Dear Diary...

What did I do today?

- I hung all the soft toys I keep for sentimental reasons up on the line (it's supposed to help kill dust mites)

Also, Xi Shi, the lovely doll my sister made me, out for an airing:

- I sipped coffee while Repton and Repton's Dad (TM) did constructiony type things on the garden.  (I've had prior involvement in this bit helping to clear away the mountain of stones some clown put on our nice garden, and digging the drainage trench (now filled in with the same bally stones + compost mixed with clay and gypsum, and faintly visible on the left.)

  

- Possible casualties of war - two rose bushes which had their root balls trimmed like billy-o to fit them into their temporary holding pots.  (Not these ones, which we got hold of today, rather smaller ones.)  Well, they may survive.

And I'm shortly off to visit Cat.  Christmas holidays are great.

Xi Shi

I am now the proud owner of a splendiferously lustworthy doll of Xi Shi, one of the legendary Four Beatiful Women of China. According to the doll's creator, the amazingly talented Catherine, Xi Shi "was sent by the king of one small kingdom to [the king of] another small kingdom as a concubine, with the secret brief of destroying his kingdom through distraction and other secret agent tricks. Once this was accomplished, she ran away with her old handler, ... married him, and lived happily ever after. Moreover, history remembers her as 'that daring and beautiful lady who was very loyal to her country, which she helped greatly' as opposed to less complimentary epithets that [are] applied at times to beautiful women. A very successful lady. (Oh, and her father grew tea.)

Pictures, so that others can envy my good fortune, are below:

(There is a seriously huge amount of detail in this doll, which is fully undressable, with complete hand made jewellery and craft accessories, and several layers of precise and exact detail which the casual viewer wouldn't see but I know are there for added gloriousness.)






Fully assembled lady is here:


Bonus picture of me and Macca, pursuing one of her favourite hobbies: