As a child ... a happy child , I hasten to add ..... I fantasised about being somebody else entirely . Part of a circus , or living in a gypsy caravan or , better still , on a barge . Too much exposure to Laura Knight perhaps . Actually it wouldn't suit me at all . I'm far too untidy . But when we all went to the Cropredy Festival this summer , I discovered to my delight that the festival site was next to a canal lined with beautiful painted barges
Middle Daughter found me a colouring book for my birthday
full of castles and roses , the traditional decorations for English canal boats and I've been having great fun colouring them in , while swigging coffee from her other present .
It has provided a little , much needed , relief from The Great Quiltathon that finishing this ( decidely unminiature) quilt became
By the time I'd got round the 334th handsewn piece I'd had enough . The ( very) little boy I've made it for had better cherish it unto the third generation .
10 comments:
The coffee pot is gorgeous! And I'm so pleased that you (too) are too untidy to live on a barge, although doing so might force you to put things away in their proper places. I'm always looking for a cure for my own messiness and that might be it.
Do enjoy your colouring book - I think that's a brilliant gift. Says something about both of you.
What a neat-o post! Love the barges, love the coffee pot, and the coloring book (I used to love grownup coloring books!) and if that little boy doesn't care for quilts, surely his mother will make sure it's preserved - it's beautiful!
I'm sure he will.
Like you I always imagined a different life usually depending on what I'd read most recently. Come to think of it I still do ...
The artwork on some barges is so gorgeous.
Ohhhh, coloring! How soothing.
Years ago I bought a coloring book for myself and had hours of meditation time while I looked at pretty colors. I believe it was very good for my mental health.
The coffee pot looks so much like the one you're about to color that I had to check to see if they were identical. They are not, but close enough.
Absolutely.
In fact, I think you should make that a condition of the gift.
It's far too beautiful a piece of work to leave unappreciated.
A colouring book? With crayons? Am I missing something?
But the coffee pot is very handsome.
GASP!
I will stop bleeding on about weaving in yarn ends. The quilt is a TRIUMPH.
I used to ask to be sent to boarding school...
Love the quilt, lucky boy who's getting that one.
Hooray, my comment has posted! Having lots of trouble with blogger AGAIN. Please don't think I'm not reading...
I swore when I grew up I'd live in a tee-pee, because I loved the smell of the warm canvas of our play one in the Australian sunshine. No matter that it was not our culture.
Later in was a gypsy caravan - again, not a familiar scene on Australian roads.
My husband read Wind in the Willows when he was a boy, and always wanted to live on a barge,and yes we grew up on the stories of English boarding schools and wondered what it would be like, knowing only the "cockies from the bush" (farmers)sent their children to capital city boarding schools for a chance of a better education than what was offered in country high schools or the remoteness of inner Australia.
Over the years I've spoken to many who went to boarding school here,and none liked it.
Great post.
I look enviously at the barges along the Regent's Canal. Some of them even run businesses - selling coffee, a book stall. But what I really envy is the ability to live part of their life outside each day.
Maybe you shoudl have a go!
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