Sandown Quilting Show–a quiet Sunday

Just back from a few hours at the Sandown Quilting Show. So nice to travel almost just down the road to a small but wonderful national show, and to be bale to walk around without the constant bumping crowds. Some splendid quilts on show, rather too much pink and brown in many of them for my taste but also work of the highest quality.

 

Lots of ideas for activities we might enjoy in advance of and at the next Mole Valley Quilters exhibition including group

quilts large and small and workshops.

I now have one more work in progress after an hour at a Trapunto workshop … and some fabric for the next project or two!!  Really liked the way quilters were using strips and blocks of fabric rather than the more usual block patterns –here ‘s one of my favourites.

Poetry workshop at St Lawrence School

I’ve just spent a wonderful hour in a poetry workshop with children in year two or Lime Class at St Lawrence School. We workshoppped seven of their poems about the rainforest –a topic they have been studying this term. Having visited the Rio Negra rainforest in 2011 it was great to set their poems in a context I had experienced and to introduce them to the ways of a poetry workshop.

So the poets read their work and we displayed it on screen –it was good to be able to do this because their words were accompanied by pictures and had often been written by a team of children. Then, as for all workshops, we commented on what we liked and what we thought might help the next draft of each poem. Finally the poets told us how it felt to have their poem discussed.

They all participated so well, identifying rhyme and rhythm, commenting on helpful structure and joining in a chorus of the best sounds in each poem.  We finished with one of my poems about feeding dolphins on Rio Negra and a promise that  I’d return another day to look at their poems about tonight’s sleepover.

A really good way to be involved with the School.  Off now to lunch at The River Cafe with friends from my student days –looking forward to good food and catching up chat.

Thames Path: Windsor to Maidenhead

Sunshine, a quiet path along the Thames, nettle verges full of sapphire dragonflies, the gentle activity of lock gates being opened and water rising –my today had all of this plus a view of the preparation of the Olympic Rowing Centre at Dorney Lake.

It was so good to walk another section of the Thames Path. We chose one of the few summer days this June has offered so sun hats and sun block were needed. At this time of year the path is edged with lush grass, we passed a fragrant field of linseed and there were bushes full of blowsy roses everywhere.

Windsor Castle looked splendid as we left it behind to pass Boveney Church which is known for its galletting or decorative application of slivers of flint to the pointing. It  is now cared for by Friends of Friendless Churches –what a wonderful name for an organisation.

 

 

We had to take a diversion from the official path so walkers and cyclists avoid a temporary bridge construction site. The bridge will ‘ferry’ spectators to Olympian competitions in August from a transport hub on Windsor race course. Presently the site is full of security guards patrolling what looks like a very expensive perimeter fence.

Our walk continued past Bray, once of Vicar fame, now it seems home to numerous celebrities with grand riverside houses presently sporting union flags. Finally we walked under Maidenhead railway Bridge or The Sounding Arch which has the widest and flattest brick arches in the world. Designed by Brunel, painted by Turner it now carries the Bristol-Paddington railway line.

We passed some minutes in a shop full of sewing notions –fancy ribbons, gorgeous buttons and other temptations then it was home by train, leg stretches to ease our muscles and a last look at the evening sun. Tomorrow there will be more rain –ho hum.

This is a wonderful walking project –there is so much to see that you don’t know about until you get there and my geography of the Thames Valley gets better & better. 

Backlash by Lynda La Plante

Thank goodness for the crime thriller genre –when you need a page turning plot and characters with attitude that is undemanding but entertaining it fits the bill and La Plante does it very well. I bought this book at Edinburgh airport where I was once again waiting for a delayed flight.to LHRW. After just a few page I knew it would rescue me from dwelling on my plight and keep my mind from thinking about just how tired i was.

The book focuses on the unravelling of a serial killer’s crimes, the police’s ways of working in such a case and importantly, the interactions between all the players that finally brings the whole story to an end.  Warped minds, troubled lives, day to day ego trips –its all there using the right words in the right order for a very good read.

Not everyone’s choice of something to take your mind away from the boredom of an airport but it did me a great service last Friday evening.

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

This book had some very good reviews. There is a back page comment that this is a writer reaching for literary greatness. Another comment says that it is clever and deft and conceals its craft. I somehow feel that the critics hardly knew what to say about this book so they reached for phrases an obtuse as Egan’s writing.  . 

