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