1 – In my personal Springwatch – the bulbs in the garden continue to flourish – the Daffodils are out, including some Soleil D’Ors and somewhere in the middle of this picture, a shy, Snakeshead Fritillary is about to open…
2 – on the subject of flowers, the local florist has a nice sign and a well-dressed shop..
3 – but not a patch on the wedding dress shop whose windows are framed by a mass of flowers on the outside and a cornucopia of ornamentation inside, between the wedding dresses…
4 – I have completed 10 out of 26 A to Z entries but I shall have some time this week to get seriously stuck in – I want to be free on holiday to read other peoples posts and not be writing mine lol!
5 – Barbara was finally persuaded that we should buy her a mobility scooter – as she said to her daughter, half the problem was not being able to accept that she was actually 79 years old, and such a device is entirely appropriate! I shall be picking it up tomorrow…
6 – Only 3 full working days before the holiday!
7 – It is my local town ‘s- Keighley Library live poetry group meeting tonight…
8 – I will make homemade Corned -Beef Hash when I get home – a new favourite of both of us…
9 – Planning to do some painting in the Netherlands…
Immediately after the accident the woman in the car behind me came up to my driver’s door and asked if I was alright I wound down the window answered that I was and so it seemed to me… I couldn’t move my right leg and I couldn’t see why not but I was still sitting upright in my seat belt there was no blood but this woman knew differently she saw I was in shock and before I had even properly registered her face she opened the van door behind me climbed in, and kneeling reached her arm around my headrest to cradle my head with her arm holding it upright.
The farmer had backed off his tractor stood a little way away phoning the emergency services.
It seemed the most natural thing in the world to feel the soft bare arm of this woman, now invisible to me her disembodied voice near to my ear reassuring me that it would be alright and I should relax, keep still – she was a nurse she said. Could there have been a more fortuitous person to be following me, I thought as I gave myself up to her gentle, minimal ministration of simply holding me – talking to me showing me how to put myself in others’ hands, as I was now to do for the next few months then fire brigade and ambulance arrived and she slipped away passing me on as it were and I think of her kindness which though professionally practised ambushed us both on a remote road outside of work, and created a moment of intimacy that took away the trauma…
Over at dVerse Poets Pub, sanaarizvi in OpenLinkNight, invites us to the live meeting on Saturday and to post a poem to read (if we successfully navigate the temporarily out-of-sync time zones – we Brits don’t put the clocks forward till 29th March!). This is a recent poem from my writers group and was written ITSO The Kindness by Jan Beatty
“Choose any subject you would like to write about…” that is the object of the A to Z Challenge, and thinking of things that interest me is not a problem for me, but choosing a subject not only to write about, but to write in a way that other people will catch my interest – that is the real challenge! When I chose to write about Commodities in 2024, I was more than a little trepidatious, would it be too dry a subject, would it only be of interest to economists, mostly men, nerds? As it happened, I found much to interest me, and, I think, those who read the abecedarium. Last year was more personal – a kind of memoir told in topics rather than chronologically, but this year I return to a subject, close to our skin if not our hearts, and yet, again, I wonder if this subject will get some people past the title on the list – dismissed as niche? For this year, my theme is What We Wear – Fabrics and Fibres
For this year, my theme is What We Wear – Fabrics and Fibres
Both men and women are involved with Fabrics on a professional level – manufacturing first the Fibres and then the cloth, by weaving, knitting or more arcane processes and then there are those who make things out of cloth – clothes, fashionable and functional, bags, art, bandages and all manner of things. On a craft level, I suspect that women still outnumber men, despite the Tom Daley’s and Kaffe Fassett disciples of this world. Yet anybody who reads books must surely have a moment’s curiosity upon encountering such names as grosgrain, huckaback and hair cloth. Who is even sure about more common names such as flannel [nighties or draws], what is English about Broderie Anglaise or Dutch about Holland Cloth.
