Wednesday 31st July

Thankfully it was no where near as hot as yesterday.

Many people use the last day of the month to reflect back on how it went. Sort of like this;

I think the best thing to say is I have reached this stage of the Summer after surviving and equally mad and demanding May and June more less in one piece, after all the appointments - dentist, pulmonary rehab sessions, oxygen cylinder and prescription deliveries and collections, clinic appointments for me, eye and medical appointments for my father, the last few piano lessons of term - that seemed to fill every day in the diary and every crevice of my mind. 

Not to mention creating and activating powers of attorney for my father, and completing and submitting my tax return!

Still, I got here in a state of relative sanity - no, please don't ask 'relative to what?'

We've also been to visit Prairie Gardens five times, the local Nature Reserve once, and local National Trust Gardens twice.

We've been to cafes with nearby family and friends and traveled across three counties to spend the day with friends I haven't seen for years and years.  

In other words - it's a full life! How do people find time to go away on holiday?

August kicks off with medical appointments for my father, one already scheduled, another I'm working on, three for me, plus associated blood tests, and an arm chair to buy for my father. In between times we need to get the car serviced; a small detail, but needs to be worked in with everything else.

The admin, the emailing, the telephoning, the sifting through papers, the sitting listening to horrible hold music has been exhausting.

Did I blog about this? No. Why not? Well, because in spite of all this going on, there was something good in every day. A book, flowers, visits to gardens, meeting friends, or even, bliss of bliss, a day of nothing.

I suppose we all tend to present an upbeat face on life to the world. I am lucky in that I have BestBeloved and  close friends that I feel free to be completely open with, rather than only 'half-open'.

They keep me sane when I'm getting bogged down. One blogger recently described it as 'being in a slump'. That's a very good description. I applaud and appreciate her honesty, and am repaying it by this blog post.

Did I say BB and my friends keep me sane? Hmm. I'm not sure if I will get away with sticking googly eyes on all the oxygen cylinders - there may be repercussions....       

Tuesday 30th July

 It's half past eight and I've just come in from a little wander around the garden. It's that time, neither day, nor dusk, somewhere in between,

‘There is an hour just before dark, when the garden resents interference. Its work, no less than the gardener’s, is done. Do not meddle with the garden at that hour. It demands, as all living creatures demand, a time of silence...’

This is the opening line from "Gardener's Nightcap" by Muriel Stuart, a keen and knowledgeable gardener and poet, written in 1938.

A book which is a 'soothing tonic to be taken in small doses just before bed'. It's been reprinted by Persephone Books. I had a copy, but I think I eventually persuaded myself to part with it to a gardening friend.

The area under the apple tree where two friends and I had tea together this afternoon, seated in a sort of shady green bower and cooled by a very slight breeze

A lone agapanthus. I had three big pots of them; lost two in the winter and split the other which was completely pot bound. They prefer to be confined, but then always sulk for a year when they are re-potted. 

The Last Bean is still standing, with it's barrier of Sarah Raven slug deterrent pellets still seeing off all marauders.

 

None of the photographs are well lit - but that's how the garden is now; one can almost hear it sigh with relief now the sun has gone completely below the trees and woodland behind the garden and the air is cooler and the colours are becoming more muted in the fading light.

Monday 29th July

It was potato day today!

I was just pottering round the garden first thing in the morning before tackling a slew of telephone calls and emails that were stacked up for today

Out of curiosity I pulled up a couple of sad remnants of potato plants from one of the three tubs that have been subject to near devastating mollusc attacks all year.

There were potatoes! Even some bigger ones!

I put five to one side as they are very green. Tne rest weighed in at 1lb 2oz. There are a few stumpy stalks in that tub, and two more tubs to go.

I spent the entire morning sorting out this that and the other, and the afternoon chatting to a friend and discussing family affairs with my brother. A good day.

So now we come to supper time. Best Beloved is enjoying cheese sandwiches using the last of the salad in the fridge, and finishing off the bread.

I had potato salad with a boiled egg, using four the middle sized potatoes. Delicious!

 I put the quartered potatoes, egg, and cut French beans in a pan of water just as it came to the boil, and boiled gently for 8 minutes. Meanwhile I chopped a piece of a dill pickle, and a sun dried tomato, stirred in a tablespoon of yogurt, a squeeze of lemon and salt and pepper.

