Artistic Endeavours 'By Numbers'.

Cross stitch with
silk, beads and
metalliscthread

The advent of colouring books takes me back to my childhood. I loved colouring books and in those days we could let our imaginations run wild - we chose which colours we wanted to use.

Later came painting by numbers and now we have the less messy pencils. I understand that fans of these new magazines find it soothing to sit and colour a picture. Me? I wish I could paint as my late father did but I can't.

My artistic bent is more along the lines of embroidery. Nowadays - and it has been for a very long time - counted cross stitch is the 'fashion'. More doing it by numbers!

The great pity for me is that I love doing 'proper' embroidery using a host of varying stitches. Unfortunately it is very difficult to find pre-printed fabric or even stencils and fabric. The last time I managed to purchase pre-printed fabric - in the early 1990s - the material was dreadful. I think is something that my mother's generation called crush. It was difficult to get the needle through this cheap fabric.

My favourite type
of embroidery

It was also some time in the 1990s that I managed to buy a 'repeater' stencil. (You damp ironed it onto the fabric as many times as you need). Fabric? None to be found so I resorted to a white sheet and made a table cloth and napkins.

I find doing embroidery both restful and a help when I am at the creative stage of writing a novel. Doing two jobs at the same time!

Take up colouring books? No, not possible. I have repetitive stress injuries in my right wrist, elbow and shoulder. Writing? I use a fountain pen - in short spurts.

Table Cloth made from
a sheet. 

Getting to Know the Neighbours

It is now nearly two months since I moved to this lovely new flat in Bognor Regis - on England's south coast. It is known as the 'sunniest' place in England. Not sure about that as we haven't had much of that since I've been here but today it is glorious.

I should explain that we have two lifts (elevators) - one for odd numbered floors and one for the even numbered ones. Mostly I have met people in passing and we have exchanged the time of day or chatted about the weather. The latter being a very popular English subject! So far I have encountered mostly Brits and Poles but I did once see a Moslem couple. As we were about to use different lifts there wasn't time to do more than smile at them so I don't know where they are from.

This morning I was a little later than usual going out for my walk (got it up to a mile a day along the promenade) and met two gentlemen in the lift on the way down. One didn't break into a smile but the other - yummy! Even ladies of my age can get turned on by a good looking man. We chatted about the weather while I admired his physique, dark hair and eyes and listened to his lightly accented English. Turns out he is from Poland and he told me that this morning his family in Poland say that at the tops of the mountains have a temperature of 0, yes, zero!

As he was wearing shorts (lovely legs) I assume that he was also about to do a walk but I was too much of a coward to go in the same direction. He was probably going to jog anyway and I am well past that capability.

I am gradually getting to discover the delights of Bognor and know that I am going to enjoy living here more than I did in my last village/small town where the biggest problems were far too much traffic and far too little neighbourly interaction. And, believe me, I tried to get to know them.