You might be forgiven for thinking I’d gone to sleep. 

I did.  A few times, in fact.  But in between I’ve simply been doing so many things, there was no time to blog.

Can you believe it?

 

 

The Cheltenham Literature Festival was fun as ever, especially when shared with friends.  It’s surprising how long after each hour-long talk we continued to discuss, evaluate, explain, compare what we’d listened to (you’d not think I worked in education, would you? ) 

Kind friends who invited us all to share their table for a late lunch kept the conversation going even longer, too.  Brave things.

 

 

But then, we all spent the evening at the opera, watching Macbeth live from the Met in Cheltenham with Anna Netrebko playing the leading lady.  Some of us were quite pleased about that – about half the party, I’d say

 

 

Having said goodbye to weekend friends, I buzzed off for a few days to spend time with a few more.  Yes, it’s that time of the year again and I had another group of craft judges to play with.

 

 

My knitting gets such close inspection it’s a wonder I ever feel like doing any more.  I reassure them all that we don’t try to slip anything past them and all of those mistakes in the pattern result from sheer incompetence.  Mine.

 

 

But of course, there are always lovely things to share and to inspire and that set us all off googling again.  I wonder how many of us intend to start (or have already started!) a Hitchhiker scarf having seen Marion’s lovely example?

(there are 42 points on it, in case you are wondering)

 

 

Though the days are long, they fly by and in no time at all, it was time to have the group photograph taken and say ‘bye to the class of 2014.  As always, it’s a real delight to get to know these clever women better and hopefully, we’ll meet up at some show sooner rather than later.

 

 

 

I could always enter my pig. 

 

 

On Thursday, a dozen of us from Avening WI spent the day with Norah Kennedy, local willow worker and wonderful teacher.  The chatter flowed as the willow was woven and worked into hens and piglets and by the end of the day, a fine assembly was on parade in the car park.

 

 

My pig is the plump one on the end and is definitely not of the racing variety!

 

 

So when have I had time to sew?  Not at all, really.  Those are not my hands in control, but Marianne’s!  Spending time with the Gadebergs was exactly the best way to round off a busy, craft-filled week and opened up the next challenge in the sewing machine project.  The BSR.  Having not even got it out of the box, I am now fired up and ready to put it through its paces and get myself sewing again.

Not this week though.  I have three days of judging to look forward to when over a hundred and fifty treasures await the attention of myself and two colleagues as we try to find a winner amongst them.   At the end of the week, we’re off to Carmarthen, where I have work to do and the rest of the family will be rediscovering old haunts in Pembrokeshire, where my Hero spent some of his formative years.

But on Thursday, I might take the day off