I cooled the egg and veg, a bit, peeled and chopped up the egg and stirred it all together. It's the kind of salad I like, but BB doesn't. So we both had our preferred meal.

Sunday 28th July

 Whatever the weather, this will always hold true!

In the description it says that this hymn is only remembered by older people... but is that really true?

Saturday 27th July

Another lovely, lovely day.

The weather ha been perfect. I expect we should have watered the garden, but that will have to be tomorrow morning's job.

We met up with the off spring at the Cowdray Farm Shop Cafe, our usual place. We ordered our usual choices; three waffles-with-bacon-and-maple-syrup for them, and avocado on toast with a sausage for me. Except I ordered two sausages, and we all had half each. It was good to see them, hear their stories, chat, catch up, enjoy their company for a couple of hours.

It is also a lovely drive through the countryside, seeing the verges full of flowers, the chestnut trees covered in prickly green 'hedgehogs'.

This evening I finished the construction phase of book cover I'm making for my notebook swap friend. I need to sew the seams along the top and bottom edge and add some quilting to finish it. I'm still using the charm squares I bought a while ago, and an old pillowcase which had worn so thin that it was more a lawn weight fabric than a polycotton!

This is the back

 

and this is the front. She doesn't read the blog (as far as I know) so I'll be able to send it as a surprise!

Friday 26th July

 A day with 

fine weather

only one thing in the diary, for the morning

which must mean..........

WE CAN GO OUT!!!

So we went to the Prairie Gardens again, this time with a very good friend who hasn't been there before.

These flowers were humming with bees, and covered with different butterflies. 

The brown shapes in the photograph below are life size (I imagine) of buffalos, or bisons, or something like that, made out of a cut out sheet of metal rusted to this shade of brown. They have been there since we first went, probably fifteen years ago.

 It's hard to make out the huge variety of foliage shapes in all the plants. The marquees are for the Indian Bazaar which will run all through August.

Of course we stopped for tea and cakes...

What a perfect afternoon! 

  

Thursday 25th July

After yesterday and the day before's apparently non-stopness (that might not have been a word before I just typed it but it look likes a good one to me) (is it 'typing' when I am jabbing at the letters on the tablet?)

anyway, after the past two days, the cancellation of the home visit by the optician this morning (Not Specsavers, there are other opticians doing home visits) and then the rain preventing my excursion to meet a friend for coffee this afternoon all came as a relief.

I'm currently enjoying reading old notebook swaps. I'm on the second volume, starting in January 2023. I covered this book in March this year, judging from when I took the picture because the actual book has rather unexciting black covers.

I'm interested to note how much I like the feel and texture of the fabrics. It adds to the pleasure I get from revisiting our 'conversations '. So I've decided to make a cover for one of my friends books which has just been completed. I'll surprise her with it when I send it back.

I popped out of the kitchen door for a breath of fresh air when the rain stopped, around 5pm.

'Help!' I cried. BB came out... I'm sure those Monster Molluscs changed direction to s-l-o-w-l-y pursue me across the damp path...

Slugging tongs and bucket were our weapons of choice, and I reckon three dozen humongous slugs have been chucked well into the waste ground beyond the back garden. I must check how great a distance their homing instincts will work.

Ang and I seem to be charging ahead with our Cover Story collaboration. I know she's working on her second piece. And so am I. 

Wednesday 24th July

Typing in a hurry because I've got a bookclub zoom starting in 10 minutes! The book was 'The Wren, The Wren, by Anne Enright. I read he blurb and a review and decided it was not for me; I shall find out tonight what I missed. It sounded deep and meaningful and a  REAL commentary on modern day life for three generations of women ill-treated by men... I'm more into cosy stories, happy endings and not too much tears and harrowings and fears on the way at the moment.

The vinegar cake is very good and well worth the very slight effort of making it. I need to tinker with the cooking times - it came out just on the verge of being slightly dry. Soaking the fruit first would help - half of mine came from an old packet and they were very shriveled.

Here's the recipe and my notes;

I will add mixed spice as well next time. If you substituted marg for butter it would become a vegan recipe.

.....

The next book club choice is The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece by Tom Hanks. Now this sounds more my cup of tea! 

 

Tuesday 23rd July

 It's been an exacting day.

Best Beloved has already got about 9,000 steps without trying. Walking into town first thing this morning to pick up my prescriptions (they weren't ready) and a box of detergent capsules for my father (he already had a boxful, we discovered layer) accounted for most of them.

