Amalgamation

 I've got the car back from the garage, and I can cope with Porlock Hill again now - but only if I am driving.  Couldn't blardy walk up there - I think it's a 1 in 4 hill.  (That's a 25% grade in American terms).   No worries anyway, as it's in the West Country and haven't been down that way for many a long year.   I have had problems with the handbrake on the car - it just wouldn't hold on a steep hill.  The car was overdue an oil change anyway, so got both things attended to at the same time.  I was surprised when I put the handbrake on and it only came up less than a cm!  Phew.  I had to drive into a very steep driveway on a narrow lane on the way back from Tam's recently and thought I'd end up going through their gate!

Without a car and knowing I was going to have to walk to the garage to collect it later, I sat down after breakfast and started stitching the two single quilts together.  I will need to put a nice binding on it too, later.  I am using a tiny 1" quilting needle and tiny stitches on the tiny 1 1/2" hexies.  I have sewn about 2 1/2 feet of it now.

I have been rewatching Outlander from the start to keep me amused.  I sped up through the bit where Jamie is flogged though.  Looking at her gorgeous wedding dress, I really don't know how it stayed up.  It must have been glued in place!! It's nice to get lost in history, and forget about the current world worries.  Though, to be said, it was so good to see Trump starting to get his comeuppance . . .

I have tried to keep the heating off most of the day.  I had it on for an hour and a half first thing, then half an hour at lunchtime.  Alfie was looking cold though so I made him up the small hotty botty which I put under the quilt on the sofa where he was.  He snuggled up onto that.  Pippi was snuggled beside me and if she'd had her way, would have been inside the quilts as usual.   It's 15.3 deg in the kitchen, not warm - not quite 60 deg. Fahrenheit, so I will put the heating back on shortly.

I filled up with diesel on Monday, but prices haven't gone up yet.  Perhaps the situation with  America v. Iran will now calm down a bit and prices may even drop.  We are ALL paying for that war.  If only this Government would stop trying to destroy farmers and destroy farmland, for we are getting into dangerous territory.

Right, back to Outlander and the quilts.  

Jigsaws and hexagons

 Well, I have had a couple of sales on Ebay, one on Marketplace.  Some bod queried about a chair and then asked was I going to be selling anything else, so I sent him photos of half a dozen items.  Total value of items over £1200.  He offered a thousand pounds less.  Do I LOOK gaga?!  I am meeting up in town later in the week with a lady who is interested in my spinning wheel, so hopefully that will be a sale and a nice chunk of money to my stash.

I had a looong day yesterday, an early start - out of the house by 7, and got back gone 7 in the evening.  I absolutely HATED the drive back over the mountains in the dark, as I don't know the road that well and it is so bendy and hilly, and headlights in your eyes.  I am sure the cars behind me when I got close to Llangurig were delighted when I pulled into a layby to let them pass me as I had been going steady.  Rosie was a joy, and in eating mode once again.  She was full of beans, and missed out a daytime nap but still wasn't ready for bed until 9 pm.  I nearly beat her to it, I was so tired.  Had to de-stress first though.

My friend Pam in Carms gave me a charming 300 piece jigsaw to do - quick to make up but not SO quick as it had small words on it so had to work on those.    It has fired me to want to do another and I got a couple down in the charity shops in town this morning.

I don't know why it turns them sideways when I have taken them right way up.  Gives you an idea anyway.  Bottom one is the done one.

I am planning to rest up later and start sewing together the two patchwork (hexagon) edges of two single quilts I bought at auction, which were rendered uninteresting because they were singles with a valence border of fabric - very antiquated!  They will go to the last Fair of the year as a very generous colourful king size quilt.  This is one of them, below.  Very vintage 60s/70s.

Anyway, still weary as a weary thing today, so am going to make myself a cuppa and go into the living room and festoon myself in hexagons!

Autumn colours on the Canal. Come for an even better walk!

 I asked friend Pam if she wanted to come along today, and she did, so we went to check out the Vintage/Antique/Collectibles Fair, and it was, shall we say, pretty much as I expected.  Not worth the effort for me.  I bought a couple of pieces of very old Cypriot copper, one is a beaten copper bowl, deep red with age. The other a little mug, with character.

Some lovely paintings in the window of the Ardent Gallery (building circa 1579 I believe).  The top one was my favourite.

