite regularly. So maybe I'll have a look on ebay to see what's there.

4. I contacted friends in Essex who I'd not heard from for months to see if they were OK and arranged for them to visit later this month.

5. Had the whole week  hardly going out and without even going out for shopping (although I will today) and didn't feel depressed at all!

Being Grateful

• For the gift of windfall cooking apples from a friend at exercise group, although they were a bit wormy and only made two small bags for the freezer - (mustn't look a gift horse  apple in the mouth!)
• Very glad I didn't go out to the shops early Wednesday morning or to the midweek boot-sale as there was an accident on the A140 which closed the road for several hours, even getting a mention on the Radio 2 travel news and sending all the traffic passed my bungalow to jam up through the village - where there is also a road  closed out of the village for water main work. Goodness knows how the huge lorries managed the other small road out of the village.
• Managing to keep cool inside in that extra hot heat of Thursday and Friday.
• Thankful that there have been no field fires nearby - Feel so sorry for the people in the West Midlands who have lost their homes. 

Have a good weekend - it will be another quiet one here, more European Athletics Championships on TV to watch later  after I've been out for shopping.

Wash Day?

 Is Monday still washing day?

This is one of the pages in my scrapbook--------------

I came across some old sayings about wash day

They that wash on a Monday

Have all the week to dry;

They that wash on a Tuesday

Are not so much awry;

They that wash on a Wednesday

Are not so much to blame;

They that wash on a Thursday

Wash for shame;

They that wash on a Friday

Wash for need;

And they that wash on Saturday

Oh, slovens are indeed.

Wash your clothes on New Years Day and you'll be 'Washing for the dead' or washing a loved one away, meaning someone in your household will die in the coming year!

Why is wash day on a Monday? One story says "the Pilgrims disembarked from the Mayflower on a Sunday and the first priority of the women after the voyage was to wash all the clothes, thereby setting a schedule from that day forth that continued for centuries".

I was reminded of this old song that used to be on children's radio 'Listen with Mother' in the late 1950s

Back Tomorrow

How Did The Week Go So Quickly?

 ...........................I have no idea.

Five minutes ago it was the wet Friday when I abandoned a book, a jigsaw and a cross stitch and now its 8 days later.

I've been mostly at home this week apart from exercise group, taking my old hoover and some other bits to the Recycling Centre and getting a haircut. I didn't need to go food shopping but had Grandchildren photos on the memory stick to print and needed a new battery for the doorbell so had a quick trip to Diss for a change. 

(A new battery for the outdoor bit  of  the doorbell didn't make it work and I'd already tried new batteries in the indoor part, so I guess that means a new doorbell needed - bother)

As well as the short outings I finished the small cross stitch picture and got it into a card blank,

Got all my scrap book bits onto the table and filled up more pages

And read a good book 

Hope you have a good weekend - I shall return Monday if I can think of something to blog about.

 

Big Spender at the Car-boot Sale

 I went mad at last  Saturday's Car-Boot sale and spent the grand total of £6 plus 75p on two giant tomatoes - forgot to get tomatoes when I was shopping and there was only one vegetable seller at the car boot with only these giants.

I was pleased to spot another of the Little Toller Books Nature Classic reprints and paid £1 - I've now got a collection of 10 - whoops!

The packs of  grow your own cress seeds for children  were 3 for £1 (2 grandchildren to be entertained here next Sunday) and the handy set of measuring cup/spoons were also £1. I've never had a full set like this before.

But my favourite find was a very old scrapbook full of all sorts of pictures and cuttings going back to the 1930's/40s. I had to pay £3 as it wasn't in one of the house clearance boxes but being sold by more of an antique seller lady - a lady who sells antiques rather than a very old woman!

It's got some interesting pages. I'm going to take out my favourite pictures and add them to my own scrapbooks.

Had my first-of-the-year whippy 99 ice cream too. It was a bit odd having ice cream for breakfast at 8.30 am, and will probably be the first and last time - but the sun was shining and it seemed like a good idea at the time!

Back Soon 

Sue

Gloomy First Week of November

 Grey, grey, grey and even greyer - that's what the sky has been every day this week in Mid Suffolk. It's not very inspiring. According to the Met Office website we might get a little sun on Monday and Wednesday if we're lucky................at least it's not cold - about the only good thing to say.

