cross-stitch – June's Jottings

Once again, I have neglected my blog over the past month. Not out of desire but more of necessity. July has been another weirdly busy month where nothing has happened (if that makes sense). I hope to rectify things and return to my usual blogging schedule as soon as I can. In the meantime, here is a re-cap of my July:

House selling

Sadly, our house is still on the market as I type up this blog. None of the family homes around here have shifted, and more are coming onto the market every week. Since my last blog post, we have had no viewers at all; indeed, at times I forget our house is even on the market. It’s really demoralising. The “one viewer” that everyone talks about is strangely elusive and we wait on, clocking up more fees for storage and gaining more and more grey hairs and worry lines. There is a fairly big (I’m told) cycling event happening in nearby Glentress Forest at the end of this week and our agent is hoping that with a lot of visitors in the town we may pick up some interest. But, I am not holding my breath. I’m usually a positive person – optimism is my default setting – but this whole experience of trying to sell our lovely home is chipping away at that bit by bit. Maybe I’m just tired. I know I’m impatient. Both my husband and I are so keen to move back to the city as soon as possible and it’s frustrating when the ability to do so seems to not be happening imminently.

We are also in great need of a holiday away but because of the shenanigans this year with house-selling, that isn’t going to happen. Instead, it’s a case of trying to chill at home.

Anyway, maybe next month’s blog will be different (I’m sure I also said this last month…..).

PhD thesis

I have been trying to chip away at this over the past month. I have definitely left the most tricky chapter until the end. I’ve found some very useful background information, but Powell’s pubs, clubs, and restaurants are described minimally in his Dance novels. From these minimal descriptions, and from his journal entries and memoirs, I am trying to piece together subchapters which maintain the theme upon which my thesis is based. It is far from easy. Maybe I’m finding it more challenging with all that is going on (or not) with the house, but I’m keeping on going and am determined to have this finished next summer at the earliest.

When I was a child, my parents used to drag me to swimming lessons (which I hated!). The swimming teacher always used to tell us to “keep kicking” so that we could complete lengths, even when we wanted just to float or take a rest. That “keep kicking” concept has been very much in my mind, and – no matter how hard I wish this was all done so I can take a wee break – I have to keep going. If I don’t “keep kicking”, it won’t be finished for ages. And I (and I’m sure my supervisor) want this finished.

Reading

This month, when I haven’t been reading articles and books about Fitzrovia and Soho, or Powell’s novels (for the umpteenth time), I have been reading the first in the trilogy of Peebles-based novels by O. Douglas (actually named Anna Buchan, sister of John Buchan who wrote the Hannay books). I’ve only lived here 23 years and am reading them just as I’m about to leave! It’s easy-reading but a lovely escape as I try (unsuccessfully) to identify the locations of the houses that appear in Penny Plain (the first book in the ‘Priorsford’ series). Published in 1925, this novel paints a very different town to the one I live in, particularly in this description:

“I often wonder why Priorsford is so unlike a story-book little town. We’re not nearly so interested enough in each other for one thing. We don’t gossip to excess. Everyone goes his or her own way. In books, people do things or are suspected of doing things, and are immediately cut out by a feverishly-interested neighbourhood. I can’t imagine that happening in Priorsford”.

One just needs to look at the town Facebook pages to see that this isn’t the case any more! And gossip….. well, let’s just say when I was sick 11 years ago, I learned from various people “through the grapevine” that I had been at ‘death’s door’, or re-admitted for yet another operation among other falsities. I guess this is the ‘joy’ of a small town.

TV/Netflix/Streaming

I haven’t had much time to watch TV (as usual) except for the Sewing Bee (which I also mentioned last month). I can’t be bothered with TV, to be honest. I’ve been in a more creative/reading mood this month.

General

Unlike May and June, July has been cool and wet here. I don’t think there has been a day, since the schools broke up at the end of June, when we haven’t had rain. I’m not complaining though; the heatwave we had in the spring was more than enough summer for me. And, I’d rather have what we have now than the excessively hot temperatures seen in many parts of the world over the past few weeks. I’ve tidied out the garden in the drier spells but have been spared the watering – God’s done that for me! Perhaps when the schools go back in a fortnight, we will get summer again (even though I am looking forward to autumn!).

