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The Wool Bandits wrap up Winchcombe

Notes about town ....
 
' Sudeley the sheep' later lost due to sheep rustling....Little Bo Peep is still looking....
 
Spinning Yarns........Spin -Artists at it again....
 
Outside The Ba-ba Shop
 
Woolen 'Stocks' holding  Kid Crochet , Wild Ball Two Ply and Mary Double Rib.
 
Ewe-nique knitted mice
Purls of Wisdom

Waltzer on TV

The wonderful Lakins Waltzer that Bill Treen and myself are working on has just been on telly. Bill organised it....I tend to shy away from that sort of thing but it was fine. The workshop was freezing...(If you look closely at the film you might just catch sight of my little occasional heater ) .Bill was great ,so calm collected and knowledgeable. Somehow I gained a very posh BBC old fashioned accent! ..After 'The Worlds Fair newspaper commenting on 'my love of classical music '...well myself and friends ' had a jolly good chuckle " !
For my next interview I will be talking about  the Sea Lines (lions) at London Zoo .
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-22030864
 
 
 

Jet...our new Dog

This week is my son's 13th Birthday !....How time flies when you are having fun...He had been wanting a dog for his Birthday, well really ever since our lovely old dog Megan passed away a few years ago.
So after many weeks, and just in time He/We are now the owners of a new Dog....Jet....a lovely Aberdeen/ cross/ Cairn Terrier. We had been keeping an eye out for a Scottie or Schnauzer for ages but hadn't found one until I called into the Blue Cross at Burford....and there he was...


They said he was lovely but not house trained and had already lived with two families....and he was only two.


My son was so pleased , he had been wanting a Scottie so Jet was perfect....a real character.
We have only had him a month but he does a few tricks, is obedient and house trained...his only vice is escaping but we are working on that...time and patience!

I started to read up about his breed and although he is mixed he is known as a Bushland Terrier.
The Cairn is one of Scotland's oldest terriers and was bred to get into 'cairns' after rats and mice, etc. Terry the dog who played Toto in the Wizard of Oz was a Cairn. they were originally called short haired Skye terriers but their name was changed to Cairn when they were first shown in 1909.


He appears to be left pawed which is common for Cairns and after research is thought to relate to being good at picking up scent...he certainly sniffs the air and wants to rush to certain trees to lift his...left leg....funnily enough just like those cast iron door stops that you can buy!
Apparently it can take years before they establish their final coat colour. We have only had Jet for a short time and already is coat colour has changed...he'd be a good dog for a hair dresser! Touch wood we are lucky, he doesn't chase cats only flies, doesn't bark..much, is really friendly with other dogs and is very very  cuddly a bit like a small bear....and obedient in our home and while on a lead.
We already can't imagine our home without him.

Festival of Colours !

http://www.escapenormal.com/2011/03/29/50-greatest-festivals-in-the-world/
I don't know if you are the same as me...I've seen quite a few adverts on Television with people throwing coloured powder over each other....Looks fun but I have to admit I didn't know what it was about.
Thank goodness for the Internet......Its the Holi Festival, an ancient Indian festival celebrating Spring and the last full moon day of the month Phalguna in the lunar calendar (which usually falls between February and March). I wish we celebrated it in Winchcombe....all this cold weather..we could all do with cheering up!...

Holi Festival India 4 The Colorful Festival of Holi, India
http://justthetravel.com/the-colorful-festival-of-holi-india/
There are different legends associated with the festival but it generally celebrates the start of Spring and the colours of new growth.
One first is about the love between Radha and Lord Krishna who was reincarnated from Vishnu. The Hindus smear powdered paint onto their faces because it is said that Lord Krishna was jealous of Radha's darker complexion, so his mother told him to paint colours on his face to change his appearance.
The second is....

The Legend of Prahalad and Holika

This is the main Holi legend. Holika was a female demon, and the sister of Hiranyakashyap, the demon king. Hiranyakashyap considered himself ruler of the Universe, and higher than all the gods.
Prahalad was the king's son. His father hated him because Prahalad was a faithful devotee of the god Vishnu.
One day the king asked him "Who is the greatest, God or I?"
"God is," said the son, "you are only a king."
The king was furious and decided to murder his son.
But the king's attempts at murder didn't work too well. Prahalad survived being thrown over a cliff, being trampled by elephants, bitten by snakes, and attacked by soldiers.
So the king asked his sister, Holika, to kill the boy.
Holika seized Prahalad and sat in the middle of a fire with the boy on her lap.
Holika had been given a magic power by the gods that made her immune to fire, so she thought this was a pretty good plan, and Prahalad would burn to death while she remained cool.
But it's never wise to take gods' gifts for granted! Because Holika was using her gift to do something evil, her power vanished and she was burned to ashes. Prahalad stayed true to his God, Vishnu, and sat praying in the lap of his demon aunt. Vishnu protected him, and Prahalad survived.
Shortly afterwards, Vishnu killed King Hiranyakashyap and Prahad ruled as a wise king in his father's place.
The moral of the story is that good always wins over evil, and those who seek to torment the faithful will be destroyed.
To celebrate the story, large bonfires are burned during Holi. In many parts of India, a dummy of Holika is burned on the fireTaken from http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/hinduism/holydays/holi_1.shtml
Worth clicking on to get more information
Winchcombe is now celebrating 'Wool in Winchcombe'...That's pretty bright too!
 