A good deal of the rest of the morning was spent sorting out the logistics for the afternoon. My father had an eye screening appointment at the local hospital straight after his lunch. 

Wheelchair or rollator? We opted for the wheelchair as we weren't sure how much walking would be needed. Good call, as it turned out.

Which entrance to the hospital? I caused a lot of confusion for a while by looking up the site map for the wrong hospital... actually I needn't have put us through this brief maelstrom as my original understanding of the directions was correct. That's what I'd call an unexpected consequence of triple checking.

We discussed the actual process of unloading my father and me and wheelchair and my oxygen cylinder from the car, and waiting for BB to find a space and what we would do if he couldn't find one... 

In the event there were several spaces close by the enrance so BB was back from parking the car in no time and everything from thereon in went swimmingly. 

But it always seems that if one doesn't think things through, and leaves things to chance, then there's every chance that things will go wrong. Unless, of course, they don't. 

I spent some of the time in the waiting room working out the order in which the wires were fixed to the table

I came to 5he conclusion the order was yellow and green, then the blue ones, followed by the purple ones and finally the red. The arrangement is a lot simpler than it looks. One has to do something other than just scroll on the phone for all that time, and I'd read all the posters and looked at all the pictures. 

The waiting area felt curiously weird; half a dozen people sat around the edges waiting for their turns for any of (or maybe several of?) baby immunisations, diabetic eye screenings, an endoscopy, and maybe even to see the dietician. There was no receptionist, so each new arrival came in, wandered around, wondered what to do, and was helped by a fellow patient.  Every so often a memer of staff would appear and call a name, or ask if 'baby so and so' had arrived, or ask 'anyone for an endoscopy'? 

The system seemed to work but it didn't feel comfortable somehow without a friendly face behind the counter.

After we got home I made a Norfolk vinegar cake!

I followed the instructions (for once) apart from halving the ingredients and using a smaller square tin. And reducing the baking time. But apart from that....!

It's still too hot to eat. So that gives me a blog post for tomorrow then!

Monday 22nd July

If you keep a note book - jottings, remarks, quotations, recipes, notes, sketches - and if so, do you ever re-read them? I'm having a great time re-reading the first of my notebook swap series with an old friend. It starts in June 2022, a time of sun and cloudless skies and heat and days spent in the shadiest spots in the garden...

I read that my friend had been enjoying her roses, but there was the never-ending dead-heading...

When I glanced out of the window this morning I noticed that the old rose in our front harden needed dead-heading. It was drizzling, but only slightly so I got on with the job. (I'm finding that the only way to get all the little jobs completed is to tackle them while I still remember. There's a 'house cleaning hack' labelled 'do, then clean', ie as soon as you brush your teeth, clean the basin, etc. This could be 'if you see a job, do it' or similar)

While searching for a suitable tub for the clippings from the water-filled heap behind the veg patch I disturbed Snail-opolis; a whole city of snails! I've moved them all to the garden waste bin to await collection. That rather explains the beans, peas, Florence fennel, potatoes etc.

The Last Bean Standing is still there! A couple of days ago I surrounded it with a little heap of Sarah Raven's slug deterrent. Yesterday I found several slug or snail trails making it clear that there had been a number of attempts on The Bean, but they had all abandoned their attack after traversing just an inch across the pellets. This gives me renewed hope for future seedlings.

Dead-heading was not forgotten after all this distraction. 

Where there's a will, there's a way;

Transporting items up and down the stair lift has proved problematical. There is a safety feature (grr) which means it won't go unless I am strapped in with the seat belt. Managing this while holding the inogen portable oxygen concentrator AND the books or clothes I want to carry was just tooooo much. Solution; a canvas shopping bag which will hold its shape, with sturdy easy-to-grab handles. I'll pick it up with one hand as I go past, and at the top I can set it down while I release myself from the safety (grrr) belt.

Sunday 21st July - My Oxygenated Life

Random observations

Please don't misinterpret this post; it is not a plea for sympathy for loss, but a celebration of life regained.

How a fridge works (I think)

I know now personally, in a way I would never have known before, how refrigerators work. So, if I have got this right, if you have a gas which is compressed under pressure, and then you release that compression, the gas gets cold. 

Which explains why when we are out and about and I am using oxygen at 6 litres per minute my nose becomes extremely cold as the gas is released from the cylinder and into my nose. 

