Tuesday 27 April 2010

ᔐᔐ by hook and by crook

last year I took up my crochet hooks 
after rediscovering them in my sewing box:
making crochet corsages from merino wool
with vintage buttons:
giving some away:
*you may have noticed them mentioned here
they look like this ☝
as you can see I've been busy:
these are my bags complete with a silky lining and a brooch:
handy sized for a purse, phone and lippy:
*or camera eh Suzie?*
and little hair clips:
all the rage at Libbie's school:
now I'm making granny cushion covers:
adoring the colours with a myriad of combinations:
all I need now is a Summer fair with a stall:
what have you been making?

Monday 19 April 2010

≣ bookworm

reading at night has a soporific effect on me:
desired when the mind won't switch off:
but not so good when I really want to 
readreadread:

this little pile awaits me at bedtime:
swaps from people I've never met:

Sunday 18 April 2010

《》walk the plank

what to do when the sun is beaming down:
the skies are beautiful blue:
on the last days of the Easter break?
when the garden has been taken over:
and the camellia flowers are fading:
no not a sandy dune but a sawdusty lawn:
noisy carpenters with their radio on:
loud drills to drown it out:
escape to a quieter place:
breathe in:
soon we'll be swabbing the new deck:

Monday 12 April 2010

℧Ω neigh

it makes me smile when 'horsey' people talk about their animals:
my friend Helen is no exception:
she asked me to photograph two of her 'babies'
the images to be used on an invitation:
lucky for me her partner Keith was in the forge:
horsehoes everywhere:
on the floor, in buckets:
the fire roaring and metal an orange glow:
skillfully using his tools to shape the shoe:
hammer on anvil:
he put on a fine show:

Friday 9 April 2010

ᘞ and cockle shells

not far from my house,
a fourteen minute stroll,
is the old part of Leigh-on-Sea:
walking behind the cockle sheds:
old style fonts and shiny yatch varnish:
history and weatherboarded cottages:
fishing and shellfish:
this old place is mentioned in the Doomesday book:
cocklers supplying the restaurants of the land:
cobbled streets and memories of climbing shell mountains:
I dropped in to see my friend Richard:
always inviting and his shop full of gorgeous ceramics:
past boats and masts on the estuary:
quiet and still until the tide:
to Sara's tea garden for a ploughmans:
pot of tea, ozone and vitamin D:

Thursday 8 April 2010

❃❀ bloom

it's definitely spring in our garden:
 five massive pompom camellias are bursting:
unfurling:
swirling:
buzzing with bees:
with their green glossy leaves:
a riotous show indeed:

Monday 5 April 2010

Ꮬ rummage part two

today we went to the Truman Brewery for the 
American Apparel sale:
after a ten minute queue, we rummaged along the rails of
leggings, t shirts, hoodies, dresses & skirts:
chattering voices and squeaky hangers on rails:
colours and jersey:
Libbie saved £75 on her 5 items:
I secured a black jersey dress for a tenner:
 ❤ fashion on a budget:
lunch on the yummy Rootmaster bus:
room upstairs for a rootmaster curry and mediterranean pasta:
veggielicious:
my favourite chocolatier:
closed today but beautiful outside:
sweet sugar mice 95p:
brushfield relics:
1931:
coveting an old letterbox that's seen centuries of post:
giant rabbits and daffodils:
and Libbie smiles:

Sunday 4 April 2010

ᐇ something for the weekend

Good Friday wasn't so good:
our East London trip was delayed then cancelled:
a rummage sale by American Apparel went mad:
police grappling queuers to the ground:
seems the gods were telling us something when they put 
engineering works on the line:
change of plan ....
there's nothing like a charity shop trawl to find some goodies:
no buttons for me this time but I did get these
beauties:
⇧ outstanding three piece with the chanel line!
                                                         new and nubbly ⇧
 ⇧smiled at the sly looking guy holding his darts:
                  and the girl holding in her tum ⇧
today I stood under a huge tree:
after a big roast dinner at the railway hotel :
we were going to watch my friend Tom Burgess
as he recorded live ....
but we decided to go for a stroll instead
*sorry Tom*
and visit the peacocks:
so good to see them back at Chalkwell Park:
then home for a cup of chai and easter treats:
^_^

Friday 2 April 2010

⎋ grab your torch

last night was the opening night of 
Interruptions of the Ordinary
at tap :
entering the darkened gallery with torches in hand
we began to open plan chest drawers:
like intruders and peeping toms:
reading strangers postcards:
other peoples lives:
curated by Charlie Levine and Hayley Lock
a call for submissions of collage pieces on the subject of Post: 
many sent through the postal system to the gallery:
a previous show at Trove
contained Christmas card/collage exchanges through invitation
via facebook:
spotlight on my own submission: ☝
the small gallery contained the surreal and childlike piece 
Granma's House by John Adams:
his mysterious assemblage had our torches dancing 
to view spiders on the roof and a dinosaur with a ribbon-bondaged 
Barbie in it's teeth:
the winch room had a three screen video piece ~
Unnamed (2007) by Joe Moran, Florence Peake
and Kirsty Richardson:
three adults, one baby +
choreographic bursts within a contained home space:
the eerie cries of the baby leaked into the other galleries:
interruptions of the ordinary indeed:

Thursday 1 April 2010

♈ no fool

it's my Pops birthday today:
he was my stepdad until one day we all adopted his surname:
he is my Pops and we always have fun:

I used to help him on his milkround at the weekends:
get up, deliver bottles of milk, collect money:
we would have fried eggs sandwiches in little cafes:
and drink tea from a flask in fingerless gloves:

in his spare time he collected stamps:
poring over his stanley gibbons books:
sorting through the little squared pieces of paper:
placing them in his special albums:
once he bought a lot at an auction:
a huge bag of stamps and some cameras:

he gave one to me:
I loved clicking the shutter and looking through the viewfinder:

this is it:
it started my collection:

it makes me smile when I see him playing the same silly
games he used to play with us ~ now with Libbie and my nephews:
they haven't eaten purple rice pudding yet though:

I have been a step parent and I am a parent:
it's not easy:
I know that:
and I know how lucky I am to still have him in my life:

thank you Pops:
for many days of love and laughter: