Okay, we’re starting with dessert today – click here to see what  Kelly has just posted about something I made last February when the ‘Blogging Babes’ got together – this was our first meal all together and the only one at my place and so of course I had to wade straight into the great Pavlova debate ………  You don’t know about the great Pavlova Debate?   Well, go on then, click here!  We’ll wait for you to come back.

That was quick – what did you think?  Did you notice where I dropped a peach slice bang into the middle of that Pav and completely ruined the entire presentation?  🙂   My friends were kind and pretended not to notice…..

Now, to reading:

My friend Derrick, he with the beautiful garden and the seemingly endless library including many older books, wrote of the book he had just finished reading and I made comment that I was going in search of it.  I found it to be out of print and Derrick generously sent on his copy to me.  I’ve read it.  Quite quickly, for even though the two stories are not particularly happy, the prose and style of the writer is such a joy to settle into I found myself reading longer than usual every evening.  He captures perfectly the sea-swept, barren lifestyle of the crofters of Orkney at the end of the 19th century.  The harsh terrain producing stoic and impenetrable peoples, their stories too reflect that terrain.  There’s a melancholia, an inevitability to the stories, but still I sometimes found myself shocked by the unfolding personal histories.George Mackay Brown’s book is two separate novellas.  Times are changing, the modern world is reaching the Orkneys, the expectations of the new generation include a wider world,  crofts are being deserted and falling into disrepair.  And yet we see how the people live on, battered by the storms of change, the actions of others and themselves – aware only of their own little world, their own hurts, their own expectations.  An accurate reflection of much of humanity in general perhaps.

George Mackay Brown writes so compellingly – there’s a poem at the end of the second story that wrings the heart.  If you can find his work anywhere I do recommend it.

From the sublime to the yarny stuff:I’m making this, it’s maybe half finished now – it’s a prototype for an idea I have for a ‘mandala’ style wall hanging – a big one.    This one though, is simply table sized.  When finished it will be maybe 60cm diameter.   I’m not sure yet which way I will go.  Sandra  over at Wild Daffodil has been making them for her grandchildren and shared with me Lucy at Attic 24’s designs too.  So many choices!

This is where I’m up to.  It’s about 35 cm diameter and I’m half way through the pattern.  I don’t think the variegated cotton helps the pattern very much, what do you think? I’m still happily growing this keeping pace with Eleonora’s weekly design postings.  Even though the blanket is officially reaching ‘huge’ proportions, there seems to be loads of yarn left in my basket.  I’m loving thisHere’s Siddy visiting his second favourite person and her new cat.  George is a bit mean to Siddy (he runs at him with evil intent) and Siddy is trying really hard to be brave.  But he isn’t really – he’s a lover, not a fighter.I’m having a tidy up in the craft room this week – yikes, it’s a mess!

Thanks for coming by today, I love that you did!