Making Good Use

Bits and Bobs

The monitor on the computer I use has finally bitten the dust after almost ten years of use.  We're not quite sure what the problem was but I suspect the 'tube' has gone - for weeks it kept making a pinging sound and flickering but on Monday it seemed to go somewhat berserk with frequent loud pings and the screen getting darker and darker.  P fiddled around with it until it was usable again but, luckily, had also ordered a new flat-screen monitor from Argos to be delivered today.  I was only thinking to myself yesterday morning that perhaps we had been a bit previous in ordering a new monitor as the old one was still just usable, then I switched the computer on again yesterday afternoon to find that the monitor had finally given up the ghost and was now completely black.  So I'm temporarily using P's computer in his study and eagerly awaiting the Argos van to arrive (the time given was anywhere between 7.00 am and 6.00 pm, so I'm pretty much stuck in the house today until they've arrived).

I'm really looking forward to having a super-duper new flat-screen monitor as it will free up a lot of room on my rather cramped desk.  The space won't be free for long as I intend to get out my trusty light box so that I can sit for at least 30 minutes each day bathing in the clear bright light which will, hopefully, trick my brain into believing that it is not really dark at 4.30 pm.  I haven't used the light box for a couple of winters but, after this year's disastrous summer, I'm feeling very 'S.A.D.' this autumn and think it might be a good idea to take the light box into use again.  I've always suffered a bit from the 'winter blues' but as I've got older I've found the dark dreary days and the long winter nights more and more difficult to deal with.  After reading a very interesting article in the Mail on Sunday the other week which said that Icelanders were the Northern Europeans least likely to suffer from S.A.D. because they have a diet very high in Omega 3 fish oils, I've even started taking Omega 3 fish oil supplements and am considering buying some fish fingers as apparently they have Omega 3 too.  Perhaps my problem with the 'winter blues' all boils down to the fact that I don't eat much fish and never have.  Who knows, but anything that can help me feel a little less fed-up at this time of the year has got to be worth a try.

Anyway, enough of the self-pity.  I received a great parcel from Gill at the weekend.  She had mentioned that she had some zips going spare a couple of weeks ago and had very kindly offered to send me some.  Not only did she send a brilliant selection of zips of all sizes and colours, Gill also included a copy of Dodie Smith's 'I Capture the Castle' which I have heard a lot about on blogland, but had never come across 'in the flesh'.  I'm really looking forward to starting on this book once I have finished the unauthorised biography of Nigella Lawson that I'm reading.  It's an interesting book although I don't think I'd have wanted to pay the cover price of £16.99 for it, but at 50p from the charity shop it's a good read and offers some interesting insights into the life of the 'Domestic Goddess'.

I had a busy few days last week listing some of my sewn and knitted items on ebay in the hope that people are already starting to think about Christmas (eight weeks yesterday according to the driver of the bus I was on  - groan!!)  I've listed some of my knitted beanie hats, some of the vintage-fabric book bags (and one has already sold - yay!!), hand-knitted traditional cotton dishcloths, and my own design Cupcake Tea Cosy - which I, luckily, still have a photo of on P's computer.

Hopefully I'll be back to 'proper' photos tomorrow from the comfort of my own desk and my new super-duper flat-screen monitor. 

Happy Halloween one and all - especially DN who is hoping to frighten all trick and treaters who call at his house by wearing his 'bones' (skeleton) outfit.

Bristle Bargains

I always enjoy a good root around the charity shops when I'm in Bristol, and Mum is always game for a trip a bit further afield than her usual haunts when I am visiting.  So, this time, we decided to take ourselves across the city to the dubiously-named Blackboy Hill / Whiteladies Road area in search of bargains.  I know, I know - the names of these roads are probably the most politically incorrect of any road names in the UK as they reflect Bristol's somewhat dodgy past in relation to the slave trade.  Apparently the names come from the eighteenth century when it was fashionable for wealthy merchant's wives to have a 'blackamoor' page boy as a personal servant.  The 'white ladies' would go shopping and the 'black boys' would be left waiting for them - and these somewhat iffy names have continued until the present day.

These days this area is heavily populated by students at the University of Bristol and is also quite a mecca for charity shops.  As always when we visit this area, our first port of call was the Salvation Army charity shop.  This time it proved to be particularly fruitful for me as I picked up loads of knitting / sewing booklets at 10p each, a very nice Marks and Spencer shirt for P for £3, and a Buzz Lightyear toy for DN for 20p.  This particular Salvation Army shop always has a box of free books by the till and I poked around and picked out a couple of books.  One of those proved to be a great find for selling on Amazon, I listed it when I got back home for £29.95 and it sold the next day - result!!