'Free, free at last!' the little molecules cry in delight. 

'Why is my nose getting so bloomin' cold?' I grumble. I shall have to remember to wear a scarf in colder weather.

Fortunately this effect much much less at lower flow rates.

Freedom

There is a new version of freedom in being tethered to an oxygen source. 

Today I enjoyed a shower, without feeling dizzy, breathless and unsafe.

I also cleaned the shower screen (I probably should have increased the flow rate for that, but soon recovered!) and the basin and taps, and brushed my teeth, all without having to be careful of my balance because my oxygen levels were supported. When they fall below 80% I become decidedly wobbly, and start feeling unwell and unsafe. 

AND I polished the surface of a desk in the bedroom that I cleared yesterday, in order to have a comfortable place to write up my diary in the mornings.

Yesterday I coped with walking up a fairly steep slope at Devil's Dyke, admittedly 'in installments'. It wasn't a long slope, but I was aware that the sight of steps and gradients no longer fills me with the same dread and apprehension as it did in the past.   

Pace of Life

Going slowly, with many pauses, means that I have time to look properly. 

Yesterday I watched two young women walking along the path at the edge of Devil's Dyke, talking to each other, walking and talking easily without apparently pausing for breath. 

I wonder if they 'saw' anything? The countryside laid out like a model village, the cricket matches, the variety of different grasses and wildflowers, the little tortoiseshell patterned butterflies? 

They will have had a lovely afternoon together covering the miles; I had a great hour covering the couple of hundred yards or so that we walked.  

Hope

I was talking to a very much older lady at the first or second pulmonary rehab gym session I went to. She had recently been diagnosed with Pulmonary Fibrosis, and was very apprehensive about her future. She was going to be attending the same clinic that I have been going to for decades,

'I'm dreading being on oxygen,' she said, eyeing up my cylinder and cannula.

'All I can say is, I've been lucky, and haven't needed it for nearly twenty-five years, and I've discovered that by the time I needed oxygen, it made things so much easier I'm grateful for it'. Well, I wasn't being exactly truthful about the second part of the statement at the time, but it has become true.

And anyway, she seemed much cheered. 'I'm 83,' she said slowly, beginning to smile... so I guess she was thinking that if her PF progresses as slowly as mine did, she'll be ok until she's 100. I hope so too.  

 

   

Sunday 21st July

 Bear with me... I know what it is I mean to say, but not how to get there.

Let's start with a recipe for vinegar cake;

(I got to vinegar cake from remembering when I used to take the children to the Wildfowl Trust in Arundel at halfterm. On this occasion the half term was blighted by days and days of rain, so I packed up a picnic, snacks, pencil, paper and books for me, and 'set up camp' in a corner looking out at at the birds from the huge window in the main area. Meanwhile the two children, probably about 8 or 9 years old, were fully occupied by all the half term activities; a table for making rubbings of bird shapes, quizzes, 'guess what's in here' feely-boxes with nests, feathers etc, and, wonder of wonders, a giant volcano demonstration involving quantities of vinegar, washing up liquid, red paint and bicarbonate of soda. 

    But that's all by the by)

The recipe for vinegar cake comes from the Norfolk WI, via lavender and lovage. The link comes right at the end of the post, as she says that her first version was too crumbly.

I was going to make the cake today, half quantities as there are only two of us, but I will have to wait until we have some more milk.

Anyway, where was I - oh yes, trying to work out what it is I want to say which is not exactly cakes or vinegar or volcanoes.

I was - oh hang on a moment - the sun has come out so I've had to pause to take off one layer and open the patio door, and then I spotted that some of the erigeron daisies have gone to seed and I wanted to make sure I saved some seed for next year. It self-seeds freely in all the crack between the patio pavers and then has to be rootled out so I wanted to grow some in pots - right, I'm back now

I was thinking about the line in the hymn 'speak through the earthquake, wind and fire, oh still small voice of calm' - now you can see how vinegar cake and volcano experiments fit in?

And how when Elijah was so monumentally fed up with God and hid in a cave, the voice of God wasn't in the storm or the earthquake but in the silence afterwards, and how when Jesus calmed the storm he merely rebuked the waves - can you imagine him looking out at the tumult and merely saying 'now, that's enough, calm down'? Also, when he cast out demons and healed people he didn't seem to be shouting and gesticulating all the time.

