Addison Embroidery
at the
Vicarage

T shirt with appliquéd and embroidered bug (hand embroidered by Mary Addison)

Last week didn’t start at all well. On Sunday evening my husband developed severe shivering of the sort I experienced after my first jab. The next morning he felt most unwell and wondered whether the shivering was a seizure. I thought not and led him, strangely cowed, back to bed where he stayed for the day, sleeping most of the time but intermittently waking to tell me how much he ached. Flu or Covid? By the evening he was able to get up for a while and the next day he was fine, pretty much back to normal and quite cheery. We thought we should try and get a lateral flow test, so he spent a frustrating morning ringing round the pharmacies and trawling the relevant websites trying to find some. None were to be had and we debated how we should handle the situation. Do we isolate for 10 days, or seven (should we be able to get tests by day 6) or should we go about life as usual? Fortunately our neighbour knocked at the door for a parcel which had been left with us, said he thought they might have some tests and minutes later came back with their last one. We jointly sighed our relief when the test was negative, and, having no access to further tests, set aside the possibilities of false negatives. More mornings were devoted to attempts to track tests down and then by chance on Thursday  he walked into our local pharmacy for something else and found they’d just had a small delivery. We are now the proud possessors of a pack of 7. My husband has continued to be well and wonderful to relate, I, ever open to most passing infections, have remained well too.

Appliquéd and embroidered bug (hand embroidered by Mary Addison)

I had a lovely letter from two recipients of Christmas T shirts who said they loved them so much they didn’t want to wear anything else. (A sister, I think, writing for herself and her younger brother who I’m not so sure has as strong opinions about what he wears as she does but it was a really nice way to say thank you.)  I have just one more sweatshirt to embroider and then  all Christmas and birthday embroidery is finished. I now have some T shirts in hand for future blogging which is a good thing as I am due at Gloucester Crown Court for jury service from the 7 th of February for 2 weeks unless I get on a trial that goes on longer. This will be my second bout as I first did it about 30 years ago and it is odd to be called twice as no one else I can think of has even be called once. I was going to write a bit about that trial but think I perhaps shouldn’t right now. I will just leave you with the thought that ‘beyond any shadow of  a doubt’ is not the same as ‘beyond any reasonable doubt’

T shirt with appliquéd and embroidered bug (hand embroidered by Mary Addison)

T shirt with orchid mantis appliqué (hand embroidered by Mary Addison)

The Christmas present production line is still whirring, albeit slowly and in something of fits and starts. Hours of natural daylight for embroidering are at their lowest with the winter solstice just 10 days past and although I do sometimes embroider with a good light at my elbow in the evenings there are some colours which are indistinguishable unless seen in daylight. Sometimes I let the different shades remain on the basis that no kilim rug or Persian carpet ever looked the worse for even quite dramatic colour changes uncalled for in the pattern, but at other times I can’t bear the visual jolt and end up unpicking the previous evenings work. The gloriously strange insect on this T shirt is an attempt of a front on view of an orchid mantis. In real life they’re much paler but on T shirts I go for a loose interpretation rather than botanical accuracy. I sent this and the stag beetle T shirt (see previous post) for the small person’s Chirstmas present. His immediate family (of 4 plus an uncle doing the driving) had escaped to the  Lakes from London somewhat hastily being demoralised by escalating Covid infections in the capital and, in the rush, some presents sent to London were left behind. Fortunately I had sent the two T shirts for the small person to the Lakes. (The smallest  person – showing admirable fortitude in the face of missing presents, diminished treats and especially her inability to play with cousins she can hear having fun two floors below – will have to wait for hers until they get back home.) Sweetly the small person had only discovered one of his T shirts as he assumed the other package was for his birthday on the 29th, so it was fun to have him open the other package while I was on the phone. (I’m still working on the birthday sweatshirts!) He too misses his cousins below with all the fun alone of the usual shared bedroom, romps in the garden and party games but stoically he just plays more ping pong and works his way through his Christmas Lego sets on his own (possibly with help from his sister).

Detail: T shirt with orchid mantis appliqué (hand embroidered by Mary Addison)

Christmas Covid woes in the Lakes kept multiplying. Just as Daughter No 1 was testing to see if she could leave purdah in time for Boxing Day with the downstairs family, her husband tested positive to her negative. He had no symptoms and felt perfectly well. A few days later, the small person tested positive – on his birthday! He is also well. Meanwhile mum and the smallest person were negative. Another week of quarantine will add up to nearly three weeks in all. What a Christmas to remember. I can’t remember anything from being 4 years old but I’m certain the small person will have vivid memories of the last two years of her life from 2 – 4 as she formed bubbles including her nanny aunt and another aunt stuck mid way between Iraq and Cambodia, experienced mummy and daddy working from home, had Granny Mary for nearly 6 months Monday to Friday while mummy tried to recover from her leg injury and then experienced a second Christmas – which, like the first – was different from any other even the adults had known!

Detail: T shirt with orchid mantis appliqué (hand embroidered by Mary Addison)

My husband and I have been very quiet here. Even our neighbours with two primary school children seem to have vanishingly few visitors. We do a walk every day. Before Christmas the town did its best to appear lively and cheerful. Cheltenham has two fine parks which we pass by or go through on our journey to the shops on the High Street. One has a temporary ice rink (de rigeur now it seems at Christmas time everywhere, including outside the Natural History Museum in London) while the other is more sedately Victorian (except when filled by the tents of the literary festival every September) and in true Victorian style has a very fine    bandstand. Nearly removed in a flush of zealous modernism in the 1970s (Cheltenham’s only tall building, The Eagle Star Tower of 15 floors was built in 1968) my husband was one of a group who pushed to save the bandstand from demolition, so it was a joy to see it graced by a full brass band playing  a selection of Christmas carols. That same day on the paved pedestrian part of Promenade in the centre of town  two teenage boys busked classical music, their unamplified  violins harmonising and lifting the spirits of otherwise head down, bustling Christmas shoppers. Carols around the red post box at the top of our road led by the local curate in full regalia was a welcome surprise as I dashed out for something forgotten on Christmas Eve. We have yet to get back to physically going to church as we feel we just want to see what happens to Omicron, the new variant in the next few weeks.  If Daughter No 1 can have a bed confining bout of Omicron after 3 jabs, I’d rather not chance it.

Delicious insect art in this 1930s book of Insect Oddities illustrated by Helene Carter

My favourite inspiration at the moment – haven’t read the text but love the insect drawings.