I'd been on the lookout for a new winter coat or jacket for myself and was delighted to find this one in the local hospice charity shop.

I'm not sure that I would have gone for something with such a large faux-fur collar if I had been buying this new in a shop, but it's in nice condition, it fits well and it was a good bargain - what more could I want!!  It was just as well I bought it as the weather was a lot colder than I had expected it to be so it had already had plenty of wear even before I got back to Essex.

In another charity shop I bought 200g of a chunky Sirdar wool in a lovely dark petrol-blue colour.  I was thinking about using it to knit a scarf but in the end have used a pattern for a nice knitted handbag which I found in one of Mum's knitting books. 

This picture was taken last Thursday and I've already finished knitting both pieces for the bag now - ahh, the speed of knitting with 6.5mm needles and chunky yarn. 

It's just as well I had a bonanza in Whiteladies Road as visits to the charity shops nearer to Mum's house proved to be rather disappointing.  It never fails to amaze me the prices that are asked in some of those charity shops - don't they realise that, in some cases, it would be cheaper to buy the item new!!

Bristle*

Bristol has two railway stations that are served by trains to and from London.  The more famous one is Isambard Kingdom Brunel's Victorian gothic masterpiece - Temple Meads, the other one is Bristol Parkway, for many years merely a large shed at the side of the track.  These days it is much fancier and modern, and in many ways is far more 'upmarket' than good old Temple Meads.  There are two reasons why I usually arrive in Bristol via Parkway - 1. the journey time from London is 20 minutes shorter as the train goes directly from Swindon to Bristol Parkway (unlike the Temple Meads route which also stops at Chippenham and Bath), and 2. the recorded message in the lift has been done by someone with the most wonderful Bristol accent.  Whenever I hear that Farmer Giles-type voice intoning 'Dorrrrrs closing, firrrrrst florrrr', I know I'm back home.

I never liked having a Bristol accent when I was younger as someone with a West Country accent was always portrayed in the media as being a complete idiot with a piece of straw hanging out of their mouths (not helped by The Wurzels or course).  I always wished I spoke with a 'witty and with-it' Liverpool or Geordie accent.  These days it seems to be quite cool to have a West Country accent with people like Justin Lee Collins and Stephen Merchant making it quite trendy to speak 'Bristle'.  Those two even do voice-overs on adverts now, and not just for 'rural' products like butter - something I never thought I'd hear.

I realise I must retain quite a robust Bristol accent as now I live in Essex I'm quite often asked 'Where do you come from?', or 'You're not from round here, are you?'  And this is despite me never using the word 'gert' to describe something as big or excessive.  Nor, saying the famous Bristol phrase - 'Where's it to then?', meaning where is that?  But I do still refer to shoes you would wear for doing P.E. as 'daps' instead of plimsolls - I mean if you don't have daps you can't have a 'dap-bag' to keep them in!!  In fact, I never realised 'daps' was not used all over the country until I went to college aged 19 and found only me and a girl from Somerset knew what I was talking about.  When I'm cold I say I'm 'shrammed'.  Snow that stays on the ground is 'pitching' rather than 'settling'.  And small children's hands will forever be known to me as 'pudds' or 'mitts'.  I can remember first reading Thomas Hardy's 'Tess of the D'Urbervilles' when I was doing my A Levels, and being amazed that they felt the need to include a translation of some of the West Country words because it all made perfect sense to me.

I love the way some Bristolians really mangle the language with phrases such as 'I said to she, and then she said to I', and 'how bist be?'.  Then there is the catch-all greeting of 'alright?' which means anything and everything from 'how are you?' to 'hello, nice to meet you'.  And added to this is the habit of calling even perfect strangers 'my love' or 'my lover', something I've done in Essex to, say, helpful shop assistants - which does attract some rather odd looks.

These days far from being ashamed of my Bristol accent, I'm really proud that I speak with a West Country burr and I hope it never gets lost or subsumed by the local Essex 'estuary English'.  Perhaps I'll even take up using the word 'gert' and see if anyone understands what I mean.

*The way Bristolians pronounce Bristol.

Hedge Fund

Mum's front garden is surrounded by lush thick hedges.  They give her garden wonderful privacy and they are a joy to look out at when they have been nicely trimmed.  Dad used to cut their hedges and the hedges of the ladies who live either side.  These were all done with the most wonderful military precision and although the road slopes a little, Dad's hedges were always as straight as a dye.  Dad would spend quite a lot of time out with the electric hedge trimmer, and would wield it with such gay abandon that slicing through the cord was a regular occurence and there was even a near miss with the tips of his fingers once!! He would always tuck in stray bits of branches he saw sticking out, and God help any passing child who pulled on the hedge as he / she went past!!  In short, the hedges were Dad's pride and joy.

