Airstream Blush

Doesn't she look gorgeous, with the sunset making her blush and the little star lights showing from inside? When the sky or the weather does something interesting you have to be quick and leap out of the trailer, camera in hand. And by now I have taken so many photographs of reflections in the Airstream windows that I am experiencing deja-vu of a non-spooky variety.

The site where we have been staying for a little while has provided challenges to photography. The view from some of our windows is wonderfully bucolic, but we are also surrounded by tin barns, piles of gravel and an array of ageing farm machinery. Oh, and a couple of conventional caravans, and some strategically placed traffic cones. That's what cropping is for, right?

Here At Last

We went to see Submarine. It was charming, and funny, and uncomfortable, and beautifully shot, like a french film set in coastal Wales.

We saw cherry blossoms in Cheltenham.

I saw a girl in flip flops yesterday. Where do you go from there?

I have spotted a jay a few feet from the Airstream. All of the birds have on their best plumage.

Feral cats are skulking around.

All of the windows and skylights are open.

Refreshing Modernism

The car had to go in for its MOT. The dealership/garage is nowhere near to anywhere I want to be so I took a bus in to Cheltenham. In the midst of all its Regency, wedding-cakey poshness someone had plonked a concrete block, presumably in the nineteen seventies. Actually its presence is refreshingly discordant, especially since The Swallow Bakery has turned the ground floor into an urban-feeling cafe. I remembered it being a bit pricey on a previous visit so I was content with just a coffee and to sit and people-watch in an airy, contemporary space. I'm sure it will feel even lighter when the scaffold is removed from outside.

The car passed its test, hoorah! That was the cheapest visit to a Land Rover establishment ever. Big sighs of relief all round. 

Enticement

We drove to Malvern for a walk up a big hill. It rained, so we had some tea and cake and a heart-racing look around the delicious Knitting Parlour. There was a warm glow within as we ooh-ed and aah-ed at the window. Inside it smelt of new wool and wood. They had quality yarns in irresistible colours. There were some crazy textured yarns too, like the giant one that you knit with your forearms instead of needles.

Pete bought this soft as angels' breath alpaca-cotton blend. I exercised restraint. Well... I have to use up a lot more of my stash before I can get carried away again. It's not easy though, when your senses are being gently teased like that. But they have a website here if it turns out I neeeeeed more yarn.

The Felt Revelation

One of my challenges at the moment, having filled a box with Sock Critters and listed them on Etsy, is what to focus on next? The Airstream has a finite amount of space, the Critters' box is full, time to work on little things. But my mind is in butterfly mode. Must grit teeth and focus.

I have made drawings for lots of smaller projects but I keep flitting from one to another. I've got some knitting on the go - a new tea cosy for the shop and another for my Mum-in-law, plus a couple which are knitted but not finished. As I've said before on this blog, I enjoy the repetitiveness of knitting rows and watching the form unfold slowly from the needles. I might also have one eye and half of my brain on a cheesy/classic film, or the ramblings of a DJ on the radio while I engage in this semi-autonomic activity. But, as soon as the time comes to sew up seams and sew in ends it starts to feel like a chore and I'm tempted to succumb to the thrill of a new project, abandoning my old one until I literally have NOTHING more interesting or pressing to do.

I'm dabbling with felt at the moment. It is a new material for me, and I'm enjoying getting the hang of how it behaves. It behaves very co-operatively in fact. You cut it into shapes and it doesn't fray, or stretch, or roll up at the edges. It comes in all kinds of vibrant colours. You can layer it, or stuff it. It lends itself to cute or funky designs. You can draw something, then make it in felt and it looks just like your drawing! Brilliant! I made this pin cushion to fit a specific space in my sewing box.