Nothing to show for it!

Old Ada Hendriks (my maternal grandmother),

she of the wise saw and adage for every occasion, had

two questions in particular which were guaranteed to

drive me to near distraction.

Oh to be in England now that summer's here.

This wet, miserable bank holiday weekend somehow put

me in mind of her because I have accomplished

absolutely nothing of any worth whatsoever.

Here comes Question One.  I can still see the heavily

corseted old Victorian matron now in my mind's eye saying,

"You've just had three days off my girl and what have you

got to show for it?"

Nada granny, zilch, rien, zero, diddley squat.

I have accomplished nothing!

Whatever happened to sharing?

I really dislike bank holidays.  We're expected to do things,

enjoy stuff and generally put ourselves about a bit.

Well I've tried all that all to no avail, I really have.

I know the feeling.

I've been to a combined garden and dog show with my

lovelly Russian friend Gala and dog Max only to find that

the dog show wasn't on until the next day and the garden

show was farce. (That should have been "a farce"

I think I'm turning into an honorary Russian.)  Three pot

plants and a burger van with no customers.

I exagerate slightly but you get my drift.

Shall we call it a draw?

Rain stopped play both at the Acle cricket club and, more

importantly, at the allotments so no beans to freeze

as it's too wet for picking and too soggy to plant out my

parsley seedlings, so I was stuffed there too.

A girl after my own heart.

And try as I might inspiration for a new design simply wouldn't

come to me.  So as the rain lashed against the windows and

caused tumult on my pond I picked up my sewing only to find

that it was much too dark to see and the bulb had gone in

the lamp behind my chair.  Bugger, back to the boxed sets and

a square or five of bitter Belgian chocolate by way of recompense.

At least the Morris men copped it too.

Which bring me rather neatly on to the second of Ada's

irritating questions.  "Come on girl, speak up." (prod with

bamboo walking cane).  "What have you got to say for yourself?"

Donkey ride anyone?

I know what I was usually thinking at that point but I'll leave you to

fill in the blanks lest a ghostly voice should tell me to go

immediately to the bathroom and wash out my mouth with soap

and water.  No way Granny, that would probably constitute

child abuse these days!

A Long Dog special

For those of you who didn't manage to spot it on

Facebook here is a novel new Long Dog design

aimed exclusively at the Russian and Chinese

pirate market.

It measures 247 x 133 stitches

and is called Swivel on This!

Please don't attempt to buy it as I'm sure someone

out there will have the brass faced cheek

to offer it as a download on one

of their tacky little sites.

Let's hope they understand the message.

The Broderers' Guild at Norwich Cathedral

In a recent post about Norwich Cathedral I promised to

expand further about an exhibition of embroidered church

vestments and the Broderers' Guild who look after them.

Established in 1997 the Guild is responsible for the upkeep and

repair of all ecclesiastical textiles, as well as designing and

making new items such as chasubles, stoles and frontals

They're all volunteers and are always looking for new members

to join their team.

They also offer workshop tours on which it's possible to go

behind the scenes and gain insight into the Guild's work with

textiles.  Tours currently cost £4 per person and early

booking is advisable due to limited space.  Then round

off the afternoon with tea and cakes in the Refectory.

What's not to like about that.

A real labour of love

When I met the ladies they were working on a conservation

piece which they had practically rebuilt from scratch.

Nearly all the mediaeval bugle beads had fallen off and needed

replacing and the actual fabric itself needed urgent repair and

attention too.

This whole piece was restored bead by bloody bead!

Apparently the ancient beads were so thin that not even the

finest of modern beading needles could be used and each one

had to be threaded by hand onto specially prepared

waxed thread.  And you thought cross stitch was fiddly?

But that's not the end of the story.  Once all the beads

are firmly secured in place, rather like thatching a roof,

a minutely thin layer of netting is stitched in place over the top

to catch any beads should they fall off again

sometime in the year 2500+.

To book a tour or for further information about volunteering

opportunities please contact Helen Jenkins on 01603 218326.

Or, alternatively, email broderers@cathedral.org.uk

for any questions or queries you may want to put to them.

And why not visit the website while you're at it:

www.cathedral.org.uk

A long dog day in heaven

Stop me if I've mentioned this before

but I do have the very softest of spots in the

whole of soft spot land for running dogs

large and small so it will come as no surprise

when you hear that I've just been surrounded

by hundreds of the exquisite creatures and feel

like I may have died and gone straight to heaven

in the process.

I've been nibbled by whippet pups who wouldn't sit

still to have their photo taken.

