The Chain of Time.....

 

Had Come Unlinked...

Perry Had awoken early, Dear Readers, well before the darkness had been chased from the sky, and felt the Distant Briar Moors beckoning him to come out to greet the morn. He was restless and filled with a sense of urgency, even though he had nothing to do and nowhere to be but where he was. All was still and quiet as he looked out over the meadows.

What was it that he needed to do?

The morning air was fresh but not at all chilly,

 as though Autumn had decided to take a Vacation this year,

and let Summer linger as long as she liked.

Yet, the closing in of the darkness was not put off, 

and every day lost more than a few minutes to nighttime, 

who was greedy and growing in power!

Perhaps that was the reason he felt the need to hurry... 

to run across the Moors and play while there was still time!

 

 Perhaps if he hurried fast enough... 

he would overtake the missing minutes...

Or find out where they went...

And so he ran to greet the dawn!

And it might not surprise you, Dear Readers, 

to learn that the Little Dreamer Beth

 had also headed out over the Briar Moors.

She thought that she might catch up to Perry if she hurried fast enough...

and she supposed she would find him headed for the Castle Ruins,

 for they ever beckoned the travelers on the Moors.

She thought she would take the shortcut 

through the Valley where it nears the Village,

but she fund herself wandering through a tangled Garden instead.

She was fairly certain that she had been this way before... 

and yet every time she came it was different... 

as though Mother Nature enjoyed

 disguising the garden in a new fashion as often as possible!

And when she spotted the familiar building... 

she wondered again, had she seen it here before?

 Or had here become so different she couldn't tell....

But she was pretty certain she had been here before.. 

Maybe she could have a look inside...?

It looked sort of abandoned.... yet not...

and... Oh My!

What is that....?

There was something terribly familiar about this...!

Why did it look so familiar... and yet ... not?

Was she Dreaming this...?

Clearly the house was not finished...

All the rooms were empty... and spooky...!

She wondered whose house it was....

Perhaps she should tell someone....

If it was abandoned....

 maybe she and Amy could keep it to play with....

But who would know?

Who could she ask....?

Maybe the Wizard would know....

 if she could find him!

Meanwhile, not very far away, but in another time altogether,

 another young lad was feeling the restless urges of the warm afternoon.

It was such a glorious autumn afternoon

 and Tommy had set out on his pony, Prince.

He had managed to escape his pesky sisters

 and was heading for the Castle Ruins.

He knew he was not supposed to visit the ruins on his own... 

they were dangerous everybody said....

but he had been there often, 

and was always hoping he would find hidden treasure!

 

 

Sometimes he met other children there...

 and sometimes there were very old people there...

 and he thought he had met a Wizard... 

but he wasn't sure... 

sometimes he thought he had dreamed that he saw dragons too!

But everybody knew dragons weren't real... 

so he never told anybody about them.

 

 

And then there was the time he took the sword... and lost it! 

But he wasn't sure about that either.

It got mixed up with the dragons...

And the Gypsy....!

He could never be sure what he would find in the castle Ruins!

And as if those wanderers were were not enough, Dear Readers,

 over at the Lovely Old Dollhouse, 

Pollyanna and Arthur had heard the call of the beautiful afternoon.

"Shall we go for a walk....?" asks Pollyanna?

"Sounds like a great idea to me!" agrees Arthur.

(He is always happy to share Pollyanna's company!)

 

 "Look at how many leaves have fallen..." says Pollyanna... 

"I hadn't noticed how quickly Autumn is passing!" she added.

"Probably because it has been so mild..." replied Arthur. 

"It doesn't feel like Autumn at all!"

"True," said Pollyanna.... 

"Except when we notice how dark it is at suppertime!" she added.

"And Halloween is just around the corner!" added Arthur.

"I hope there will be a party at the Castle this year," said Pollyanna.

"I heard that they are planning to have the place open again..." said Arthur.

"At least Kendall was talking about lining up the band" he added.

 

"Maybe we should help with the decorations..." said Pollyanna.

"I can talk with Fleur and see if the has anything to contribute..."

"It'll feel so good to get out and enjoy ourselves again...

 just like old times!" she added wistfully.

Well, Dear Readers, 

I am sure you know what happens next...

But you'll have to wait a while to read about it here!

Time has come unlinked... 

and you never know when....

it is.... or isn't....

To be continued.......

As Darkness Descends...

 

Is Madness Far Behind....?

I was only going to look in the box, Dear Readers, to see if I could find the kit and check out what supplies might be needed and see what the construction might involve, and maybe have a glance at the instructions... Well! The very first thing the instructions said would be needed was to spray paint all the pieces (except for a few) with flat black paint... which I did not have...! And then I realized that we were at that time of year .... possibly the last weekend of outdoor spray-painting weather for the year! Was there still time to buy the paint and get all the pieces sprayed.... both sides with drying time between..... and daytime temperatures hovering in the 50's (Farenheit) and early early night fall with frost in the forecast....? As you can see from the above picture... yes, just barely! And as you surely can guess.... I was suddenly and unexpectedly launched into the mini mini Madness of another Robin Betterley Kit, the "Ravenwood"! In case you don' know this kit, here is a picture...

