15.1.15

I walked a different way in Bethnal Green today. 

 I found this building. An old bath house. It is now flats. Just up the road is a building with signs saying it sells second hand work wear, blankets and other intriguing things. I didn't get that far as I had to go back to school but might look tomorrow.

 I must go to Bethnal Green one weekend for a proper walk around as I only ever have short walks. There is so much to see there.

Small Collection of Good Things

These candlesticks were a Christmas present from my Dad. He turns them on his lathe. I love them. They make me think of the three kings. 

 They are made of oak from beams in a church in Staplehurst where my aunt and uncle live. They were the beams holding up the bells but were replaced some time ago. Dad got hold of most of the beams. In the same way I hoard wool, fabric, paper, buttons etc, my Dad hoards wood. He gradually makes things from it. He worked out that this wood must be about five hundred years old-the age of mature oaks plus the time the beams hung in the church. A little piece of history on our table!

 Cheesy scrambled eggs with cherry tomatoes on a buttered muffin. Frothy coffee. A delicious breakfast I made myself at some point over the holidays. The little box it is on was made for me by my brother a long time ago. It is battered and simple and makes just the right size little coffee table. He is also very clever at making wooden things. The butterfly tin holds all my cottons.

 What was left of our garden on the left after the builders had pulled out the jasmine bush. It was already dying as our neighbour had cut through the root. It was a pain of a bush but I was a bit sad. I was upset to find that my fuchsia had also been pulled out. It was given to me by my sister in law when we still lived in our old flat. I dug it up in January and replanted it in icy ground. It survived fine. I popped it back in the ground and hope that it can repeat its success.

 About two weeks ago I saw a woman wearing a lovely grey coat-fake fur leopard print on the top half which looked like a jacket, and the bottom half was plain grey. She had a lovely cowl type scarf on in white, grey, bright pink and pale pink. It was in horizontal stripes and the stripes seemed to overlap. I remembered seeing about a stitch (spike stitch) where the colours overlap as you crochet into one or two rows below. A quick bit of research and a you tube video later, and I was ready to start my version of the scarf. I am only about half way through as the rows are very long but I hope I like it when it is finished!

 I noticed this sign and at first thought, 'How lovely, a blackbird on a sign.' Then I realised that the sign meant 'Don't feed the birds'. It was on a tiny and sad patch of grass that would have been improved by a few happy birds eating. This is the one thing that is not  a good thing!

 Pelham puppet girl picked up for £3 (reduced from £15) in the charity shop. She is missing a hand but still looks happy. I was quite pleased with my little painting of her.

Lovely Lily under her little blanket. Andy started the tradition of making the cats who are on the bed a little nest. Our bedroom is quite cold and they seem to like it. We usually tuck a dressing gown or jumper in a little ark around their backs. This large granny square just lies around and I used it to cover Lily. She seems to like it. In the background you may have spotted a large pink teddy. This is one of the teddies that I don't think anyone else would want, so I have to keep it. I need help!

Wandering in Wapping

I worked in Wapping today. I rang at seven and there was no work. Then one of the agency staff rang me back at eight ( I had nearly fallen asleep on the settee) and told me I was already booked. I was convinced they hadn't sent me the email but I was wrong. I got the booking on the eighteenth of December and somehow failed to write it down. I managed to get there by 9.15 though and had a lovely day in the nursery. We made paper flowers, and I learned how to sing most of Incy Wincy Spider in Spanish! I also got the chance for a wander both at lunchtime and after school. It was mild, blustery and rainy today. I quite like that kind of weather. Especially for walking near the river and round the cobbled streets of this area. 

 I think this is St Katherine's Dock. It is very near to the Waitrose I bought my lunch from. It makes me think of Norway. (Not that I have been-but what I imagine parts of Norway to look like) All the houses on the left had sweet names such as Swan Cottage, Rose Cottage, Heron Cottage and Lighter Cottage. The names were engraved on little slate plaques.

 I don't get tired of views of Tower Bridge. I am not entirely sure I like the Shard though. It is impressive but looks weirdly out of proportion.

 Someone seems to have written 70 in chalk under this beautifully painted version. 

 I loved the name and the glowing lights in the gloom. 

 Interesting patterns of wire and iron against the sky.

Last-but my favourite-this row of primary coloured chairs and tables outside a cafe. Primary coloured primary school desks in fact! I wonder if there was anything in them. Probably some dried gum.

More Felt Animals

I have now made three of the patterns from the book and have nearly finished a fourth-a dog. 

The rhino is satisfyingly fat with added wrinkle detail. He is two greys, with a darker grey for his underneath. The cleverest thing about this pattern was the way the horn is wrinkled up-by drawing the thread tight before adding the end of the horn. 

The camel has glass eyes. In the book it says to glue the felt over the top of the eye before sewing the eye in by pulling the thread to the back of the head. I did mine by sewing the felt over the eye onto another piece of felt with the wire pushed through both. Then I twisted it at the back and covered it once it was pushed into the head. I sewed the whole eye construction piece on as a whole. I made him a saddle from a scrap of sari fabric and pompoms.

The skull below is my first go at making my own pattern. It more or less worked, with some minor adjustments. I am going to try a pig next. 

The skull I drew is from Greenwich market. It has interesting jagged rings around the base of the antlers. I am not sure what sort of deer it is. 

 The stool and the chair are both from a local church jumble sale. The chair is from a few years ago and the stool from yesterday. It cost £1 which I thought was very reasonable! I also got three shirts and a green moleskin  coat for 50p each. I couldn't get near the bric-a-brac!

