Wells

A couple of weekends back I visited Niobe and on the return leg stopped off at Wells. I'd never been before but will certainly return. It is the smallest city in England with a fabulous cathedral (although I didn't get to see inside as I'd missed the start of the service - maybe next time).



Liked the name of this porch - nobody after alms last weekend!



I'm always amazed by the way in which our ancestors managed the feats of getting these huge statues raised so high without the help of todays engineering. Ropes and pulleys - wow!



The cathedral had a delightful clock where its two sentries ring the bell on the hour. A local advised that it was well worth watching so I was glad I was there in time for 12!



Around the perimeter of the cathdral area is a moat with a drawbridge! Absolutely lovely.



Autumn light shining through the trees ...



And a view through the wall of the Bishop's Palace...



What a lovely place - where the grass actually looked like grass. Look at the colour! The greenest grass ever! It's beige where I live!



Wells is also home to the oldest continuously inhabited street in England (from 1340)



Not a satellite dish, not a dustbin, or a TV aerial in sight! Delightful! Like stepping back in time. Of course a quick walk round the back revealed all those things! Need to spend longer in this place!

Oh and Niobe's doing great! What a relief!

Ticking 'n tweed

On Sunday I took off for a much anticipated workshop at Hope and Elvis. This one was called Tweed Bags. I've blogged about Louise's workshops before and always have a great time. I always take along my basket loaded with vintage bits and pieces that I've collected to incorporate somehow.
We were able to choose from a selection of styles.



Not restricted to tweed you could use any of a whole shelf full of fabrics to make any of these beauties...



As usual I had the problem of having to make too many decisions - which fabric, which lining, long or short handles, to embellish or not etc, etc...



Louise provides the fabrics, trimmings, equipment etc but it's always lovely to use some of your own bits.



Was I going to be able to turn these fabrics into anything resembling any of these lovely bags?



I chose a charcoal grey suit jacket which I thought would coordinate nicely with a piece of my ticking stripes and perhaps a piece of barkcloth. I'd also taken with me an old Tootal scarf to use. Normally that would be sacrilege but I'd managed to set the tassels on fire when cooking a while back so couldn't wear it anymore. Several hours later - this...



This picture shows the front bottom of a jacket with pocket as one side of the bag



with the reverse being a breast pocket. As it was a breast pocket I used a piece of vintage fabric to masquerade as a pocket handerchief. The lining was the remains of the Tootal scarf with the label being used to embellish the other side. Ticking was incorporated where I didn't have sufficient fabric/or for contrast with barkcloth being added to the handles.

The day was particularly lovely as I met Diane from heartshaped



Diane was so sweet and thoughtful - she had bought her blogging buddies gifts and mine included a bottle of sea glass which she knows I've never maaged to find on the east coast. I was really touched that somebody had bothered to do this for me!

I also met Lyn from everyday life, Nik - Diane's 'lurker' friend, and Debs from Two bones and a bagle. Debs helps Louise at the workshops - what a great job - surrounded by all that loveliness!



I can never resist taking pictures of the studio where Louise sells some of her lovely finds





and will confess to picking up a couple of pieces of Pink Utility - oh and a piece of yellow. Well - just look at the picture in my side bar - I obviously needed more didn't I?

Now looking forward to the Vintage and Handmade fair in Northampton on Saturday - hope to see some of you there!

Love Wend

Vintage at the Southbank

Last week I was excited as a small child waiting for Vintage at the Southbank. I had no intention of paying £60 to enter the Southbank Centre holding, what would no doubt have been, a great party with all the dressed up visitors and great music but I decided that I couldn't miss the FREE bits!

This is hardly the approach you would expect but London has brought the seaside to the city



with a row of brightly coloured beach huts with inspired interiors and other seaside effects placed along the riverside.



Each was designed by an artist



this one being inspired by a Lucienne Day design.





I had particularly wanted to visit the Vintage Village so for all you vintage lovers I'll share one or two of my favourite bits starting with the Horrckses tent...



Horrockses linens, famous from yesteryear used the occasion to launch their bedding range based on the old designs.

They also had displays of their old dress designs loaned by a collector.



The linens are going to be available through large department stores - House of Frazer etc. I can see these selling well!





Cath Kidston used the event to launch their autumn range. I'm afraid I'm not a fan of her new designs but do like to see the vintage items that have been sourced.



The peg bags and shoppers looked great hung up together



There were lots of great stalls with fabulous items but it wouldn't have been easy for the stallholders. They had had to pay hundreds of pounds for their stands so needed to sell a lot of stock to break even. I suspect that some will have struggled...

Crown paints launched their new range of colours -vintage of course! I couldn't find a paint chart but will be making enquiries. (What did we do before "Vintage" preceding any word suggested the item was more special than its non vintage counterpart?) That reminds me - I think I have some vintage items in my fridge - other than the cheese in which it's a good thing!

There were lots of other things to do with food from around the world, a roof top garden on top of the Southbank building,





the Peter Blake bus



and table tennis like you've never seen it before...



using a leather covered table with a "net" of old furniture books



and get this - a table covered with ping pong balls. This lady clearly has on her passport the occupation of ping pong ball gluer.

And I didn't have a clue how to play on this table



but this young lady was having fun!

Oh and the clothes, the hair dos (I so have to master the victory roll hair do), the miles of bunting. the dancing in the street , and the pure and simple fun that people were having were wonderful to behold. It was great and probably very shallow of me) to forget everything else going on in the world and just enjoy being part of something happy!

I should add I'm having a lot of problems posting comments - according to the system I'm not recognised! I am still checking out your posts and hoping that Blogger will sort itself out soon.

Knowing your onions

Hello - anybody still out there?

I haven't blogged much lately. Lots of adjusting going on here not least because the annual round of Civil Service job cuts is back and I'm supposed to be applying for my job (again). It wouldn't be so bad (I know lots of people are going through something similar) if the time frame for this didn't keep moving. Anyway, I've been pondering and churning things over and over and have finally come to a decision. I'm going to throw caution to the winds and not apply. I'm hoping this is a calculated risk and not utterly foolhardy but time will tell. Since then I have felt much calmer and less anguished and more in control of my destiny. How am I in control? This way I don't have to suffer the ignominy of failure - and however its dressed up that is how it feels. I know I might have been successful but I might not. Given this is the third time I've gone through this I fell I have the right to be sceptical. So I will wait. I will take some extra leave to spend time with Niobe and let the future take care of itself.

So I have visited my sister who has moved to Cheshire and got to visit the RHS show in Tatton Park. Come and have a wander round...









Loving all the blues and pinks but particularly liked the garden planted up with Alliums.(Onion family). The next four pictures are all alliums and all are striking in their own way.



They are grown from bulbs so it's very easy to pop a few in in the autmn and wait for them to pop up when you'd almost forgotten about them next Spring.



Of course we all know that all these plants are grown to flower just at the right time for the show, so there is no chance of getting all that fabulus colour in my garden all at the same time.





Still we can but dream. It was nice to find some plants that were within a reasonable price range so I did treat myself to a few, and yes I have come home and planted every one!









I always enjoy looking at the "biggest veg" section and this was no exception. Just marvel at these pictures of nature's bounty...











The show gardens were inspiring and I particularly enjoyed a range of gardens put together by children in primary schools. Each was based on a country and had the same amount of space to fill. I loved this Russian one with the papier mache dolls and the ballet splippers planted up with lobelia. The children loved being involved in this apparently. What a great way to encourage some outdoor activity and awareness of other cultures.






But I'll leave you with a couple of my favourite images - the Mini covered in houseleeks and other sempervivums (or should that be semperviva for the Latin lovers?)



Wend