signs and signals

According to the Design Council‘s report produced in this 70^th anniversary year, our design industry generates 72billion, yes billion, pounds a year within the UK economy – a remarkable achievement.

pattern’s in the air

A lot’s happened since I last wrote – where to begin? I’ll start at the finish.

here, there and back again

The coffee table in the hotel lobby was a shiny wooden slab incised with a map of Manhattan. In the middle a deeper rectangle was carved and planted with grass – Central Park.

Best to be Merry

Gazing in the early Herefordshire sun at a flock of sumptuous pedigree black Welsh sheep this weekend brought me full circle. 

song and dance

I’ve remarked before how often it seems that people are drawn to each other by the similarities of their clothing – the colour, pattern or textures.

piece together

In Brittany near my brother’s house, the wild Atlantic waves were leaving all sorts of debris at the top of the tideline, offerings to the dunes.

Painting the Town

Have you seen the mimosas in all their flowering finery, and sniffed in their scent? Yellow yellow yellow,

on the road again

Front gardens – this proliferation of nasturtiums fills me with happiness: the unruly generous mass of angled leaves spill over rather a prim brick wall. hjhjhjhjh

Knot what it seems

I’ve seen several very beautiful pieces of shibori cloth lately – cloth whose resist patterns are made by areas tied or stitched and bound into the fabric before being dyed. Traditionally, all through the cold Japanese winter the ladies prepared the cloth…

Lost and found

The baby for whom I knitted this blanket has just been having fun on his first school journey – time flies!

He’s been off for a week in Dorset visiting beaches I knew well as a child. On one such I learnt a lasting lesson:  as we walked my dad and I spent time gathering special stones…