Yesterday was my Beloved’s birthday and so despite the rain we all trooped off to Toot Hill Show – once he had dragged the Things out of bed at noon, anyway. Toot Hill is a small village over the next hill, and they have a proper village show (this year is the 70th anniversary, in fact) complete with local handicrafts, home grown fruit and veg and flower displays like ‘three dahlias in a vase’. My friend Jill’s Victoria Sponge was highly commended – she’s been threatening to enter for several years now and there may have been a riot if she hadn’t got some kind of mention. I’d thought about entering the handicrafts section but forgot. I’ll remember next year. Probably.
I was very taken with the alpacas, but apparently they weren’t for sale. They make the weirdest noises – quite like a whinging teenager, come to think of it, but quieter. There were the usual motley crew of rescue ferrets and a fun dog show; a sheepdog demonstration and allegedly BMX riders but we missed them. In previous years there have been Indian Runner ducks being herded by the sheepdog, and the local hawk and owl sanctuary display, but Storm Antoni was making its presence felt.
My Beloved brought home enormous quantities of interesting cheese, and I did not bring home an alpaca. Not even the little one.
The rest of the day was spent taping and cutting pattern pieces out ready to add to fabric. I’m going through a dramatic trouser phase at the moment and at some point my beloved paper bag waist black ones from H&M are going to give up the ghost. Possibly I need to learn how to do that thing where you make a pattern from your existing clothes, but there just don’t seem to be enough hours in the day. I am off to see the Barbie film this morning and hope to get some sewing in this afternoon.
Other things making me happy this week
- A trip up to see the future home of the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration – honey bees and butterflies galore thanks to the buddleia which abounds on site
- A picnic lunch with Amanda – no cocktails or cemeteries but a ridiculously small dog to watch
- Crochet cacti and a whole family of tiny mice
- An interesting training session with Climate Museum UK
- Discovering new ways to walk to and from the office, which revealed the Barbican entrance to Farringdon station
And now I’d better go and find something pink to wear, which Things 1 and 2 tell me is compulsory for Barbie watchers.
Kirsty x
What I’ve been reading:
The White Hare/The Sea Gate – Jane Johnson
Odds and Gods/Paint Your Dragon – Tom Holt
The Hanging Tree/Lies Sleeping/False Value – Ben Aaronovitch (Audible)
The Echo of Old Books – Barbara Davis
What Kirsty did next 