Wednesday, August 22, 2018

Before Pat’s surgery he did some trimming and pruning on the bushes in the yard – I’m not to be trusted with mechanical snippers! I delayed picking up the piles but the weather forecast says we might get rain tomorrow so I decided I’d better get them bundled up before they got wet and nasty. I had a showing at the Hall at 11 AM so I couldn’t follow my usual “first thing in the day and get it done” schedule.

While I waited for my appointment yesterday afternoon I paced the Hall and deck – back and forth, back and forth. But today while I waited I decided to pull a few weeds from the lawn; I didn’t actually pull the weeds, I pulled the flowers and stems in the hope that they wouldn’t all go to seed. I don’t know what the weeds are called and I couldn’t even identify them online. They are tall, stringy things that my push mower couldn’t handle and they grow well, like weeds, in the grass all over town. We have the Hall grass mowed once a month but these weeds were making it look uncared for; I pulled almost a bag full before my appointment arrived. She was late and we took only about five minutes as she has rented the Hall before. After she left I finished my task.

As soon as I got home I started to work on our own yard. The first pile of clippings didn’t quite fill the bag so I did a bit of weeding in one of the side beds and along the bricks, making my way to the second pile. The second pile was quite a bit bigger than the first so it took longer and I needed to do a lot more clipping. My hands and wrists are suffering now but, if the rain comes, at least the piles are dealt with.

And everyone is really hoping the rain arrives. We are still smothered in smoke and small particles of ash, and we really need the rain. I’ve been hearing sirens all day and every time one goes by I hope that it isn’t a wildfire. I worry a lot about the boulevard beside our house; we are on a direct line between the 7-Eleven and a couple of bars and one discarded cigarette could be disastrous.

Tuesday, August 21, 2018

Remember my plan to try and get three Farmer’s Daughter blocks done in a week? I don’t think that is realistic. At the bee today, by the time lunch rolled around, I only had part of one block done – maybe half. After lunch I didn’t even get that far on a second block.

I would normally do one block at a time but since I’m distracted and interrupted (for photos) at the bee I decided to do the easier sewing on each of the blocks. The plan worked well, but it is just slower than I thought it would be. I won’t give up though and I’ll work on those blocks during the week and over the weekend. I find this particular bit of hand sewing doesn’t work well in the evenings though. This will be my Tuesday project for … well probably forever!

I have a showing at the Hall later this afternoon so I’ll need to watch my time while I prepare the Guild’s blog.

Monday, August 20, 2018

If Sunday is my day to do cards then I guess I was working on left-overs today. I did a bit of desk work this morning (I might have made a few purchases) and then I finished up the card I started yesterday. I went out to the post office after lunch; I knew the envelopes I was mailing had the correct postage but I used up the last of my stamps so I wanted to get more so I could make use of the mail dropbox just up the street.

Pat was teaching today and on one of his breaks I mentioned I was going out if he needed anything. He added a few things to the list that he needed for cooking dinner, as well as a few things we needed for the fridge and the cupboards. I found a recipe that I wanted to try so I added a few ingredients to the list. But then we realized that if we shopped on Friday, Saturday or Sunday we could get back a $20 gift card on a $100 purchase. We seemed to have enough on the list that would qualify us for the card so we went back to what we absolutely needed and we’ll shop again on Friday.

I didn’t have much “getting ready” to do for the bee tomorrow. I’ll be working on my Farmer’s Daughter blocks. If I can get three blocks done in a week I can have the large blocks done by the time I go sewing with Stacia and Deloise. That’s a big if and there would still be some smaller blocks, setting triangles and corners to do before it can be put together. If the large blocks at least are done though I can get help arranging them, although they are so gaudy  bright I don’t think it will matter what order they are placed in.

I finished off another card top this afternoon and I’ll do a bit of tidying up before dinner.

Sunday, August 19, 2018

The smoke rolled in again last night and even with the doors and windows shut it smells like smoke in the house. I had a very slow start to the day because I couldn’t get my nose to stop running; I don’t know if the smoke was making my allergies worse or if it is the start of a cold. I’m hoping it was just allergies.

I’ve decided that Sundays will be my Splendid Sampler day and, if there is time, I’ll work on my cards. It has proven to be useful to have a Tuesday and a Thursday project so by having a day devoted to weekly blocks and cards I may be able to keep up. I was only one block behind in the Splendid Sampler 2 series so I planned to get a lot done today – maybe a block from Splendid Sampler (the original) and a couple of cards.

It took longer than I thought it would to do my one Splendid Sampler block; I couldn’t understand how the pattern was going to work out until the final piece was put in place. I was piecing together squares and rectangles, but they were somehow to end up as circles. There was hand stitching involved as well so that takes a bit of extra time. Mission accomplished though.

I had a book in at the Library so I walked up to pick it up. I was hoping to stop and have a London Fog tea when I was there but the little concession was closed. So while I cooled down from the first half of my walk I picked up a second book. When I got home I decided I should finish the book I was currently reading since I had two more in the line-up. It didn’t take long as my Kindle announced it would only be about half an hour of reading – just enough time to cool down from my walk home.

I’m back upstairs now and I’ll work on an original Splendid Sampler block and see if I can get a card started as well. If I’m successful it will mean I’ve done no tidying up!