do you mind if i knit

Whizzzzzzzzzzzzz..........ing by.

Hello, just whizzzzzzzzzing by............... like the day, which has passed in a flash. All of a sudden I realised I hadn't taken the photos I was going to take for you, of my stripey dress that I'm knitting.

I had to pop in, to say hello, despite my rush, and I skimmed through my photo files looking for something to show you.

Bunting! Just the ticket before I head off to my Wednesday night knitting group.

This bunting had been put up for the Smailholm fete I went to about a month ago. It was a tiny affair. I love the smaller fetes and country fairs, everything is so much more homemade, and the people are often more jolly and personable. There's often a 'make-do-and-mend' ethos to them, where people chip in and donate or re-purpose, which gives an immense charm to the event.

There was a smattering of stalls in the village hall, and generous cream teas on offer. A lady near the exit had a table with her handspun yarn laid out. I bought a couple of skeins, sorry I don't have a photo of it for you just yet. The lady was spinning some yarn as I approached, and I couldn't help getting engaged in conversation, she was so friendly. She has a shop in Folksy, which you can see here, and a blog here.

I love handspun yarn, there's always so much love that goes into the creation of each skein, and every skein is different, with it's own personality.

Mia, who hand dyes and spins yarn, has a magic touch. I wasn't going to mention her untill I'd photographed the gorgeous skeins I bought in her etsy shop here, but as I'm on the subject of handspun yarn, I thought I'd mention her. Her blog is called Min Inspiration, and you can reach it here. I just had a quick look at her blog, and it looks like she's spinning some delicious colourways at the moment, the brighter combinations make my mouth water.

I really must dig out my small collection of handspun fibres and let you have a look.

I've always been quite reticent about buying handspun fibres, even though I love the stunning results you get in each skein, because I've never known what to do with it. Just gazing at the yarn in it's skein gives me a lot of  satisfaction. Part of me doesn't want to undo the skein, and then there's another little urge, to use the yarn, be practical.

I think that what I need to do is knit, or crochet, (probably knit, as crochet uses so much more yarn than knitted fabric), some swatches with each skein, see how they look, and then try out a little idea that has been forming in my mind, to put these handspun yarns to some use. And I need to take some photos for you so you can see all this yarn I'm talking about, don't I?!

Gosh, the time! I really have to go! I've been talking longer than I meant to. See you Friday. Love Vanessa xxx

The season of tea and cakes is getting nearer!

Wool first, or tea and cake first?

Wool first!

Hello, you have a good weekend? It flew by for us, flew, flew, flew, and now here we are again, back to Monday.

On Saturday, we packed in quite a few different activities. First, I went to visit a gallery, called Number Four Gallery, which has a website here. I took along my folder of still lives and abstracts, wondering if they would be interested in taking some on.

They were! Jenni, who I spoke to, liked my abstracts, and would like to have some to sell, in time for Easter.

I went into the gallery feeling tense and unsure of myself, and came out feeling absolutely elated.

Next stop, a visit to the wool festival down the road from the gallery.

I'm a bit like a child in a sweet shop when it comes to a place selling yarn. I feel frienziedly excited at the mere whiff of a place selling yarn, not that you'd know I was excited, it's all going on inside, noone talking to me would know I'm feeling like a bear hungry for yarn.

As I sold a painting last week, I allowed myself to spend a little on yarn.

I know I have a stash of yarn already, and I'm not meant to be spending money, but,well it's like this, for instance, if I had to make a choice between buying shoes or yarn, even if I only had one pair of shoes, and they had holes in the soles, I'd still choose to buy the yarn, rather than the shoes. Yep, that's how much I love buying yarn.

It's unhealthy, I know.

So when I came upon Jacqueline's table of hand dyed, hand spun yarn, I completely lost to the will power I had sort of built up, will power to not spend.

I did buy a skein for £10, a beautiful skein in blues and greens, that reminds me of the sea, and mermaids. (I haven't had time to photograph it for you today, sorry about that, I'll do that another time).