I even had to use the tumble dryer for 30 minutes one day as there wasn't any drying weather all week.

 

I got my scrapbooks and bits that I've been cutting out from various places, onto the table. The dull weather meant having the lights on a lot to see but I spent a while adding more themed pages.

Making scrapbooks all started in 2021 when I found these below at a boot sale and wanted to save some of the cuttings and postcards rather than them being chucked into landfill. I couldn't save everything as some were water damaged and foxed but kept the best bits including the postcards of Eric Ravilious - on the black pages.

 Someone asked what I do with them. Well there are only two so far and not yet full up but I'll keep them and perhaps pass them onto grandchildren or maybe they will be useful to someone. 

This isn't the scrapbooking that is done using bought bits and photos but recycling all sorts, including old tatty books, stamps, cuttings from various places, cards and I found a bundle of old nostalgia postcards in a charity shop a long while ago that have been good to use.

These are some of the pages I've done. (I've used a couple of art sketch books picked up at boot sales rather than buying special scrapbooks)

Chairs - with room for more

                                                           

Working horses and donkeys

Through doors or windows - with a bit of space left for more

Apples and blossom

Hats

WWII

It keeps me out of mischief!

*******************

Thank goodness for the TV this week - I've not been far so it's been good company . There are new series of Antique Road Trip and QI and the second of a police drama called Ellis, and Shetland came back. I watched series 10 of The Brokenwood Mysteries on the U channel - it's the New Zealand version of Midsummer Murders!

No  LOW spend November to date..............

Brought Forward £ 242    Direct Debits (Council Tax, phones, broadband, charity)

                             £    8   Various donations re book fair etc

                             £  36.80  Food Aldi and Morrisons; Keep Moving Group; Gift and postage for new                                                   baby.

This weekend........................In my diary there is a Christmas Fayre or Sale somewhere every weekend from now to mid December. Sometimes even three on the same day, which will be difficult!

I didn't get to one last weekend but hope to this weekend and perhaps another church visit too and I really need to empty the compost bin that's been stood for a year.

Have a good weekend

I'll be back Monday 

Sue

Old Fashioned Scrapbooking

 I've always liked playing with scissors, paper and glue and we always had scrapbooks for Christmas when I was little and some of the Gloy glue that came in a glass bottle with a rubber top that had to be stabbed with a sharp scissor point to get the glue out....health and safety horror!

It was almost exactly 2 years ago when my blog post looked like this............

It was the Wednesday boot sale a few weeks ago and fishing through a box of books that one of the house clearance bods had on the ground by his van I found 2 old scrapbooks of postcards and cuttings.

One of them opened at a page with a poster and postcards about and by the artist Eric Ravilious. I love his work.

The man only wanted a £1 for the two so I bought them.....................for goodness sake .............why do I want someone else's collections?!

I just couldn't bear the thought of them being chucked on a bonfire or in a dustbin. 

I took lots of the postcards out of the scrapbooks and some of the cuttings but several were water or damp  damaged, too well stuck or not subjects that interested me.

For a while I couldn't decide what to fix them into, modern books for scrapbooking have small pages and not many of them but then remembered I had a big watercolour drawing pad, also found at a boot sale. I collected more interesting bits from some old books plus some of my own old postcards and got some photo corners for the postcards and then started sticking things in - just like 60 years ago!

Not quite as random as they used to be,  as I've been filling pages on a theme.

Apples

and children.

Snow

and farms.

I filled up one whole book and found another watercolour art book half price in The Works, much cheaper than books sold for modern scrapbooking (which is a bit different to what I'm doing). Every now and again my dining table looks like this.....

I'm still having great fun with scissors, paper and glue!

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Greetings Cards

 At one Sunday car boot sale a few weeks ago I came home with nothing except this bundle of lovely cards to use for birthdays/Christmas, they are mostly hares or owls and were 50p each. 

Finding these gave me a nudge to sort out my card making stuff - I really needed to have a sort out and clear out as when the en-suite is rebuilt in the bedroom my craft shelves and boxes will have to be moved out and after the work is done there won't be as much room for them as previously.

This year I think I've only put together a couple of cards from die-cut toppers and can't really get up any enthusiasm for card making anymore.

