Retro Flamingo Fabric

Barkcloth Hawaii Fabrics

On the UKAirstreamers forum a member has posted photographs of their newly-finished interior. Coveting their fabric led me to a bit of a surf and I ended up on the lusciously retro  Barkcloth Hawaii website. This flamingo print just ticks every box for cool vintage trailer style. It's got the ubiquitous flamingo and just enough of those squiggly and starbursty motifs to give the look without being overly kitsch. Although it does come in a range of colours, so if this is too timid, you could go for a pink or turquoise background.

A Lashing and A Pelting

It's one of those Sundays you just have to go with. Pete said he'd go out and do the chores when there's a lull. Lull, what lull? A lull is when it's drizzling instead of lashing. But you have to be quick.

Weather conditions can be evocative of specific moments, and this pelting is reminding me of a couple of times and places during our first year in the Airstream where we were holed up, keeping warm and dry. Everything, and I mean everything felt like part of a wonderful adventure during our first couple of years. About a month in, we were on a fairly exposed farm not far from Mevagissey in Cornwall, and storms picked up. We didn't know how much the trailer could stand up to, and like all our neighbours on the campsite, we didn't go anywhere for two days. We didn't dare. We didn't know if the Airstream would still be there when we got back. Now I'm not so sure we would have wanted to be in if the trailer had started to tip over. As it was, it just rocked a bit and kept us awake at night.

Later, during our Summer in Ireland, our loo packed up and we waited on a large, deserted campsite by the coast in County Sligo while a replacement was being dispatched. Like I said, everything that happened was part of this incredible time that we had set out to appreciate, no matter what. So, in the wind and rain, clad in waterproofs and Crocs, I relished my walk to the toilet block. And when I got there, there would be musac! It's a bit surreal. Pelted by grey wetness on the way, you negotiated a 'Wet Floor' warning triangle and walked into a discomfiting cocoon of industrial toilet cleaner aroma, yellowed wall tiles and unnecessary music. But I did enjoy the particular lived-in quality of this slightly run down, out of season site. I'm sure it would have been perfect hell during the holidays.

So these images of being marooned in the wind and rain are flashing back to me, I don't have to go anywhere, Pete thinks he has perceived a lull, and he's out there choring. Alabama Shakes are playing, freshly downloaded after seeing them on Later With Jools last Friday. Jack White was good, but Brittany Howard really reached down in her boots and rocked.

Better put the kettle on because that lull was a false one and there's one soggy husband out there.

Airstreams Inspire

'Palm Springs Airstream' by Leah Giberson

One of my favourite shops on Etsy is Leah Giberson's. Many of her paintings are of Airstreams and other cool trailers, as well as iconic houses and objects. Her style, which saturates the image with colour while pairing back extraneous detail, is really suited to her trailer, suburban and urban structures, and pool-side subjects. In this one she has captured the sunlight so well, you almost need to squint to look at it. On her website she describes her subjects as ordinary. I find them anything but. I love urban and suburban images. We have known for some time that we will not be returning to live in the city, but urban landscapes are as much a part of my experience and inspiration as any pastoral scene.

Some Squares

The granny squares are accumulating. So far I have been adhering religiously to my plan to use up my stash, but I have got a point where I am left with a smidge too much pink that I don't want to use, and I feel a breathless craving for more shades of turquoisey-blues. So I am obviously going to have to cheat and supplement the spectrum with a trip to a yummy wool shop. The plan at the moment is to go around each square with a subtle and soft grey and then join them together with the same or similar colour, if I can find it. That way I think each square will stand out nicely rather than blurring into a painful cacophony of hues. Remember the snake in Disney's Jungle Book, hypnotising young Mowgli with his swirling eyes? Yeah well, that's not the effect I'm hoping for.

A note about the squares... Clearly, I have chosen to stick with the traditional granny square. I had bought a very funky-crazy pattern from Wonkey Donkey on Etsy, as seen on this post. But when it came to it, I could see myself spending years trying to learn each variation on the square theme and not getting very far with the blanket. As it is, this project is one to pick up and put down, according to mood or weather, so it's simple and comforting to just get into the rhythm of a familiar pattern. Then there are all those ends to sew in, but I'm not thinking about them today.

Flip-Flops and Bumble Bees

Spring is here. We have been fooling ourselves for a couple of weeks, excited by a glimpse of sunshine and some chirruping birds, only to be caught out with inadequate layering of clothes. I might start recording my first sighting of a girl in flip-flops, just like I make a mental note of my first bumble bee. I have seen both, the flip-flops before the official first day of Spring, and the more sensible bee since.

I haven't blogged much lately, questioning whether there's a point. Don't we all? I have felt that things have been a bit ordinary, and who wants to hear about that? Then it occurred to me that things may have been just relatively ordinary. After all, we are still living in our Airstream, of no fixed abode. Nothing ordinary about that. Anyway, doing normal stuff is good; dull, but necessary. Sometimes though, days and weeks can go by where you're just dealing with one bit of domestic or personal maintenance after another. I guess this is the ideal time of year to be in that mode; brighter, longer days to get stuck in with chores and jobs. Then, hopefully we're all ready to get on with the rest of Spring and Summer.

The trailer got a wash and a polish last week. I quite like polishing, and going round with a soft toothbrush to dislodge grime and green stuff from the crevasses. I have an eye for it. It's in my genes. Next, I'm going to raid the vehicle grooming kit that we got with our Land Rover, and see what I can gloss or highlight. It's like make-up for your car or trailer. 

These primroses are sitting on the top of our gas bottle locker, and aren't they just little pots of sunshine? Yellow, and the fresh green of new shoots just seem to be the colours of Spring don't they?

Swoony Loveliness Overload

'covered stool with hezlein' from whereyourheartis on Flickr

Is that just the right amount of heart-meltyness? Try not to stroke the screen. My new crush on granny square blankets has led me to this pic. Loads more inspiration and ingrained obsessiveness can be found on F*ck Yeah Granny Square. So far my squares are coming out quite loud so I was thinking of contrasting that with some pale neutral shades such as a light stone or dove grey. It should work, especially with our aluminium walls here in the Airstream.  Some similar ideas can be seen on this page on Apartment Therapy.

On My Radio

vintage 70s transistor radio from Wayside Flower on Etsy

A recent trip to the supermarket was transformed when the music on my radio was of an unexpectedly top quality. The husky welsh tones of Cerys Matthews, standing in on Radio 2, introduced this outrageously good selection: a 13 year old Michael Jackson singing the Bill Withers song - Ain't No Sunshine, James Blake covering Joni Mitchel's - A Case of You, and The Rolling Stones' inimitable - Gimme Sunshine.

This is music to make you feel something, to make you swoon. Cerys also usually has her own show on BBC Radio 6 Music. My life has been considerably enhanced since I realised I could listen to digital radio through our television. Instead of being spoon-fed somnambulising mush I can start the day with Shaun Keaveny who respects his listeners enough to treat them to Public Image Limited, Radiohead, Stevie Wonder (and I don't mean Ebony and Ivory). He chats clumsily about the universe with Professor Brian Cox most Fridays, and finishes the week with a poem written and performed by stand-up satirist, Murray Lachlan Young. You won't get any X-Lobotomy-Factor porridge here. Instead of anaesthetising the nation, 6 Music stirs and awakens.

Commenting on a trivial news item about the changing of rules on the wearing of fascintators at Ascot this year, Shaun's take was that a fascinator isn't really a hat, "... more like an emerging idea, or a mood." Profound genius, and all during breakfast.