This used to be my Bank, back in the day.  Never really noticed the Cupola on the top before.

After walking round the town, and a bite to eat and drink at Gregg's, we headed off towards the canal.  We had an absolutely lovely walk - it was really quite warm by the canal (town felt quite cold, as it always seems to feel colder than where you set out from) and we walked for an hour, taking in the colours, and the scenery, and saying hello to the many people, like us, out for a walk.  Fox (Pam's dog) thought it was wonderful too.

Mallards, in tens and nines.  It was roughly two drakes to every duck.

Those sherbert yellows were amazing.  There were a couple of these little pleasure hire boats out on the canal.

Reflections.

What I was trying to capture in these two reflections was the sort of visual refraction of the water, which had broken up into horizontal stripes across the canal.  It was fascinating to see, but I needed a camera better than the one on my phone. The 2nd photo shows it better.

We walked and walked and really didn't want to turn around and come back, but needs must.  It was such a magical walk, the sunshine and the colours, and the countryside - just absolutely lovely and we both really benefitted from being out.  We forgot all our troubles and the worlds' troubles and it just felt good to be alive.

Come for a walk . . .

 

As you can see, I got out for some fresh air today.  The courier for the parcel of carved wood panelling arrived just after 10.  I woke early and was out emptying the car, slowly, and now have everything put away bar the bookcase, which is just a bit too heavy for me to manage on my own.  Will get some help over the weekend.

I took myself to task, and began listing things on Ebay and Marketplace.  I have decided my spinning wheel has to go, and that is on Ebay now.  Hopefully it will sell, as it was completely overhauled and serviced back in June.  I've taken photos of a vintage Maasai beaded fly whisk, which is going on in the morning.  On Marketplace, I have put the "Grandfather" Windsor chair which has been here far too long.  I don't need it, and even at a giveaway price it hasn't sold at the Unit.  I've also listed the Indo-Persian tray (a really pretty one) I have had some years now (we moved with it).

I will do some book listings over the weekend too, and try to pass on Keith's scarcely-opened set of militaria books on German WWII daggers, and other collectable books he had.  I will sell what I can and then get my book-seller friend to come and offer on some of the others I no longer need.

It was a lovely day for a walk (the old railway line).  I was down to a 3/4 sleeve t-shirt after I'd gone half a mile.

Greatly enjoying the latest JD Kirk, Stateside.  It's making me laugh on just about every page, which is a positive.  Nicely distracted over on Instagram by a young couple who have gone to live on Bardsey Island (wardens I assume) - baptism of fire as storms Austen and Boelo arrived within hours of them landing and getting in the farmhouse.

This vibrant leaves are the Guelder Rose and its berries.  SO pretty.

I may give myself a run over to Brecon tomorrow, to check out the Vintage, Antiques and Collectables market and see if it's worth doing to try and get rid of oldest pre-Covid things.  I want to empty the Library as much as possible and get rid of two bookshelves too (one is HUGE, used to be a wardrobe).  I was chatting to a friend in Dorset who has a wonderful social life, always going on interesting coach trips.  None of those round here - I'd have to be in Cardiff or Swansea I think.

I used to know what this little purple flower was - one of the Geranium tribe I think.  I am being too lazy to get one of my botanical books . . .

Right, this won't do.  Time to do a bit more stitching.

Just as well . . .

 . . . that I decided to knock the Unit on the head.  Last month I sold just two things, so took home £40.50.  It cost me £30 in fuel to go and pack it all away in the car and bring it home.  Rent was £150 a month, so I will draw a line under that and move on.  I have decided to list furniture items on Marketplace and see if I can make a bit of much-needed room.  I have also decided to call out my book-dealer friend and see what he will give me for surplus books, some of them Keith's militaria ones, some collectible ones virtually brand new and scarcely touched as they were gifts in the last few years of his life.  I will give some a try on Ebay and Marketplace first.

I did a bit of shopping on the way there.  I stopped at Chris Thomas's and got two giant cucumbers £1.20 each, a big cauliflower £1.50 (big for me anyway, for the same price I could have had one twice the size) and 3 big easy peelers for £1.  The photos of good produce (OK some imported as not many Mango or Pineapple farms round here) are a positive in the current world where it looks like farms world-wide are going to be destroyed/covered over with solar or wind "farms" and data centres and meat is going to be grown in the lab . . .

