Bags, Tops and Bracket Fungi

Hi Everyone, I hope I find you all well.

I have had a busy week, sewing and walking as well as the normal daily household chores.

My week started with the completion (minus buttons which are on order)  of my mini sewing carry all, mini is really a misnomer here as it seems able to carry quite a lot, a bit Tardis like really, and it was admired by my sewing friends at Knitting Sew and Natter last night. Finally we have found a home, having been a bit nomadic over the last few months, cafe's church halls aside, we are now established in The Heath Citizens Community Hall, Heath Park Cardiff, where we meet every Thursday from 7 to 9pm, a small but very friendly group happy to share our expertise as well as learn from others, may we go from strength to strength. Next labour of love, was Jessica's bug top, I still have to get the correct colour zip to complete it but it really does look lovely and I am really pleased with it.  My friend Bunty loved the material and asked for the supplier, Dowtys of Hereford, Bunty is opening a new workshop near Tavistock, Devon and will be running workshops, contact information below beside picture of Jessica's top and the mini carry all.

Whilst walking this week and watching the seasonal changes to my local park (Fairwater Dell) I spied a beautiful fungal growth on a small tree trunk, it turned out to be a Bracket Fungi, information instantly supplied by my husband, and of course I Googled and found out more about the fungus itself and plunged myself into a plethora of poetry about fungus, and found this lovely one about Bracket Fungi by William D Hamilton, an English evolutionary Biologist.  I hope you enjoy it along with the photo I took in Fairwater Dell of the Bracket Fungi.

THE BRACKET FUNGI.  published 1952

(W D Hamilton 1936-2000)

The beechwoods on far hills are turning gold,

Suns shall light them, and in evenings

Red suns on red horizons rolled

Shall stain them deeper, sweeter and less cold.

Soft rain shall drench them, mists shall drown,

Leaves through stagnant stillness spinning

Go drifting quietly down and down.

Wet earth is black, the piled dead leaves are brown.

The stately trunks snake-coloured, and on these,

Live, or dead but still upstanding

White hands of bracket fungi seize

Hands tough as leather, soft as cheese

Quietly encircle, quietly pull and kill.

And when that cobweb-shattered sun

Sinks huge to a yet more distant hill

The pallid hands grow fleshy, pink and fill

That beauty with their growth. 

Thank you once again for joining me, have a lovely week wherever in the world you are, and I will be back again next week.

Daisychain

Spring days and Bamboo

Hi everyone  I hope I find  you all well.

On my walk in the local park checking up on and feeding the local wildfowl, at present 6 drakes, 3 ducks and 2 moorhens on the dell pond and 2 drakes and 1 duck on the lower pond stream, I have observed the stirrings of spring, crocuses  daffodils and swathes of bamboo lining the stream banks, wonderful.  A lovely daily walk enjoyed by me plus many other locals, mostly of walking their dogs.   The day is clear and sunny, the wind brisk and cool, causing the bamboo and the trees to rustle as it passes through their branches. The bamboo is striking  and luxurious interleaved with red and green dogwood  making a really colourful backdrop to the path on the one side and stream on the other. My thoughts turn to the bamboo and it's many and varied uses, such a versatile plant, although some would say too rampant for their liking, never in my estimation, you can always tame a rampant plant if necessary.  There is a lovely poem (anonymous) that celebrates bamboo and I have chosen that for my offering this week.

Beautiful Bamboo (anonymous) 

From Chinese chop-sticks to rice-paddy hats,

So much depends on flexible bamboo,

That’s used to fashion floors in humble flats,

Forms fans as well as woven welcome mats,

And helps to lift aloft the teahouse too.

While from Tibet and far-off Katmandu,

To where the Geisha girls are seen with suits,

It forms the fishing poles and scaffolds you

See on the sides of buildings in the blue,

And lends its hollow length to Buddhist flutes.

And giant grass whose rapid growing roots

Have multi-purpose versatility,

It feeds the multitudes with yellow shoots,

And formed for holding fish and nuts and fruits,

It bends to make amazing basketry.

And from that plant with pliability,

That serves the world like selfless Buddha’s do,

We sure could learn to have humility,

To bend and lend a helping hand and be

Much more like bowing, beautiful bamboo.

I have spent the last week cutting out and preparing dress patterns ready to use the wonderful material I have, and am looking forward to showing you the results very soon, my last offering was a fleece top I made, the first zip I have fitted since I was in school, and that was quite a while ago.  I lined the accent pocket with fleece material to make it cosier to slip little hands in, all in all I was really pleased with my efforts.

Thank you everyone, as always, for joining me and allowing me to share a little insight of my life with you, have a wonderful week wherever in the world you are.

Daisychain