Sometimes I surprise myself!

 

The white cotton fabric (I will buy it again) arrived on Tuesday afternoon.  I set to and made up 4 6" blocks.  I was careful to cut very accurately and sew accurately too, and so most of these are spot on pieceing-wise.  I'm quite pleased with myself. After my early walk yesterday it was just too darn hot to do anything, so in between liberating bats (I think 5 was the final count) and drinking water, I sat and sewed, and cut more white fabric, and sewed again and the final count yesterday was 21 blocks!  Blimey.  Plus the 4 I'd done on Tuesday.

It is to be a simple Irish Chain.  

I had a little wander across to Temu to look at their patchwork stuff and found that the fabric I had bought from Ebay had been sourced from Temu, then sold on.  I don't blame her.  We all have to live.  It was still cheap.  I may have ordered a couple of things . . . more pink fabrics.  A pretty print with butterflies on, and some binding for the quilt I set the centre back in last week.  £16.82.  It would have cost a LOT more from Doughty's, although obviously they are selling top quality fabrics. I know, Temu and their business ethics and what have you.  I think they have cleaned up their act a bit nowadays. I will make little "I" a quilt for Christmas, and finish the yellow and blue one I also got at the auction for Rosie.

I was out of the house before 7, and it was a lovely cool misty morning.  I blew it today as that was the time I woke up, having slept until 4 a.m. on the sofa, and then upstairs to a bedroom just about cool enough to sleep in.  I didn't get up until 8 today, which is unheard of!  5.30 has been the average recently.  It was already too hot for a walk.  There is a bit of a breeze out there today.  Would love a good drenching.  You know how you often wish for a day of summer in the middle of winter?  Well, now I could do with a wet and miserable winter day !

I had problems with bats all day.  In the end I think I liberated 5.  2 possibly might not make it as they were thirsty and had been in the water bowl.  One was in the bath, and I put that out early.  Another I had to be a bit ingenious with and persuade it off the curtain and onto a length of header tape, which I then hung out of the window . . .

Gosh, I need to get the window woodwork repainted and windows cleaned . . . but that is on the half landing at the top of steep stairs, so will get one of my offspring to help out with those jobs.

And this is Bat Junior.  Only an inch or so long. It had been there a couple of days, in the folds of the curtain.  There was a bat on the curtain again yesterday - not sure if mum or not.  Anyway, worried about it in this heat and no mum to feed it, so Tam got me the number of the Bat Conservation Trust and I phoned them yesterday evening.  They put me in touch with a localish bat lady, and following instructions (wear gloves, wear a mask as they can catch germs from us) I persuaded it into a little aerated box, with a lid with a little water in it and a aged linen teatowel to snuggle inside and set off for Merthyr Cynog.  The lady was lovely, said it was a Pipistrelle, only a week old, and quite lively (which was a relief).  She will keep me posted as to its progress.  She already had a 2 week old Daubenton bat and a couple of month old Pipistrelles, and obviously knew exactly what to do - dehydrate first and then start on feeds.  Hoping it will survive.  It was a lovely evening for a drive, but unfortunately I must have taken a wrong turn on the journey back and ended up driving for miles along lanes that led ???  Eventually I got spat out in the middle of Brecon.  At least I knew my way back from there!  I was a bit worried as I had forgotten to take my asthma inhalers before leaving home and of course, high pollen levels and open car windows not a good combination.  I was VERY glad to get back home.  It was way too hot to sleep upstairs, so I slept on the sofa until 4 a.m. when it was just about cool enough to be a bit nearer the bathroom.

I had a phone call from the vet yesterday, to say that LW's ashes were ready for collection.  I was in tears on the phone, so hope I can hold it together in the surgery this morning.  The bill will be in several hundreds of course.

Right, this won't do.  Hoping it will soon cool down.  

Oooh, P.S.  Rosie had her eye test with the specialist yesterday.  No inflammation.  Eyesight perfect.  Long may it last, but the arthritis problem means she needs tests every three months to check.