Then on to Tesco for Trail Mix, peanuts, toothpaste and mixed wild and LG rice.

I am feeling very worried and depressed by - and trying not to read - posts about Data Centres and how they seem to be going up regardless of any environmental worries/considerations (to put it mildly).  All of a sudden the reason for the bun-fight over wrecking the countryside from Land's End to John O'Groats with gigantic windfarms and pylons is all making sense as clearly this will be to feed the maws of the Data Centres.  Us lesser mortals have no say in the matter as it is clearly a done deal long before we ever got a sniff about it, let alone having our noses rubbed in it.  I don't really want to live in a world like this, and nor does anyone else I should think.  But money - American money and power that is - speaks.  

I think I will go for a long walk tomorrow to try and clear my head of negativity.

Rainbows

 I am back to just having the cats for company now.  Rosie has been exhausted today and they left mid-afternoon as the Tesco delivery was going to be early. I should think she is glad to be back home again.  She fell asleep on Tam's lap earlier, as she was so tired.  Tamzin is exhausted. I feel pretty weary too, from the worry and having a house-full to cook for again, though Rosie wasn't really in much of an eating mood.

I managed to get a short walk in, but of course I'd hardly gone 100 yards before it began to rain.  Hence I was only out for half an hour or so.  It was good to get some fresh air though.

Sunshine, showers and rainbows throughout the walk.

You can just about make out the shape of the church beneath those power lines crossing the picture.

DId I mention I had sold some carved pieces of wood on Facebook Marketplace but they were being Couriered rather than picked up locally?  I had wrapped them up in a very unflattering shape box as it wasn't long enough for the 2 rectangular pieces to lay flat.  Then I found out that the Courier wanted two layers of cardboard around the contents.  I got another box from town, but it looked even worse after I had used half a roll of sticky brown tape to beat it into submission.  The more I thought about it on my walk, the more I could hear Keith telling me I had made a proper lash-up of THAT job, so when Tam & co went home, I took the scissors to the brown tape, moved a box full of Pam's cooking apples into a Bag for Life, and got the wooden pieces packaged, lieing FLAT, and taped with the other half of the sticky brown tape.  Goodness, I felt like I had done a couple of rounds with Cassius Clay. . .

I have had a phonecall from chap who has the shop my Unit is in.  When am I clearing it?  Thursday . . .  He has someone new going in on Monday.  Good luck to 'em.

I am going to spend tomorrow taking photos and listing furniture type things on Marketplace, and then some of my old stock to try and clear it.  I am very disenchanted with Fairs etc at present . . .

I have just started reading one of the most recent J D Kirk books, Stateside, which is keeping me amused.  I read his Duty of Care over the weekend.

Thank you for all your kind comments.  Off to stitch and watch tv now.

Another of those scary days - trying to keep busy

 You may remember it's a trip to the hospital at Cardiff today for poor little Rosie.  She has to be anaethstetised for her steroid injections in her knee again.  I'm trying not to think about it.  She wouldn't eat the toast or scrambled egg we set up for her breakfast, only yoghurt and a mini trifle . . .  I am very worried about Tam's health too, especially her breathing.  I will get her to use my peak flow reader tonight to see how bad it is.  She HAS to go back to the Dr.

So I am working on this cushion cover.  It is a bit of a challenge as it's 100% pure cotton and hard to get the needle through especially for the tiny stitches like the dark green leaves which are tiny chain stitch.  I haven't decided what colour to do the words yet.  I am oversewing the central parts of the primroses with a single strand chain stitch in a brighter yellow.  The one-twist French knots are fiddly and so many of them!

More watching Tales From the Green Valley this afternoon.  

It sounds like Storm Boelo had a real impact on Scotland as it passed through.  We were fortunate as that one was well above us, just a bit wet and windy here, and we were on the edge of Storm Austen, so got off lightly this time.

I am glad that folk seemed to enjoy the last few posts and I feel I know some of you a lot better.

So, away to sew and hopefully not dwell on my worries.

UPDATE: no delays and all done and she is back on the ward scoffing strawberries and magic stars and Pringles and looking like nothing has happened.  P.H.E.W.