Happy International Womens Day!

March 8th is International Womens Day, and though I received this card in respect of another celebration - my recent birthday - it still seems appropriate. I loved the image so much I've been attempting to recreate it in needlepoint. This is my first practice attempt.

It's clumsy and I haven't got the bonnet right, so I'm part way through stitching another version which'll hopefully turn out better. This idea is to send it to the friend who sent me the card, as a Thank You.

I haven't been watching the TV adaptation of Margaret Atwood's Handmaid's Tale, but I remember when I first read the book, and it's impact. How disturbing this dystopian vision of a future society is.

At the moment I'm reading Elizabeth Kostova's 'The Shadow Land' which is proving extremely good. It's one of those books I picked up in a charity shop, and has sat on my To-Be-Read pile for ages. So far, the central character Alexandra has arrived in Bulgaria to take up teaching there. She's managed, due to a mix up, to pick up another passenger's luggage, inside of which are someone's ashes from a cremation. The chapters alternate, going back to Alexandra's childhood in Virginia and her brother going missing while out hiking. It's beautifully written, and it's interesting to have the novel set in Bulgaria as it's a country I know nothing about.

That's all for now. I'm not moving off the sofa tonight. We've had a few, sparse snowfalls today, but it should be much colder and snowier tomorrow. Ideal weather for staying indoors and crafting, huh?

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Taking a blog break ...

Hello! And goodbye, at least for now. The blog's on hold for a little while as I'm easing myself into 2026 gradually. I'm still stitching and reading and enjoying life with Badger the cat. Even though he treats my sofa like a giant scratching post!

Badger!

Here's Badger, looking like the little cutie-pie he is. He's settled in so well, is absurdly affectionate and eats anything and everything I put in his food bowl. The only fault I can find is that he likes to sharpen his claws on the side of my sofa. This is despite having two scratching posts, one of which is part of a cat tower that's taller than I am! I may have to try trimming his claws, but I don't know how Badger will react to that. Anyway, expect to see more photos of him, so sorry in advance for any of you who aren't feline fans. Apart from gazing in admiration at the cat I've continued to experiment with embroidery. I really can't decide whether this mainly pink piece of stitching is something I like or just a dog's dinner of a mess. This is another embroidery I've been stitching. Frankly, at the moment it looks like it should be lobbed straight into the bin. I'd painted with a mix of watercolour pa...

Final post for 2025 (I think. I mean, unless anything amazingly wonderful happens that I can't keep to myself any longer ...)

The days are marching by at record speed, and I've finally - possibly - bought all the presents I need to buy and written all the Christmas cards I need to send. I decided not to put up a full-sized tree this year as I'm convinced Badger the cat would simply view it as a climbing frame, and I'd find it toppled on a daily basis. Instead, there's a small green tree, and a simple white twiggy one that has lots of vintage baubles dangling from it. To be honest, I prefer the twiggy one, so the green tree might be permanently retired from now on. I've not gone crazy with the decorations, but there are various strings of fairy lights that look so pretty when they're lit. I have - between internet shopping and baking mince pies - made a little fishy pin cushion, decorated with seed stitches, French knots, chain stitch and stem stitch. I'm on the look-out for grey tweedy material to make another fish as I think that'd look better than plain ...

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