Jacqueline has a website, which you can see here. She sells her yarn, and has some nice free patterns as well. The stole pattern looks lovely, and the sock pattern too.

As I was chatting to Jacqueline, some freinds of hers approached the table and joined the conversation, it turned out they have just set up a business, selling naturally dyed yarns, using only natural products. I thought I'd show my support for them by putting a link to their business, called Natural Born Dyers, here.

Louise, who owns a fabulous wool shop called Woolfish, (link to her website here), and who organises the wool festival, was multi-tasking by not only taking the entry fee, but she also had a table laden with huge cones of this Aran wool. One cone is enough to knit a gorgeous jacket she had on display, (which I stupidly didn't photograph, I have no idea why), so this turned out to be my other yarn purchase.

I picked the Heathery purple colour you can just see on the far right of the photo above.

Apparently this pattern looks good on everyone, Louise has a link to the pattern on her website, though I'm not sure the photo of it, that comes with the pattern, does justice to the design.

At this point, Hugo and I were starting to worry we might be too late for a slice of the Victoria sponge that had been recommended, on sale in the tea room.

I know, I'm not meant to be spending money, and I'm not meant to be adding to my waistline, but could you visit a wool festival and not have a cuppa and a slice of cake? Could you?! Buying wool, and drinking tea and eating cake, well, these things go together very nicely.

I also found myself thinking that this tea and cake was quite symbolic. It signalled the start of the tea and cake and visiting open gardens and country fairs season, which feels like it last happened a long time ago.

I fancied reminding myself of some of the delights of this season by going through my photos from last year.

The season of tea and cake.

The season of embroidered table cloths, on which to place your fine bone china tea cups, saucers and cake plates.

The season of open gardens, open for charity, where you get to sit and sip your tea and eat your cake, in the grand setting of a beautiful garden.

The season of bunting and happiness, dainty floral china cups, and grab your attention geraniums.

 

The season of country fairs, with their agricultural tents displaying home grown flowers and produce and baking, homemade jams, knitting and miniature gardens, and potatoes disguised as animals or babies.

You thought I was joking about potatoes disguised as babies, didn't you?!

And lastly, it's going to be the season for our garden, in the not too distant future. Eating outside, gardening, tea and cake, the sun on my face, walking round the garden, Douglas, (our boy dog), cradled in my arms, examining how things are growing, home grown flowers.

Yes, so much to look forward to as we approach spring, then summer sun.

So much to get excited about, and get excited thinking about.

And just before I forget, in keeping with the theme of tea and cake, I came across a link to an amazing tea room in San Francisco, it's called Crown and Crumpet, and if I could spirit myself somewhere right now, it would be this tea room. Not just for the tea and cakes, but for the setting too, it looks incredible. Though I fancy I might need to get my hair done, paint my nails, don some heels and a skirt, before striding in, clutching my chic hand bag, which just happens to match my shoes.

I'm a little later than usual with this post tonight, seems to have taken ages to get together tonight, it's already nine pm.

I'm going to shoot off now, got some knitting to do, and some dishes to wash up. See you Wednesday. Love Vanessa xxx

Potatoes in disguise.

Hello dear readers, lovely to see you! How would you like a bit of something to bring a smile to your face, rather than a colour fix, today?

And what do you think of the potato dressed up as a baby?! With a diaper! Don't you think it's hilarious? If not hilarious, well, pretty amusing then...........

I think this baby was meant to have that circle of tinsel on its head, as a halo, not on its  face. Some wings would have been the finishing touch in my humble opinion.

Who would have thought that a square of kitchen towel could have looked exactly like a diaper, when wrapped 'just so' round a potato.

And what about the little chap above?  The simplicity of this one is just, quite simply, beautiful. It's some Ginger, cunningly disguised as either a Crab, or a Lobster, I can't quite decide.

Maybe I'll go with the Crab idea.

This potato, craftily disguised as a Dalek, caught my eye.

A Dalek Potato, how splendid!

Or is it just that, if anyone was to get hold of a potato, and decorate it to look like something other than a potato, it's funny? Potatoes, I've discovered, can be fun.

So why isn't there such a thing as potato decorating parties?

Maybe there is. I just don't know about them. They do exist? Oh! They're for children only? Oh! Adults can only join in if supervised? Oh.................. I see, I'm too old.

The above photo is more my age group is it? Well, I don't know, I prefer the children's category.

(And just as an aside, was the person displaying these vegetables having a joke?!!! AND he got first prize. Maybe the judge was having a joke).

I had to put this cat picture in for all you cat lovers...................... is soooo sweeeet.

I'd love to own a cat that looked exactly like the one painted above.

A good use of plastic bottle tops in the miniature garden above, don't you think? A bottle top as a tiny table, and a bottle top as a fish pond, with Goldfish in it, or should they be Sharks? Toothpicks create the structure for the swing, which is very nice, but not as nice as those chocolate hundreds-and-thousands, that are meant to look like earth. It must have been so tempting for all those little eyes at table height, to reach their little fingers over, and gobble a tiny bit of 'earth'. As for the grass/gravel stuff, what do you think it's made of? My guess, and I'm sticking with it, is grated Cheddar cheese.

The grated cheese on the above miniature garden had been cleverly dyed green. I detect the input of an adult in this one, the wit is quite sophistacted for a young child, don't you think?

I had to show you this one. Potato disguised as a baby bird. It might not be as witty, or as funny as the potato diguised as a baby, but it sure is CUTE.

I agree with the award of first prize for this egg. Isn't it beautiful! So simple, love it!

Aaaahhhhh, for the summer months of entertainment, when we went to the Agricultural shows where all these photos of potatoes in disguise were taken. Heaven, I love them. And I miss them in the winter months.

About March time, Hugo and I start to wonder about the shows out loud, and we get quite excited about their imminent arrival. I'm getting a bit ahead of myself, talking about them now, especially as Christmas hasn't even gone by. I am quite simply, Not going to mention that word, Christmas. I'm wondering if maybe this year we need to get a real tree, rather than drag the fake one out of the attic, then I might start getting excited about putting up Christmas decorations. Or maybe I need to borrow a child, and be infected with some seasonal excitement. (I think I just heard lots of Mums shouting "you can borrow all my children for the weekend").

I bought our fake tree years ago, and it's still going strong. The reason I bought it, was that I hate to see dead, dried up Christmas trees abandoned infront of people's houses, after the Christmas season is over. It really does make me want to cry when I see the skeleton of a Christmas tree, lying in the street. I seriously, seriously find it distressing. BUT.................... I do love a real Christmas tree, there's nothing quite like it is there? the lovely smell. I know my in-laws always plant theirs outside when they've finished with it indoors, which I applaud. So I was DELIGHTED last Sunday, when I was watching Country File on the t.v. to see that a man has set up a company where you can hire a Christmas tree, one in a pot, that stays alive. You can even hire it year after year, have your family's name on it, and they look after it all year round, till the season of good will arrives. I'd have a real tree if there was a company near us doing the same thing. Untill then, I shall just have to carry on scrabbling around in the attic, and dragging our fake tree down a wobbly ladder.

This was meant to be a light-hearted post wasn't it?! Sorry, got a little side-tracked there, by my feelings for Christmas trees.

The Agricultural shows are often held in huge fields, set in spectacular landscape.

Like this dramatic setting. I tell you, I could bore you to tears with photos I've taken of the beautuful landscapes surrounding these events. But I won't.

And of course, there is always a 'refreshment' tent at these events, which is almost first place in the importance of things for us. The 'Industrial tent', where you see all the entries for the knitting, baking, flowers and veg and miniature gardens, and disguised potatoes, has to be first place in the importance of things, for me. The photo above shows the inside of one of the refreshment tents, I thought this was a particularly splendid one, because of the old-fashioned tables and chairs, which have obviously been brought out each year for a long time.

