You know you have retired

when you realise on Tuesday afternoon that the clocks went forward last Sunday morning but you still haven’t adjusted your watch …

Wensleydale and I were out on a Tuesday trip – we usually go out on Tuesdays because it is the only day we don’t normally have any other commitments. So today – because I needed some supplies – we decided we would visit Fibrecrafts and then go on here:

http://www.wattsgallery.org.uk/visitor_information.html

which is quite close by.

I have ordered from Fibrecrafts before but never actually visited them. It is a very tempting place but I firmly turned my back on the books and the spinning wheels [I would love to learn how to spin] and stuck to the shopping list. So I now have a lot of silk paint, for the final C&G piece which I am procrastinating about because I think I have bitten off far more than I can chew. I also bought some Supermend powder as mine mysteriously disappeared just after I decided to use it for the metre piece, some stuff to carve stamps and a locker hook. I read an article on locker hooking in ‘Classic Stitches’ magazine and as I have a lot of knitting yarn and a lot of canvas, decided to try it. Of course I need another textile activity like I need a hole in the head ….

Then we went to the Watts Gallery. If you watched the BBC series ‘Restoration’ you may have seen the gallery: the building is in a sad state and the pictures seem to be too. Although we lived nearby 30 years ago we have never been before. It was built by the painter G.F. Watts and his wife Mary to house his paintings, and is well worth a visit if you are interested in art, especially Victorian art. And if you go on a Tuesday it only costs £1.

After a good cup of coffee in the tea shop we went down the road to here, which was the highlight of the trip.

No - we didn't pop over to Italy - it is the Watts Cemetery Chapel:

http://www.wattsgallery.org.uk/Places_interest.html

It is absolutely amazing - very inspirational for an embroiderer – and not at all what you expect to find in a small Surrey village.