So I had a big clear out - material I was keeping "just in case I ever bought another sewing machine" was reduced to a smaller box; a large box of ribbons and bows was whittled down to just a small bag that went in with the material; another big box of random bits for decorating cards went out;  lots of papers were put into a box ready to go to grandchildren for crafting and all that meant  I went from 2 sets of shelves full of stuff down to one and several empty storage boxes to put in the garage/sell or give away along with the spare shelf unit.

 

I've kept the cross stitch charts, a few small kits, aida, threads and card blanks and the peel-off labels,  because perhaps sometime in the future I'll be glad of doing X stitch again. Also hanging onto a folder of die cut sheets that are easy to use for cards. I've kept a box of shape cutters and serrated scissors which hopefully will be passed onto the grandchildren when they are older. But everything else is in the car ready for a charity shop.

How did you get on during the first of the Red Hot Days? (We were only in the Amber warning area here but plenty warm enough) It would have been nicer here without the workman next door - carrying on with laying their patio with his radio going all day. I had all jobs done by 10am and settled down with the World Athletics Championships on TV, lots of glasses of water, a Sudoku book, another of my library books and the start of turning an old watercolour book into a scrapbook to keep all the best bits from the old scrapbooks that I found in the boot sale last year and to add some of my own old postcards and scraps.

 

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Eric Ravilious

A few weeks ago I mentioned finding someones scrapbook at a boot-sale which fell open on a page with postcards featuring work by Eric Ravilious. 

This was my favourite

 

                                                                           "Caravans"

 

I'm not sure If I knew about him before but it was the publication or rather re-printing, of the book "Long Live Great Bardfield: The Autobiography of Tirzah Garwood" by Persephone books in 2016 that really brought him to my attention. Details Here

From t'internet..............................

Ravilious, born in 1903, studied on a scholarship at the RCA where his tutors included William Rothenstein and Paul Nash and he first met life-long friend Edward Bawden.He married Tirzah Garwood in 1930. She was also an artist and engraver and the couple met at Eastbourne College when he was teaching there. In the 1920s he made his early reputation with wood-engravings but by 1936 had started making lithographs with the Curwen Press and taking commissions for illustration and book jacket design whilst continuing to paint the southern English countryside. Ravilious was later assigned to the Royal Navy as one of the first Official War Artists in 1941, being transferred the year after to the Air Ministry. On service to Iceland in August of that year, he died whilst accompanying an air sea rescue mission. 

When Ravilious and Bawden graduated from the RCA they began exploring the Essex countryside in search of rural subjects to paint. Bawden rented Brick House in Great Bardfield as a base and when he married Charlotte Epton, his father bought it for him as a wedding present. Ravilious and Garwood lodged in Brick House with the Bawdens until 1934 when they purchased Bank House at Castle Hedingham  which is now also marked by a blue plaque. There were eventually several other Great Bardfield Artists.

  These are the other postcards of his paintings that were in the scrapbook

"Geraniums and Carnations"

"Hull's Mill, Sible Hedingham, Essex"

"White Horse and Train"

 Once I saw these I had to buy the scrapbook! I've taken out some of the cards in the scrapbook but I'm going to add in other bits to make it my own. These Eric Ravilious cards are definitely keepers and there are also a few postcards featuring paintings by his friend Edward Bawden.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

 

She's Definitely Lost The Plot!

It was the Wednesday boot sale a few weeks ago and fishing through a box of books that one of the house clearance bods had on the ground by his van I found 2 old scrapbooks of postcards and cuttings.

One of them opened at a page with a poster and postcards about and by the artist Eric Ravilious. I love his work.

The man only wanted a £1 for the two so I bought them.....................for goodness sake .............why do I want someone else's collections?!

I just couldn't bear the thought of them being chucked on a bonfire or in a dustbin 

I've taken many of the postcards out of the black paged book (it had lots of empty pages but some beautiful postcards which I will keep) and unstuck what I could from the  other book  as it was an old sticky-type photo album that isn't acid-free several were spoiled by the glue and others spoiled by damp.  I've bought  some photo corners and I'm going to amalgamate the two then add in some postcards that I've had around for ages and find some more pictures from an old childrens book and turn the black-paged book into my own scrapbook.

 

Back Tomorrow

Sue