We all wear clothes and for some people, reading the little labels that give the fibre mix is a matter of life or itch whilst for others, it’s all an irrelevance they skip over on the way to the How to Care label which tells them whether to wash (hot or cold), tumble or drip-dry, or that dire warning Dry Clean Only! For some, the choice of fabric and constituent fibre, is an ethical one – “I only wear “natural” fibres, but what makes for genuine sustainability? Sheep caused much of Great Britain, even unto the Scottish Highlands, to be stripped of trees (with their oxygen replenishing bounty) and the sheep still keep the mountains free of saplings. Does wood count as a “natural” fibre source (Viscose, Rayon, Acetate) and why is Lyocell more environmentally friendly?
These are just some of the questions thrown up by my deep dive into Fabrics and Fibres and they take us to History, Economics, Chemistry and Craft to find answers – come along for the ride and find out more about the clothes you inhabit and the stuff they are made of…
I compiled a list of as many fabrics, fibres and related items as possible (278 items), from several sources, the most comprehensive of which was Wikipedia. Since there ar only 26 letters in the alphabet, I could not write in detail about every instance so I have taken snippets of text for the brief descriptions and linked to the source in the name of the item. I am indebted to all the contributors to those Wikipedia pages and the depth of knowledge to be found there…
If you are also participating in the A to Z this year – I look forward to seeing you on the road…
Ever wanted to look like a head-to-toe marshmallow? No? Well, Giambattista Valli is here to quickly change your mind. The designer (and tulle fanatic) showcased several on-point millennial pink gowns, which looked like something straight out of a fairytale. (Getty Images) (Elle)
1 – I give thanks today for another years juant around the sun, and at the youthful age of 71, I wonder at the Beatles imagining that 64 (Will you still love me, When I’m sixty-four) was old…
2 – Glad that I checked Barbara’s Passport which, it turns out, expired last March! So on Monday, we have to drive to Liverpool for a ten-minute face to face interview as part of the one-week fast-track passport renewal process so that we mat go on holiday in the Netherlands…
3 – grateful that training on the computer and other processes at the Storage Warehouse that my bosses have opened, turned out to be pretty simple – since they, and all the staff, are Moslem, I will be manning the facility on my own on the 20th March whilst they celebrate Eid. This in fact, the little Eid that marks the end of Ramadan and there is a separate, main Eid celebration at a different time of year.
4 – All local family ar coming over this afternoon for a birthday tea, I am going to serve Skordalia – chickpeas and vegetables, prepared in different ways, boiled, fried etc. and brought together with a sauce comprising Aioli (garlic mayonnaise) enriched with ground almonds and lemon – a treasured recipe from one of the earliest cookbooks I bought whilst still a student – Elizabeth David’s Mediterranean Cookery – I fell in love with her food, herw riting and her…
5 – An American poet friend, Akua Lezli Hope, suggested a collaborative poem idea – to both ask the online I Ching the same question and write a poem based on the answer – done and dusted in under 24 hours – if they get published in my friend Melissa’s online poetry journal Collaborature, I will link you in…
6 – The A to Z writing about Fabrics and Fibres proceeds though I still need to speed up to avoid pantsing it in April…
7 – a photograph taken at the supermarket car par, where the sunset always highlights the Winter tree skeletons…
8 – Melissa asked me to play Crossplay (Scrabble) and we seem to be evenly matched which is always a relief between friends…
9 – Grat for this community…
10 – Dropped an ear-bud right here next to my desk – still not found it, very strange – but glad to discover, through moving things around, that some microscopic creatures are eating the carpet so glad to have caught it before it spreads… Perhaps they ate the ear-bud too…
Have a great week everyone, and don’t forget – this is International Women’s Day…
1 – Here in England, on the BBC, we have a programme called Springwatch – which does what it says on the tin! In my own personal Springwatch, the picture below shows the progress of the daffodils…
These ones must be self-seeded, because I certainly didn’t plant them in this pot of Stargazer Lillies – just beginning to show…
2 – The downside of Spring advancing is that the weeds are also demanding attention – still, Spring is sprung and that’s a grat!
