Scalpel, stitch and poetry

Title says it all really!  Firstly, a poem for a dull day  ... comments welcome.

How many candles will we need?

On the third day of fog, I light the red candle.

Inside and outside shouts for brightness

in this repeat of yesterday’s white envelope.

The day before the blanket drifted away

and the sky was sunlit until setting time,

we lifted the cloches, walked the long way

around the woods, you said midwinter has passed.

In contrast, it was a sunny as we walked another section of the London Loop (https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/walking/loop-walk) on Tuesday, this time 17 km from Banstead to Malden. As always there were landmarks ... a prison built about 1770 and a fungi covered tree trunk

The Watch House in Ewell, more details at http://www.epsomandewellhistoryexplorer.org.uk/WatchHouse.html

Possible stitch patterns ... 

There was quiet in the studio on Weds as we 

played with cut outs. I've posted two pics of results below; so glad to have lots of odd pages to ruin in this way. 

I'm now looking for an old hardback book to use the same technique but that first cut is going to be very hard. Cut into a proper book! It feels bad enough to write in one. 

And finally a glimpse at my latest stitching project. A line a day, a variety of threads and running stitch on a very light (and forgiving of a large needle) scrim. It was inspired by seeing lots of folk from many places and cultures waiting in line at US airports.  Often this sort of thinking will result in me writing a poem but instead this time I'm  stitching.  

Two days, two lines,