Curtains (part two)

Next job: putting up the lovingly crafted curtains in Warrior's back cabin. You might recall that I wasn't entirely sure how I was going to fix the bed curtain and pelmet; I bought a selection of brass rods, various sized hooks, and eyelets, and in the end used nothing but the hooks. The right hand side of the pelmet is pinned to a wooden thing I don't know the name of (I know I can be a bit obsessive about getting the right names for things, but it's very difficult when you don't have anything to call something) and the rest is hung off very small (1/4" or so) brass hooks screwed into the ceiling. For the pelmet these are about six inches apart. I just hung it using the curtain tape that was already attached, straight onto the hooks. This seemed to work, so I abandoned the rods and attached the curtain in the same way. It was always going to be purely decorative, so it doesn't matter for practical purposes that it can't be pulled. The hooks for that are about four inches apart. It's pretty inauthentic, and utterly impractical, but it does look nice ...

The porthole curtain went up easily enough (must polish that rail) but the others, to cover the storage spaces at floor level, were more of a challenge; owing to some kind of measuring error on my part they won't fit within the spaces but will need to be hung above them. We can't really have a protruding rail. I was all set to pin them up, but I thought they will get dirty down there and need frequent washing. So I think it will be the dreaded velcro. Unless and until we make some doors or drawers for those spaces.

The photo, which you probably can't see, is a copy of a recently discovered bit of family history. My father never mentioned that his mother had a shop in Swindon - it was only last year that one of his sisters sent my sister this picture of the three of them standing outside it in the mid/late 20s. And it has my name over the door! (Said aunties have never quite come to terms with the fact that although legally married to him I don't actually share Jim's surname. This means we can have more interesting signwriting on Warrior.)

Shortest day today - so in theory it gets better from here, but it never feels like that in January and February. Given the choice I think I'd quite like to hibernate from Christmas to Easter.