Seasons Greetings!!

I hope you have all had a peaceful Christmas and we wish everyone a healthy, happy and prosperous New Year to come.

We are making the most of this holiday, (it's our only real chance to take a break all year) and I'm sorry for disappointing anyone, but we won't be back in the office until next Tuesday. So if you can, please leave us messages on the answerphone or e-mail and I promise we will get back to you as soon as we are back in harness!

Our family has a history of Christmas birthdays and I'm no exception. My grandfather was born on Christmas Day, Father in Law on the 27th, an Aunt on Boxing Day etc..... It's not the best time for a birthday, but it could have been worse, I was supposed to arrive around New Year's Day. My father tells me that it was the one and only time I've ever arrived early in my life! (not true of course....)

With my birthday being so close to Christmas, our sons have found a unique way of making it special for me. Every year all of their friends try to outdo each other by arriving en masse and presenting me with the worst birthday card or present they can find. This year, I must say that they excelled themselves. Look at this photo, this is what they bought me.

1. Tealights, because as they informed me, "you can never have enough".
2. A pink notepad, for those "senior, forgetful moments" and in pink because I hate the colour so much and they always aim to please.
3. An economy lightbulb, to increase my eco friendly profile, (allegedly).
4. A book of raffle tickets (?!!)
5. Some out of date paracetamol to treat the headache that I would no doubt have when they all left!!!!

I did tell them that the first thing I was likely to use was the book of raffle tickets, if anyone is interested they are 10p each and the prize is 6 rude young men! (only joking)

To be fair they did also get me some flowers, chocolates and a selection of hilarious cards. It was a lovely day. Hope you have a great time too.....

Vico Magistretti and the countdown to Christmas

Not long to go now before the holidays. As usual we are trying to clear the decks so that we can bring the dining room back into commission for Christmas Day. Because it hardly gets used during the rest of the year it tends to be the dumping ground for surplus stuff, so it's generally at this time that we have to do a clear out. This year we have a bit more than normal stored in there, mainly due to having to clear Mother-in-law's house. But now that the house has been sold, the bits that are left can't multiply, (I hope) so once we find new homes for these last few bits and pieces - that's that!

On the work front we have a few rush seats to weave and return to their owners before next week, all other restoration will start again in the New Year. We're just about to finish the last drop-in pad of a set of three for some Vico Magistretti Carimate chairs, this time using "reel rush", a pre-twisted natural material. We see a lot of these, most of the earlier dining sets dating from the 60's seem to have been woven traditionally using hand twisted rush, perhaps these were the first chairs made by Cassini. Later versions from the late 70's onwards have more varied seat materials. The set that we are restoring at the moment are from this sort of period and were originally woven using pre-twisted natural material, so we are replacing them "like for like". The original seats had only just worn out, so I guess it proves that the pre-twisted material does have a good long lifespan and also that it has been around a lot longer than people imagine. Here's a picture of the old "reel rush" on the underside of the final seat pad we're working on. You can see around the edge where the frame protects it that the material was very green to begin with.

For comparison, here's a picture of the two newly woven pads alongside the old one. It'll be a few years before the new seating fades to the muted golden colour of the old one.

I like them when they're green.

Goodbye to the Cotswolds

Last week turned out to be busier than we'd expected. The people buying Mother-in-law's house decided that they wanted to move in on the 9th, but we only got to know about these plans on the 5th!

So we visited the Cotswolds for the last time.

This is Bourton on the Hill. The main street is lined with houses built from mellow stone, most of them look out onto fabulous views across the surrounding countryside. Along with other beautiful villages and towns along the route to Mother-in-law's house, they're "old friends" now. But my favourite view of all was always this one.

Just outside Chipping Campden there is a fantastic 360 degree view across the undulating hills. There are endless dry stone walls marking ancient boundaries, fields and forests, it's simply magical.

Well that's it now, no more frantic car journeys in all weathers. Perhaps Christmas might be a little bit more peaceful this year after all.....

A smile for Tuesday - George the cat!

Christmas is coming, look at this lovely photo sent by our son of his friend's cat George.

Daft or what! (by the way, he wasn't harmed by the hat, he is probably the most loved and pampered cat in the world)

It's December already

And here is how December started for us in Dorset.

 

There had been a sharp frost overnight, so as the sun rose through the trees, the mist swirled. It was really beautiful.


