Archive Footage

Last week someone posted a link to these photographs on a forum called "Design Addicts", and, as a result, many people have checked out my blog page where it originally appeared.  This is a hand-beaten stainless steel bowl made by Lakeland Rural Industries in Borrowdale - a kind of last hurrah for the Arts and Crafts movement.  When I saw it at a boot fair for a pound or two, I just had to have it.

The curious yellow stains on its surface are in fact reflections of the stained glass panels in our patio door, which is where I tend to take my photos, as it gives the best light.

We think the glass is early twentieth century: it certainly has an Art Nouveau influence to it.

Last week my husband went off to his biennial conference on legal history, held this year at Clare College, Cambridge.   While the cat's away, I thought, as I set myself the project of digging out a fourth strawberry bed.  I must have reckoned without the solidifying effect of a water table which is now much nearer the surface since the field drains became blocked in the snow and the spring appeared at the corner of our plot.

 Suddenly, I felt something shift in my lower back, and not in a good way.  I have spent the week hobbling about, with something like a permanent fold in the middle.  Not a good look, and particularly annoying in the last week of term, when I am looking forward to being  more active in the holidays.