I bought it quite a few years ago, and stashed it with my multitude of kits... 

waiting for the right Time to begin...

Ready or not... here we go!

I was careful to read all the instructions first... 

so I could get a picture of what came first and why...

(the better to know when to make changes...!)

for changes there must be!

Here I have begun the assembly of the House body.

This kit is like the Secret Christmas House kit

 in that it has pull-out sections inside an outer shell... 

but this kit has three pull outs instead of just two...

one on each side and a central Tower that lifts out from the top!

 

Here the outer shell is mostly assembled.... 

just lacking the side mansard roofs...

Using a rock to weight the roof as it is gluing... 

while I make supper.

Starting the Tower pull-out assembly....

fitting the Tower attic floor and testing it in the house body....

And testing it with the mansard roof  in place to see how it goes....

and then I realized that this attic was going to be

 all closed in and Inaccessible...???

Really?

A Perfectly Wonderful Spooky Attic going to waste???

Well, I was going to have to make some changes here!

Here is what the space looks like with both side roofs but no top roof...

and the "roof support" that you can see in the previous picture is a bit clunky.

I abandoned the idea of trap doors and ladders to make it accessible to little people... 

but I feel strongly that the bats will need access to this space! 

There needs to be a window.....

At the very least!

I carefully marked the spot....

And started drilling in the center with my smallest drill bit 

(I didn't want to risk cracking this fine piece of wood!)

I kept increasing the drill bit size all the way up through my bit collection,

 ending at 3/16th of an inch diameter.

Then I took my small round file and continued to shape an opening...

The sides needed to slant correctly as the roof sits at a slant.

I split the attic roof support and made it two legs... 

so the bats could fly straight in the window and not hit a wall!

Here the roof and the Mansard side roofs have been attached.

Testing the fit inside the house body...

And starting to build the window frame...

A very small piece of cardboard,

 curved and shaped to fit the slant of the roof... 

making a dormer window.

Of course, I got really involved and forgot

 to take any pictures of making the tiny window! 

Which you can see here... all assembled and glued in place.

It is a cutout of plastic packaging material...

 fairly stiff, with a notch cut out for the broken window pane.

And the gothic framework is made from fine cloth covered florist wire,

 painted black and cut to fit and glued in place over the plastic.

Here it is attached and in the Tower.

But can we see the window pane...?

There!

Now you will know,

 that the attic is not Inaccessible!

At least for the Bats!

And you can rest Assured, Dear Readers,

 that there will be a few more changes made 

to this Wonderful Enchanting Kit!

Because the Darkness is Falling...

Let the Madness begin!

A Few More...

 

  Stitches And Rocks...

I Had nearly finished the stitching, Dear Readers, on the background of the Medieval Ladies Tapestry before I left for my Travels all those weeks ago. And once I returned, it was not difficult to complete. I don't know about you, but I do get so absorbed in these projects, I almost don't want to finish them! Except that I know I will Love looking at them when they are finished and installed in their home. And I must confess, that the final steps involved in order to truly be "finished" with these tapestries, adding the tabs for hanging them and sewing a backing, do not excite me one bit... and tend to take a loooong time to get done. But meanwhile, let me show you the completed stitching!

I think it turned out as well as could be expected of a "hybrid" design!

And here it is with the other Ladies Tapestry... 

so you can see just how well they go together

 and suggest that they were once all one Tapestry!

All I need to do is hem the new part, add the tabs etc.

We can pretend that I'll have it done in no time.... 

while I go sweeping off to stitch my current obsessive project....

The Baktiari Carpet.

You might be able to tell I have been attempting to get

 all the outlines complete for the "lozenges" 

in the middle of the carpet.

And as I was working on the ones at the bottom,

 I noticed that I had counted wrong on the "legs"

right below the "knot" where they join each other...

most of the lozenges have only two stitches before they spread apart....

 but on the bottom row they need to have four stitches!

(If you need to see a reference picture,

 the partly stitched beginning in the previous post will show you!)

Fortunately, I was able to un-stitch the parts that I had done wrong!

Above you can see it after the removal of the mistakes...

Here you can see I have started to lengthen

 those "legs" to four stitches long...

(If you get out your magnifying glass and count very carefully!)

And while I was wrestling with those few stitches, Dear Readers, 

I was also trying to reacquaint myself with the rock-painting process

 for the door surround on the Lords Bed Chamber door!

Here I have glued the vertical pieces in place already....

 (you didn't need to see them being painted, did you?)

But those were the easy ones...

It took the entire next day to cut, fit, prime, paint

 and glue the remaining five rocks!

And I didn't get to the grout painting, 

which needs to be done to tidy up

 the courses of the rocks.

(Dare I say the rocks for the Bed Chamber are done?)

And as for the few stitches on the new carpet...

I finished fixing the Lozenges and then some!

As I am sure you have noticed, Dear Readers,

I find it impossible to only sew a "few" stitches!

Just a few more.... 

and a few more..... 

and a few more....