Talking of which, yesterday was so wet and cold that I decided to make gingerbread. I felt autumnal and I wanted to make something to enjoy with a cuppa tea. I found an old recipe in a book my late Auntie gave me for my fifteenth birthday, and the end result is amazing. I’m going to make that again!

Our son was 23 last week, so he and my daughter came from their respective flats to stay for the weekend. It was lovely having the house full again. Now they have both gone, I really feel the vacuum they have left. Mind you, I have a lot of tidying up to do in their wake!

I’ve been chipping away at the cross-stitch picture that my Dad gave me for Christmas. It’s hard finding time as I usually feel guilty that I’m not writing my thesis, or doing my SST emails, or doing something else. However, I have done short bursts at a time and am two-thirds of the way through it. I think I have mentioned it before, but sewing – and art and craft in general – is my go-to de-stress activity. Also, there is a quotation in a book I read a few years ago (in The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams), which says:

‘”I clean, I help with the cooking. I set the fires. Everything I do gets eaten, or dirtied, or burned – at the end of the day there’s no proof I have been here at all”. She paused, kneeled down beside me, and stroked the embroidery on the edge of my skirt […]. “Me [sic] needlework will always be here […]. I see this and I feel….well, I don’t know the word. Like I’ll always be here”. “Permanent,” I said’.

That’s how I view my numerous cross-stitch pictures which will one day belong to the kids. They are lasting proof that I have existed. Does that sound sad?

Ooh, and also the new Karl Jenkins CD was released at the beginning of July; the CD for which our choir provided two songs: ‘Let’s Go (Babel)’ and ‘Savitur’. They sound a-maz-ing! Even better, the album reached number 1 in the classical charts, so now I can say that I have sung on a number 1 CD! The names of my husband and I are on the inlay slip as proof! See if you can see my name below…. (names listed alphabetically by first name).

So, that’s been July. I’m hoping August will see the changes we are seeking. Who knows?

Anyone who knows me, knows I loooooove spending any free time I have sewing cross-stitch pictures for ourselves or family members. I’m a bit of a solitary soul preferring to engage in arty, crafty things (when I’m not reading) to going out and socialising. I like being an introvert!

I think, ever since I took this hobby up in 1998, I have produced about 20 fairly large pictures, most of which take years to finish. We have now run out of wall space in our house, as my previous projects adorn every one where there isn’t a bookcase! It’s a very therapeutic hobby – as well as the picture I am forming, I sew my memories into each project too. From landscapes I completed whilst on maternity leave with each of my children, a sampler for HM the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012, when I was on strict bedrest for 6 weeks following major surgery, to more recent pictures which are associated with memories of hot summer days, sitting outside in my garden with my sewing and unwinding from thesis-writing. I like making things which, when I am gone, have longevity and show that I have existed. Time spent online on social media, etc. doesn’t do that for me.

Below is my most recent project. My Dad was well known in his school for his cricketing abilities when he was young, and – when I saw this picture – I knew I had to do it for him. It took about a year to finish – quite long for this size of project but there were long spells after Mum’s passing when I didn’t feel like doing anything: sewing, reading…..anything. I eventually pushed myself to finish it so that I could give it to Dad for Christmas.

I have obviously edited his name and school out of this photo (for privacy) but I obtained a copy of Wisden which I knew contained his name and details (from the 1950s, thank you eBay!) and added them under the picture to make it a little more personal. My husband has learned the skills of mounting and framing, so he did that job for me.

Needless to say, Dad loves it. He has it on the wall of his living room and often tells me that he looks at it and remembers his cricketing days. Which was totally my aim! The picture also has an air of Suffolk about it, where my Dad was born and grew up, which makes it even better.

I have so many projects lined up – now I just have to choose the next one! I will post pictures of some of the other pictures I have done in due course.