Buttons

As I sit here on a Sunday afternoon, there’s one thing on my mind that I must finish off.

Buttons!

I found myself at St Pancras Station a week or so ago, enjoying the opportunity to admire this wonderful bronze of one of our most acclaimed poets, Sir John Betjeman. Regarded as a bit of a curmudgeon at times, he led a successful campaign to save St Pancras Station and as a result, here he is, in a somewhat windswept but joyous pose looking up at the fabulous arch of the train shed, surrounded by some of his writings carved into a circle of slate. There in the background at the end of the platform is the monstrosity of a rather larger, bronze The Meeting Place and it was in that direction I was heading, because for a change this year, the first rounds of the UK Bus Awards were to be judged here at The Betjeman Arms.

We had a most productive meeting and reached what I considered to be some excellent decisions before I headed back to Paddington Station in the late afternoon to wait for my train home. Once there, the departure board didn’t look too grand. In fact, it looked rather bleak.

There had been a fatal accident further along the line and all the train services towards Gloucestershire were cancelled. As the hours passed, it was clear that there would be no more trains for some hours yet and so people began to make alternative arrangements where they could. I quickly caught a train in a slightly different direction, to Newbury, where my Hero came to meet me and drive the remaining hour home - late, but in the circumstances, we were all simply thankful to be able to get on our way.

So what’s with the buttons?

As I had been sitting waiting at Paddington, I’d noticed one of the (three) buttons on my jacket was rather loose and made a mental note to secure it before it dropped off completely. Of course, like these things happen, as soon as I noticed it, I found myself fiddling with it…wishing I had a needle and thread in my bag -or a safety pin - just so I didn’t lose it.

It was still there at Newbury, still there when I got into the car but by the time we were home and I took my jacket off, there was no button.

Grrr.

I recalled that, as we’d sorted Bettine’s house out recently, I acquired her button collection. Ooooh! Perhaps there’d be a suitable replacement in there? I made a mental note to sift through them and have a look.

But life goes on. It’s Village Show season and I’m busy, not only judging shows myself but also working with ten trainee craft judges, whose like minded conversations are a great distraction as we share the remarkable entries we see. This Village Show, for example = detailed crochet, so beautifully worked!

Such a fine walrus made from aubergines in the Vegetable Animal class, 9 - 14 years. Isn’t he great?

And how about this cutie, sitting in the class for younger children? The angle of her head says it all, doesn’t it!?

The round of applause went to the youngest entrant I’ve ever seen…5 months old. I suspect they had a little help in creating their book cover, but oh my word, let’s start them young, eh?

During the last few months, we’ve been driving past the biggest engineering/road building site in the area, as “the missing link” of the A417 takes shape. What we didn’t know until recently is that there’s a visitor hub, open Tuesdays and Wednesdays, so with a few hours to spare last week, guess where we headed?

An excellent explanation from Harry, champion of the Visitor Hub meant that when we stepped out onto the viewing platform, we were able to see how the new road would fit in between the hillsides and probably more importantly, from our perspective, how our journey to Cheltenham will be affected in the future. In the meantime, I have never seen quite so much golden Cotswold stone shining so beautifully in the sunshine!

There is still so much construction to be done but we are beginning to see how it will all go!

But every time I went out or came back in, there was a jacket on the back of the hall chair. You know how it is? But though we’d looked for the missing button, we’d not found it and there was no spare attached to a side seam or anything.

I sifted through Bettine’s buttons with no joy. I was looking for one of those shell buttons, which didn’t seem to feature in her collection at all.

I sifted through my button box, but though I had a button shaped like a tape measure and a couple shaped like spools of thread, the shell buttons I had were not big enough.

I came across a bag filled with more shell buttons and for a while, my hopes were raised. Some were shaped like stars and others were square in shape, but sadly, there were none the same as the two which remained. There was nothing for it. I had to find a set of three and replace the lot.

And I hate sewing buttons on.

However…

Thankfully, my clever sewing machine doesn’t mind and I always like to give it a challenge (and yes, give myself a challenge too and be thankful for the video library, eh?)

Now all that remains is for me to find a sewing needle to sew in the thread ends… That’s unless I find something more interesting to do (which is probably why I’m sitting here 😉)