3 – I found time to stop and photograph this elaborate gateway that leads into the lower grounds of Castle Farm ( a Victorian folly castle) and for the poets amongst us, this is of course, a liminal opportunity…
4 – Further along the road, I am grateful to see evidence of the stuff I learned at school and at university – evidence of glaciation – these boulders were plucked from the crag above to become erratics, had they not fallen where they are when the ice melted…
5 – There is a delicate shade of mauve in the trees at the centre of this picture, which is never the colour one imagines naked trees to be…
6 – On my walk to the Doctor’s surgery this morning, I noticed these original railings – fortunate to survive the Second World War when most of their ilk were taken away to melt down for the war effort…
7 – Somehow, the moon seen during the daytime seems to show that we are on a celestial body even more than the nighttime view of it…
8 – Continuing my A to Z writing and research, I came across a blog by a Hawaiian-born, New Zealand Resident – The Dreamstress – who writes about historical fabrics and fashion and even designs historical patterns for you to try – who could resist a design called The Barbara Bum Roll and Support Petticoat…
9 – We have booked a holiday towards the end of March, whence we will drive to Hull, take the night ferry to Rotterdam and spend just over a week on this houseboat which is in the “green heart” of the Netherlands, between Rotterdam, Amsterdam and the Hague… “
10 – The A to Z has reached “I” – I need to speed up but progress is being made…
1 – There is an organisation that runs “Repair Shops” at various local towns hereabouts, and today was Silsden’s turn so I went to investigate and see whether any of my skills might be usefully offered. It is only 3 1/2 hours once a month, and I’m not sure yet whether my specialist painting skills, wood-graining, marbling ets, will be required but first I would have to do a session of shadowing followed by some H & S training – so we shall see…
2 – On my walk down to the Methodist Church where the Repair Shop is held, I saw some signs of Spring advancing…
Daffodils already “swan-necked” at the duck pond…
Nature will force it’s way – Snowdrops coming through a pile of rocks…
3 – See if you can guess what the source this texture shot is…
This is the white stripe of a Zebra Crossing – it’s eroded nature is a reflection of the fact that local councils cannot afford to keep road markings up to scratch…
4 – This is my favourite gravestone amongst all those of our quiet neighbours at the back of our house (upper right) – must have been a musician…
5 – Not sure whether this is a grat or not, on the one hand it shows the resilience of nature, on the other, the roots of this tree might affect our house foundations and the top of the tree is now growing across the view from our kithchen window. When we came back from Crete in 2021 after Covid, we found that someone had taken it upon themselves to cut off the top of this Christmas Tree (originally planted by a neighbour post-Christmas) at the edge of the graveyard behind the house. The truncation did not stop the tree growing and it has put out a new crown which grew 4 feet in just the last year!
6 – On Thursday, I had a major Annual(ish) check by the Environmental Health Officers from Bradford Council which went off okay and afterwards, I went to Skipton which has the nearest Wholefood Shop – to stock up on seeds for the low-carb diet and baking I am on at present. Walking through an area of Skipton I was not familiar with, I took a few snaps…
We have so much history here in Britain, that we are so blasé that this building, embellished with a Royal Crest, does not even have a plaque to say what the building was…
Skipton has many reminders of the importance of the wool trade in the past – some more quirky than others…
7 – The sheep is outside a craft/gallery/antique shop and in the window, was this treadle printing machine which took me back to school where we used a somewhat bigger treadle Heidelberg machine to print school event programmes. This one is still used by the proprietor for a similar purpose.
A side view of the printer with another old printer behind it – also used by the proprietor to make reduction Lino prints…
Also in the shop was a Jones brand antique sewing machine which has a swinging arm bobbin which apparently was a better design than the rotating bobbin promulgated by Singer, however, Singer was more successful as a company so we became stuck with their bobbin design – just saying…
8 – I have almost finished “E” (for Embroidered fabric decoration) in my A to Z – I need to get a move on to be ready for April.