Well all I can say is that my copy of A Visit from the Good Squad is mostly untouched as I just couldn't;t get past page 90 and getting that far was a struggle. I almost want to call this rubbish. It has an incoherent plot, characters that fail to interest as they are far from any sort of real life people I have ever known and nothing happens to motivate the reader to read on.

Its not often I read a book that I feel this way about so I’m interested in how other people found it. Hearteningly I read a comment in the latest Mslexia magazine about someone else being unable to finish it  -so I’m not alone. Let me know what you thought about it … maybe I’ll understand the writing and the reviews a little better with some help from others.

Disgrace by J M Coetzee

A wonderful find at a bargain price in a Hay bookshop –I recalled a discussion about its memorable opening sentence and realised I had yet on read on from the announcement that David has ‘solved the problem of sex rather well’. And so pleased I am to have done so.

The book touches here and there on its opening the topic but swiftly moves to aspects of life with hard edges –power, gender, parent & child relationships, the politics that shape institutions and countries are all exposed. Coetzee is a fine writer who takes his reader into the heart of the story, alongside characters not always very likable but always of interest.  A book well worth reading that asks lots of questions and doesn’t pretend to have answers.

For more about Coetzee see  http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2003/coetzee-bio.html. 

Who is Mr Satoshi? by Jonathan Lee

I met Jonathan Lee http://www.jonathan-lee.net in his role as Tutor on a recent Arvon course at The Hurst (http://www.arvonfoundation.org/8413/The-Hurst) and it was a very great pleasure to meet him as an author in his first novel Who is Mr Satoshi?

This is a poignant, amusing story with a large cast of rather flawed characters who weave their mostly optimistic way through life. Jonathan’s writing is up to the task of balancing their several stories across many decades and two geographies without confusing the reader. The book explores the many ways there are to save yourself and how it is only ‘ourself’ who is able to effect  redemption from the accident and design of individual histories. An insightful, readable and memorable book. Highly recommended.

I noticed Jonathan’s second book Joy (reviewed here by the Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/17/joy-jonathan-lee-review?newsfeed=true) on sale at the Hay Festival –another book to add to my to be read list. Meanwhile my review of the next book I read now follows …

Back from being busy!

Back again to the blog after a couple of busy weeks and the realisation that my blog writing has a pattern. Not much to do so there’s not much to write about, so not much blogging; very busy days so no time for the blog … to state the blindingly obvious.
I earmarked today as a slow day so I’m beginning a few entries on the books I’ve been reading and what been happening in general.
Last weekend I went back to the Hay Festival after a three year gap; nothing much changes. The geography of the tents is the same, the town’s shops tempt the second hand book buyers, and, of course, there was  mud and real weather. I’ve often been disappointed in the lack of poetry at Hay but not this year –Ben Okri, Gillian Clarke, Phillip Gross and the most wonderful  reading of The Wastelands by Fiona Shaw. My basket of books to be read now overflows ready for some much needed hot sunny days to spend reading.
Staying in Bev and Andy’s nearby cottage was a great pleasure
–the cows in the back field have a view into their new breakfast room & kitchen and provided us with lots of entertainment.

Their garden is full of the results of lots of tlc –the strawberries are nearly ready for neighbours to pick and enjoy.

My next stop on Wednesday was Dundee –a work trip to that wonderful city and another chance to see Discovery and a very well preserved Lightship, both permanently moored by the Tay Bridge.
Finally, I spent yesterday at Bookham Village Day where Mole Valley Quilters filled the stage with a stunning display of quilts.   The rain stayed away, our raffle prize quilt was won by a local family
and I bought more books this time at 50p each.

As I write this I’m looking at a plastic basket of mainly green leaves with a few flowers that I paid £5 for in exchange for the Flower Group Ladies buying a £1 raffle ticket from me. I know, it just doesn’t add up but it was the end of very long day.

I’ve gone slower today than I intended .. maybe I’ll get to the book reviews tomorrow after the Charity Quilt Sale I plan to go to. Off now to make some bread for the communal lunch tomorrow and to look at a plan to a quilt that i hope to buy some fabric for.