Well, over the past few weeks as I've been becoming accustomed a new way of doing things and coming to terms with the implications, I've been doing a fair bit of volcanic eruption, violent storming, torrential outpouring. I'm at the still small place - at the moment. It probably won't last! 

Meet my new friend and companion... it really needs some doodle eyes on it... don't tempt me. I have a whole reel of them close at hand...

I expect God was just waiting for the noise to stop for long enough to get a word in. 

Philipians chapter 4

4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

I do feel sorry for my Best Beloved, living with someone whose mind and thought processes skitter around in the way I have just demonstrated in this blog post. Now, about those erigeron seeds... oh, is that the time already? I appear to have missed the church livestream. Again... 

Saturday 20th July

 Cooler morning,  rain, even! Summer is being measured out in days and half days this year. 

We both felt so lethargic after lunch that in the end we forced ourselves to go out, otherwise we would have sat around all afternoon.

Prairie Gardens, our current favourite, had a botanical art exhibition on. That sounded interesting,  but not so much when we discovered it was as extra £9 on top of our season ticket. So we carried on to Devil's Dyke, on the South Downs above Brighton.

It was still cool and cloudy so I didn't take photographs of the view, but what a jigsaw puzzle picture it would have made! Imagine a patchwork of fields, in every shade of green and gold, with hedgerows and woodland, surrounding a couple of compact little villages. We could see three cricket matches in progress; one village had two matches going at the same time.

All around us were family groups some with pic-nics, a father and very young daughter flying a kite, one family setting up camp with tent and camp chairs (presumably they would have to pack up at the end of the day?

I just scribbled some notes in the little book I take out with me

We spotted the pay and display machine on our way back to the car... oops... but I  don't think anyone was checking the cap park while we were there. NT and blue badge people can park for free anyway. 

I think it is wonderful that there is a regular and reasonably frequent bus service up to the top from Brighton; it's fairly hairy driving up along the steep, narrow, twisty lanes in a car; the bus drivers must have nerves of steel. 

Friday 19th July

'Be careful what you wish for' as they always say...

SUMMER HAS ARRIVED!!!!!

I don't know how long it will last...

I sat out in the garden with books, notebooks, pens for most of the morning, lunchtime and early afternoon. Although hot, I was shaded by the parasol and there was enough of a breeze to make a slight cooling effect.

There was so much to see! I have no idea which herbs are flowering but the bees and butterflies were working busily through the pink and white flowers. Ants were rushing around, covering the ground but seemingly going nowhere. A small shiny beetle ran a straight path across the paving bricks,only pausing when it encountered a line of moss between the bricks... where was it going?

Eventually I came in because the sun-baked bricks were beginning to radiate the heat.

An hour or so later I wouldn't have been able to stay any longer, as the shade had gone.

I shall go back out tomorrow if it is as hot as today.

The cat next door came to complain. Look at the thickness of his coat!, poor thing!

I've just finished my tea, apart from the strawberries and yogurt. 

Some feta, avocado, a gherkin, cucumber, lettuce leaves, nuts, and some salt'n'pepper snacks. Bits and pieces. That's all I want; turned out to be a pretty filling plateful. 

Thursday 18th July

the Last Bean was still standing this morning,  and as my Sarah Raven slug deterrent pellets arrived this morning I have laid a protective barrier around it. 

Let's see how that goes!

I finally managed to complete my tax return 5his morning.  I had already collected all the figures so it was merely (!!!) a 'simple' (!!!) matter of completing the online form. Actually it wasn't too bad, and as I am now doing so little teaching am in credit - not a lot, but anything is welcome. I shall apply for a repayment. 

It is such a wonderful feeling to be able to clear this task. 

After lunch I took a tray with peppermint tea, some books and some knitting to a shady spot just outside the back door 

where I could sit and enjoy the garden for an hour or so.

Wednesday 17th July

The last bean standing!

I have ordered slug repellent from Sarah Raven but it probably won't arrive in time to save this one. I considered relabelling the planters 'slug food'....

I'd never survive if we all had to be self-sufficient!

More from the big Surprise Canadian Parcel;

Apparently a local book store has a 'fill a box with books for $35' sale every so often; so in among the haul my friends got these for me.