After Dad died Mum had a local chap who 'does gardens' to cut the hedges.  Now he always made a very nice job, but last time charged Mum £40 (and cut through the hedge cutter's cord)!!  We both felt that this was so outrageous that I've girded my loins (so to speak) and got to grips with the vicious electric hedge cutter.

These were the hedges this morning.

Somewhat shaggy and wild, and a total disgrace as far as Dad would have been concerned.

 

This was the result after half an hour's wielding of the hedge cutter - something that Dad would have been vaguely pleased with. 

I must say that although I find the hedge cutter rather heavy and cumbersome, there is something amazingly satisfying about seeing these before and after pictures.  And even more satisfying is knowing it didn't cost Mum anything more than the price of the electricity used.

Here's A Few I Made Earlier

I'm staying a few days with my Mum in Bristol and, oddly enough, there seems to be a lot more of my handiwork here than there is in my own house.  Some of it I made many years ago.

Like this enormous patchwork cushion I made for Mum one Christmas about 20 years ago.  All the fabric is vintage Laura Ashley and the cushion measures about 27 x 27 inches.  Really it is the size of a floor cushion but Mum uses it to sit up in bed when she can't sleep.  I made use of it myself when she was in hospital last year and have to admit that it is incredibly comfortable.  What amazes me is that everything was sewn by hand - and at that time I had just bought my own house and was working full-time - where did I find the energy to embark on a project like this.

There are a couple of newer hand-made items which were originally made for DN but now live permanently at Grandma's house.

This rabbit glove puppet which I made for Easter last year and who now keeps Grandma's pot of copper coins safe.

And a little mouse softie.  Both of these were made using some very psychadelic thrifted fleece fabric.

Finally, because I've got the most beautiful Maine Coon as a photographic model, here are a couple of gratuitously 'cute' cat pictures.

'You've just disturbed my beauty sleep photographing me.'

'You mean you want me to smile too.'

All Is Safely Gathered In 'Ere the Winter Storms Begin*

The weather was so beautiful yesterday afternoon that I decided it was time to get out in the garden and to collect in as many apples as possible before we get hit with either a frost or high winds.  So far this autumn the weather has been wonderful - warm, although not always sunny, days with light winds and mild frost-free nights.  It feels like mother nature is making up a bit for the wash-out summer we had this year.

I thought I'd try and store some of the apples, it's a bit of an experiment as I'm not sure how well they will keep, but we've had so many this season it would seem a wicked waste not to give it a go. 

I picked in as many of the apples as I could sensibly reach on the tree (this photo is about a third of them), wiped them all over with a clean damp cloth, wrapped them individually in newspaper and stored them in an old cardboard banana box.  There were about three layers altogether when I'd finished.

Some of the apples had suspicious holes in them so they went into the compost bin (don't wish to encounter a maggot when I cut the apples up - yuk!), and there are still a few left on the tree, but this little lot should see us nicely through the next couple of months - provided they store OK and I'm keeping my fingers firmly crossed for that.  I put the box in the shed which is cool and dark and, hopefully, a good environment for the apples.

On Saturday the local scout group had a second-hand book sale which proved to be very good and I came away well pleased with what I'd managed to find.  There were boxes and boxes of books for sale - most of them fiction, but there was a reasonable selection of non-fiction too.  I had mainly attended to look for books to resell but I couldn't resist picking up this one for myself.

It's not a book I've ever come across before (it dates from 1977) but there seem to be some nice recipes in it which are not only economical but a bit 'different' too.  I'm always on the lookout for something new to cook, I find that's half the battle with cooking - trying to decide what to eat.  I'm hoping to give some of the recipes a 'whirl' soon and I'll let you know how I get on.

*I love that line from 'Come, Ye Thankful People, Come', and I like the idea of having lots of supplies put away before the worst of the weather arrives, echoes of being a primitive hunter/gatherer I suppose.

Sunset and Spider

Yesterday evening there were two amazing sights to be seen from the comfort of my own home, and at no cost whatsoever.

The first was the most beautiful sunset - light clouds coloured a deep coral-pink by the setting sun, and laid delicately on the violet-blue of the sky.

Absolutely beautiful and so transient - within five minutes it had all faded away into an ordinary dusk.

Another breathtaking, although by no means as pretty, sight was this ABSOLUTELY HUGE spider which I found creeping around the top of the front door.

Good job I don't suffer from arachnaphobia!! (And what terrible paint streaks there are on the door - thankfully nothing to do with either P or me!!!!)