What is Pancake Day and lent ?

After trying to be careful about puddings after Christmas I now find myself stuffing pancakes !...oh well. ....but I also found myself thinking what is lent and why ?...so here goes.....well it's what I found out....
Lent and Easter has strong associations with the christian calender but it is also linked with the moon phases. The Pagan Ostara, March 21 and  Eostar ,The spring Equinox( March 20th-23rd depending on moon cycle) The hours of the day and night are Equal and Wiccans and Celts celebrate the start of Spring.Fertility of the land is given by the Goddess and the God brings the land growing to maturity. The god and Goddess are thanked and celebrated for the start of happier days to come.
Lupercalia
The Romans celebrated Lupercalia, a circus like festival, probably very similar to the present day  Mardi Gras. Lupercus was a Roman God associated with faunus or the satyr. When Christianity arrived in Rome they incorporated this festival into the day before Lent which mirrored the 40 days of abstinence which ended at Easter.

The Easter feast was another Roman festival in honour of the resurrection of
Attis called Hilaria.  History of the Mardi Gras


The month of Lent also has the Lentern Moon, the first full moon of Spring. It is the time of the Aries Equinox, when the sun appears to cross the Celestial Equator. This time has been celebrated all over the world since pre-historic times. Easter happens on the first Sunday following the full moon. This full moon is also known as an Easter or Paschal Moon.

Now Pancake day is strongly linked to the Christian calendar as it signals the last day before the period of Lent. The traditional name of Shrove Tuesday dates back to the Middle Ages when Christians used to confess their sins before the start of Lent, with ‘shrove’ having come from an old word for confession, ‘shrive’.It  always falls on a Tuesday and is exactly 47 days before Easter Day.

Traditionally, Lent is a time of giving things up. So eating pancakes is a way of enjoying some of the rich foods – such as butter and eggs – that Christians have traditionally done without during Lent. In some countries Pancake day is known as Fat Tuesday or Mardi Gras.    History of the Mardi Gras
....
but what if you are not religious, but still want to use it as an excuse to give something up.
..Perhaps the diet so you will be looking trim in the Summer when you can't hide under big jumpers, or smoking, drinking,etc

 In The Artist's Way.by Julia Cameron she writes about giving up reading for a week...and giving up radio and TV...just relying on talking and thinking... “Reading deprivations casts us into our inner silence,” a place where we can “hear our own inner voice, the voice of our artist's inspiration.”.....sounds easy enough  but I bet it's not. 

Painting a Gypsy Wagon -Part One

There is a traditional way of painting a waggon with scrolls, lining, fruit, horses, horse shoes and lots of gold leaf...but in the past not all waggons were decorated by artists...they often painted their own. A bit like today when we choose what colour front door we want or what type of curtains or bedspreads....its all a matter of personal choice....and of course what materials and money is to hand.
I remember a lovely friend of mine telling me that her Mothers waggon had large daisies painted on the front....years before the hippy 1960's.
Different painters had different styles, painters such as Jimmy Berry...regarded as The master was painterly, you could see the flow of the brush. He was even known to have used grass dipped in paint to line with. He lived in a waggon and often painted on the side of the road. There are many wonderful waggon painters I could mention but I'll write about them in their own individual blog.
Looking through Google images I came across a couple of great pictures, really displaying the hand painted originality of past waggons. The Museum of English Life.
The first picture is from 1920, it has very simple scrolls in one colour but fitting each panel.

The second is a close up of the canvas on two waggons from a photograph in their collection. It is great to see the canvas decorated too, something that I haven't seen done on any modern waggons.....


I rather like it and I think I will do something similar on my waggon.
Here are a few blogs by artists who stray from the traditional decoration and add their own flair and imagination to the decoration....I have to admit that my own style is very traditional but that doesn't stop me enjoying other artists work.
DebHunt Very bright and patterned horses..and she is out there living in her waggon.
Brad and Dave Builders of waggons in America...also have a clip of our English painter John Pockett painting.
Gypsy trailors usa
Ps...I'm not sure if wagon is written with one or two g's...I prefer one but spell check says two...Do you know ?
 

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