Wednesday 6th March 2024

 I'm still putting painted pebbles out on my front wall . (Memo to self; put out 2 tomorrow  to catch up)

Today, as Himself delivered a letter to a friend in the next round he discovered pebbles dotted around the front walls of local houses...

I'm rather sad that the paint has run in all the rain. I thought the paint pens I used were waterproof. I'll have to buy some varnish, or maybe a coat or two of clear wax shoe polish might do the job? I'll give it a try tomorrow. 

But this pebble is protected from the rain. I'd never spotted the little hole in this tree, at a convenient height for a small child.

 

Tuesday 5th March

Great celebrations today... I've been struggling to get a prescription filled for a couple of weeks now. The ins and outs and whys and wherefores are too tedious to recount now, but we were eventually told it would be ready on Thursday, Friday, Monday, Tuesday (today). I had been making contingency plans s8nce Thursday as I had 14 days left, and, being my immunosuppressants, it is not one of things you can just stop taking. 

Himself returned in triumph from the pharmacy, brandishing three packets of........

iron supplements. 

Oh.

So he turned round, walked straight back to the pharmacy and watched them searching through the shelves... and yes! All is well!

I now have another 25 days supply (is that all? with the old system I used to get 3 months supply). I'll put the repeat request in next week!

Sewing continues. I've started experimenting (on paper) for the final cross stitch collaboration. Although it won't be completed until we've stitched all the borders.

The book cover looks like this now;

There are two round of patches on three of the sides, sewn down by rows of regrettably uneven running stitch. I've used the foundation fabric for one of the patches, top right, and there areca couple of daily decent rows across it. All the inside edges are flapping loose waiting for the next round of stitching. I will definitely have a few edges to 'sort' later where I have miscalculated the seams.

Monday 4th March

This morning I discovered that some of my daffodils were actually wallflowers - exactly the same colour, but of course very different once you take a proper look. I went out in my socks, treading on the driest bits of the drive to inspect them at closer quarters. 

This morning was spent in transcribing a Very Very simple piano version of 'Dear Lord and Father of Mankind' from a youtube 'easypiano' tutorial for a friend. 

There are three hymns that used to fill me with dread when they appeared on the list, back in the day when I regularly played the organ at church;

Jerusalem- which luckily only ever happened at weddings which were a terrifying time anyway,

O Jesus I have Promised - there are three fairly common tunes, all of them full of traps and difficulties as far as I am concerned. I threw the congregation into confusion one time by discovering a suggested alternative, well known but never sung to these words. I could sense the congregation feeling their way through the unfamiliar combination of words and music, and becoming more relaxed by the third verse!

Dear Lord and Father - it's a lovely hymn, one of my favourites, but for some reason I've always found it tricky to play well. 

It would help a lot if I was a 'proper' organist who had learned to use the pedals...

I was awake for a while in the middle of the night last night, and while away some time thinking over youtube tutorials on Kantha quilts and Kawadis. I can't write Kawadi quilts; because both words mean quilt - a bit like the River Avon, which I think means River River.

I'm not following an authentic Kawadi process, as used by the Siddi women of that remote region in India, but something derived from what I've read and seen to construct the current book cover. 

All very mysterious... I've cut a number of roughly rectangular patches of different dimensions which are then sewn around the outer edges of the foundation fabric using a long running stitch. There are my patches, with the longest thread from 'the tangle' which I'm using to stitch with and the book cover, folded up with the right side inside. 

It makes for pleasant 'slow stitching'.

Sunday 3rd March

 What a beautiful day today was. Blue skies and bright sun all day.

We went for what was meant to be a promenade along the seafront with my father after lunch, but it turned into a little drive along the seafront instead. 

He'd suggested a particular spot for a walk, but when we got there we discovered there was no way of getting onto a proper path short of pushing the wheelchair across a longish distance of shingle - impossible!

So after sitting there for a short while in the sun we loaded everyone and everything back into the car for a drive instead.

I saw a bank of primroses, quite close to home! I shall try and get a photograph.

And here I go again, with another book cover. I'm using an old Christmas napkin (made very simply by just hemming round a fat quarter) as the base. I just cut off the bottom hem and the top, leaving a decent allowance for turning in. I've kept the side hems.

I'm very pleased to have found the fabric clips which I knew I'd put in a 'safe place' last year. So here is the cover clipped around the book

Then what. I wasn't sure how I wanted to go about decorating the cover. Last time I sewed the sleeves, and added all the pieces while the cover was on the book. This time I had several different ideas to think about. So I stopped to wait before carrying on.

'Waiting' has been a theme for Lent this year. The Archbishop's book choice is 'Tarry Awhile' by Selina Stone. It has come up several times in my daily Bible readings, and during daily.y life in Lent. I'm not good at waiting. 'Posess yourself in patience', someone - my Oma? or a teacher? used to tell me.

When we got back from the drive, I put together what isn't really going to be a spaghetti sauce, very nearly overflowing my crockpot (I'll go and check on it again soon). Not enough tomato and the tomato puree was wildly out of date . I'm sure it will take fine anyway!

And then I took another step along the book cover journey. I have outlined the edge of the front, back and spine with tacking stitches, so I can work on the cover separately. 

But what am I going to do next? You will have to wait with me while I continue to ponder.

This is a season for waiting.

Saturday 2nd March

At last! I've been waiting for weeks to read 'What to look for in Spring'. 

No sign of violets or coltsfoot yet, or celandines. But I know what to look out for.

Maybe, if we start getting some more sunny hours during the day they will appear soon. I'm rationing myself to a few pages at a time.

I spent an hour or so stitching as fast as I could to finish the December January February cross-stitch. At one point I had two needles in action and a further three threaded up and  ready stuck into my sewing pouch;

I got it into the post before the final collection for Saturday, with first class postage. 

I finished reading Wild Strawberries by Angel Thirkell this afternoon. It was delightfully light and frothy right to the very last page. What next? I have an Elly Griffiths and a Donna Leon lined up, both new to me, and I was also thinking of re-reading 'In this House of Brede' or the Elizabeth Goudge 'Herb of Grace' series. Choices, choices...

The poncho progresses. I've done nine inches this week so far, with another 20 to go. Knit knit knit knit.....

Friday 1st March

The Wind was roaring and the rain hammering against the windows when I woke shortly after 6am. 

By the time Best Beloved set off to walk into town to complete a few errands, the wind had died down and the rain stopped. The sun came out as he walked home an hour later. The 1st March is the first day of meteorological spring, so perhaps showcasing British Weather is a fitting tribute to the day.

The first Friday of March is also World Day of Prayer, when churches all around the wworld present an ecumenical church service put together by the women of a different country each year.  This year's service came from Gaza, and was prepared four years ago. Well, you have to admire the timeliness.

I haven't been able to attend any church service anywhere since March 2020, but today one of the local churches live-streamed it, and I was able to follow using a service booklet which friend had dropped round.

I

Ang's cross stitch collaboration arrived through the post today. As well as the cross stitch and accompanying book, there was also a cross stitch kit, and a bookmark from the service and a tiny weeny book of gardening quotations (not in the photograph)

What a box of delights! Her cross stitching for Dec/Jan/Feb is the Egyptian Hieroglyphs piece in the middle,  a reference to the holiday club she and Bob were running during golf term last week. Here's a bigger photograph;

I love the sandy effect from the variegated yellow threads, and the detail in the symbols.