Monday 23rd February - this and that

 52 ways to calm your mind; this week it is 'prepare ahead' - specifically 

lay out your clothes the night before - that's easy, it's pretty much the same as yesterday but clean vest and underwear, and clean top and trousers if that seems good. I chuck dirty clothes into the laundry basket at night, and drape the rest of the clothes over the bedpost - an improvement from dropping on the floor!

prep your lunch the night before - that's more for the packed lunch brigade than me, although it's helpful if I've got something out of the freezer the night before. Talking of which.... excuse me for a moment... I'll just get out the pork mince for meatballs tomorrow

Well do I remember those school/work packed lunch days of yore... four lunch boxes, each with ham or cheese salad sandwiches, carrot sticks, frozen frube (do they still make them?), piece of fruit, small piece of frozen cake wrapped in greaseproof paper, packet of crisps, water bottle and mini chocolate treat. That did for break time, lunch, coming home on the bus... plus, when BB was doing really heavy work in the warehouse between jobs, he needed several slabs of bread pudding to get the calories in. He lost so much weight in the first couple of weeks it was alarming! We were all out for quite a time, with travelling, after school clubs, commuting, overtime and so on.

I went back through my photo file to find a spring picture for the blog header; the autumn leaves have been up for far too long! Our local National Trust garden usually has a display of which flowers are out in the gardens. This is what was around in the middle of March 2020, days before the official lockdown for Covid;

    

 

I selected part of the picture with the pink camellia. Spring. Must be coming closer, surely?

The stitchbook saga continues; I had a reply offering me £4 and saying I could keep the book. I've sent a polite but robust response insisting they sent me the full cost, and if they want the book, the return postage as well. So far, silence. so here's another extract to delight you;

Here's my mock up of what a 5 inch QAYG square might look like;

I haven't done any sample stitching in the centre... yet. Five inch square are definitely a better size. I haven't dared work out how many I will need! The real stitch sample squares (that's a mouthful) will have grey and white centres. If I stick with the original plan. Slippery things, plans.