Present and Past.

The Present

Saturday was the day of this months quilting club so, as much as I enjoy it, it was a shame to have to spend such a lovely sunny day indoors. I spent some of the time preparing last months block which will be a Dresden Plate design.

We were also given the idea for the final block we'll be doing for this project. There was no particular design suggested (it's up to us) but whatever it is has to incorporate a ladybird(bug) in some way (our group is called Ladybugs). Since I've not yet completed the previous month I might combine the two to save time. Next month we are to take all our blocks to lay out and then help eachother with arrangement suggestions. We'll then be shown a choice of methods to join them together.

A ladybird taking the sun on a newly sprouting rose bush in the garden last week.

We had butternut squash soup for dinner on Friday (for speed, as my OH had arranged to meet friends) and as my OH cut up the squash for me (I was tidying up and putting away grocery shopping) I asked him to save the seeds. While at the Maunday Thursday supper recently one of my singing friends asked me if I'd ever tried roasting the seeds. I decided to give it a go, so put them on a tray in the oven with a little rock salt and olive oil while I was baking/cooking on Sunday and this was the result. They're delicious - taste like savoury popcorn but nicer and, of course, very good for you so a satisfying result all round. (Btw - the soup was also delicous).

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The Past.

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You may remember me mentioning a few weeks ago about the launch of a local book about our village. It was a lovely dose of nostalgia reading through it recognising many of the people in the photos - some still with us but many not. The photo below shows a classroom in the village school in 1930/31 and is the school in which I started my school life (although the desks etc were different). The boy in the front row, second from the left, was my dad's oldest brother, Uncle Jack and the boy to the right of him in the row behind is an old family friend, Bob, who I knew and lived next door to for most of my life.

The reason I'm mentioning it now is because I only recently found out that I know someone in the picture below too. There were no names in the book for this photo so I only found out yesterday that the girl on the left on top of the cart is my Auntie Phoebe who is still alive and is the widow of Uncle Jack in the school photo. My dad's youngest sister, Mary, sent a copy of the book to Phoebe (she lives near London) and she was delighted. I think it's lovely that they are both in the book because they, and the rest of the family, have been a big part of the village for a long time!

These women were working as Land Girls (scroll down to the section on women for info) and is how Phoebe came to be in our area and met Uncle Jack.

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Let's get back to the present day now with a heads-up that the next post I make will be my 2nd Anniversary Giveaway. I've almost got it ready so this will be the impetus for me to get it finished.

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Bye for now

Teresa x