RANDOM JOTTINGS

OK I am going to mention The Needle in the Blood again.  I know I am starting to become a bore on the subject, but please please please do read it.

Now, this wonderful book has had a knock on effect on my interest in all things to do with embroidery etc and yes I know I am in danger of boring about that as well, but it reminded me of a wall hanging that I bought several years ago and which I have stashed away as I have not known quite what to do with it.  I shall call it the Luxor Tapestry as that is where I bought it, but think it is applique really.  However, as I am in Tapestry Mode after reading THAT book, I have decided to give it a grand title.

It was January 2001 and I was on a cruise down the Nile.  As an army child, I lived in Egypt for three years and had always longed to go back, but life got in the way as it does and I never made it.  However, this was post-divorce and I thought damn it I am going to treat myself and off I went.  I spent the entire week in a mist of tears and wallowing in nostalgia as it all came back to me.  Nothing had changed, in fact, I don’t think anything had changed since AD.  It was all quite wonderful and I wish I had had a digital camera then so I could show you the pictures easily.  (I could always go back of course, nothing to stop me…)

The flash went off when I took this photo so the colour is wrong but the detail is much clearer than the picture below, which is its true colour

On the last morning I went for a stroll around the town of Luxor where the boat was berthed and came across a shop full of the most wonderful fabrics, silks, and embroidery so I walked in and there on the wall was this hanging.  I loved and coveted it instantly and so started off the process by asking the shop owner how much:

He: £400 madame

Me:  Good heavens I cannot afford that.  Goodbye

He (grabbing my arm) I am sure we can come to an agreement madame

So we sat down, a pot of coffee and lovely almond biscuits were produced and we started to negotiate. After I had been told that he had a family of around 20 to support and I was introduced to nearly all of them, including the most enchanting black eyed toddlers beaming at me (I was dashing the bread from their lips I gather by not paying the full price) and grandmothers bent double and with toothless smiles, and an hour passed, I emerged with the hanging in my bag for the price of £60.  In my opinion, a bargain.

It seems somewhat shameful, therefore, that it has been stashed away ever since.  I take it out every now and then and look at it, not sure what to do with it and put it back.  Well, it is out again and this time I am determined that somehow it is going to be hung.  About time it saw the light of day and I shall see if I can get some nice kind person to come along and drill holes in the wall etc and put in hooks for the hanging of – while I can decorate, paint, plaster and lay a kitchen floor, I have never mastered the art of putting up shelves and not sure I want to at my time of life.

I hope you like the pictures and agree that it is a lovely article to own.  Forgive the crinkly bits, I am going to have to get the iron out. 

I blame Odo and THAT book…