Monday, November 25, 2013

Zebras are like buses…..

You don't see one for ages and then you see several!

We were in the lovely town of Rye the other day when we stumbled upon this lovely chap out shopping in all his stripiness:


He looks as if he's just stepped off the Serengetti and popped into the shop! He's made of concrete and resin and he was sold. It brought to mind another fine zebra I encountered on one of my runs earlier this year.

Then I remembered that my neighbours, the 'neigh' part is quite relevant in this case, from Stevenson Brothers Rocking Horses produced a beautiful rocking zebra a few years ago and it has been hugely popular. The brothers grew up in Kenya so it isn't quite quite so odd that they chose a zebra and they have donated money from their sale to various charities based over there.

In the same shop there were lots of strange taxidermy birds and other animals together with this horse's head which had been made to look like a unicorn:


He was a gorgeous horse with the most beautiful muzzle and I really wanted to stroke him but I felt a bit weird about it and so I didn't.

Rye is a pretty town with some beautiful timber-framed buildings and cobbled streets. The cobbles are quite hard to walk on and you have to be careful not to trip.



We had a look round a couple of art galleries and an exhibition of works by local artists.


As Rye is one of the Cinque Ports (originally from the French 'cinq', i.e. 5, but pronounced "sink") one always expects lots of paintings with a nautical theme. I loved this mermaid.


This beautiful anchor by the very talented Heather Collins was covered in a mixture of wool scraps, felt and embroidery. It was stunning.



We had a jolly good mooch around the shops as it was a nice bright day and I came home with these jolly over-the-knee socks in my favourite colour, purple, and adorned with the happy faces of pansies rather like the violas I have in some pots at the moment. I also sneaked in a couple of balls of Rowan Kidsilk Haze in 'blackcurrant'.




The other highlight for me was finding these wonderful tea-towels (and more!) by Sarah Young. I had a long chat with the gallery owner about these as they took me right back to my childhood and learning to sew.


Not only can they be tea-towels but you can cut around the shapes, sew them together and make a doorstop, cushion, or even a tea cosy. Such fun and wonderful designs too.

Clarence the cross-eyed lion took me right back that wonderful TV series Daktari from the 1960's.


Although he was beautiful it was Hester the Hare who stole my heart. Well I could hardly choose anything other than a Bluebelle lookalike now could I? I always think that Rexes are more like hares than bunnies and their coats are like velvet. I do miss having them hopping around the place but we do have plenty of pesky wild rabbits on the land.

Tango and Bluebelle, the last of my beautiful Rex rabbits 

I spotted this woolly friend hanging on the wall of a weaver's studio.


As a footnote, my first G8 blog post went onto their site this morning here so I hope I'll reach a new audience.

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