Wednesday 17th April

 I'm in between books at the moment, an unusual state for me. Kindle have rather got my measure and are always coming up with 99p offers. I managed to succumb to just one; 'Touch not the cat' by Mary Stewart. I must have read this a good number of times, but it will bear re-reading.

But, I did splurge on this last week which arrived today;

This is going to be very helpful for working out how to make a bog coat. I am imagining raised eyebrows... the original bog coat was found in a Danish bog and is one of the earliest pieces of clothing - that must be in Europe, because aren't the pyramid stuffed with textiles? - anyway it is reckoned to be about 2000 years old.

It's a very simple construction; basically sleeves, rectangles front and back, and a hole for the neck.

I was thinking it could be a zero-waste pattern, but I've had a better brain-wave; 5 fat quarters would probably be enough. 

These, maybe?

I reckon it could make a lovely light weight quilted jacket/top; I've a thin quilted mattress protector which has been retired from active duty, and also an old duvet cover which would make a lining. But Ang says I need to add gussets (help!) where the sleeves join the body! Here's where the book comes in. There's a whole chapter on them, and I pretty bearly understand the diagrams and instructions. Another couple of read through and I should be there.

Meanwhile, I've started the next charm square for the book cover. The plan is to chain stitch a spiral between the stamps to start with.

When I'm in need of a little tlc, being presented with a tea tray like this, is just the best thing.

Term has started, so I'm teaching again. Just five students left and three should be moving on at the end of the Summer. Ah... I'm no longer semi-retired, more like nearly completely retired!

Tuesday 16th April

 It's been a very showery day, with a cold breeze from the north. A lazy wind, as they say, that goes through rather than around you. I did get outside for a quarter of an hour after l7nch; even took my knitting and a canvas shopping bag to sit on as the garden seats were wet, but didn't stay out long.

 The radish pot in the veg patch looks as though it is covered with little green butterflies. It's the way the first leaves look, like butterfly wings trembling the fine stalks. You'll have to sow some for yourself to see what I mean. I sowed mine directly into the pot and put a cloche over it, which worked beautifully. 

I still haven't sown the sweet peas. I need a nice, dry, warm hour in the sun to get this done.

The first embellished square is finished. 

The square is a 5 inch charm square from a pack called 'fleamarket' by moda. I haven't done much; lazy daisy and French knots on the flowers, sort of satin stitch on the leaves and back stitch round what looks like a train, bus or perhaps a ferry ticket. Now to choose the n ext square...

I have been dipping in and out of 'Feel Better in 5' recently.  I bought this on kindle in the first year of lockdown as all our plans for the year slid away from our grasp, and I could feel myself slipping into a mood of angry despondency and rage and frustration. 

I don't slavishly follow his 'recipes' for mood-lifting 'snacks', but the ideas are good. No way am I going to ruin the treat of an avocado by mixing it into a smoothie with - let me see, what does it say - milk, kefir, almond or peanut butter, raspberries, cacao powder  (what's that?), cinnamon, turmeric, psyllium seeds (?) and ginger, although the last three are optional. Is that delicious? I'm not convinced. 

But other ideas are much more doable; spend 5 minutes outside, or at the least looking at outside every day, do some simple breathing exercises and so on. Just reading it and looking at the pictures ( I mean flowers and things, not the ones of him doing plank exercises, although maybe those are the ones others might prefer? Who am I to judge!)

So I adopted / adapted his methods, and I find it helps me find an upward path when I need one.

Anyway, I gave bought a copy from World of Books to give to a friend. She can always drop it in to the nearest charity shop if it doesn't suit her.

Reading;

Plot 29 by Allan Jenkins, gardening correspondent at the Guardian newspaper. Hmm. Not exactly a gardening book, but an infinitely sad account of his childhood; dropped off at Dr Banardos, fostered, and then trying to solve the riddle of what happened in his early life, and his parents, siblings, and family. With gardening as well.

The Shell House Murders, a series of three (so far) detective mysteries set in Cornwall, by Emylia Hall. I've read books 1 and 3 and enjoyed them,  and am about to start book 2. It would have been better if I had read them in the right order... clearly something happened in book 2 which I can only guess at...

Wedding Tiers - Trisha Ashley - fast paced frothy rom com. I enjoy them; it's like over indulging on fruit pavlova without the calories. 

Sealed with a Kiss / Sealed with a Christmas Kiss by Rachel Lucas. More rom coms - I had no idea that young women responded to an emotional crisis by spending an evening with a friend sharing 2 bottles of wine, three packets of haribo sweets and another couple of large packets of crisps and doritos, and then unsurprisingly had huge hangovers the next day... educational reading indeed. 

The Shell House, Wedding Tiers and Kiss books were all 99p downloads on kindle. That's my limit for rom-coms and cosy mysteries,  although the Shell House books were worth more.

Monday 15th April - My Oxygenated Life

One tries to stay cheerful - but there are times - yesterday morning threatened to be one of those times but luckily I got out into the garden in time and had a chat with the broad beans and the Egyptian Walking Onion. Replanting the poppies which were growing in a vegetable planter, to be transplanted into a bare patch of the flower border opposite helped as well. 

I was impatient for the next steps which will make life easier. 

Today some those steps have been taken. An extra long lead for the upstairs oxygen concentrator was delivered this morning. We have attached it and tested the length and there is plenty for me to be able to get into every room, including the all-essential bathroom and loo. 

I've also used a new arrangement to help with getting dressed; a medium height footstool strategically placed near the bed is a great help. I sit on the stool so that I can easily reach my feet for getting the lower half of me dressed without so much bending over.

We also, daringly (!) tried adjusting the flow rate of the concentrator. Up until now I was only using it overnight, as prescribed by the consultant. I think that's probably still ok for night time, but when I'm up and moving around or getting dressed or hanging things up in my wardrobe, it is not enough. The dial is very easy to twiddle, and simple to set at 2 or 3 for when I am active. As long as we remember to turn it down at night... I forsee a Big Red Notice going up where we can see it from the bed!  

The stairlift man came round this morning. It will be installed on Thursday or Friday. Wonderful.

I'll tell you the story of that wallpaper (I've probably blogged it before...) About thirty or more years ago, when we had been living here for several years, the furniture was arranged differently and the wardrobe was in that niche, facing out. The bedroom was decorated with two walls in that depressing greyish greenish yellowish wallpaper on two walls, and depressing stripes in the same colourway on the other two walls. BB was away on a course for several weeks, and I finally cracked. I went and about several tines of 'applewhite' paint and a couple of brushes, set about painting everywhere I could reach. Son, aged about two years or so, was very happy indeed to be kept quiet by being allowed to use my cassette player. He was always very precocious with 'mechanicals' and the cassette player sort of survived the experience. As in it still played cassettes pretty well without the door mechanism.

Of course, all was revealed several years later when we rearranged the furniture... 

the trouble with us and home decor as we seem to be pretty good at 'out of sight, out of mind'. So I see the paper (and it makes me giggle a bit) several times a day, and then all the time I can't see it, I sort of forget about it.