Figs

I have a birthday with a nought in it this year - the last time I was enthusiastic about a birthday with a nought in it I was 10. This year I'll be quite a bit older and birthdays do tend to highlight all the things I'm ambivalent about in my life. I can however tick off one thing from my wish list...

A couple of years ago I blogged about my friend Mary and the many amazingly lovely things she creates, including dinner - we went to eat with her last week, the 'few things' she thought she might throw together turned into a three course banquet of treats, the pudding was greeted with screams of delight from one (5 year old) guest who I can safely say spoke for all of us. D has asked me daily if I can make a salted caramel sauce like Mary's and if I can when I will - I'm more interested in replicating her raspberry elderflower and cardamom sauce.

But I digress, Mary creates exquisite embroideries, I've coveted one for years and years and now I finally have one - a lucky combination of her having a few available and my not having actually spent every penny I possessed on knitwear means that I'm now the proud owner of 'Figs'. So proud that despite the difficulty of getting a reasonable photo of something under glass I'm still determined to share my prize with you. I think these embroideries are staggering, they're a few inches square and just perfect, I can only imagine the time and patience it takes to create one of these - 'Figs' is currently sitting opposite my bed so I can stare at it first and last thing, the more I look at it the more I fall on love with it. It will eventually need to find a wall space, but the obvious spot is behind my bed where I won't see it nearly enough and that just won't do. There are images here of a few more of Mary's pieces (including a rather better image of 'Figs' than I've managed) - marvel at her brilliance!