I took these last two photos whilst waiting for Hugo to get the tea and cakes. These refreshment tents are normally jam-packed, and it can be hard to find a seat, but we must have done that "let's go and get some tea and cake before seeing everything else" thing. In other words, lets get to the cake before everyone else does. So that's why the photos are looking empty of people.

One thing that scores loads of points, in my book, in these refreshment tents, is jam jars stuffed with flowers, sitting on each table.

Like these above. If this happens, I'm usually so happy and satisfied, the cake can be 'not very nice', and I won't mind. Flowers on tables at country fairs, make my day. The tables in these photos are looking a bit bare aren't they? Well, I forgave the tables for being bare at the time, because they were such nice tables, and I was sitting on a vintage chair. And I felt transported back to the 40's.

My system of scoring points for these events is very complicated, I know.

Would you like to see one more photo of potatoes in disguise? Yes? Oh gooody, this one is fab!

Did I say how much I love country shows?! Love 'em, love 'em, love 'em!

Now that's me done for today. Cheerio and cheers. Love Vanessa xxx

Worthy of Miss Marple.

Hello hello hello! Can't stop it from spilling out! I"VE FINISHED MY SISTERHOOD CROCHET BLANKET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Finished it last night! Can't quite believe it myself.
I don't have photos of it to show you this minute, but I will tomorrow. And anyway, I wanted to show you the rest of the Duns Agricultural Show we went to last Saturday.

Some floral photos to show you. Such beauty. I tell you this for nothing though. There was an entry, (not any in the above photos), of roses, and those roses were definitely shop bought! They were exactly like some I bought from a supermarket last week.

None of the above flowers either.
Shop bought roses hey! Scandalous!
Hilarious!
I'm not showing you photos of them in case some nutter sues me for libel!
Anyway Those sweet peas above were the real deal, such a great splodge of colour. I do love sweet peas. Their name, their fluorescent colours, their jollinesss.
Hugo and I go to these country shows speculating about the categories. Hugo still rants about the absurditity of the "my favourite socks" category, we saw one year. The "my favourite egg cup" section didn't seem to bother him. I found myself thinking about my granny's egg cups I have, and how I would have won this category if I'd entered. (cough, not that I'm competitive or anything, cough).
There was a good and imaginative section I liked, the "knitted edibles". You can see the knitted cake in the mosaic of photos above. The lady who knitted that cake was out to win that category, no question. Still, she did do a fabulous job, I have to give her her due.

Why is there no Miss Marple murder mystery set in one of these agricultural shows? Specifically the industrial tent, with all these displays in them? Sometimes I'm amazed not to hear screams and see blood everywhere, as one participant discovers her inferior rival has been awarded first, by the corrupt and biased judge.

I wish I was Miss Marple. Did you know this fact?! No, I'm sure you didn't know that fact. But there it is, I've always liked the idea of being Miss Marple.

Oh I do love these shows. Such a sense of community you get at them. People don't have to bother making something, and then have it be judged, but they do it all the same, which I think is admirable. Though of course, winning best cake or jam or whatever does sound pretty impressive doesn't it? The quilt in the photo above was the only quilt entered. But I reckon we'll see more of this sort of thing at these shows in the future, as crafting gets ever more popular.

Shall we move on to the poultry section?
I would loved to have taken the little white duck home with me. How adorable is he/she?
Hugo was convinced all the ducks were sitting in their cages feeling put out with being near the chickens. Do ducks consider themselves superior to chickens?

The poultry section was fascinating. I rarely, if ever, get to be so close to so many feathered friends.

Are these eggs not real beauties?

I'd love to have been present when all the eggs were being judged, and been party to the discussions of one eggs merit against anothers.

All the eggs looked the same to me, apart from their colouring, so I wonder what made these eggs the grand champions?

