HAPPY EASTER

Over the years I have noticed that Good Friday is usually the best day weather wise of the Easter Holiday.

My Mum used to say that the sun always shone on Good Friday and I remember many happy, sunny Good Fridays out with my boys when they were little.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it is always WARM - that would be a stretch too far, and I remember in 2008 decorating my bedroom over Easter while it snowed, but while Easter Sunday and Monday can often be cold, wet and windy - Good Friday usually behaves impeccably.

 

And today, On the Green, the daffodils are dancing in the sunshine,

The sky is blue,

And the eggs are laid.

Have a super weekend.

Bye for now,

Ruth.

JUST OFF MY NEEDLES

This is the story of my Seashore Blanket.

It began when I came across Attic 24's pack at the Wool Warehouse for the Coast Blanket.  It was Springtime and I just loved the colours, but here was the snag - I don't crochet, but I do knit.

So, I ordered the pack and when it arrived it was like being a child in a sweet shop again - an absolute dream.  I showed my beautiful bag of yarn to a neighbour and she said the thought of all that knitting was more like a nightmare.  We obviously weren't on the same page!

I was now able to put my idea into practice.  I really like to wear tunics and so, I thought how great a tunic in these colours would be.  I set too and really before not very long at all, my tunic was complete.

Here it is.  My husband said I was so well camouflaged he could hardly see me to take the pic!

I know people can be a bit snobby about acrylic yarn, but this is soft, warm and washes like a dream - I am one happy bunny.

But this is not the end of the story.  I had rather a lot of yarn left and I really enjoy making blankets.  We went for a week's break to Port Isaac in Cornwall in May, and this is where my next journey began.

Here is my bag of yarn next to my knitting chair on that holiday.

My blanket is made up of of squares from a book called '200 Knitting Blocks for blankets, throws and afghans' by Jan Eaton.

I have used this book before and you can never tire of the combinations of different colours and textures you can achieve.

I worked on my blanket through the summer, and then took a bit of a break while I worked on another project which I really wanted to finish for the winter, but then, after Christmas took it up again and below is the result.

A few close ups:

There the story ends - my Seashore tunic and blanket lived happily ever after.

Happy knitting if that is your thing.

Bye for now,

Ruth.

RED

Red is not normally a colour I associate with February, but earlier this week I was out on a hunt for a birthday present, and at my very first port of call, I found this.

The hand made glass vase from Poland leapt out at me, the red on the inside just glows and I had to have it.  I hope my daughter-in-law loves it as much as I do.  (I apologise for the slight fuzzines on the photo - I took the shot several times, but each time my hand must have moved slightly - the joys of age!)

I couldn't believe when after a little walk along the street to take some clothes to the charity shop, in the window just looking up at me and begging to be taken home were these.

 

A pair of Clark's leather and patent pumps in MY SIZE for just £6.99!

I rounded off with 4 bunches of daffodils for £2 and my happiness was complete.  Some days shopping just works.

Following on from this little trip and looking around the house a few other objects popped out at me and reminded me that I really do like a bit of red.

And so:

Here are my knitting needles in their super duck tin, my threads live in the chicken drawers, and my other sewing bits and bobs are in my super spotty ex-biscuit tin.  Even teddy is happy sporting his red jumper.

This is my gorgeous "On the Green" notebook - sporting the red edges to its pages.

My Boden nautical pumps - don't you just love the red spots inside and the red heel spine?  Believe it or not these came from mini-boden and they are a size 7 - how does that work?

Added to my red crops and stripy t-shirt my pumps make up one of my favourite summer outfits - I quite like to tell a story with my dressing.

This is the back view of my warm and snug button back jumper and

this is the front along with my super beads - which were another charity shop find some time ago.

This is a close up of one of my hand knit blankets - I just love the bright red lines amongst the chunky country tweed.

And lastly is an acrylic painting done by my son quite a lot of years ago.  His work has now moved on and he is a successful designer, but I really love this early, fairly naive work called Seasons and just 1 of 1 especially for me.

Hoping you find some brightness to cheer your weekend.

Bye for now,

Ruth.

LOOKING BACK

I popped into a bookshop in town the other day and found this absolutely super book.

