... and breathe out

Hello, hope you all had a great weekend. The weather here in this part of blogland has been just wonderful. It's been a time for being outside, for meeting up with people and having fun. Actually I didn't feel like that at all before the weekend started. I think I'm quite a solitary soul - I love my friends and family of course and nothing is better than spending lazy days with them all. However when the weekend seems full of one arrangement after another I start to feel overwhelmed. How would I fit it all in, wouldn't it be all just too much, it's the weekend, when can we relax etc etc. Well the answer is, just to go with the flow, take a deep breath and enjoy!



On Friday night we were invited to Emma's private view at the Open House she is in during the Festival. We had a great time, drinking wine, looking at everyone's work and, above all, meeting up again with lovely Emma. There was a potentially strange moment when Mr Ragged Roses met Mr Sew Recycled, both of them blogging widows caught up in the maelstrom of blogworld. However, we all talked and talked and talked, it was good, very good. So was Emma's work so very pretty. I bought this little textile print for my bedroom and wished I had more money to spend on her other things too. I love it.



While I'm busy doing a bit of show and tell, here's a lovely collage I got from Louise at Beachys Capecodcupboard. Louise seems to be able to turn her hand at any number of things so successfully and I'm constantly amazed at the amount of lovely work she produces. Thanks Louise I'm very happy with it and I'm sorry it has taken such a long time for me to share a photo of it with everyone!



Back to the weekend - Saturday morning I dashed down to town with my neighbour to the annual plant sale. This always happens during the festival but for some reason was unadvertised this year. Just by chance we stumbled upon it and came home happy and laden with plants, grown by lovely old men in their greenhouses and allotments. I planted some up immediately and like the look of this fennel in this olive tin. I'm hoping that the heat and shininess of the container will deter those pesky snails. Can you see what they've done to my artichoke? (I read yesterday that Nigel Slater planted some surrounded by coffee grounds, might give that a go).
I spent the afternoon taking little Sister into town with her friend to see her favourite author who gave one of the funniest talks I've been too in a long time. I really admire adults who never lose the child inside them and aren't afraid to show it either. Little Sister is even more inspired to be a writer now when she grows up!
A barbecue in the evening, a garden full of girls shrieking and somewhere in the house a cat, blithely unaware of what was going on.



On Sunday we had friends down from London. Old friends, good friends, friends who we rarely see but instantly feel comfortable around. It's like rereading a favourite book with some people isn't it, you know you're going to enjoy yourself! These two friends were so kind to me when my mother died, looking after my newly born baby and coming down to visit with food parcels to make sure we were looking after ourselves. Their kindness and generosity is something I will never forget. Sometimes it doesn't matter how often you meet up with people, or even if you ever do (as in the case of our blogging friends), sometimes it's just the acts of kindness, words of support that stay with you.
So a busy weekend, a weekend full of plans, a weekend where I learnt to take things as they come and where miraculously the sun decided to shine from start to finish.



And now I'm off to do some sewing.