I can feel myself drifting into summer holiday mode with ease so dovegreyreader scribbles might be a bit As & When and book-thoughts-light for the next few weeks, and back to whatever normal is in September.
By now I would usually be revving up for the tent at Port Eliot this weekend, starting to pack up half the house and preparing for nine author interviews as well as making the gifts for the authors. Countless emails around the busy Team dovegrey helpers, sorting transport and food and knitting and the flower show entry. Welded to my notebook I'd have a separate bag packed for each day with the books and gifts needed, and I'd be up late each evening unwinding from one day before making absolutely sure I had my questions ready for the next.
Bookhound would be prepping for making hundreds of cups of tea and keeping things ticking over in the tent. The festival would fly past in a bit of a blur and then on my return the rest of the month would be taken up with washing and putting the quilts and accoutrements away, writing everything up for here, writing lots of thank you letters, and the Kayaker would be busy editing photos, and summer would almost be gone.
But this year, out of choice, I am not doing any of that, the Penguin Happy Reader tent has filled my slot... so life is very different to 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014 (2013 there was no festival)
For a start the Kayaker is off to India with his camera for six weeks, and with the word INDIGO inscribed on his brain. Bookhound and I are looking forward to some vicarious travel without the hassle of the three anti-rabies injections. Offspringette's box of birthday surprises (some home made) has been posted to New Zealand in plenty of time and adorned with a plethora of Magna Carta commemorative stamps. This asking for real stamps is becoming something of a tradition in the local post office now and they are lovely with it, promising to look after the cargo and deliver it safely...and I walk out of the post office all emotional and missing our first born and biting my lip.
Meanwhile I will be nipping across to Port Eliot each day as a punter and I have been grateful to the Happy Campers for scheduling advice from the vast number of events that are on offer. The Happy Campers are pitching their tent as usual so I'm going to present them with some bunting and gaze longingly at the 5* luxury restroom facilities they have booked for themselves this year. Who knew they even existed, but they do, and they will be revelling in them while I paddle around with everyone else. I shall probably post a few festival pics but not the extensive write-ups of years gone by.
I hope it doesn't rain, but if it does I won't mind because I have acquired new wet-weather gear with which I am very well-pleased.
It involved channelling my non-existent inner super model, but like most of them I can't be dragged away from my hand quilting for less than £20k a day. However the promise of a set of waterproof over trousers and a top did the trick.
The rain obliged so I set aside the quilt and the audio book (The Betrayal of Trust by Susan Hill), donned the gear and went out jumping in puddles for some pictures for an outdoor clothing company who specialise in gear for water sports and have sponsored the Kayaker for years now, but they wanted him to take some pictures of this kit and so I obliged.
The preference would probably have been for some leggy teenager but there wasn't one to hand so a bedraggled mother had to do. And maybe some of these companies miss a trick with the older generation who still need to keep dry, especially when dog-walking....or going to festivals. Anyway I gave the whole lot the thumbs up for size, comfort, waterproofness, breathability, fit and general lookability...I'd go shopping in it and not feel out of place. Let it rain if it must I'll be fine.
It was back to the quilting and I am pleased to report I am still on it...
My listening has now moved on to A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson, and I am even starting to think Village Show on September 5th... An Item of Patchwork ...
I have completed seven of the twelve blocks, plus quilting their surrounding lattices and borders as I go along, even reaching the first of the elusive (as in thought I'd never get there) four inch square Rising Sun corner blocks...
Might it be finished.
I also have time for some exciting craft-related adventures so have booked two courses at Cowslip Workshops to learn new and different skills, and also a weekend trip to the NEC for the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham. How I am going to cope with not only the best quilts in the land but the presence of 300 traders for two days is anyone's guess but I am very excited about it all. Full reports eventually.
And what's the 3000000 all about??
Well, this week dovegreyreader scribbles will pass three million hits since I started writing it over nine years ago...
Congratulations, one of you will have been the THREE MILLIONth...ye gods, thank you for reading everyone.
Your turn now...any lovely things planned for the summer holidays??
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