Spring Please !

Easter Holidays have been a bit of a washout - still the boys like sleeping in , playing in their pj's most of the day and being indoors. Just as well .

I've also been able to catch up in some reading , have just finished Marjory Fleming by Oriel Mallet , a lovely book from the people at Persephone .

Received the Persephone Biannually , a publication by Persephone Books with articles on their latest books for summer , the authors , a full listing of all their books and an update on their Events . It also has a short story by featured author Diane Athill, and a fabulous article by Maureen Lipman talking about her time playing the actress Joyce Grenfell on stage .

This lovely picture is on the front page - showing a lady knitting outside in the garden , shaded on her Swinging Seat .

Diane Athill , the featured author, came from a very upper class English background , her grandmothers house had 20 bedrooms and a thousand acres of land! This is a painting of Diane's mother before marriage and motherhood - can you see what she has on her lap ? Yes , even the upper classes (pre WW1 ) took up knitting socks !

Well , with the Rosewood stole finally finished , I am now doing some knitting that will be on display in my good friend Karens' shop . It is a Noro Silk Garden cardi and the pattern is Design 8 from the Jennie Watson Noro Flowers 2 Book - a lovely lacy effect on the front with a plain back and sleeves .

Here is the left front , I think this lace pattern is really effective with the Noro .

And here is the back - I just love the colours in this shade of Silk Garden number 304 .

Excuse the poor quality of the photo's , using my photobooth on the macbook as the camera is hiding again .

Will just finish with a quote from the Biannually by Maureen Lipman - "Joyce (Grenfell) once asked a room full of children what the word frugal meant . One little chap said ' to save' , and she ..... suggested the class might all write her little stories that contained the word frugal. The prize winning story went as follows; The princess was imprisoned in the tower and she shouted 'frugal me frugal me !'"