On Sunday
we were sitting on the spacious and capacious deck at The Peaceable Kingdom,
soaking up some very unseasonable and welcome sunshine with Mr and Mrs
Peaceable. It was Mother’s Day so Mrs
Peaceable and I had pride of place in the most comfortable loungers and we were
engaged in one of our favourite activities – talking about what we had heard on
National Radio (or The Programme, AKA The Font Of All Knowledge) recently. This can be a bit of a tricky occasion because
while good manners demand that you hear out the other speakers and let them
have a turn, if you don’t immediately blurt out what is on your mind you are
inclined to have forgotten it as the topics whirl past and the moment is
lost. So we were all trying our hardest
to be civilized, but I have to confess I didn’t always succeed and was likely
to interrupt more than was necessary.
We could
see out over the area where Mrs Peaceable’s chickens are housed in their new
luxurious accommodations – all except for the serial escaper, who sprang up
into the raised vegetable gardens and had a good fossick through the
rhubarb. She must have the most
enormously muscular thighs, because she leaps up like a pole vaulter (but
without the need for a pole) with not the smallest bit of difficulty. Beyond them could be spied one of Rosie the
rabbit’s descendants. Rosie was “no
better than she should be” and had a taste for “a bit of rough” in the form of
Mr West, the piratical looking wild rabbit with the ripped ear, which resulted
in an unusual strain of rabbits all over the farm, some white and some speckled
and all in all a very interesting combination of shades and colours. (Mr Peaceable assured me that there exists
one rabbit which is snowy white but with black ears and a black mask, a la Zorro,
but he could be just tricking me because he is a good spinner of yarns and I am
somewhat gullible.) In the distance the
very healthy pig was rootling around and also enjoying the sun along with the
rest of us and the whole occasion had the feeling of the end of the warm
weather, with a slightly melancholy feel but in the nicest possible way.
I began to
turn over in my mind the sad fact that it was almost time for the weekend to
end and for us to begin the trip back to the city. Sometimes this time is a bit difficult
because I need to get together some stitching supplies for in the car. It is great to be able to tack some fabric
hexies over their papers on the way home and if there is a bit of a delay in
the traffic you can achieve a surprising amount. (I once overheard a woman in an embroidery
store telling the shopkeeper that she achieved a lot of stitching at traffic
lights, but I don’t go to this extreme, only stitching while a passenger. Imagine how many sets of lights you might
miss and how many people you could upset if you adopted the habit of stitching
at lights!) If I am getting ready for a
car journey it often transpires that my favourite needle has gone missing, or I
don’t have enough hexies, or my cotton is the wrong shade, or the scissors have
somehow vanished. Mr Shoestring begins
to compress his lips, rattle his keys in his pocket, coming up behind me and
breathing down my neck and generally being just a little bit diffy. He begins to resemble a sheep dog rounding up a recalcitrant flock, but luckily he so far hasn't resorted to nipping at my heels. I have some pretty little bags including some given to me by
friends which are ideal for taking in my handbag so I can stitch at lunch break
or on the bus, which I would never part with.
In a lightning flash of inspiration I realised the thing I needed was a dedicated car stitching kit so Mr Shoestring would have no cause to compress his lips and sigh. And here it is, an
emergency kit (be prepared) so that whenever there is a car journey in the
offing I am ready to go at a moment’s notice, with no delays. My favourite scissors, varied useful shades of cotton, a thimble, a selection of hexies of the correct dimensions and the fabric to cover them are all there at my finger tips, ready for action.