The noise in the poultry tent was quite something. Every cockerel there was determined his cock-a-doodle-doo was going to be the one to charm the ladies, and take ownership of all around him. I find the sound charming, so I was completely and utterly charmed by all the competing doodle-doos. When you're standing close to a cockerel shouting his head off, it actually sounds quite musical. Some of them had more of a musical ability than others, but I do remember very clearly thinking, "oh! That was a nice cock-a-doodle-do, I wonder who sang that one?"

Don't you just want to cheer this chap up with a big cuddle and a kiss? Call me crazy, but that's my reaction to the bulls, they always look so cuddly and a bit grumpy, which makes me want to give them a big hug.

It's the eyes, the eyes and the mouths, they're beautiful. One of the bulls couldn't keep his eyes open, even while I was photographing him. They would half open, stare at me in a glazed way, then slowly sink closed. Must have been a tiring day for him, bless the big fellow.

We get a lot of curiosity about the breed of our dogs when we go to these shows. They're Miniature Dachshunds, with wire-haired coats. Hugo is usually in charge of the doggies at these things, because I'm snapping away with my camera, so it's him who gets asked what breed our dogs are. Hugo takes a lot of delight in responding to that question with "Aberdeen Angus" (a breed of cow). When the questioner continues to look confused, he relents, and tells them what they really are.

Though Douglas, our boy dog, does look a bit like an Aberdeen Angus bull.

We spent ages watching the sheep being judged, which was fascinating, purely because it's a new experience to us. Plus we got chatting to the mother of the chap showing his Suffolk sheep, the one with the black face and legs, in the mosaic above. I don't normally warm to sheep as a general rule, I don't know if it's something to do with their eyes. But this Suffolk had suitable teddy bear qualities, and Hugo said he looked more like a dog, which is guaranteed to put him in our good books. He certainly wanted to stay cuddled up to his owner, even leaned against him, which was endearing. He didn't win unfortunately. We, who know absolutely and precisely nothing about sheep, thought he should have won.

So! What a wonderful day we had!

The show itself wasn't that big, as agricultural shows go, it was just packed with wonderful things.

And it gave me a good excuse to take lots of photos, and do a jam-packed blog post for you.

Actually, I'm itching to show you my finished blanket, just itching! I'm going to take it along to my Wednesday night knitting group to show the ladies, see what they think. So, dear readers, thank you for joining me on this big bloggy post, and hopefully you'll join me again tomorrow, for the big blanket reveal! See you Thursday! Love Vanessa xxx

Spoon comedy.

Hello dear readers, and how are you today? Well, I hope?

Today I'm showing you a morsel from our jam packed Saturday, when we went to the Duns Agricultural Show. It was a fabulous day, just wonderful, there was an abundance of fab stuff on show, and my camera didn't stop clicking.

(Hugo is cooking, and I know he's going to call me for supper soon, so I have to make this a short post. I'll have to show you something quick, ever so sorry about that).

It would be difficult to say which part of the show was my favourite, but in the industrial tent, where all the homemade goods were on show, I fell for the spoon category.

And in the spoon category, I loved this cheeky little guy with his tongue sticking out. The girl looks like she's having a good giggle to herself at the naughty spoon's behaviour.

Well, this shows how fabulously creative you can get, turning a bunch of wooden spoons, into a band of comic characters!

(There's Hugo calling me, sorry, have to dash, will just put this up for today).

But before I go, do you not love these spoons? Makes me want to have a go at doing my own spoon characters.

(Yep, just finishing up Hugo).

See you tomorrow, I'll have more time, and I'll be able to show you loads more loveliness! Love Vanessa xxx

Lemon curd like custard.

Hello dear readers! Me again! Time for a country show, show-and-tell.
I gave this post the title, 'lemon curd like custard' for one reason, a flippant reason really, I love the word 'custard'. When I think of lemon curd, I think it sounds custardy. Lemon curd has a smooth consistency, like custard, and it's a similar sunshine yellow, maybe a bit brighter. There is something reassuring about custard don't you think?  I can eat a bowl of custard on its own, easy peasy. I mention Lemon curd, because there was a lemon curd category, on display in the industrial tent, at the agricultural show we went to, last Saturday.

