Monday 29th June - National Finishing Up Days

 I made that up.

I've got a number of nearly finished projects and I have decided that today and tomorrow are the days for sorting them out.

Starting with this;

The experimental patchwork cardigan. This is the back - I had less than 8 inches left of the last panel left to sew, and I finally, after much procrastinating completed it at morning coffee time. About half an hour was all it took, including sewing in all the ends, and probably about ten pound's weight off my mind. I've already made a start on the front 

I've a few rows to add the the current double knitting square, and about an hour's stitching to add to a patch that has been stalled for about a month while the Double Knitting Collaboration with Ang absorbed my interest. 

Yesterday I sorted some books to sell back to wob or donate to charity if wob won't take them.  This morning I updated my piano teaching records and put away a couple of sets of knitting needles that were cluttering up my life.

Maybe 'Manic Monday' would have been a better title for today's post - I seem to begin every week full of enthusiasm and then crash out the next day... I'll write that idea down for next Monday's post!

I'm learning to accept that I'm a great starter of things, but not so good at finishing them off!

    

  'Snurretoppen' means 'Spinning Top'.

Meanwhile, my step target took a bit of a dive last week, unsurprisingly, although as the cooler weather returned I did manage a marathon effort on Sunday so I reckon I might well meet my target of 100,000 in June. Which makes me very happy!

Dr Alan Howard, University of Iowa, playing 'Promenade' by Prokofiev, Op 65 no 2   

Sunday 28th June - Beati quorum via

 meaning 'Blessed are those who walk in the law of the Lord', here set by C V Stanford and sung by Voces8.

Which ties in with the reading for today Matthew chapter 10 from verse 40;

“Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. 

Whoever welcomes a prophet as a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person as a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward.

And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.”

There's a certain amount of synchronicity going on with Ang's blog here; I wonder if she had the same reading in her church? 

Saturday 27th June - rest and relaxation

 After yesterday's ridiculously early start and busy morning we were both ready for Very Early Night last night. Indeed we slept through the thunder and lightning and heavy rain - a friend told me this morning that it had kept her awake! If she hadn't mentioned it I wouldn't have known, as there was no sign of it when we got up at 6.

I met up in the park with a group of friends - teaching colleagues - that I haven't seen for years. It was lovely to hear th

eir news and what they were doing now, ranging from 'retired and loving it', to 'working part-time in a gift shop an loving it'; a few were working in teaching related areas, but no one was still class teaching. The modern classroom is a whole new world these days. 

Lunch; I'd poached some salmon fillets yesterday morning. Those, arranged on the plates with a decorative line of mayonnaise, accompanied by a near instant salad of a packet of Tilda's precooked rice with sweetcorn and peas and french dressing stirred in, couldn't have been easier. No-cook either, unless you count tipping frozen veg into a bowl and zapping them for a few minutes as cooking.

After lunch we sat in the last patch of shade near the house, a little table which should hopefully become the kitchen sink, and currently has my herb pots.  

This is looking across to what will become the living area...

Yesterday's meeting with the builder and architect was very useful and reassuring; the traffic lights are amber (wait), moving to green (GO!) over the next week... all being well, with a fair wind...    

Friday 26th June - prepping...

 Not the 'armageddon survivalist kind of prepping... just 'heatwave survival' prepping.

After another hot and sticky and restless night, and a other very early 'rise and shine' (hello sun, good morning, do you know what time it is?) I got up and plunged straight into a luke warm shower before I could think too much about the day ahead. Oh yes! That made all the difference! 

By 7am we had finished breakfast - BB is still eating porridge in the mornings but I've switched cold cereal  - and we're relaxing with the First of our three coffees of the day.

By 7.30 I was in full prep mode;

Crustless quiche going in to the air fryer:

And 25 minutes later;

Broccoli prepped and in a microwave pan ready to zap in the microwave, and two fillets of salmon poached for 8 minutes in water with peppercorns, rosemary, bay leaves and a sliver of lemon.

We'll have crustless quiche, broccoli and air fryer frites for lunch today.

 The salmon is for tomorrow with my go-to dressing of equal quantities mayonnaise and Greek yoghurt, some French dressing to taste, and lemon or mint or finely chopped pickled gherkin or something.

I have a pint bottle full of water with a green tea teabag infusing in the fridge... I just keep topping up the bottle more water until the teabag stops working.

We've been eating lunch outside at this little round table;

BB  cleared the erigeron daisies from underneath, while I was meal prepping. They were so pretty, like the ones under the bigger table nearby. But they were full of little black insects, or maybe ants, that kept biting my ankles! Once we finished our coffee he'll remove the others ones... more bitey insects and, regretfully, they are a bit of a trip hazard. It's only 9.30 am, and still relatively cool here.

The sun slowly creeps up the grass towards the house until the only bit of shade at lunchtime is here, and that's gone by 1pm. After then, all the garden is in full sun except under the apple tree at the bottom. 

An early lunch has to be the order of the day!

The afternoons have been hard going... so hot... today we have a site meeting with the architect and the builder, to dot some 'i's' and cross some 't's', with a view to agreeing a start date of 6th July. I reckon that where I'm sitting now should be about where the little table in our new extension will be. Now there's a vision to cling to.

The recipe originally came from the good food website. I like it because it doesn't use cream, which I almost never have in the house. Today's version has more cheese, and no pancetta/bacon, and mixed peppers.

Tuesday 23rd June - it's too darn hot

 Normal blogging will resume tomorrow... maybe. 

Ang sent me a link to this today...

'Too darn hot' from Kiss Me Kate on Broadway. 

I hope they had air conditioning on stage!

Sunday 21st June - Out and about

 We met up with our son and daughter about 45 mins drive away. That meant going over the top of the South Downs, which meant seeing the beautiful view across the valley towards Amberley. Sadly I don't have any photographs...

But I do have a sketch of a very similar view, from Ditchingly Beacon as opposed to Bury Hill (Summer 2021)

Do you know this version of the popular hymn 'All things bright and beautiful' composed by John Rutter?