Now I know that Miss Read books are light reading and some may not get it, but I have loved them ever since I discovered them when I was about 16 and first got some money of my own after starting to work full time.  Back then you could pick one up for 55 pence.  But then again, as I only used to earn £6 a week as a shorthand typist, I suppose it is all relative.

Dora Saint alias Miss Read died in 2012, and I believe I have just about all of her books.  Firstly the cover illustrations have always been just beautiful and secondly, from the very beginning, I realised that she was actually writing about my school life in the 1950's.

This is a photo of my primary school and, as in Miss Read's books, it was a 2 teacher school run by a husband and wife who lived in the School House next door, shown below.

We had just 2 classrooms, the little room under the tuition of Mrs B from age 4 to 7 and the big room run by Mr B from age 7 to 11 when we sat the 11+ exam to determine which school we would move on to in the town.

There was a concrete playground at the back with a climbing frame and to go to the toilet, you crossed the playground to the girls' facilities in the left hand corner and the boys in the right.

We had two cloakrooms, one for each classroom with wash basins and cold water, and there was a canteen where meals were cooked every day by ladies from the village.

We had little bottles of milk each morning, which were always stored just outside the front door and therefore in summer the milk was often slightly warm and in winter, very often about half ice with the tops popped off the bottles as it froze and expanded.  Still it didn't seem to do us any harm - we were all fairly hale and hearty.  We didn't worry about things like health and safety then - there was just common sense.

There were around 23 pupils in the whole school at any particular time and for physical education we we played with bean bags and quoits and did exercises in the playground, and on summer Friday afternoons we walked to the village green to play cricket - the ground was very rough and nothing like a real pitch.

Whenever I feel like a comforting and feel good read, I still turn to Miss Read, and am really looking forward to reading Mrs Griffin Sends Her Love which has been published since Dora Saint's death and contains her thoughts and writings which she produced before publishing her first book about the village of Fairacre called Village Diary.

I would just like to say, "Thank You Miss Read for the hours of pleasure you have given to me over the years."

More posts will be popping up about my country childhood which I hope you will enjoy reading.

This is not a sponsored post in any way - I just absolutely love these books.

Hoping your weekend is cosy and warm.

Ruth.

COULD SPRING REALLY BE SPRINGING!

I woke at around 4.00 this morning and just couldn't get back to sleep, but was really surprised and happy to hear birds singing.

One of the things I really love about Spring is the dawn chorus.  We have a fairly high hedge in the lane next to the house and the birds can sing quite loudly there as the weather improves.  I love it, a real feeling of good things to come.

Later, when I popped outside the sun was shining really brightly, the air felt just a little different, and looking out of the front window a red kite was circling - just beautiful against the really blue sky.  

We are lucky to see a lot of red kites here - they were reintroduced fairly locally some years ago and the numbers grow - they look so lazy making their circles and their cries are magical - and then they spot food and come down with terrific force.  A year or two ago, one came down to scoop up a dead vole in the lane - the noise and the sheer size of the bird were incredible.

And so, I decided, today would be my first day of the year of line drying outside - always such a pleasure.  I find washing drying on the line so homely, it smells so much better for a blow in the fresh air, and it is slightly easier to iron, I find.

I must just say here that I am no expert with photography by any means - I just point and shoot with my little camera - although I have just learnt how to crop pics and so am really feeling quite good.

The forecast is for unsettled again later in the week, but in the meantime - a good day.

Bye for now,

Ruth.

Hello,

Recently I have been feeling a little directionless, but a few years ago, when I organised Craft Fairs locally, I did write a blog for a while.  It fell by the wayside, but recently I thought "Why not begin again?" and so here we are.

I decided to call this blog "On The Green" as this is where I live in a village of about 2000 people.

We are very lucky here to have a village general shop, a hairdresser, a fish and chip shop, a social club, snooker club, an excellent pub, a school with pre-school, doctors' surgery, the Baptist Chapel and St. Mary's church and there is something going on most evenings.

When out walking just along the main street, or further afield in the woods or by the river, you will nearly always run into someone and stop for a chat or at least a hello.

When we were in the pub this weekend at a 21st party, someone said to me "We are a family here and all look out for each other."  How wonderful is that?

I have chosen the pic above, looking over the gate to pastures new, in the form of my blog and hope you will join me in my simple life of homemaking, crafting, reading, gardening and general village goings on.

See you again soon,

Ruth.