Planet Ruby Starrs

 Dr Fred and I ran our autumnal star weekend - it was, as always, a great weekend, good company and we were lucky with the weather.  Its a year since we had done a weekend and last years event coincided with storm Arwen leaving the Ninebanks youth hostel we usually book without power for almost the whole weekend.  It was quite an adventure requiring cooking on on stove and using candles and the wood burner fire for light and heat - although we did get some spectacular night skies on the Saturday - as if the storm had blown away all the clouds.  This year it was a little bit simpler - we kept the numbers low to accommodate everyone comfortably due to covid risk and we were a small but elite group.   The weekend always runs pretty much to the same format, lots of interesting talks given by Dr Fred and steaming plates of carb loaded food provided by me- if you are stood outside in October stargazing you need plenty of calories to keep warm... there are always ...

This weeks project included more market place finds... although I think Facebook market place has had its time - nowadays it seems to be full of rip off sofas and cheap nasty furniture sales and more and more 'underwear' sales which I haven't clicked on as I'm pretty sure they are special services sites.... I've had a few scam messages when I've had stuff on for sale so I'm steering clear mainly but every now and again I have a gander... So this time I was looking for, and found,one of those glass topped Ikea tables which you display stuff in.  Since we emptied our storage in Leeds we have got so much more stuff which needs a home - we have got rid of quite a lot but also we have discovered new treasures so I've been looking at inventive ways to give them a home.  As usual I forgot to do a decent before picture.... The coffee table I found was quite tatty and very white - but cheap and shouted ''buy me buy me I can be beautiful I'm a potentia...

I'm really useless at taking before pictures so this isn't very representative of the grey space this room was.  We (I) in a fit of madness decided to updo the 'utility' room - better known as junk room of doom......  most people have a drawer of doom - we have one of those too actually, but we also have a room of doom ( and a shed).. Its not like we don't still have other more important rooms to do but this felt manageable unlike the hall - and we had had to empty it a bit to make room for more 'treasure' coming from our storage which we are desperately  (and have almost succeeded) trying to empty.  Also we had a downstairs loo fitted and this is the way in so it needed to passable and a bit tidier. We have a fairly fair division of skills for decorating - Dr Fred mainly does prep and wallpaper stripping and the hard painting bits - i.e. those that require patience - and I hang wallpaper and big painting spaces....  Dr Fred stripped the never ending anaglyp...

 As I chatted on about the Ruin I thought I would add a post about a visit to another Landmark Trust building we went to in February of this year.  Every year a small group of friends meet up and enjoy the luxury of a comfortable gaff to eat, drink, be merry ,do jigsaws, some bracing walks and generally catch up and blow away post Christmas blues.  So far we have always met up in a large Landmark Trust house and this year was no exception.  We went to Shelwick Court  in Hereford.   Another amazingly grand house - rescued from total ruin - saved by the fact it for no evident reason has a medieval hall as the upstairs room.  This room was not original to the building but it is believed it must have been moved there at some point to recycle, reuse and reduce building costs - who knows - it was discovered when the building was about to be demolished because it was so derelict the owners were living in a caravan in the grounds... Each Landmark trust bu...

This week saw a friend and I make a glorious road trip across country to Fairfield Mills in Sedbergh to look at a very interesting textile exhibition.  It was a great day out - the weather was very kind - eventually - the sun came out and the drive over was just glorious scenery with hills that looked like they were made out of velvet and ever changing skies going from dark and brooding to brazenly blue with scudding fluffy clouds.  All the way there and back we were treated to natures own art show and once there we enjoyed some first class textile art.   Sarah Waters was showing a collection of felted pieces... wonderful earthy colours - using nature for both inspiration and materials.  The exhibits were really well presented and each piece had a story to tell - it was very difficult not to touch as all the pieces looked so tactile.... I just wanted to stroke then all or try and put my hand in the inviting curves.... The other exhibition was a collective of dif...