I'm looking forward to the 22nd when the days start to get longer again. The short, dark, colder days make all sorts of jobs more difficult. I've spent days recently almost literally "watching paint dry!" All of the hard wax finishes, oils and shellac take longer to cure, even in our newly tidied and warm workshop, processes can take twice as long as they would in the spring or summertime. One of the most frustrating jobs at this time of year is tinting new cane to match old - when? First thing in the morning if it's bright, but if you miss that opportunity, you'll have to wait until tomorrow, it's already too dark by lunchtime. A bit of patience is called for I think.

It has been a relatively unexciting week on the work front, lots more of the same really. Cane panels by the dozen, the odd woodworking repair and lots of final finishing which is always satisfying. Another bit of good news is that finally our stock of "reel rush" in one kilo reels was delivered, (note to self - update the website!) We hauled best part of a ton into the store, so guess what? All of that space we made last weekend has disappeared already.

Another bit of good news is that we have a completion date for the sale of Mother-in-law's house. It will be such a relief to not have to worry about it any more. All the long journeys, cleaning, decorating and furniture removals - at last the future looks a little bit less demanding.

The grand sort out!

I haven't mentioned it before, but for the last few weeks we have been sorting things out. For months and months we have not only been working full time, (and a bit more) as normal, but have also been trying to deal with the issues that were raised by Mother in Law's dementia and eventual move into a nursing home. As a result of all the travelling to and fro, extra correspondence, decorating and generally preparing her house for sale, our own home had become seriously neglected in the process. The workshop and storeroom were also untidy thanks simply to the lack of spare time available to put things back where they belonged. Stupid things like not disposing of cardboard boxes and general packaging materials had meant that we were running out of space! So a month ago we steeled ourselves to begin the colossal task of sorting everything out.

I always find that hard work gets easier if you can have a laugh. We did find one or two things that were just so peculiar that there was nothing else to do BUT laugh. For example, can anyone explain to me why this box was found in the far corner of the store?

A box of random stuff. Some guttering, draught excluder and rams horns! How this lot ever got put together in one box I've no idea and how they ever came to be buried under everything else is another mystery. Blame it on the pixies!

However hard and however long it took us to clear out I can honestly say it was worth it. I've even got a pot plant in my workshop now!

I've actually got some spare space in the client "waiting room"

And as for the materials store........well........

Space!!! And it was there all the time......

A toad and communication problems!

Well looky here.....

A baby waif and stray I found last night making his way onto the road. Well not to worry now, he's safe living under the autumn leaves next to the pond in our back garden. He looks a bit too young to survive the winter, but I hope he does. He can be our slug muncher in the spring!

Back to today, sorry to everyone who is currently waiting for a quotation for overseas deliveries. Royal Mail's website is broken - it's impossible to get any quotes at all!! I think they have tried to update the whole site and it has failed catastrophically. According to their Twitter account they apparently have no idea when it will be fixed....some of the tweets make very interesting reading. I felt particularly sorry for one company who have been waiting for three days to access their postage account online and were finally recommended to take their post to the local post office, all 40+ parcels! Can you imagine? If you want my advice avoid the post office for the moment, you might bump into some very annoyed people and wait an incredibly long time for service.......

From a Louis XVI window seat to a broken country chair!

I think it's what I love the most about my job, you never know what will walk through the workshop door. For example this week, firstly a very nice lady arrived with this:

A lovely 19th century French walnut window seat with beautiful carving. But what made it even more interesting for us was the history. We were chatting about how pretty it is, it's likely age and the fact that whilst it is French and Louis XVI in design, it is probably a 19th century piece. The owner said she had an inventory of furniture and when she went home, she would look to see if the stool was on the list.

About two hours later an e-mail arrived from the owner, the stool was on the list described as French 19th century walnut and in 1970 was valued at the princely sum of £35! The seat will be replaced once we have repaired one rail which has split - it is a stunning piece of furniture.

And then the next day another lady arrived with this:

These are the remains of an oak dining chair! Again it was the story behind the chair that was interesting. It is one of a set and unfortunately when the owner moved from the US to England, this one chair arrived in pieces from the shippers - that was 30 years ago. Goodness only knows what happened to it in transit, all four stretchers are missing and all but one of the seat rails are broken. It will take us some time to make the missing pieces, but it will be worth it - at least the dining set will be complete again.

Weaving Wishbones and Handles

The set of eight Wegner Wishbones are nearly finished. Here they are so far, six are completely finished, number seven is cleaned waiting to be finished and number eight is still exactly as it was when it arrived with us.