9 – Our rapper grandson is staying for the weekend whilst he does some studio recording in Leeds. Last night we watched the first half of Martin Scorsese’s documentary about Bob Dylan – excellent…
10 – Starting to think about a holiday – possibly to take a car ferry from Hull to Rotterdam and stay in a couple of AiBnB’s in Gouda and perhaps in the coastal lowlands – although it is only a nine hour drive to Copenhagen, hmmm…
1 – We finally had some snow here in the Bradford area – not enough to close the roads as our accountant at work has been hoping for, indeed barely enough to cover my windscreen or even to warrant the name snow – sleet would be nearer lol. Still beware what you wish for, the Beast from the East came in March…
2 – There was a dusting of snow on the hills, however, as you can see in the background of this picture of the Mosque in Bradford, for which I have been the draughtsman for about ten years of its 12 or thirteen years of construction. The building is a purpose built mosque, unlike many in Bradford, which are converted churches, cinemas or large houses. As such, it was designed as a community facility as well as a place of worship and is relatively undecorous (for the sake of economy, since the whole building is built with donations from the congregation). This Islamic star is the exception on the outside of the Mosque and below, one of my contributions – Islamic geometrical, fretwork panels in the main Prayer Hall – they took some drawing up, I can tell you…
3 – I am grateful that uploading images to this page seems, finally, to be working normally – long may it continue…
4 – I haven’t been sharing (or taking) and pictures of textures, which I use, poentially in PhotShop artwork – here are some bubbles…
5 – An inheritance from my late and dear sister, Carol, finally came through courtesy of her partner. I looked up to see if the branch of my bank was open in nearby Keighley, it wasn’t, but the website said I could use the Post Office at the bottom of the road. fine thought I, but the PO told me they no longer dealt with my bank so it meant a drive into Bradford (where it was news to the Customer Assistant that the PO don’t work with their bank) “Oh!” says she “You could have paid that cheque in using the banking app on your phone!” until she realised the cheque was in Euros which meant fetching an A4 quadruplicate document to fill in before handing it and the cheque over the counter. Although the funds won’t clear for a week, I decided to celebrate in a way I knew Carol would have approved of – went straight across the road to Waterstones bookshop, housed in the old Bradford Wool Exchange where I bought
1 Bradford At Work – with details of the mills which will flesh out my A to Z on fabrics and Fibres
2 Depression and How to Get through It
3 a colouring book as a Valentine’s gift for Barabara – Pride and Prejudice
4 Three tiny Van Gogh themed notebooks also for Barbara – since we are both addicted to notebooks…
5 The Chemist, latest release by A.A. Dhand, a local detective story writer – a Sikh who trained as a Pharmacist before turning to writing – gritty…
6 – The former Bradford Wool Exchange is testament to the fact that Bradford, in the 19th Century, had more millionaires than any other city in the world! It is built in High Gothic style – reminiscent of a church and although it has had a large glass box inserted on one side, this has the effect od opening the interior to view. This one for the bookshop lover – you know who you are…
7 – On my way home from the banking expedition, and not being in a hurry, I decided to call in to British Wool – a warehouse I pass on my way to work and through whose open doors, enormous bales of wool can be seen. there are a few survivors and thrivers of the glory days of Bradford’s wool industry, British Wool is a government-controlled cooperative farmers’ organisation to market wool to wholesalers like another Bradford firm – Haworth Scourers. there is also a dyeing firm still operating in Keighley. I had long been interested in drawing together a piece on these survivors and the A to Z gives the perfect opportunity. I rang the bell and two guys came down and we conducted an impromptu interview standing in reception before one of them offered to show me around the factory where each year’s shearing crop ( these days a byproduct of the rearing of sheep for meat) is sorted into upto 90 grades of wool, budled into 8 ton lots and then sold by auction.