My favourite section of the industrial tent displays was easily, no competition, winners hands down, the 'flowers stuffed in a jam jar' category. Sheer and utter bliss, because that's my all time favourite way of displaying flowers, stuffing them in a jam jar. The knitting section was o.k. I disagreed with the winner of the knitted top section. I thought the Fair Isle tank top should have won. A cardigan won, and I felt slightly aggrieved on behalf of the owner of the Fair Isle tank top. (Just in case you're thinking I'm biased,(!), I didn't knit it myself, and I don't know the person who knitted it.)
There you go, lemon curd entries in the mosaic above.
I took so many photos of things at the show, I've had to put the majority of them into mosaics.
Knitted baby garments there as well, I loved the old-fashioned look of the highly commended piece. (Again, a little bit at odds with the  judging there).
There was a section where people could enter a single stemmed flower, just the one stem, in a jar or vase. I thought it was so charming, and easy for anyone to break a flower off a plant from their garden, (or their neighbours plant alternatively, not that I'm suggesting this was the case...........), before heading off to the show and entering it into that single stem category. No hassle, just a bit of fun, you wouldn't have to be a whiz of a gardener to go in for that competition, very democratic don't you think?
And the ice cream image? Well, I always have an ice cream at these events, and I thought the ice cream cone, in the mosaic above, was rather nicely painted.

All the single stems were displayed against the backdrop of  blue fabric. I thought the resulting colour combinations were lovely.

That yummy hot pink of the Dahlia (love Dahlias) and the bright red of the Fuschia, against the blue! Delicious!

Many of the pots of homemade jam on display didn't have gingham covers, which I thought was a shame. If I was a judge, the pots with gingham covers would sway my vote a bit.
We obviously weren't to be trusted, judging by the chicken wire enclosing all the displays. I must admit, if it wasn't for that chicken wire, I would definitely have walked off with one of the manky, dry and stale looking, half eaten dishes from the 'light lunch category' on display. Or the huge floral display that noone would have noticed me dragging out of the tent. Maybe the organisers of the show surrounded everything with high-security chicken wire, because there were scandalous thefts of  peoples prized 'light lunch displays', in previous years events.

We were allowed to touch the bulls and cows, also the Alpacas, tethered up in various other tents. If you're not a farmer, which I'm not, there is something very, very exciting about being able to stroke a grumpy looking bull, or doe eyed cow, on the head.

This fellow, in the photo above, was my favourite. Isn't he splendid? Looks so 'cuddly', but flinched when I stroked his top-knot. The farmer had one word to say about him. Grumpy.

There's something about cows that I find fascinating. I tend to anthromoporphise animals, probably unavoidable, my being a children's book illustrator, but still, cows, they are adorable and beautiful, and look like they might ponder life and it's little difficulties. Like having annoying strangers like me, big grin on my face, thinking they're cuddly.

By the time we saw the Alpacas, they had been shorn, so we got to see them looking a little disgruntled and skittish, after their no doubt demeaning shearing session. When they saw our two miniature wire haired dachshunds, they were fascinated. Their dainty heads, swivelled round on their long knecks, their huge eyes staring in disbelief and curiosity at the two mop like creatures staring up at them. I have never seen any creature, man or beast, so pointedly fascinated in our doggies.

I always think sheep should wear pink or blue twine, that looks like ribbon, round their necks. So fetching, don't you think?

What a wonderful day that was. We hadn't been to this show, the Border Union Show, for a couple of years, so were seeing it again with fresh eyes.

I shall love you and leave you now, it's getting late. Till tomorrow dear readers! Love Vanessa xxx

There's something lovely about country fairs.

Hello! Thank you for all your lovely messages yesterday and today, I'm feeling so much better today, much more bright eyed and bushy tailed, thank you! I wasn't quite up to telling you about our weekend, yesterday, so today I thought I'd show you what we got up to.

