Very Pinteresting

At the start of last year I signed up for Pinterest, an online “pin board” of ideas, photos, recipes on a whole world of subjects including travel, food, photography, crafts etc, but somehow I never got round to actually stepping into this amazing site. And so 2013 has begun well, and my mind is blown with a whole new universe to explore on so many different themes.
You can search a subject – say hens.
Pinterest will show you more to do with hens and hen related items than you would ever need to see. (Even more than this blog)

You can “pin” an item to your own “board”; you can “like” an image, just as on Facebook; you can “follow” a Pinterest contributor just as on Twitter.
In return when you pin items of your own others can pin, like and follow you. Hopefully in a nice way 😉
So what is the point I hear you cry?
I can see Pinterest being a creative black hole that I could very easily fall into at the beginning of January 2013 and not emerge from for the next 365 days. This would not be a good thing. Perhaps like me you have bags and boxes of half-finished craft project that you promise yourself you will complete one day. Or a pile of books to be read that threaten to fall over and kill someone that you know one day you will get to read. Or a stack of recipe magazines to go through and tear out the ones you will make to get healthy, family friendly recipes. Or a bag of wool the dog keeps finding and trailing over the upstairs….enough!
While there are kids to taxi, food to prepare, ironing to flatten, dogs to walk, hens to nurture, house to clean, I may never get through this real list of What I Want To Do’s.
Pinterest threatens to introduce me to a wealth of fabulous craft ideas, hen hints, recipes, travel destinations etc etc. A million, billion things that I will like, pin and follow and never get round to starting, never mind finishing.
But then again, this time last year I had a handful of little china hens on my kitchen mantle, this year I am the proud owner of three hilarious egg producing feathered wonder birds. Anything can happen!

A Souvenir of Scotland

While the egg production has been less than expected, while Mr Gillybirds has been off cycling 900+ miles from Land’s End to John O’Groats, I have not been idle, crafting away to fill the long evenings. This French Hen cross stitch is just back from the framers. The threads were variegated which gives it a nice depth and the hen shape if you can see it well enough is made up of little chick and basket motifs. I’m really pleased with how it has turned out, and it didn’t take long to sew.

While away on my Tartan Road Trip across Scotland (850 miles) to pick Mr Gillybirds up, accompanied by my excellent navigator Son Number 4, we had lunch at the wonderfully named “Storehouse of Foulis” which had a delightful selection of hen based merchandise. It’s always nice to have a little souvenir, and what better than an Emma Bridgewater egg holder that matches my kitchen perfectly!

Just need a few eggs to put into it now.

The Storehouse of Foulis restrooms were hen based too. Great fun!

A little Daily Miracle

One of my favourite films is the Addams Family Values. There is a scene where Wednesday asks a visitor to pass her the salt at the dinner table. Her mother interrupts asking “what do we say when we want something Wednesday?”To which Wednesday replies “Now!”

It is a 21st century condition that generally people want everything now, if not yesterday. Time is speeding up, running away, passing through our fingers like fine sand on a beach.

Watch news as it happens live.
More internet data faster.
Lose weight quicker.
Reverse time and look younger.
Ready meals, fast food.

The day I saw ready grated cheese to buy I was dumbfounded, or as my mother would say “gobsmacked”. Who doesn’t have time to grate cheese?

Ok so I am not in the world of employment, being at home raising 4 boys is not a real job (apparently) so I probably have more time on my hands than most. I take pleasure in the making of things, chopping, peeling, grating. I love to bake, to root around the fridge and make soup out of whatever I find, to knead dough and wait for it to prove.
My greatest passion is for hand crafts – cross stitch, knitting and card making. It gives me pleasure to design and craft unique and I hope beautiful things which will give others pleasure. These take time. Some only minutes, some days, weeks, months. A card is probably enjoyed for a few days, a hat or scarf for a season. The wedding and baby cross stitch samplers hopefully for a lifetime. Not to be able to make time to do these things would trouble me. I take pride in each one of my own little creations.
What has this got to do with the hens? It takes a hen 25 hours to lay an egg. The shell only hardens in the last 10 seconds of its journey. I have discovered there is something magical about lifting a still warm egg from the nest it has been so gently laid in. Apparently, my hen- acquainted friends may well verify this, as she lays her egg a hen sings a bright song of triumph. How lovely. I think I would too. It’s wonderful. It’s a little daily miracle.