Weekend doings.

 You're getting a bits and bobs sort of offering from me today as it was precisely that sort of weekend. There's been a lot of this going on [minus the feline] over the past two weekends...to be frank I will be very happy to not sew anything black for quite some considerable time. I can't even mither really as I chose to do it♥❤🖤, but thankfully the finish post is now in sight.

In between shifts of sewing [my hands are telling me that I've done lots of little stitches over the last fortnight] I nipped into town for a spot of necessary festive retail therapy. I don't go shopping very often so am hopelessly out of practice, but I did get there in the end particularly after being fortified by a particularly good cuppa and a coffee bun at the Repair Cafe. Since I stopped volunteering at the beginning of the year [I'm still on the recycling team for Sussex Green Living] due to time constraints I've not been free when it's been held. It was good to catch up with some familiar faces and see what they've been up to. It's a dynamic charity and there's always something new being added into the mix. This is the cape of good hopes which shows people's love of nature and positive hopes for the future of the planet. It is secular and promotes inclusivity. As you can see it is still very much a work in progress with new patches being added on a monthly basis including several from local Ukranian refugees. I have my own patch to work on in the New Year. It was inspired by Barbara Keal's Coat of Good Hopes which was walked from Peacehaven up to COP26 in Glasgow last year. 

After all that saintly doing of jobs there had to be some respite so we did venture forth yesterday to visit somewhere new [I'll leave that for another day] with a spontaneous drop into a nearby church. It's not that far from GBT, but it's simply not been on the radar. This made coming across an unexpected set of wall paintings dating from 1300 all the more special. Mr GBT could vouch for my ignorance of their existence otherwise we'd have been over long before now😁....I mean look at those skeletons💀 We were in Charlwood, Surrey

Now it's not often that I talk about specific books I've read, but this one is a keeper. It came to me via my FB book exchange so I knew not one jot about it. Back in 2011 many Japanese people tragically lost loved ones in the tsunami. Itaru Sasaki built a white phone box in his garden six months after his cousin died of cancer. Inside is an unconnected phone from which he and now many others ring the people they're grieving for. It is called the phone of the wind and he was approached about having one here in the UK so people could ring those that had died in the pandemic. Although this novel is an imagined account of the story of those left behind and what a part the phone comes to play in their lives it is incredibly moving, but with a light touch and sprinkles of hope.

So as not to finish on a down note we rounded off our shenanigans with an evening out at the folk club. One of the local morris sides is celebrating its 50th anniversary [several members are also in the club] and they'd come all in kit to entertain us. There was a bit of dancing, lots of lively music, the odd risque song and poem and these....jig dolls. I have absolutely fallen in love with these little folk art treasures...even the squeeze box goes in and out! I've never seen any in action so to speak....brilliant.

Thus ended another weird and wonderful weekend in the life of Aril!

Arilx