O Sabbath Rest

Jon and Bob walking through the trees on the way back from Holkham beach last Saturday. Walking and talking together is a good thing to do - especially outside enjoying the beauty of Creation. 

And here's a picture of us sitting with Ro and Jess, looking at a partial rainbow over the sea - we had just spent ages watching a red kite diving and swooping. We think it caught a small rodent before it flew away. 

How blessed I am to live in such a beautiful county, and have such a caring family. I am especially grateful for the time to rest and reflect and feel loved and valued.

I hope your Sunday has some moments of peace, joy and love too, wherever you are. This hymn has been on my mind these last few days...
 

More From The Shed

Here is the newly refurbished nameplate on the Parish Church Noticeboard. Santa Bob has just fixed it in place

For the first time in years, our Parish Church is hosting a Flower Festival this weekend. They asked for help from the Mens' Shed, in making some shelves to fit over some of the pews, to enable more floral arrangements to be displayed. These have been duly created  and covered with green paper.

-The Shed has been allocated one, to promote the group. 
Bob had an idea about using vintage carpentry equipment and flowers to make a display. However I am away at a Conference, and wasn't sure I could find time to prepare an arrangement. So I did some research, and here is what I came up with. I was able to put it in place before I left!

Because the Swanton Morley Shed Project is a lively, growing group this arrangement is created with living plants rather than cut flowers. The ones chosen represent the qualities found among ‘Shedders’ using the traditional ‘Language of Flowers’

The alstroemeria symbolizes long-lasting friendship, and mutual support - its leaves twist 180 degrees as they grow which is seen as a symbol of staying connected through life's ups and downs. The six petals of the flower represent the traits required for a strong bond: understanding, humour, patience, empathy, commitment, and respect.
The echinacea [yellow coneflower] stands for optimism and good mental health
Ivy represents loyalty and companionship
Yellow chrysanthemums celebrate happiness and friendship.

Huge thank you to all of you for your kind words yesterday. I'm here in Milton Keynes at a Conference for spouses of Baptist Revs. Among many friends old and new. The theme of the weekend is "Worship is Rest" and we are expected to take time out to rest. Just what I need! 

A Dead Mouse, A Wardrobe Malfunction, And An Unexpected Delivery

Monday afternoon was awful. I went off to do a big shop at Sainsbury's and phoned Bob to say I was finished and about to drive home, but felt a bit woozy. He suggested I went to the nearby Costa and had a drink and sat down till I felt better. I was OK driving the few hundred yards from the supermarket, but when I got out of the car, things started spinning. Fortunately there was no queue as I lurched to the counter. "What can I get you?" said the cheery barista. I said I thought I was having a vertigo attack, so please could I begin with a glass of tap water with ice in it. Her colleague produced it very promptly, and that helped a lot. I thanked her, and ordered a coffee. She said the cakes were half price, so I added a Bakewell Slice. The barista said I should sit down and she'd bring my drink over. The two assistants were incredibly kind. (thank you, girls) I sat for about 20 minutes then drove home carefully. But once I got to Cornerstones and got out of the car and stood up, the nausea washed over me again. Bob sent me to bed (and brought me a sick bowl,in case) I ordered a small birthday gift online. Monday night I slept well. Tuesday I rested, and felt much better. 

Wednesday seemed OK, but there were some bizarre moments. Emptying the waste paper bins into a larger bag (it was bin day) I jumped to see a small brown creature in the bottom of the lounge wpb. I thought it was a dead mouse. Fortunately it wasn't. It was the detached leg of the teddy Jess won at a local fete. The head, and 2 of the limbs had snapped off the same day she got it, so it was consigned to the bin.

Bob went off to the Shed, and I went up into the loft. As I always do, I took my mobile phone up there with me. But then the land-line rang. I clambered slowly and carefully down the ladder, but by the time I got to the phone, the caller had left a message then rung off - but number withheld so I couldn't ring back. Never mind, at least I didn't race down the steps and risk falling. The parcel I'd ordered arrived. 

Bob came home and needed help taking some Shed stuff to the Parish Church. The ladies were preparing for the upcoming Flower Festival. "I don't know if I should say this dear, but you are wearing your jumper inside out"  I felt extremely stupid!

Then when we got home, the parcel I'd ordered arrived. Yes, in my vertiginous stupor I'd managed to order the gift twice! It doesn't matter, I can use the 2nd gift for somebody else sometime.

I should have stayed in bed on Wednesday too....

I Met A Man With Seven Wives...

