The ripple, blooming daises, and a whole lot more...

Grrr, pesky internet access issues have meant that I've been off line from last weekend till this evening (Fri). I'm well behind on blog reading but have been getting quite a lot of crocheting done as spare time normally gobbled up by surfing/browsing/mooching has been spent hooking.

Hmmm, this first photo doesn't look at all crochet related...

...however, whithout meaning to, I seem to have used this fabric as the inspiration for selecting the colours of my rippled "thing". It was originally going to be a cushion cover but I didn't like the way it was looking for a cushion. Instead it has turned out to be a perfect cover for one of my granny's old chests.

Here it is in situ (excuse the washing drying on the radiator!). Not a terribly good photo. It's hard to see but there are two chests - the larger one in the foreground covered by the ripple, and a smaller one in the background with a wooden cat on top. The fabric photo is taken from the lid of the smaller chest. The lid of the larger chest is covered in the same fabric but must have been more exposed to sunlight during its life as the fabric is quite badly deteriorating, to the extent that the red sections have disappeared completely, hence the need for a new cover. I'm still ridiculously sentimental about the old fabric which is why I just wanted a loose cover instead of a complete replacement. I remember these chests as they were in my grandparents house. My granny was an excellent seamstress and also painted china, upholstered, crocheted, and was a fabulous baker. It's over twenty years since she died but I feel lucky to have some lovely memories and mementoes of her.

Moving on...

I'd recently covered a few more hexagons from my patchwork project I started last summer so I thought I'd add them to the box.

Then I sorted them by colour. Since my last lay out away back in August (link here) I decided I didn't like all the lilac and needed more red and green. I need to lay them out again soon and see how it's looking now.

As to when I'll start joining them... well, I knew from the start it would be a long term project.

Right, here's how the daisy blanket was looking towards the end of last week. We had some sunshine then. I did (briefly!) consider just joining the daisies without the hexagon backgrounds. It would make a beautiful blanket, perhaps another time...

Last week I had some luck with the charity shop browsing...

A funky cook book and a chunky pottery dish. I've yet to try the recipes, after a quick browse I would say they look good for cooking/baking at home but on holiday I would be looking for simpler and less time consuming recipes.

A lovely little wooden elephant complete with tusks, and an Elizabeth Gaskell novel.

Last week we had some lovely cold, bright days...

Moon & branches.

Vapour Trail.

Evening Skies.

A leaf suspended in ice (in the sand pit!).

A gorgeous sunrise, A alerted me to this one, so glad she did, it didn't last long and I would have missed it otherwise.

I added this photo to the flickr Sky365 pool.

Meanwhile, the daisies have been multiplying.

Our biggest jigsaw to date. The box said 200 pieces, but A counted them and said there were 204. I initially assumed she'd counted wrong, but it is indeed 17 x 12 = 204. Curious!

Bits of slate from the roof, now finally fixed (thanks to George, our magic roofer!).

Snowdrops. Until I popped some in a little vase I hadn't realised they were so sweetly scented.

More daisy growth.

Lastly some frosty photos from the garden...

Honeysuckle bud.

Spiraea.

Moss.

I've not been for a cycle for weeks, hoping to rectify that tomorrow. The forecast is looking dry but cloudy and misty. Not great but could be worse!

Off now to catch up on some blog reading...