200 little things to knit; lots of flowers, leaves, fish and sea creatures to knit

When Bad Things Happen to Good Knitters and how to fix them 

Knitting from the Center Out - this last book is fascinating, with patterns on how to knit a Teddy bear all in one piece, knitting a sock starting ag the centre of the heel and shaping the foot, leg, toe all in one go... truly mind boggling playing with complex shapes. The top down jumper, toe up sock and watch cap (beanies is another name for them) patterns are relatively simple, but the rest....

I'm not tackling them now as after a couple of disturbed nights I'm dopey enough that basic knit stitch in rows is challenge enough. 

But a time will come...

Tuesday 16th July

Cover Story for July

Well, howzat! Not even three weeks into July and Ang's parcel arrived. She has transferred the glazing design from a window in a museum in Paris onto a vintage Sanderson remnant, to reference looking through the window down to the gardens below.

My parcel should be due at Ang's house tomorrow. 

It looks exactly like the blackwood patterns we experimented with in previous projects.

I've also taken a remnant, Laura Asley this time, from decades ago, but stitched rows of outlining running stitches round the flower motifs. I then added a few French knots into the centres of the flowers for added texture. 

Ang stitched right to the edge of her patch. I kept the seam allowance free. Either way it won't make a difference as the next patch will overlap by the 0.5cm seam allowance. 

This is a really promising beginning! Much less time consuming this time round. 

We've both had a fairly hectic June and July so some calm slow stitching was just what we needed.

Oh, and my 'flat gift' was very flat indeed; a magnetic bookmark advocating tea, biscuits and a good book. I agree entirely!

Monday 15th July

 At last! I've been waiting for the promised rain all day, and it has arrived. I expect a lot of people are glad the weather stayed dry, sunny, even, all afternoon but I was beginning to wonder about watering.

Meanwhile, I've being Doing Lots of Stuff. A slew of emails and letters which were overdue, a project completed, a catch-up zoom with friends, and organising rescheduling the last couple of piano lessons. 

Oh, the joy of clearing the to-do list!

This to-do is another of the lovely surprises from the Surprise Canadian Parcel. 

I've used the bookmark from World of Books to cover the actual details of names.

 One of the things I wanted to do after the social zoom was get hold of a book by Anne Lamott that was mentioned., 'Help, Thanks, Wow'. It is a book on prayer, and I remembered reading the first section somewhere. The whole book cost £££££££ on Amazon, but I've been able to order it for much, much less second hand from Wob. Result! 

The Project;

I'm still struggling to find The Perfect Diary. This year I'm using one I constructed from A4 watercolour paper, the 'One Book To Rule Them All'. It's a double spread for each week, with the diary part cut and stuck from a commercial A6 diary. 

It's nearly good, but the diary part irritates me because the days aren't clearly defined,  and I've discovered that decorative washi tape doesn't always stick too well. The main drawback is that it is SO heavy!

So I have sourced a different A5 notebook for next year, still with a double spread for each week, but plenty of pages left over for using as a Commonplace Book and for drawing. I've spent some time ruling up all the days. Yup. 365 days, 52 weeks, plus an extra week at each end of the year.

However, the paper isn't thick enough for the slushy watercolours I enjoy, so I have created a sketchbook with 56 pages, and learned how to sew a coptic lay-flat binding, which is much easier than it looks. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.

Now both books have been secured inside a green leather portfolio cover to become the 2025 version of 'The One Book To Rule Them All.' It will have space for piano teaching records, Commonplace entries, and anything else. 

The only problem is I'm going to have to persist with the giant heavy one for the rest of this year...

Sunday 14th July

Psalm 23; v1-3

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

He restored my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

These are my church homegroup's verses for this week. The idea is that we keep these words in mind, mornings, night times and through the day, 'read, mark, learn and inwardly digest' them.

My grandmother encouraged us children to learn the Psalm by heart, so that we could always be able to say it at need; at a hospital bedside, or in another situation when some 'comfortable words' were requested. 

Saturday 13th July

Cover Story Collaboration 

It could be that this year's Collaboration for Ang and me will prove to be the most manageable yet. I was sometimes late completing the first, embroidery project, nearly always late with the second, cross-stitch one, but here we are on 13th July and I have finished the first piece already. I just need to write it up and get it ready to post. Admittedly I chose something simple. One of the ideas we discussed was 'slow stitching' so that was what I did. No picture yet, until it has been delivered to Ang.

