Misericords

Here is another excellent example of the misericords.

These are four of the medieval tiles.

Misericords

This picture is one of the misericords in Great Malvern Priory Church of St Mary and St Michael.  I shall have to return and take some more photographs as they were very interesting.  The church also has two outstanding stained glass windows designed and made by Thomas Denny for the Millenium.  There is a huge display of medieval tiles along the inside wall of the reredos.  These were made on site and date from 1453, 1456 and 1458.

Blue Ginger Gallery, Cradley

Not the best photo in the world, but the gallery is so welcoming and has a wide range of quality goods for sale including textiles, ceramics, paintings, cards and handmade books.  Excellent cafe too.  I had been planning a visit for a while and Eileen coming to stay gave me the ideal opportunity to venture there.  I shall be going again soon I think.  They had a wonderful dog called Lottie who was a Labradoodle plus a couple of Kune Kune pigs.

Malvern Makers Exhibition Ledbury

Ledbury proved to be an excellent place to be today.  Eileen and I visited the exhibition in The Weaver's Gallery and also managed to spend small amounts of money on such goodies as an old cotton sheet, a cork tile, second hand books, lots of tea and coffee and generally had a good time.

Our morning plans came to nought as we spent far too much time in Malvern exploring the delights of the Parish Church where we discovered some amazing medieval tile and modern stained glass.  We then sped off to Ledbury having decided we could not fit in a visit to Hellens at Much Marcle.  We passed the Picton Garden which Eileen assures me is a delight of Michaelmas Daisies renowned throughout the land - shame I was totally unaware of this fact.

Rustlings

Sox and I were enjoying our evening walk in the dell and I found a dead blackbird.  We have not seen any for weeks and I suspect the squirrels/magpies have killed and eaten several of them.  This one looked as if it had been bitten.  Also got a visiting ginger cat who is partial to a bird or two and recently seen by 'Dave the roofer' running across the main road carrying something.  Shame it does not catch squirrels!!

The upside of last night was that I was sat in the dark on the bench in the garden when Sox became very animated and interested in the next door neighbour's fence.  Out from under the shrubs popped a small hedgehog which proceeded to meander its way across the lawn and under the bench I was sitting on.  It suddenly realised I was there and dashed off in the direction from whence it had come.

Sox is not very well at the moment and only eats occasionally so each evening I have been putting any cat food that was left out near the garage.  This little hedgehog must know about it because within half an hour it had reappeared and after rummaging around under the bay window and through a clump of shrubs it was found noisely eating the cat food.  Hope it gets fattened up a bit more before it needs to hibernate or it will never survive the winter.

Bookbinding in Malvern (2)

This is the result of my efforts at the Bookbinding workshop.  Anna had cut out most of the constituent parts and all we had to do was assemble them, but I struggled.  The book is quite small, but the leather feels fantastic.The little catch used plaited leather and a curtain ring.  A pin was hammered into the edge of the front cover as a closure.

Have decided to enrol for the course starting in September for two and a half hours each week until December.  I think the idea is that you do your own thing so I will need to decide what I want to achieve.  It must include an embroidered cover of course and I want to learn the technique of stitching the signatures together which make up the inside of the book.

NEC Festival of Quilts

Went to the show on Friday and Sunday.  Not much fun on Friday as I was on my own, but absolute bliss to be able to drive there from home in 50 minutes. It is just over 40 miles.

Saw Carol from the Quilt Museum and had a quick catch up and, of course, also managed to spend more money than I planned.  Sunday was much better as I met up with Annie.  She had inadvertently booked a workshop which provided me with the opportunity to go and say hello to Fiona Wilson and listen to her lecture - which was excellent.  Wish I was years younger and could afford to go and do a degree.

Lots to see and the book this lovely bird was in was an absolute winner.  Now all fired up to do some work and try out my new purchases.  Had a busy weekend all in all and now back to the reality of entering the second week of having the new roof put on our house.