It seems to be storm season. Storm Austen has battered Cornwall. Storm Adam has flooded some places in eastern Spain and storm something else is apparently on its way to Scotland. We had heavy rain in the night but not really what you would call a storm … yet. Round here this week it’s mostly dull and damp season.
Yesterday afternoon I picked the smallest grandchildren up from school as usual. At some point after we had arrived home, Grandson Number Two discovered a hole in his sock. Could I fix it? he asked. Well, yes, I could and almost certainly should in order to prevent him from deliberately making it any larger. So we found the sewing kit and my grandmother’s darning mushroom. Every child should see a darning mushroom at some point!
And then, after rooting about in my sewing kit, he declared that he wanted to do some stitching, if I could find him some fabric. His sister joined in: she too wanted to stitch. Well, that would have to wait until after we had eaten and his mother had taken Grandad to chess club. Over dinner, the small boy demonstrated his creativity by raiding the fruit bowl to make a fruit salad. A rather diminished fruit salad: tangerines, which he could peel himself, grapes and apple -if I could make apple slices which he would then chop into smaller pieces. What? No nectarines? All the nectarines I have bought lately have been disappointing. It’s no longer soft-fruit season. So he made do with what he had, carefully wielding the fruit-paring knife. This gave his much older sister, 23 year old Granddaughter Number Two, a panic attack but he and I explained that he had been told exactly what he could and could not do with said knife.
I was rather hoping that fruit-salad making would cancel out stitching but it was not be. So I found my collection of felt squares and the two small people set to work. The small boy designed a frog toy he wanted to create, a cuddly frog, provided I had stuffing, which I did,
He insisted on cutting the felt himself to the shape he wanted and managed to do he major part of the stitching round the body of the ‘frog’. We stuffed it - with strong words about how the stuffing was NOT to be thrown round my living room! While I did the complicated but of stitching the top to keep the stuffing in, he drew and cut out hands and feet in a contrasting green, and a pink tongue. With a little help from his friend(ly grandma) he successfully attached these to the body.
Time was slipping past. Mummy had returned from taking Grandad to chess club, she had had a sandwich and some coffee and wanted to head for home. So I was requested/instructed to embroider eyes (we had considered large beads but we had no black ones and besides, he agreed, large beads would reduce the cuddlability of the frog) and stitched the tongue in place. Result: an odd but very satisfactory frog.
His 10 year old sister meanwhile had been busily making a little felt bag, with some help from her older sister, quite a proficient stitcher.
It was amazing how quiet it was with two small people stitching!
To finish off, here are a couple of interesting animal pictures.
Snakes on a plane … these are just a few of the 55 lizards discovered in the baggage of a man travelling to Cologne from Mexico City, along with 37 live venomous snakes, stuffed into shampoo bottles, plastic containers and balled-up socks. He claimed he had brought the animals back as a favour for a Brazilian friend, but customs officials were not convinced, and he was denied entry to Germany
Last week a black bear wandered through a library in Mammoth Lakes, California, US. The bear reportedly checked out the new releases, raided the snacks and helped itself to a jar of honey. A spokesperson from the education department said: “We can only assume the new Li-BEAR-ian was looking for a copy of Winnie-the-Pooh, published 100 years ago today!”
That’s one of he things that can happen if you live near bears.
Life goes on, stay safe and well, everyone!
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