Gas Street Basin, Birmingham

Work goes on around at the Mailbox. Not sure what they are actually doing. Half the arm has been drained and they seem to be building a wall down the middle. Time will tell.

Snow and more snow. Summer had better be bloody hot this year!




The trouble with living with Portobello Road at your back door is that you want to buy things. There was one particular shop about a 1/4 of the way down selling architectural stuff from demolitions etc. Always something interesting to see like stained glass and icons etc. We often popped in to see what was for sale and got to make friends with the owner and his assistant (a resting actor - but that's another story). One day he was showing a beautiful pink altar piece. All William Morris tiles with metal leaves and grapes. David thought we could turn it into a table top for the boat. The owner did not want to sell it though. Wanted it for himself. Was going to put it in his bathroom.

We badgered and badgered, every Saturday and eventually he needed some money to go to see the World Cup in Rome. Result! We bought it before he could change his mind.


The next problem was to get it back to the flat. The tiles were fixed onto concrete and the concrete onto a large slate. It weighed a ton. We had four American Colonels visiting - they were big and strong. They very kindly took a corner each and walked it back up the hill to the flat. Now we just have to persuade the boat maker to fix in into the boat.



Two cards made with a photograph of nb Brighton on the Oxford Canal.

This one I matted onto maroon, orange and green card. Underneath I stuck an orange patterned ribbon and then wrapped thin maroon ribbon and tied a green dragonfly charm to it.













This one I matted onto white card and cut around the edges with tiny scalloped edged scissors before matting it onto maroon card and fixing a gold brad into each corner.

I stuck a piece of maroon paper across the bottom half of the card base and wrapped a knotted gold ribbon around the top join and a strip along the bottom, adding three gold brads along the right hand side of the ribbon (wonkily).