 

Hopefully all will be finished by the middle of next week.

Another job finished last week - the wrapping of these two pot handles.

The customer sent us the remains of the wrapping from the left hand handle to copy, the detail weaving was originally stained blue, so some of the new cane had to be dyed. Something a bit out of the ordinary and two very pretty pots.

Remembrance day

Why we will be silent for a minute on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.

This watch belonged to Eric, he was 18 when he signed up to fight in the first world war. He was a non-commissioned officer and following initial training his first posting was to the Somme where he fought in the trenches and yes, he "went over the top". I guess you could say at this point that he was "one of the lucky ones" because he was injured and shell shocked badly enough to be returned home for convalescence. His sister Irene nursed him like a mother, encouraged him to express his depression, fear and anger through art - he did some truly moving paintings of fields, churches and the aberration of war.

After just a few short months he was assessed and proclaimed fit to return to the battlefield. Irene was devastated, she begged the authorities to reconsider, she told them that he may be physically fit, but mentally he was scarred for life, not capable of fighting. Her protests were disregarded.

Eric was sent back to Europe, this time to Belgium - Ypres. Yes the muddy killing fields of Ypres. He died from an exploding bullet to the thigh, he was just 21 years old.

Irene kept the letters that she had written to his commanding officer and the replies. She had asked about the manner of his death, did he suffer, what were his last words? The commanding officers replies were beautifully hand written in pencil on spiral bound notepaper - there were no last words of comfort for Irene.

When Irene died aged 89 all of these keepsakes were found carefully wrapped and bound in ribbon alongside a tiny pair of leather gloves that she had made for her only son who had died aged 60 just six months before she did.

Irene was my Grandmother, Eric was her only brother - she gave us this watch before she died so that we would never forget.

Thursday catch up.

It's lovely to have visitors and be a tourist in your own area for a few days. I can't remember the last time we visited Swanage to just wander around, look at shops and eat fish and chips, but that was what we did last Saturday and it was bliss, even the weather was good.

However, there's always seems to be a price to pay for any fun, so this week we're trying to catch up. Nothing exciting, just more of the same but it is hard work. The Wegner wishbones are getting done one by one, half a seat a day, that's quite enough effort I can tell you! It's proper aerobic exercise without the need for any rowing or running machines.

In between there's more cane panelling to do, some to be tinted and others left "au naturel".

There was also quite a bit of restoration woodworking that had been put off for too long, so yesterday I decided to get on with it with a vengeance. First there was a lovely arts and crafts chair that needed a new front seat rail and stretcher, both had broken. So we found an old seat rail in our "butchered wood" store and made a new front stretcher out of an old piece of beech. The stretcher had to be beaten up a bit and coloured to make it match in with the rest of the frame - this is the result.

Just need to put a new seat on it now. The other woodworking job was to make a new front rail for a drop in seat pad that had moreorless disintegrated.

This is one of a set of three, luckily the other frames are fine. So now we can re-rush this lot too! All pretty boring stuff, I'm still waiting for some spare time to go back to working on the papier mache inlaid chair, but it never seems to happen.

Happy Halloween

The end of Summertime and the beginning of the cold, dark days of Winter - Happy Halloween.......

Men say that in this midnight hour,
The disembodièd have power
To wander as it liketh them,
By wizard oak and fairy stream.
~William Motherwell

 

We've had a lovely week, our French friends came to stay, so there's been lots of laughter, outings and fun here, not to mention the lovely food!

 

 

 

The loaf in the foreground was bought from a French bakery in London, wow it was lovely! We served it with salad, cheese, eggs, fish and pasta - delicieux!

 

The girls each carved a pumpkin.

 

 

We put them on the front doorstep with tealights inside.

 

 

Magical! It's been a lovely week.

Rain!

It's been raining heavily on and off for days now, so much so that yesterday when we were walking back home from the village we were completely soaked through by a passing van, (going too fast as usual). The road was like a fast flowing river, the van created a massive wave that engulfed the pair of us, there was no escape! By the time we got home both of us had to change ALL of our clothes. Will this rain ever stop?

We had a big order of stock arrive on Tuesday, two great big pallets that had to be manhandled from the lorry into the store, luckily the rain did stop briefly while we moved it all, but the ground was soaking wet, we were up to our ankles in puddles. By the time we'd moved the best part of a tonne of stuff we looked like drowned rabbits!

