After Foraging

Ruth's foraging for natural weaving materials has seen her accumulate a fair bit of material in the last ten days, to add to her collection at home.  Stems, leaves, vines, thin branches, bark, all are dried before use.  They shrink at different rates, so if used fresh the differing shrinkage can distort the finished pieces.   At present she's making tiny, delicate looking baskets that are actually tough and quite strong .... and beautiful.   Who knew that dried Dandelion stems had such a use!

After a very wet start today, the weather relented by the time we were ready for the trip to Birmingham.  It was a slow journey though, the drive up the valley road made much slower by the daytime closure of the coast road.  Large lorries cannot pass oncoming traffic at various points which led to some interesting moments.   At the other end of the drive the M6 was jammed by traffic after an earlier accident.   Slower going even than the valley road!   I had a couple of hours at Ruth's where Meg got her walk and then a much quicker run home.

Jamie's had a full and interesting day including a big adventure in his wheelchair on the footpaths along the river and around Broadwater while Ruth had a feline visitor late this evening to brighten her return home.   A good day all round.