I've been in the company of lurcher men who

always bring a bottle just in case.

I've seen a Bedlington cross too beautiful for words.

I've been delighted to see young families out

with their dogs.

I've thought very seriously about stealing a van

just for what's in the back of it.

I've seen more saluki crosses than you could

shake a stick at.

I've seen dogs who like to drive .....

..... and others who prefer the back seats.

There's been the rough .......

..... and the smooth,

and just about everything else in between.

They seem to have picked up a good sniff.

I think I'll tag along and see where it goes.

Lure coursing at Raveningham,

it's the only place to be.

Say it with flowers: The Carnation

No self-respecting sampler should be without a carnation

or three tucked away in it's borders or standing tall in some

buxom vase in pride of place.

What is interesting is that it's name is so completely different

in all the major European languages.  Very often there

would be similarities making it easy to guess what flower

someone was talking about, but not so in the case

of the magnificent carnation.

Oeillet - French

Anjer - Dutch

Nelke - German

Garofano - Italian

Clavel - Spanish

They make wonderful squirrel perches.

and in Russia it sounds like something you should

shout loudly before necking a vodka shot - gvozdika!

This symbolic flower is associated with the bonds of affection;

health and energy; fascination and love.  Also a pinkish flesh

tint once used widely in oil paintings of buxom nudes.

The big ones will even take the weight of a stag!

It's the birth flower for the month of January,

the first wedding anniversary flower (new husbands

please take note) and apparently the state flower

of Ohio.  I wonder who decides these things.

Let's shout bagsey on the dog rose for Long Dog!

Colour also plays a part in the symbolism of the carnation.

White is for pure love (baby samplers), red for deep love

(wedding samplers) and purple for capriciousness (quick

samplers that use up spare threads),

Most significant though are the pink carnations which were

superstitiously believed to have first appeared on earth

formed from the tears of the Virgin Mary on her

pathway to Calvary and are symbolic of a mother's

undying love.

It's also the trade name for a delicious brand of evaporated

milk in the UK, as all baby boomers will know, which goes

particularly well with tinned pineapple chunks for

Sunday afters.

The plot thickens .....

This weekend just gone was exceptionally busy by

my standards because not only was it the allotment open

day but it also marked the start of my tenancy of

a second piece of land - Plot 19.

Numerologically I'm very happy with that because when

you add the number 6 of my original plot to the number 19

and then reduce the figures down this comes out at 7.

And 7 is my birth number and the magic number too

so how can I possibly fail to grow even more wonderful 

things over the coming years and seasons?

Mine, all mine!

Plot 19 is pretty big (5m x 20m) and it's a bit of a walk on

the wild side but I'm sure I shall soon have it licked into

shape provided that I don't go at it like a bull in a china

shop and knacker myself in the process.

What do you fancy a slice of?

The open day was wonderful, the sun was out, the crowds

were out too and, more importantly, so were their purses

and we raised a record amount through the sale of produce,

jams, home-made cakes and the inevitable cups of rosie.

Getting ready for the locusts to arrive.

My Russian friend about to start her juggling act.

A very "British" affair

GoGoDragons

The fine City of Norwich has always been associated with dragons

since the Middle Ages.  It has a Dragon Hall, two

Dragon Churches - St George Tombland and Colegate -

a Dragon Festival and a dragon boat race.

And this year it has it's very own Dragon Trail.

Lord Nelson and his dragon in Cathedral Close

The 2015 Norwich interactive arts sculpture trail brings

84 large dragon sculptures (5ft high/1.6m) and 120 school

dragons to the City.  We've already had Gorillas and

Elephants  These mythical creatures are made from

glass-fibre and are the creation of Wild in Art.

The sun catching dragon of Tombland

Artists and community groups submitted designs for the

painted dragons on a number of themes including

Norwich, Norfolk, nature and cult.  There are also seven

special heritage dragons with associated activities ranging

from calligraphy to puppetry.

His magnificence the John Lewis dragon

To see them all together you will need to visit The Forum

between 27-30 September before they are auctioned in aid

of a Norfolk based charity who support vulnerable childred

and familis across East Anglia.

Fabric, button-down scales

My favourite dragon of all has to be the one sponsored by

the haberdashery department of John Lewis.

They've really pushed the boat out and he sits amidst

the knitting wool, quilt fabrics and threads completely covered

in buttons, sparkles, patchwork and knitting.

He's even got a zipper down his back between his wings.

Fantasy feathered wings

So don't just sit there.  Download a trail map and

let's go dragon spotting. 

Someone's even knitted him some leg warmers ......