Altar frontal for Ipsden Ch. Oxon: convolvulus (hand embroidered by Mary Addison)

Another flower for the patchwork altar frontal – I must do some more joining together soon and give us a more accurate picture of where we are now. Group meetings have been skewered by the proliferation of new grandchildren to village ladies and as the grandchildren all live elsewhere, free Saturdays have become difficult to co-ordinate. Meanwhile, as I am the only embroiderer, I am continuing to add more flowers so that when we next meet, there should be more simple sewing for those less experienced to do.

Altar frontal for Ipsden Ch. Oxon: convolvulus (hand embroidered by Mary Addison)

Of all flowers, the convolvulus or bindweed is perhaps the one that we feel most ambivalent about. Incredibly pretty, especially in its pink form, we all seem to spend most of our energies on getting rid of it. Daughter No 1’s London garden was full of the stuff and after a campaign that involved much digging, application of glyphosate and root chasing we still have to patrol the borders and gently pull up the strings of tell-tale heart shaped leaves we find there. (It doesn’t seem very keen on the vicarage garden, so no problem here for us.) Nevertheless show me a piece of wasteland covered in its pretty pink trumpets and it’s only too easy to think what a wonderful plant it is.

No one has sung so eloquently about the plant as Flanders and Swan .