Meanwhile, remember this?

Well it has a new home now and I'm sad to see it go, but you can't keep everything can you? We won't get much chance to create original works over the "dark season" so it'll probably be Spring before I get a chance to start playing with all of the other ideas we have in mind. For now it's back to answering the phone, weaving Wegner Wishbones and putting in new cane panels! I don't like the cold and damp, I just want to hibernate - wake me up when the sun starts shining please!

Do the dark, dark days of the approaching Winter affect your working life? Or is it just me?

Hans Wegner's Wishbone or "Y" chairs

"A chair is to have no backside. It should be beautiful from all sides and angles." - Hans Wegner

One of the design icons of the 20th century - Hans Wegner's "Wishbone" chair, first produced in 1949 by Carl Hansen in Denmark is instantly recognisable. Still in production today and now available in a multitude of colours and finishes, the continued demand speaks volumes for this visionary designer's abilities. I wonder, how many of today's designs will not just stand the test of time, but will also be popular and desirable across all age groups in 60+ years time?

We've been very lucky to have restored many of these chairs, inevitably most of the early ones we see have been in the same family from new and have often travelled around the globe with their faithful owners. When you talk to the owners, it quickly becomes obvious that their chairs are old friends that they couldn't bear to lose. Maybe that's why so many are quite happy to have them restored once they are looking tired and neglected - a bit like paying for someone you love to have a full facelift!

They're not the easiest of chairs to restore, (as I've said on this blog in the past!) and I do still wonder whether Mr Wegner ever actually did chair seat weaving because some of his designs really do test even the most experienced weavers full range of skills to the limit. But then nothing worth having is ever easy is it? Sorry for the ramble, but as we are working on 9 of them at the moment I've got loads of time to ponder....it occurred to me that we could do with a few more Mr Wegners - it would solve a lot of problems, (bear with me!) You see really good design lasts forever. Why change something when you still love looking at it and it functions so well that nothing can beat it? An end to some of our "throwaway" tendencies perhaps? Hmmm.....

So here it is today, in all it's "Former Glory", an early Wishbone chair with it's freshly cleaned frame and a new seat. The next set we're working on were going to have black woven seats, but there are problems with the colourfastness of the new cord. Having discussed the problems with the chairs owners, they decided that they would like to have them home by Christmas, so they too will now be woven in the natural coloured cord. Otherwise they would have to live without them for another couple of months before the new colourfast black cord is available.

See what I mean about loyalty?

"Many foreigners have asked me how we made the Danish style. And I've answered that it...was rather a continuous process of purification, and for me of simplification, to cut down to the simplest possible elements of four legs, a seat and combined top rail and arm rest." - Hans Wegner

Some of our customers projects

It's been a busy weekend but all good fun, we had lots of visitors and some precious time out visiting a local market and Poole Quay with our family - the weather was perfect, Poole was shimmering in the late Autumn sunshine. We took a drive around Sandbanks, the famously expensive area of Poole where a sandy promontory stretches out into the beautiful bay. I even managed to find some Dorset "hag" stones on the beach, I have plans for these - have a guess!

But now it's back to the normal working week, lots of Wegner wishbone chairs, I'll post up more about those in the next few days.

We've also been working on our websites and Facebook page, in future I will try and post more regular updates about materials and any special Christmas gifty items we are working on, (yes Christmas is coming....oooh no!) One new page I'm working on will be for customer projects on the Seat Weaving Supplies website. We've been collecting together photos and info about special projects that some of our customers have worked on using our materials. One of those featured will be Mike Abbott's green wood chair making courses. Here's a preview of the work that some of his students have created:

Black Danish cord looks lovely on greenwood chairs! Great work. There will be all sorts of projects on the new webpage,we love to see just how creative people are and to show off their work, I'll let you know when the page is online.

Talking of artistic folk...please take a moment out to look at Wendy's site for her "Handmade Monday" feature that encourages creative people. And while you're there, please read her post and please, if you can, support her in her quest to help sufferers of MS. It's such a cruel and unpredictable disease that I'm sure will have touched most peoples lives in some way at some point.

It makes us appreciate just how lucky we are, enjoy every day folks.

Larmer Tree - Bernard DID make it to the ball...!

We got there! Bernard passed his braking test by just 2%, phew....We had decided to risk it, to wait and see whether he passed or not before moving any stock around. Lucky! The mechanic's workshop closed at 5pm and we arrived at 4.45pm, so as it turned out we wouldn't have had enough time to mess about transferring stock from the horsebox to the trailer and car anyway - well at least not without upsetting the mechanics wanting to get home on a Friday evening!

We left for Cranborne Chase Woodfair at 7am on Saturday and were set up in plenty of time for the 10am opening. The weather stayed fairly dry, but oh boy, was it cold! There was entertainment on Saturday night and Sunday dawned bright and warm, so all in all not a bad weekend considering it's October.

Some pictures.

This is the fabulous view. Larmer Tree Gardens are on top of a "dome" which is partly why the weather can be windy and misty here when it is calm and clear lower down. The hay bales in the foreground were a childrens "soft play" area, they loved it, it was full of laughing kids all day long.

Now some of our friends.

Here's Neil Taylor with his fabulous saddle seated chairs. We're in the background.

David Drew with his amazingly neat basketry. I was stunned when he told me that he is mostly self taught! Lovely work.

Here's Owen Jones making his famous oak swill baskets. He's been featured in loads of magazines and TV programmes and is an all round nice man!

And here's a stickmaker with his shepherd's hut. I loved the guard dog!

A real "Woody Weekend".

Oooooh dear......

Don't you just love him?

Well it's Friday morning and Bernard is still languishing in the mechanic's workshop. Overall he passed the "plating" test except for his brakes which failed by 1%. The mechanics investigated and found that a recently replaced brake master cylinder seemed to be the problem, it was sticking. Luckily we still had the old one, (some Bedford TK parts are as rare as hen's teeth!) and with a bit of persuasion it worked better than the newer one. That was yesterday afternoon....they have rechecked the braking system but are not convinced that it works all that much better than before. We'll find out..... at 3.30pm today he has a retest, (notice 3.30pm!).

Now what do we do......do we trundle down to the workshop, empty Bernard before his test then pack the car and trailer with everything we need for the show tomorrow, or do we wait and see?? If we pack the trailer and then get a pass certificate, we'll have to unpack and repack it all into the truck again, but if we don't pack the trailer before the test and then get a failure certificate, the workshop will be closing and we won't be able to get our show stuff out of the truck!!

I think at this point it would be easier to go on holiday.

Getting ready for the Woodfair at Larmer Tree.

Today is Wednesday and we will be at the Cranborne Chase Woodfair at Larmer Tree Gardens on Saturday - pretty straightforward stuff you'd think - except as I sit here and type, Bernard the horsebox, a crucial part of our stand display has once again failed his annual "plating" test (MOT). He is currently sitting in a commercial workshop awaiting a retest. Now this may or may not happen by Saturday and he may or may not pass the test ....panic ....me .....noooo!

Meanwhile the show preparations and client work continue. We finished the seat of the "Denims" stool yesterday evening, decided to go mad with mixed media and added in some French style hand wrapped coils of denim blue straw to the rushwork. I'm quite pleased with it, but my other half's jury is out!

Well you've got to admit it's something a bit different!! We've also made a much simpler version without the extra "leg". I've got to own up and say that making this has been fun and a challenge that I've really enjoyed. Persuading a few bent branches to hold together in a frame that can support a seat top is like doing a jigsaw puzzle that has some very oddly shaped pieces and without a photo of the finished thing.

Yes.....it was fun!

The "Denims" stool

A bit of carving.....I don't know why or how this came about, but when a fork between two branches of hazel looked like a pair of jeans, it seemed natural to carve a cowboy boot and put it on the bottom of the branch! (I know...it's mad...)

The "blocking out" of the shape.

Then the finished carving.

Is it mad? Oh well, my defence is "one's man meat is another man's poison! Now to decide how to weave the top - any ideas?

No 1 son's project.......

We're not the only people in the household with projects. No 1 son has a passion for restoration too, except his projects are somewhat larger than ours, usually cars or buildings! I'm sure it's our own fault for indulging his passion for model cars and lego when he was a tot.

Well here it is.........

It's been several weeks of very hard labour for him, but what a result! It was a non-runner with endless mechanical and bodywork problems, but he has persevered and now it is fully roadworthy and has passed the MOT test. It still needs a front end re-paint, but that's non-essential cosmetic work as far as he's concerned and will have to wait until more funds are available. I heard it running this morning.....mmmmmm, a Rover V8, just like a quietly purring big cat. We're very proud of his achievement, this is the third car he's either restored or rebuilt. Well done son!!!

