This weekend...

Hello

What a gloriously warm, sunny weekend it has been - and I have made the most of it. Did you see the lunar eclipse last night? I put my alarm on and then lay in bed watching it - quite spectacular!

Today, a few random photos of the weekend and a few accompanying words

Umm, I'm not really a fan of Halloween so why on earth, I ask myself, am I cross stitching

 Halloween motifs? I think I was just drawn to the zingy and fluorescent colours (a devil to photograph to get a true depiction of colour). 

Sitting outside reading and eating lunch. 

We bought crumpets for the first time in years - toasted and dripping with butter of course.

And then of course, buttery fingers on the lens of my camera lends a soft focus to subsequent photos!!

The lens cover is broken on my Nikon, in fact, I'm a little disappointed with it because

 I have only had this camera 3 years and it is is limping along now - the zoom has a

 mind of its own which makes for tricky photography!

I desperately needed a new peg bag. 

No, I don't usually store my pegs in a bowl - this is where I threw them while 

I used the old bag as a template. 

The peg bags I saw in the shop were incredibly flimsy so I decided to make a new one. 

(please excuse my shadow)

I made kitchen curtains for our last house with this material.

 It was a complete fluke that the stripes matched up down the front of the bag. 

I didn't intend to spend long on this project - I had a football match to watch. 

(Daughter has now been signed with a local Midlands city senior Ladies team - YAY!) 

That looks much better!

Goodness! Given the muck in the bottom of my old peg bag

 I wonder my clothes ever came off the line clean!

I spent several hours chopping back the hedge at the bottom of the garden - 

this is in the field at the back of the hedge and the pile of cuttings on the left 

(no, that is not also a hedge even though it looks like it) is as 

high as the hedge on the right! 

It was lovely in the late afternoon sun in the field. 

Hope you had a good weekend. I'm looking forward to seeing lots of Yarndale posts!

xXx 

Progress!

Hello,

Gosh, the weather has been warm here in the Midlands of England, but I am not complaining. 

It's so nice to walk out of the house on seemingly endless days and not have to think

 "Do I need a cardigan?" or even more likely "Do I need a raincoat?"

As the title suggests, my post this week is all about progress - 

I feel there has been a definite theme developing in my life over the last few days. 

It doesn't happen very often so please bear with me and indulge me in my glorification

 of recent progresses! Sometimes they are few and far between!

So here goes (but I do apologise for the quality of some of these photos) 

and also for the mundane subject matter of some of them too.

Number 1: Boy, oh boy - when I bought this cute cross stitch kit I didn't realise quite 

how much sky (and snow!) there was to stitch, but I now feel I am making 

measurable inroads into that sky. Only 5 more rows to go!

Number 2: Mr. Gissing, you are a talented writer, constructing complicated sentences and using a

challenging vocabulary which I love to read, but after a day at work I struggle

to read more than a few pages before my eyes close.

 I have been reading this book for what seems an eternity, but I am now over half way! 

I started to read this book several months ago and downloaded it onto my kindle to continue 

reading it while I was on holiday, but it wasn't until I was actually away that I realised the

 kindle version was an abridged version, and no way did I want to read it!  

(OK, diversion here from my progress. My daughter spent the weekend in Oakham and I

picked her up Sunday, while I waited for her I wandered into the town, found a bench 

(and a coffee) and sat to read a few more pages of my book. I then had a short wander 

round. Oakham is a very pretty town. The Butter Cross below first appeared on a map in 1611.)

 (Note the five holes in the stocks! Why? How? The mind boggles!)

(Back to progress)

Number 3: Once home from Oakham I tackled that dreadful chore - ironing. 

Here is just some of the items I de-creased!

 Number 4: Saturday, and a dirty job that has been waiting several years, 

yes I cleared out the garage! 

There is still more stuff to sort out but it is much tidier and cleaner - yay!

We even got one of the bikes fixed on Saturday afternoon. 

Sometime elder son had said he would fix a problem with a back tyre - but 

said tyre and inner tube had languished for months on the garage floor. 

But every cloud has a silver lining, as husband and I we sat outside drinking 

coffee at the cafe next door to the bike shop while the tyre, and a new inner tube, were

 reunited with the bicycle frame!

What more could we ask!

Number 5: Crochet blanket - there had been little crochet on this blanket for many

 months, but some longer car journeys of late has meant that I have added 

several limestone and candy pink rows. 

I ordered more crochet cotton tonight too, desperately hoping that 

it arrives before we leave for a long weekend away in Yorkshire on Friday. 

Number 6: And finally - I am having a bit of a clear out at home. 

We have a stack of jigsaws in the loft and I decided it was time some found a 

new home. But of course I have to check that there are no pieces missing 

before I take them to the charity shop

 (Ok, it's also a grand excuse to do each puzzle one more time.) 

This jigsaw has 1500 pieces - and I like to make it harder by

 not looking at the picture on the box.   

So, there it is. 

Sometimes when life feels a bit busy it is good to feel progress is being made,

 even if in very small ways. 

Thank you for indulging me!

Have a great week.

xXx