We went to a country fair on Saturday. It ended up being a drive of about an hour to get to Dalkeith, in Scotland, where the fair was being held. And it turned out to be a small affair, much too small to be driving all that way to reach it. But we made the most of our time there, or rather, I made the most of the photographic opportunities available. While Hugo and the dogs followed me around, bored as bored can be, poor things.

There's often a tent at these fairs, called the 'industrial tent'. Inside will be displays of competition entries, like baking, jam making, knitting, sewing, floral arrangements, children's art, even photography. I always love the miniature garden section, which they didn't have in this fair's industrial tent.

In this industrial tent, there was a section for kids entries, and the brief was obviously to make an animal out of household things like plastic milk containers, toilet rolls, egg cartons or what-not. This pig had not won first prize, which was a shame, I thought he was the best. I often disagree with the choice of winner of these competitions!

Sometimes I fancy stringing together a load of sweets to make myself a necklace, just like in the photo above. Do you want to see a bigger picture of the knitted scene above? Yes? Okey-dokey..................

Isn't it wonderful?! It was worth going to that fair just to see this! I love the wonky scale of everything. How the houses are so tiny next to the figure and animals. It's absolutely charming, don't you think? This piece got a splendid prize, a very fancy silver cup.

What do you think of the quirky little scene above?!

I tend to wander past the sections with the cakes without paying much attention. The judges have always tasted  them, and left them looking massacred and a bit miserable. And besides, who's interested in looking at slices of cakes you can't eat?  One year, at some other show, Hugo and I studied all the cakes in detail, looking at colour, texture, and presentation. But that's as far as we got, because of course the public aren't allowed to sample them, just look. It's the same with jam.
Then there's sometimes a 'light lunch' section,(!), and you feel like you're looking at the left-overs of someone's salad sandwich or whatever. All quite entertaining in a bizarre kind of way.

As we left the fair, there was a group of girls performing a display of baton twirling. Well, actually, it looked like a display of baton dropping. Those slippery batons, they just could not keep hold of them. And it looked like the leader was doing a routine which she hadn't taught her team. What with all the confusion of noone knowing what they were doing, and their batons flying all over the place, it was absolutely fantastic entertainment. Of course everyone applauded them.

I really want to show you the fabulous open garden we went to on Sunday, but I think that will have to wait till tomorrow now.
So, my dear readers, I hope you're all well? See you tomorrow! Love Vanessa xxx

 

Country shows................

Etal village show......... we go every year............... ........ There are big country shows, and there are littler village shows......... Etal sits at the tinier end of the scale.............. .........We have a fondness for the Etal show..........it's charm lies in it's small size.......... ........The ladies who run the refreshments area add a little magic with their flower arrangements on all the tables............ Always high on the list of important elements to a show, we feel............ ........All the tables were covered in cloths, a jam jar stuffed with flowers forming a centre piece ............ what more could you want from a country show refreshments tent I ask............. ...........The first Etal show, which was held more than a month ago now, had the best refreshment tent of all the shows we have been to this Summer........ ......... Purely because the ladies who set it up made a huge effort with the flowers, table cloths and wonderful baking......... ......... I wanted to give them a round of applause for the splendid job they did........ ..........It was as if they had brought Country Living magazine to life........... ........... It's not often those delicious settings I see in magazines become part of my day...............

Animal or vegetable....................

Animal or vegetable..........?
I neglected to show you these wonderful creations after we had been to the Alnwick Spring Show..............................
We've been dipping in to the 'Country Fair' season when we can................. And these photographs are very typical of some of the things on display in the 'Industrial Tent' at the fairs we go to.
The industrial tent is always my favourite attraction.................. from the hand knitting, to  the prize flowers, vegetables and cakes, they represent the local community in the most charming fashion...................
And of course, the children's inventive entries are always fascinating....................

 

 

 

 

 

I hope you enjoyed these joyful creations.......................