Cuthbert, Dibble and Grub

It's time for this little group of household gods to have their stories told.

I found all of them in the shop in the Quay Arts Centre in Newport on the Isle of Wight, while visiting my friend Sue.

The pot was the first one that caught my eye, probably because of its design and colours - sunflowers always attract me, somehow.

Then as I was paying for it, I noticed the group of three little cacti. They're knitted, and the pots they are placed in are upcycled objects which the artist has found in car boot sales, or have been discarded in some way, and she has re-used. It was probably the visual and tactile appeal, combined with the jokiness of something which you expect to be spiky being made out of soft material, that appealed to me.

I asked about them and the shop assistant told me that the artist divides her time between the Isle of Wight and New Zealand - but she was planning to move to New Zealand permanently soon, so they weren't expecting to be getting any more of her work. That clinched it for me - and of course I had to take them as a group.

I've called them Cuthbert, Dibble and Grub, after three of the firemen from Trumpton.