The string on the floor is for the cats!

Unusual New Year's Day Walk

We were very dull and anti social last night and stayed in. It was a nice evening. We watched a bit of Modern Family, ate some cheese and onion pinwheels that I made, drank some heavily brandy laced mulled wine which Andy made, then were in bed by eleven. We heard rather than saw fireworks. Our friends in Holland rang at half eleven (half twelve for them) which was lovely, then we went to sleep. So, about seven hours after my midnight screen shot, we were awake and un-hungover. After breakfast we nipped to the supermarket then set off for a drive-aiming to go to a place called Chattenden woods that Andy had found. It is not far-near Rochester. 

 As is often the case on our adventures, we didn't quite find where we were looking for but went somewhere else instead. We ended up in High Halstow where we went in a pub called The Red Dog. Andy had a pint of some smooth but strong tasting bitter and I had a coke. They were not doing food so we had crisps. Then we carried on looking for the woods, driving along the beautifully named Christmas Lane. This brought us to a main road with signs to MOD Chattenden. (Which according to Wikipedia is now being considered for housing development, but may not be developed as it is a site of special scientific interest due to the nightingales that live there.) We still didn't find the woods. So we went to Upnor instead.

We decided to walk around the back of Upnor, but came to a dead end with more MOD property behind. There was a footpath running along the side of the MOD place so we went along there. We walked for about half a mile, then up another little path in some actual woods, before turning back. It was a walk filled with dire warnings of dogs on patrol and forensic trap devices-whatever they are. The path seems to be part of something called The Saxon Shore way. At one point we were next to the motorway and someone had cut a hole in the fence so I wouldn't fancy having a dog off the lead down there-not very safe!

 We saw no dogs. Maybe they get New Year's day off. There was a man in the check point building at the gate but he didn't glance our way either of the times we walked past. Maybe he was a decoy!

 The beginning of the path through the woods.

 Motorway access.

 Picturesque barbed wire.

 The white fluffy stuff was everywhere and looked pretty. Old Man's Beard?

 Back to the beach and a view of the castle. 

 Remains of last night's celebrations. It must be a good spot to set off and watch fireworks. 

A Red Reindeer and a Tale of Two Gas Men

Christmas wouldn't be complete without the boiler breaking down, or at least playing up, so we were not surprised when it did-play up then break down. It started with a leak, followed by frightening clunks and gurgles, and we didn't risk using it after that. Andy is very sensible and has taken out a service insurance thing with British Gas, so a man came on Saturday. A very taciturn man. He probably said about ten words the entire two hours he was here, speaking only when spoken to, and at the end of the appointment when he had to. He put in a new pump then gave us a quote for a part it needs, then made an appointment for Monday to fit the part. The appointment window is a big one-from twelve to six. I had six hours of uninterrupted crafting time because nobody came.  

On Saturday, after the gas man had gone, we visited my brother. We had a quick tour of the second hand shops where he lives and I found a great book in the second hand bookshop. It is called 'Modern Soft Toy Making' by Margaret Hutchings (1959) and is full of great looking toys. I loved the reindeer so decided to make that one first. It is actually quite complicated. It started with the antlers which were done in the evening. The rest of it was mainly done during the six hours. 

The construction of the antlers used up some of my fuse wire hoard. 

 I chose a soft pink felt for the white parts as I didn't have much white and I preferred that colour combination.

I have watched loads of films whilst making the deer-some Christmas favourites such as 'Goodnight Mr Tom' and 'Eight Below', interspersed with a little Bond and three scary films-'Godsend', 'Quarantine' and 'An American Haunting'. My brother gave Andy most of his DVD collection for Christmas. The idea is that we can watch them then sell them. (And he has got Netflix so doesn't need them anymore) There are some scary films in there, along with some less scary ones like 'My Fair Lady'.

 Face and feet markings. 

Body sewn together. 

 It is a messy business-lots of tiny bits of felt and fine felt dust all over the sofa. 

But I don't care about the mess because look at the reindeer! I am so pleased with him!

 It was a sunny morning so I took some photos of him standing on birch bark (thanks Malcolm!)

 He was happy on the bark and liked the hyacinth, even though a tree would be better. Perhaps I should take him on our next visit to the woods.

Happy New Year from the Red Reindeer! 

P.S. I forgot to tell you about the other gas man. I rang up yesterday as the boiler started to leak again. I told the nice man on the phone about this and about the fact that the other engineer didn't turn up. He said the booking was not completed on the computer. He booked me another engineer to look at the leak today. Twelve to Six again but this time he did turn up-after five but never mind. All he had to do was to tighten a valve. Then he stayed and chatted for about fifteen minutes whilst doing the paper work. Whereas the other man stood and looked around with a very suspicious look on his face while Andy was signing off the job, this man looked around, saw a tin of pencils on the table and said ''Artist?'' So I said yes but also a teacher (briefly explaining about supply etc). We then had a very quick but in depth conversation about his wife who is a teacher which managed to encompass the fact that her school had a new head and she had a similar situation to me, but had managed to get a job. He briefly described his many jobs. Then he spotted a power ranger and a C3PO head which led on to his interest in comic books and how he is an artist too. He has been to a couple of comic book conventions, at one of which he dressed up as Silent Bob. I had never heard of Silent Bob-so this led onto talking about 'Clerks' (incidentally one of the films in my brother's collection). Ben the gas man also has a working light sabre which he is currently having customised to make it even better! He was great!