Meanwhile we're plodding on - remember the chair frame that needed refinishing last week? Well here it is now waiting for the cane to be replaced.

I also spent some time over the weekend making a couple more footstool frames from scratch using some hazel from our garden and some recycled bits and pieces that we've gathered together over the years.

We're going to put a really fancy top on this one to contrast with the simplicity of the frame. The second of these frames is in pieces in the background of the photo, one of the legs has two branches and looks like a pair of jeans to me, so it's been christened the "Denims" stool!

Back to the mundane for today though, more "Habitat" cane panel seats.......

If you want to have a look at the work of loads of other really talented craftspeople, then pay a visit to Wendy's blog here, She showcases other crafty bloggers skills every Monday - pay her a visit!

An Art Deco Bergere and Mr Wegner....again.

I feel like Forrest Gump's Mom saying it, but it is true that in our line of work "life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get"! This week so far we span from 1900 to 1970, high Victorian to sleek modernist with a bit of bling in between. Firstly on Monday this arrived......

A high Art Deco, faux painted Walnut, blind sunset cane backed bergere sofa. It weighs a ton! For now we will just be replacing the arm panels, but first of all I've got to find a way of re-gluing one of the joints without disturbing the upholstery - could be interesting.

Then there is this....

Another one!! Hans Wegner's Wishbone chair. This ones seat has been half eaten and stropped by the cat.

Finally a fiddly one....

It's a low bergere armchair. The cane in the back and arms has to be replaced and whilst we're at it, the customer has asked us to "give the frame a bit of a clean". Easier said than done when the upholstery is fairly new, hence the parcel tape and plastic covering every square inch of fabric! I'll post pictures of the revived woodwork soon.

I'm also hoping to return to the black lacquer chair this week to do more repair work, but we'll see if time permits. Our next and last show of the year at Larmer Tree Gardens is just over two weeks away, so we will have to make time to produce some new pieces for that as well.

Good things come in threes

Good things come in threes so they say, well at least they certainly did for us this weekend. First of all a friend arrived on the doorstep with a beautiful bunch of flowers to say thank you for something we'd done. It was completely unexpected so was such a lovely surprise. Then on Saturday, our "apprentice", (kind of our third son really) also turned up on the doorstep unannounced with an invite to his wedding next year. Fantastic!

Then to top it all the postman arrived with this little card.

Such a pretty picture of a house in France. But the best bit was the message inside.

It's always nice to know that people like what you do, but even more special when they use some of their precious time to tell you so. All I had done was wrapped a pot handle, see at the bottom of this post here where I mentioned it last week!

I'm gobsmacked!! Thanks to all three for making this weekend very special.

Is there anybody out there that has 6500 chairs for re-caning??

We've just had a delivery of rattan materials, enough to reweave about 6500 average bedroom chairs. The order arrived this morning, just as the first couple of customers were leaving and another set arrived, so needless to say today has been bedlam - lorries, cars and people everywhere!

This is what that quantity of materials looks like.

Then we had to move all of this lot from the delivery van into the store - don't you just love Fridays!

Lovely weather for ducks.....with strong wings!

Well I don't know about hurricane Katia supposedly arriving overnight, but if yesterday is anything to go by then we don't need any more hurricanes, we've had quite enough bad weather thank you very much!!

It seemed like a very long day yesterday at the show and overall it was lovely, except for the weather. Why has virtually every event this year been blighted by the cold, heavy rain or high winds?

Anyway, just for a change I didn't take any photos at all, but I did make a little film, it's on youtube here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkDoOx0EXP4

A day in the life of me, my better half and Bernard, (of course).

I felt so sorry for some of the stallholders, the wind was incredibly strong at times and wickedly blustery. One minute everything would be calm then the next, a great whoosh, clatter and bang, someone else's gazebo would be bending or breaking!

We're glad to be home.

And on the 10th anniversary of 9/11, memories drift back to that awful day when it seems the whole world stood and watched in disbelief at the unfolding events. My thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims.

What on earth was I doing moaning about a bit of bad weather!!

Last minute job

Still a bit tacky, but finally I have got around to repairing, cleaning and refinishing this French medallion table top that we have had for years. At last it can be reinstated in pride of place at the back of our stand, (without me feeling embarrassed that it is grubby and unloved!)

Now we really are ready for the show tomorrow - I think!