Mystery Object

This was one of the presents in box that arrived from our Canadian friends yesterday.  I would have been very puzzled if my friend hadn't included an explanation.

In the garden

Yesterday morning I spotted one bean, from the ones I sowed just over a week ago, had emerged. Lookee lookee! The same afternoon there were five more! Quick work, little beans.

I potted up the three tomato plants I was given - oh, it could even be a couple of months ago... they have been languishing in the cold frame ever since. I'm not too hopeful of getting any tomatoes from them!

Out and about 

Back to the Prairie Gardens. Our fourth visit, think, this season. Everything gas grown since kast week! I took this photograph at my eye-level

The patch of ornamental grass to the left of the picture above conceals a bench, almost completely hidden by the rest of the grass. You can make out the path leading to it, and if you zoomed in you might spot the metal framework of the bench.

I'm not sure I would choose to venture in and sit there... what if the vegetation wasn't vegetarian? 

Thursday and Friday 11th and 12th July

 No blog post yesterday; were out all day visiting friends in Oxfordshire. We'd been weather-watching all week, and on Wednesday decided we go for the Thursday as being likely to be fine.

Regular readers will know I avoid being indoors with friends, relatives, anyone, as per the strongly suggested advice from respiratory consultants, so good weather - actually just 'it's not raining' is good enough as far as I'm concerned. 

They had gone to great trouble, putting up a garden canopy, bringing out furniture from the house, making sure they had done everything anyone could have thought of to accommodate me. So very, very kind. We haven't seen each other for probably seven years, and it was lovely to catch up, and to feel as though it was only months rather than years since we last got together. 

We left around 3pm; 'too early!' it seemed, but just as well. The traffic coming home and what should have been two and a half hours took us nearly 4 hours. Don't ask. Roadworks, road closures, diversions...

I had a lovely surprise waiting for me; my notebook swap parcel had arrived (a friend and I swap notebooks every month with a mixture of diary, letter, recipes, book recommendations, thoughts musings).

Oh the anticipation! I knew it was on it's way, and now it had arrived... the intricacies of the sticky tape to be solved to get to the contents without destroying the packaging,  and then, what has she written this month? 

I've just about managed NOT to read it all in one go.

Today, Friday, a large parcel arrived out of the blue. Not an online order, so who is it from and what could it be?

More anticipation!  Can I cope with all this excitement (well of course!).

It was a parcel of bits that our Canadian friends had been collecting for when they next came over to stay, but they decided to just post it. It's an amazing mixed collection of fascinating, zany, intriguing, useful; a from-the-heart gift from them, and much appreciated by us.

Wednesday 10th July

 Cardoons! They have been flowering in my garden for a week or so now;

They are much bigger and better than last year. The tallest ones must be getting on for eight feet tall! In the jumble of plants further back are a dark purple clematis, verbena which is also heading for over six feet tall and a yellow jasmine.

My current Commonplace Book is nearly full, so I've found a book that I vegan doing art in back in 2021 and am making a quick, as yet unembellished cover for it. I just need to sew the top and bottom edges and it will be as done as it is going to be.

Meanwhile I've also been giving consideration to next year's One Book To Rule Them All. I've bought a notebook with very fine but high quality Japanese Tomoe River paper.  The paper is thin, but extraordinarily opaque, considering how light it is, and lovely to write on.

I was testing the back page with various inks and pens, and also watercolours, to see how well it would stand up.

I think it's going to be good enough for what I want. The writing hardly comes through, but it's clearly struggling with Very wet  colours!

I've started ruling up the diary section, getting ready for 2025. 

Tuesday 9th July

 A 'finishing things off' sort of day. With the weather so cold and wet there was really no incentive to go out. So I spent the morning sewing.

While mending a hole in one of my older Seasalt tops, I discovered two or three more. Another one that I bought at the same time has also gone into holes. 

I reckon that I bought them as useful music teaching tops over fifteen years ago, and have worn them pretty much non-stop ever since. So they owe me no favours; if they were a bit pricey when I bought them say £40 each at a guess, then if I  spread that cost over 15 years then they were definitely worth the outlay! So they are 'finished off', at least as clothes. It remains to be seen whether they are downgraded to pyjama tops or not.

I have completed my book cover;

Front

and back. 

I did the final bits while watching the Sinner - Medvedev tennis match. Sadly I missed the last 2 sets as I had to teach some piano lessons, and then when I got back to the tennis Paul was losing his natch to Alcaraz. Ah well.