So now I have to correct and edit the interview’s AI transcript and it will be available here at some point in April, if not before.
8 – A little light play in the car park in Bradford…
9 – I had another “Bonus” postcard from the Poetry Postcard Festival- the festival which keeps on giving…
10 – The Ten Things of Thankful and all who sail in her…
Did I foresee or was it anticipation I liked to imagine the worst that could happen – perhaps to disarm the future remove the sting inoculate
When it began mercifully slowly I was not taken by surprise I had a plan to cope wasted no time learning how to navigate blindness
Routes I had taken for granted were walked with mindfulness recording all the sensual input paying least attention to fading sight except as an index of impressions mentally mapped
I decluttered my domicile of all I wouldn’t need or couldn’t trust myself to do safely any more books and tools both were a wrench
I kept what I thought I might manage – basic tools just in case I found I could and books someone might read out loud to me if such an one might be found to share my treasured
And my most treasured – music well listening would not be a problem but I wanted to make music, to sing songs so set about learning favourites by heart, words and chords which laziness had always mitigated against before
Did memory which is not a sense nevertheless swell in compensation or was it always in me to perform differently and without seeing my audience, stage fright diminished so it was not a total loss – blindness…
1 – Although I never know in advance, what I am going to mention here, I am grateful to be of sound, and creative mind and faced with a blank page (screen) I trust that things will come to me.
2 – I was grateful to receive an email from Afshan, an Indian woman who I “met” during the A to Z Challenge 2022 – you can read about her here and I hope she may decide to participate here. Afshan is just one of many lovely people I have met through this blog and keep in touch with…
3 – My Critique Partner Nik shared his 12 in 12 month short story and I have nearly finished my second month’s story to the prompt of “Shuttered” – I will be chatting with Nik later this afternoon (for me) morning in Minneapolis… You cannot read the stories unless you are participating but I can share mine with by posting it here (next post)…
4 – I received a late “Bonus” postcard from lkast July-August Poetry Postcard Festival. Most of the participants are American but they publish a list of all the non-American participants so Americans can send a bonus card to them. So this is my second card from Grant Swados of New York – once on the regular list I was on and again on the bonus list. He has framed the original (postcard-sized) painting I sent him and sent me a reproduction of one of his paintings entitled “The Llama Lisa) a pastiche of the Mona Lisa featuring a llama. Also, he sent a poem about playing darts – a game that makes me think of English pubs, but since he sent the card, rather like when you have bought a new car, I keep seeing dartboards in American TV dramas all the time. Two countries united by a love of tiny missiles…
The postcard I originally sent to Grant…
5 – My Continuous Blood Monitoring experiment is bearing fruit, I am losing weight slowly by keeping my carb count down to an average of 159 grams per day. The drug trial I am participating in, a lower dose of the “weight-loss” drug Semaglutide, might also be helping – I do feel less inclined to snack, am content with smaller meals – but that is not the main point of the study – it is to test whether, at this lower dose, semaglutide helps prevent cardiac events and I have to say that the feeling of queasiness and wind makes me question whether it is worth the price (if it works). I am pretty sure that after the “Randomisation” interview, I am on the real and not the placebo pills – only 4 1/2 years of the study to go – burp!
6 – I have finished “C” in the A to Z and will have time tomorrow to work on “D” which is for Decoration of Fabrics as well as a list of seven fabrics beginning with D
Damask
Dimity
Dobby (see also Piqué)
Double cloth
Double Crepe
Double Georgette
Drill
Duchesse
Dupioni
It is proving to be the most work of any of my A to Z’s so far…
7 – I am a creature of habit and so my washing is in – half already in the dryer and half about to be hung up – Sundays routine is Sunday routine…
8 – Glad to be participating here at TTOT – we had 12 posts last week and as Afshan grat#2 said it inspired her with positivity, I guess its working right!
9 – reminded I have 3 TTOT to visit…
10 – Speaking to my sister in Nova Scotia in an hour…