No, it was just Kirsten with a ball of wool and a pair of needles!
Here is her October gift Block #49 which the author has named St Ives 

Kirsten says
"These were incredibly quick to knit; it's a ten-row pattern, but astonishingly easy to learn and only five repeats. Plus, there's only one row of the hated purl to knit, and two of rib, which I don't mind so much."

Rows 1 – 3 knit
Row 4 K2P2 to end
Row 5 – knit
Row 6 - K2P2 to end
Row 7 – knit
Rows 8 & 9 – knit
Row 10 -  k1, P to last stitch, K1

Kirsten sent me a beautiful vintage postcard of "Tombland" the medieval area outside Norwich Cathedral- an area I love walking round.

Plus a quirky little book - which Bob recognised instantly and said how brilliant it is. Lem Putt is the Specialist - a carpenter by trade, and specialist in Sanitary Engineering. It is the story of how he builds his friend Elmer a 'mighty pretty privy'

Kirsten made herself golden autumnal one. I love my red/purple piece, the colours of breakfast compost!  She says she will definitely be repeating this one, perhaps in a less fluffy yarn so the stitch definition is clearer.

The people of St Ives, Cornwall claim this poem, written in 1730 for their town. But the folk of St Ives Cambridgeshire say it was written for them! Who knows? I wasn't planning to go to St Ives anyway

All Mixed Up

Over the summer, I have developed a fondness for 'topping up' my breakfast cereal, with yogurt and/or fruit. In Cyprus, Wendy prepared a lovely bowl of chopped fruit each morning [with fresh figs from her garden] and had a tub of Greek yogurt alongside. Staying with my SIL, there was fresh fruit, and also a tub of summer fruits compôte. Back here, I have a jar of home made compôte and one of home-made yogurt in the fridge, which I put out on the breakfast table. 

Bob refers to this as fruit compost. But this jewelled red delight is not to be confused with compost heap jelly.  [See Sue's post from earlier in the year] I have made CHJ in the past, they are two very different products.

The jelly is made by cooking the fruit, straining it, and boiling it up with sugar and water. Quite a long process, but it does yield a proper preserve which keeps for ages. The compôte is much quicker - chop up the fruit, add a little water and sugar to taste, bring to the boil, then simmer for 2-3 minutes, cool and keep in the fridge, use within 4-5 days.

My latest batch was some ripe strawberries and plums from the fridge, and in place of sugar, I emptied a tiny Tiptree pot of blackcurrant jam which came with a scone recently.
But I started wondering - where did the name come from? The word compôte is French, and the circumflex over the ô indicates a historical missing S [like pâté for paste, and hôtel  was originally hostel]

But how does this connect with my garden compost bin?
I finally found the answer - the word comes from the Latin compostum - which means to put together, or to mix.

So mixed fruits in a jar, or mixed decaying materials in a garden bin, are both compost. As usual, Bob was right!

VERTI

This sequence of letters appears in both VERTIgo, and oVERTIred. I suspect being the second is what caused a bout of the first yesterday. So I am taking it easy today. That way I can diVERTI [Italian for 'have fun'] later in the week. 

Holey, Holey, Holey

Block #74 – Alternate Eyelets -AA

After K sent me an eyelets square last month, I was greatly challenged to try a lace pattern myself. The next one seemed to be this alternate eyelets pattern. Seven or eight eyelets in each row, but adjusted so that they made a diamond pattern. I memorised the 8 row sequence very quickly, and was able to knit a square in the car on the journey to London [to see the Tapestry] and another on the way back. I was so taken with these two [random yarns] that I quickly knitted two more in plain yarns. I used that blue random in July, and the autumnal golds in August. The top plain one reminds me of raspberries! The last one is snowy white. Summer-autumn-winter, how the seasons flow into one another…

I like very simple memorable stitch patterns. If we are going to make enough for a jumper, doing twice as many each month will help. I am sending K one plain and one fancy.

There is an old hymn which begins Holy, Holy, Holy - when I was very young, the choir always sang it in church just as we began the Sunday Morning Service. I was baffled by a verse which referred to "Cherubim and Seraphim, falling down before Thee, which wert and art and evermore shalt be"
"Wert and Art" was such an odd phrase, incomprehensible to a 6 year old.
And I was bothered by the heavenly beings falling down. I knew that Isaiah the prophet saw the seraphim, and declared "with twain he covered his feet" [Is 6:2] I wasn't sure about the word twain, and confused it with tallow. Thus I thought the seraph had waxy feet!

UPDATE - Katie's Hospice Coffee Morning raised just shy of £1000. Amazing!