Same Old, Same Old

Yup, still making knitted beanies.  Here is the latest one posing next to the Virginia creeper which is just beginning to turn the most amazing shades of red.

The colour of this wool is so right for autumn, shades of ripe pumpkins and falling leaves.  Sadly, as I only had one 50g ball of wool, I could only knit a small hat so this one will probably only fit a young girl or an adult with a much smaller head than me (not too difficult as I have a whopping sized bonce-piece!!)

And, yup, still making Matryoshka appliques.  Here is the latest offering, made using some of the lovely apple-green wool material which Gill sent me recently.

Buttons for Buttons

To celebrate feeling much better, I went over to Billericay this morning to peruse the charity shops and pick up a few tasty treats in Waitrose (love that shop but their prices are astronomical!!).

I didn't have a lot of success in the charity shops, a couple of books for re-sale but no new shirts for P, clothes for DN, fabric, wool, clothes for me etc etc.  However, I did manage to find some very nice buttons in one of the shops.

A set of 10 mottled grey / ice blue large-ish buttons.

A set of 9 green wooden buttons that remind me of snake skin.

And these two whoppers.  It's hard to tell in the photo but each of these monsters measures 2 1/2 inches across, they are buttons to make a serious statement with!  They are a very subtle mottled navy blue and are a lot nicer in the flesh than they seem in this picture. I was very pleased with my haul of buttons, and they only cost me 75p in total. 

One of the other charity shops had obviously undergone a refit in the past couple of weeks as the whole place smelt very strongly of new paint, the layout had been completely changed, and all the clothes were hanging on really posh wooden hangers.  Naturally all the prices had gone up accordingly and they were asking £5.00 for a very ordinary New Look t-shirt.  Admittedly it was in a 'plus' size but I seriously doubt whether it cost much more than a fiver to buy it new.  I don't know why charity shops want to look like really upmarket boutiques.  Surely if you want to buy second-hand clothes you are quite happy to do it in somewhat less 'elegant' surroundings as long as the prices are good.  And if you want to buy your clothes from somewhere that uses expensive wooden hangers then you probably don't want to buy second-hand anyway.  I also feel quite strongly that these charities should be using their profits to actually benefit the charity involved, not having expensive shop re-fits and trying to be something they are not, ie upmarket boutiques!!

Back in the Land of the Living

Although I'm still feeling a little like this spider's web outside our front door - very fragile - today, for the first time in five days, I've managed to heave myself out of bed at a reasonable hour, get dressed, and even walk to the High Street.  It's been a long time since I've had a germ which has made me feel so tired and washed-out.  I've spent hours and hours dozing and lying about in bed reading trashy magazines, days-old newspapers and re-reading several of my favourite Ruth Rendell / Barbara Vine novels.  I hate being ill, I always fear that I'll never feel well again, or that my energy levels will never fully recover.  All total rubbish of course as I always bounce back eventually.  This charming germ headed straight for my chest and has left me with a cough worthy of a 60-a-day smoker.  Mum says that germs have always pitched straight on my chest as I have a very short neck - which is true.  Poor DN is also rather short in the neck area, and sure enough he has also caught this latest lurgy and it's headed straight for his chest too - that child sure is a chip off the old block.

P very kindly drove me to the High Street on Saturday afternoon so that we could stock up on a few essentials.  We thought the place would be empty as everybody would be at home watching the England / Australia rugby match.  Sadly, we were mistaken.  Everywhere was really busy and I had to queue for three-quarters of an hour in the Post Office in order to 'post' some Amazon sales.  I use the word 'post' lightly as, of course, nothing will leave the Post Office until Wednesday due to the Royal Mail strike.  It was just as well that I did persevere in the queue as after Saturday my local Post Office were going to be refusing to take in any more parcels as they had run out of space to store them.  So much for the advice given by Royal Mail to post all items in a post office and not in a letter box!!

Today, feeling much brighter, I braved the rain and headed for WH Smith as I had a voucher for £5 off when you spend £12 on stationery.  I spend a lot on stationery in order to post out my Amazon / Ebay sales so I was really pleased to be able to get what amounts to 40% off.  The High Street was really quiet because of the rain, and it was great, for once, to not be encumbered with my shopping trolley and to just have a nice mooch around WH Smith and a couple of charity shops.

I knew I was on the mend when I felt like doing a bit of knitting yesterday evening.  In fact I managed to complete one of these dishcloths in no time at all.

I really enjoy knitting these and I'm trying to get a reasonable stock up together as I've plans to perhaps 'do' a craft fair in the run-up to Christmas.