I found time to stick the paper with the 'rules' for the new collaboration between Ang and me in the newly covered project book, and then tuck my paper templates inside the front cover. 

The collaboration is called 'Cover Story'. Ang and I will add a patch to the foundation fabric, and embellish it with 'slow stitching'. No buttons or beads, though, as they would make it harder to put the finished A5 notebook into a bookshelf,

I love the effects you get from adding carbon black ink to a plain wash of water.

I was thinking of adding watercolour tomorrow, but I'm actually going to knave the bottom picture well alone. I'm not so enamoured of the top picture so I won't mind if I spoil it.

Now, I need to finish off my step counts to reach my daily target, and there's even a possibility that I'll finish side 1 of poncho number 2 tonight. 

Monday 8th July

 Good evening!

I've discovered a new source of suitable easy listening for the wee small hours when I'm not asleep;

It's Private Passions, on BBCSounds, hosted by Michael Berkley. If choose the episodes carefully the voices are calm and soothing, and the music (mostly) the sort of thing I enjoy... each episode is 30 mins long and I'm usually asleep by half way through.

Just as well; I've had two or three restless nights in a row. But last night and the night before  I got back to sleep more quickly thanks to Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Phillipa Perry. And also Olivia Laing, all most interesting guests, but not too interesting! 

I didn't get round to doing anything on the blank page of my 'One Book To Rule Them All' diary, a great A4 tome I constructed last year from a watercolour sketchbook. I can't bear a blank page, so I did an idea I've been mulling over for a while but not had the energy to try.

It's just cobalt blue, prussian blue and violet watercolour on a very wet page, and then blank fountain pen ink.

The question is  'which is the right way up!'

I painted it this way up;

But this looks pretty good too...

No, I prefer it the first way.

Sunday 7th July

 Our homegroup's verse to ponder this week is

....'you are a forgiving God,

gracious and compassionate, 

slow to anger

and abounding in love...'

It's from Nehemiah chapter 9, the second part of verse 17

Now if we could all be like God...

I shall also be praying  that our MPs of all parties will be 

gracious and compassionate, 

abounding in love, 

wise and upright, 

avoiding petty political point scoring and tribalism...

Saturday 6th July

 It's nice enough outside now to go out somewhere... but it's already 5pm. Too late for open gardens, and just walking round the block doesn't appeal. So I'll write the blog post early instead.

But I have almost nothing to say...

I have a couple of books which I have started, but I'm not sure I'm going to finish them. So they are languishing half read on my kindle, and a vague feeling of guilt prevents me from reading anything at all while these books are unread. I should just rem9ve the downloads and find an easy-read favourite!

I've finished listening to 'The Man in the Queue' on audible. I was very restless last night so listened to it on and off into the wee small hours. A couple of times I forgot to set the sleep timer, so dozed off and found myself lost when I rejoined it some time later. Who was Danny Williams? And Sonny? I'll find out best time around.

I expect I'll sleep better tonight, but I'll still set up another book ready for listening to if I'm wakeful again.

Otherwise sewing and tennis and tennis and sewing was the order of the day.

Friday 5th July

 Lovely wet morning. We didn't water the garden as I had meant to, so I really was pleased to see proper rain when I woke up. I appreciate that not everyone would have been so happy about it!

This morning was tennis and sewing... I'm making steady progress on this month's patch (there's a clue!) for the Cover Story collaboration (there's another clue).

I finished the patching for the cover for my project book this evening. I've used six charm squares which I've then added embroidery to. The pale patch isn't finished, but I  won't do that until I see how it lies against the spine of the book.

I'm going to have to finish the left and right edges somehow. I'll probably sew a lining for the inside front and back covers which will deal with all the raw edges.

We went out to investigate a farm shop/cafe which I've had my eye on for a while. It began as a trailer in the farmyard selling cheese toasties and drinks to walkers and cyclists using the Downs Link path linking the North and South Downs. Now it is a proper cafe and shop, with plenty of outside seating on the raised deck.

I had an idea of doing a short exploration of the path. As it is on the course of a disused railway it should be pretty flat, always a plus in my view! But as you can see the weather wasn't promising so we spent rather too much money on locally made Sussex  Charmer cheese, Horsham Gingerbread and Montezuma chocolate, and came home through the lanes.

The flowers in the baskets were worth the trip on their own.