Unexpected Gifts

The Lovely MissE has returned from her travels
with surprise gifts squeezed into her rucksack.

There is coffee and chocolate for MrM from Costa Rica;
fabulous tie-dyed fabrics from Thailand

and jewellery from Fiji for MrsM and MissM.

The best gift of all is the knowledge
that the Lovely MissE is safely home
with wonderful memories from exotic places
and enough photos to last a lifetime.

Shopping with MissM

MrsM
Do you like these sunglasses?

MissM
They make you look like the sort of person
who puts on leather gloves before they drive.

mmmmm...

creepy...

MrsM
So, that's a no then?

Gardenia

The fragrance of Gardenia is as heavy as velvet;

it settles luxuriously in the air

and drapes in exotic folds around you.

The Tragicall Truth About Hamlet

You can study Hamlet
until you are blue in the face
and you think your brain will burst.

You can sit with your mother
and watch it in Russian...

or, if you have a strong stomach,
with Kenneth Branagh as the eponymous hero.

You can load it onto your iPod
and try to absorb it while you sleep.

But the Tragicall Truth is...

that when you have finished the exam...


all that information is completely useless.

Home Improvement

I love the idea of Spring Cleaning.

I have visions of myself
wearing a floral apron

and singing as I polish my delightful home
accompanied by little birds trilling.

The air will squeak with cleanliness
and the smell of beeswax.

Gillie has only to throw open her windows
to achieve Bright, Clean and Shiny.
I want to be like that.

If the truth be told
I am closer to the Moth Eaten Mattress
end of the spectrum.

I think I need FlyLady.

******

This book belonged to MrM's Great Great Aunt.
It was designed to help her manage
the servants effectively.
I am grateful to Thomas for lending it to me.

Normal Service Resumes

MasterM has been shopping.

He has chosen these Masculine
and yet Interesting Flip-Flops.
which he found in H&M for MEN.
They tone with his Combat Shorts
which have Many Manly pockets
for Important and Manly items.
Please note that the
predominant colour is Olive Green
which, as we all know,
is the colour favoured by Ray Mears.

Olive Green is Not For Wimps.

I cannot imagine why
MrM who is supposed to be
a Retail Guru
should think they came from
Cath Kidston.

A Time of Transition

Lowell Crazy Quilt, 1893 - 1904
Blanche Wiggin Staples (Robinson)
Lowell, Massachusetts
72" x 60"
Silks, satins, taffetas, velvets
Appliquéd, pieced, and embroidered.
Gift of Judith Hall, 1989

New England Quilt Museum

Extract from Catalogue:

Victorian Crazy quilts were frequently embellished with commemorative ribbons. Through their study one can learn about the maker and her family. Blanche Staples made this quilt when she was a young woman and signed it in the corner using a multicolored silk floss. A silk bandanna from the 1893 Chicago World's Fair serves as the quilt's central medallion. It is balanced at the four corners by side corners cut from a handkerchief containing the flags of many nations. Someone, maybe Blanche's mother, gave her a souvenir ribbon from the Women's Pavilion at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition in 1876 to sew into her quilt. Her father had political leanings, and perhaps offered Blanche the ribbon, which promoted Frederick T. Greenhalge's successful candidacy for Congress. Her parents were active Baptists and probably bought her the Adoniram Judson Centennial ribbon at Malden's First Baptist Church in 1888.

******

When I started this blog
it was my intention to write for a year
and then stop.
I knew exactly what I wanted to write
and how it would finish.

But there is one slight problem.
I don't want to finish now.

I had not anticipated
that it would become this important to me;
that I would make wonderful friends;
that I might still have things to write.

And so I find myself starting the second year
but the design is less clear to me.
It is a time of change for my family.

I think that this year will be more like a crazy quilt,
a collection of random pieces that I will sew together
and hope that they make a coherent whole.

I want to share the ups and downs of my new job,
news from MasterM's gap year,
MissM's adventures in South Africa,
MrM's high rise Birthday Celebration.

And so,
if you are prepared to set out with me,
let us go in search of the first piece
for my new quilt of memories.

My Patchwork Quilt.

This is my patchwork quilt
this vital thing of many pieces.

Old, new, patterned, plain,
dark, light, familiar, strange.

Each piece carefully selected
and sewn with tight stitches.

At first the eye is drawn to detail,
one piece attracts and then another,
and the pattern is not obvious.

Standing back, it is clear that it radiates,
starlike, from the centre.

I saw how it would be
from the beginning;
it lay clear before me
in the late nights and early mornings.

I knew that if I worked patiently,
day after day,
this quilt, this precious patchwork quilt,
this vital thing of many pieces,
would be complete.

Thank you!

I have been overwhelmed
by your kind messages today.

Thank you, thank you.

I am so fortunate to have met
such thoughful and generous people
through this blog.

I wish you all a fabulous weekend.

A Short Story

Three years ago I started my job and on the first day I was by myself in the office I had a phone call from a Head of Sixth Form. He sounded a delightful man and he told me about a very talented young pupil of his who, mysteriously, had missed out on a place at University. I was impressed. Dan sounded like just the sort of student we wanted and so I contacted everyone I could think of and got permission to squeeze him into the over-full degree programme.

Dan has not been a model student. He has missed deadlines and failed exams. He is a bright boy but is extraordinarily chaotic. He is also extremely amusing and has entertained me greatly over the past three years. There was one unforgettable day when he clanked into the office wearing yellow Lycra and snow-boarding boots. A lot of our correspondence has been reminders about penalties and meetings with his Year Tutor but he has never held it against me personally. If he had organised himself and been a bit more disciplined about late nights and skiing holidays he could have done very well but instead he has had a great social time at University and he will just scrape by. Probably.

Yesterday, he came into the office and I asked him what he will do after graduation. As far as I can work out, he plans to spend the summer on the beach and the winter on the ski slopes. I have no idea how he will finance this but he was as optimistic as ever. His back up plan is to do a post-graduate course which caused a suppressed but audible groan in the office.

I discovered that his entry in the Yearbook includes the following
Describe Your Time At University:
Alice C. It is not a sentence but it is concise.

Ironically, if I had to describe my last three years it would be:
Dan - start to finish.

because yesterday I was interviewed for a new role in another Department.

And I was thrilled when they phoned to offer me the job.