Friday 3 September 2010

Coming Home






Mrs Miniver Comes Home.

It was lovely, thought Mrs Miniver, 
nodding good-bye to the flower-woman 
and carrying her big sheaf of chrysanthemums down the street 
with a kind of ceremonious joy, as though it were a cornucopia; 
it was lovely, this settling down again, 
this tidying away of summer into its box, 
this taking up of the thread of one's life where the holidays 
(irrelevant interlude) had made one drop it.

Mrs Miniver by Jan Struther,
who was talking about October, but for me
the thread has always been taken up in
September.

It's the month for coming home.
It's the month for sharpening pencils,
cleaning paintboxes,
and new projects:
some small,
some large.

Here is the beginning of a small one.


Two small pieces of vintage linen
found in Hay on Wye
exactly the right size for a cushion cover,


possibly with a crocheted edge using a ball of
shimmery hand dyed ribbon 
if I can follow the instructions in my Ladybird book
Learning to Crochet.

The big project
is in a delicate and precarious state
and cannot be talked about yet
for fear of jinxing it.

8 comments:

  1. I love your quote from Mrs Miniver; holiday season is a bit like that isn't it. All normal routines are put aside to be picked up once again when life returns to post-holiday normal. For us in NZ that happens in February as school days are back and most have had their holidays.
    Your small project looks lovely (and not so small to me) and I am intrigued by your mention of a large project.

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  2. Gorgeous fabric and just the right quote from Mrs Miniver. I will have to see if she has a suitable spring quote for me.

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  3. What a tease you are! Of course we want to know NOW what the project is!

    I bought a copy of Mrs Miniver, thanks to you, and have loved every beautifully-written word of it. Thank you!

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  4. Beautiful, beautiful fabric and hoorah for Laydbird books!!!!! (Stop teasing us re the big project!!).

    :O)

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  5. Always enjoy Mrs. Miniver ... and you!

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  6. I'd just started a project. I had no idea I was part of a Movement.

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  7. Yes, well, Mrs Miniver wasn't a teacher. Ho hum.

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  8. We have a company similar to Ladybird here called Klutz and Company. We bought my daughter a book kit for crocheting and she and I sat one Christmas holiday learning the skill, but I don't think I've picked up a needle since. Very pretty vintage linen, and the best of luck with that mysterious big project!
    I'll have to look up Miss Miniver.

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