Spring Thoughts

It is a curious day today, it is the first day of three days leave from work for me, but it feels like a normal day off! Usually a day off and a day's leave feel different as soon as I open my eyes, but not today. The other curious thing is the weather..it looks slightly overcast outside but the breeze is warm and it is heavenly out there. The air is almost sweet, and you need a cardigan, but not a coat.

So, dressed in my stripy dress, silver cardigan and Mary-Jane shoes, I set out for an adventure on my own. I took the bus halfway to my little library on the hill, and got off in the village before instead. I actually got off a stop early because it was so warm and lovely, and could smell hedge clippings, and saw so many bursts of purple crocuses and the first of the daffodils nodding in the breeze.

I had two shops in mind; firstly, Yarn Therapy, and secondly A Little Bazaar. I visited the latter first, with nothing in mind, just to have a look around. It is a lovely little vintage shop where the two rooms are lined with shelves and cabinets which have plenty of notices saying 'please touch!' and some cupboards that bore labels instructing 'open me!'. Down the middle of the room are rails of vintage clothes, and you can have a really good rummage about. I came away with a vintage book, a dark red hardback called 'The Modern Woman's Medical Book' which I think was published in the very early fifties. It is really worth a visit if you are in the area, they really have friendly service there, and offer you a cup of coffee to drink while you browse. As I was paying, the lady asked me if I would be proposing to anybody today (the legend is that on leap day, girl's can do the asking!) but I said no, because I wasn't too sure my husband would approve! However, the rest of the legend, which is less well known is that if you propose and the man says no, he is meant to give you a silk dress by way of consolation...so perhaps I should have asked every man I met and hoped they all said no!

There used to be a little tea shop in a curious glass cube of a building called Tiffany's, the inside being Tiffany blue with lots of photographs of Audrey Hepburn. Alas it seems to have changed hands now, and when I walked in I couldn't help but notice that it smelt very faintly of wrung-out dishcloths! They didn't have any scones either which was a bit of a shame, but I think it is very much a cafe now rather than a teashop, so I had a pot of tea and a toasted tea cake, and they were both very nice indeed. It came with a teeny pot of Wilkinson's Strawberry Jam which I love, so that was extra good. I also read another chapter of my new library book, which is just fantastic. It is set in the Bodleian Library in Oxford, and is called A Discovery of Witches. A great big chunk of a book, I am sinking into it like a feather eiderdown. If you have read The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova, it has the same kind of feel as that, so far.

Duly refreshed, I went on to Yarn Therapy. I have had in mind for years, since we went to Lyme Regis for our wedding anniversary one year, to crochet a ripple stitch blanket in colours that reminded me of the waves as we walked out along the Cobb. I did start one a year or so ago, but I didn't like the yarn I had chosen at all, and it was all too soon abandoned. I was in a bit of a quandry about the yarn this time, because I wanted to use something nice rather than my usual market bargain yarn, but at the same time can't afford to spend lots...and blankets do eat up wool! I remembered visiting Yarn Therapy a while ago with Mum, and they had a lovely range of wool by a company called Drops. I seemed to remember it being soft and lovely in beautiful colours, and being reasonable in price. I was so pleased to discover I had remembered correctly, and chose four colours from their Nepal range, which is part alpaca! I have a cream, light grey, light blue, and purpley-blue. I am going to use the random stripe generator to make my pattern, and then plan to set off rippling along. I am having a special birthday this year, and I like the idea of having a blanket I can say that I made in the year I was thirty!

I have quite a lot of craft projects on the go at the moment...I am knitting a Noah's Ark set, as I have mentioned, and this afternoon hope to start my first ripple stripe on the new blanket. I am also knitting the bolero from this month's Vintage Life magazine (which I was very disappointed with as a magazine; I calculated there was less than 25% content, the rest being photographs, adverts, or bumpf) in cherry red, and am going to wear it as a bed jacket for when I am reading, to keep my shoulders warm! I also hoped to cut out my daffodil brooches this afternoon, but they may to wait until Friday, as it is nearly four o'clock already, and I have dinner to cook before my dance class later!

We have been busy having lovely adventures since we last caught up. Our weekends have fallen into a lovely pattern of an adventure on Saturday then a relaxing Sunday. This Saturday we went to see The Woman In Black as I really enjoyed the book, and some parts of it were filmed locally (the causeway out to Eel Marsh House is actually the causeway out to Osea Island!). It was good but very different to the book, and there were quite a few giggly teenagers in the cinema with us. I jumped as much when a man shouted at them to shut up as when the film was being scary!

Then on Sunday we went to The Gardens of Easton Lodge for their Snowdrop Sunday open day. I have taken lots of photographs which I must get onto the computer so I can share with you. Debbie, I hope you enjoyed it when you went! We loved it...and I bumped into several other library people there on the day!

Now it is time for a pot of tea and some crafting before I start cooking Peppers Stuffed With Sunflower Seeds and Lentils....

Love
Mimi
xxx