Brief Interlude from dressmaking...

Tuesday of last week the sun was shining so, since I had to collect Sos from Drumcliffe after her morning Bible Camp, we headed home over Keelogyboy. Its only a few kilometres out of the way but really a summer drive as the bog road is remote enough and meandering. In the summer it is just glorious although my photos don't really do it justice. Herewith some of the photos:
Drumcliffe Church-
...where I stopped for a brief chat and prayer with my best friend. The memory of our escapades and the hopes and dreams we shared growing up is always heart-warming to me; I'm sure she is driving the Saints in Heaven mad with her outrageous notions!
Part of King's Mountain-
...the rowan trees are already loaded with berries, and I don't know what these purple weeds are, but since I love hedgerows, here they are!
...view down the valley to Lough Gill, the clouds were wonderful...
...ditto... And now, finally, here is my haul from the Festival of Quilts: I unpacked this morning as my hands were shaking too badly to sew, and my nerves are screaming at me. It serves me right because I forgot to take my medication last night, but it means a wasted day work-wise. I'm drinking jasmin tea and Earl Grey tea, both of which I find soothing when every nerve in my body is standing on end screaming and jangling at me!
As usual the photos are in reverse order.
Thirdly- have you heard of the Bonnet Project: Roses from the Heart?
http://www.femalefactory.com.au/ and http://www.christinahenri.com.au/ ? Although as far as I know we have no relatives who went to Australia I think that the premise of remembering the women who were sent out and who made the best of things over there is a heart-warming notion. Social history is one of my interests, and naturally, the hidden history of women in the grand sweep of events. I read about this project some time ago so was delighted to see the stand at the Festival, and bought me the pattern and fabric for a Bonnet. The lady said that they had 100 enquiries on the first day, although they weren't really expecting more than that the whole four days. I'm glad that this kind of interest is being generated, and as you'll see in the book selection below, I also got a book about the Oregon Trail quilts.

Secondly: my Fabric, gadget and gizmo haul, things I can't get here. There was a stand of Valdani threads, from Canada I think (all the threads below) which were just beautiful colours. (http://www.valdani.com/ ) I noticed that on the first day ladies were looking and asking questions but not buying so much as this is Valdani's first time over in UK, but the second day they were doing a roaring trade!
And firstly: my book haul!!
Glimpses of New Zealand by Gail Lawther, she was there signing beside all her quilts from the book, and was ever so nice. Her husband was on another stand and he seemed like a scream! I've worked from one of her stained glass books and like the way she writes.

Treasures in the Trunk:Quilts of the Oregon Trail by Mary Bywater Cross. I love stories of the Oregon Trail, started many years ago by my best friend being given a set of Laura Ingalls Wilder books for Christmas, how we loved and re-enacted those stories! They were such amazing people who did that journey. The quilts are interesting, the stories are bittersweet, I don't know whether to cry or give thanks, but I can't put the book down.

The Quilter's Directory of Embellishments, and Pretty Thrifty Patchwork, both by Sally Holman. Very practical books, and I'm especially looking forward trying my hand at embellishing quilts in the near future!

But my absolute 'Happy Dance' (as http://sweetp-paulette.blogspot.com/ would say!) are these three:

Simple Pleasures, Shellies Bag (pattern), and A Gardener's Journal by Anni Downs. I've wanted 'A Gardener's Journal' for bally-yonks and love her patterns, but you can't get them here. I texted the Hub to ask if I could have an advance on the next quarter's Organ money so that I could get them all! So you see why I haven't unpacked until now? I'm not sure I can keep my needle out of these books...

I feel calmer and better now, having looked at and gloated over all my things! Wicked! I really want to make an Africa Quilt soon. Its been on my mind for a long time. I did make one several years back which was the first I'd had exhibited, but it didn't really tell a story. Any ideas for patterns or just ideas would be gratefully received.

And finally, no, I haven't forgotten that I signed up to finishing up old projects this month...I did actually finish a second border on the jazzy Country Quilt. I was hoping to get that dratted zip finished today and get back to quilting but 'the best laid plans of mice and men gang aft agley'...and now I need to get to the bus station to collect a returning South African student- teacher from school, who had to arrive before her accomodation was ready due to the constraint of international flights. At least the gargoyles have cleaned and tidied upstairs so she won't disappear without trace in the night!!!

Booooring...

No photos as I have laboured over the sewing machine all day. This evening I finally got 'The Dress' sewn together at the waist. Now the skirt and bodice have officially met! I had it all pinned together on Sos after taking in the bodice (again) this afternoon and she is worried that the weight of the skirt will pull the dress down, so is considering spaghetti straps. Mum told her about an evening gown she had many years ago which used to swivel around alarmingly, and Sos is anxious this dress might do the same!!
Tomorrow I start on the zip- which is always a disaster, on Sos's Grad Dress it took me eight goes to get the zip satisfactory. When its sorted I'll take a photo for yous.

Mum delivered two of the four spare room curtains today- ALL MADE! I thought she was pinning them together, and as I couldn't afford to buy lining this month, was going to hang them and then tack on lining next month. She went and bought lining and they are all beautifully finished! I am just so thankful and grateful! What sort of present do you give a mother who does that?

Busy, busy!

You can tell how much Sos wants her Deb's dress done in time since she has been working hard at making the place ready for a string of expected visitors. Yesterday she finished the first coat of varnish on the staircase, which has been waiting for several years!
Then she varnished the guest bedside table, and three quarter shelves for the sittingroom, which you can just about see behind the table.
She has also been dealing with a lot of laundry (goodness knows where it all comes from) and somehow managed to get her head stuck under the sideboard when reaching for a new bottle of fabric-softener! Mum was sitting at the kitchen table pinning the guest curtain hems, heard a squawk and a giggle and looked round to see Sos wriggling out backwards, very red in the face.


The garden has gone to pot since the Hub has been finishing the shed, then painting the guest room. I haven't been out to weed this week as I've started doing battle with the Deb's dress, which is proving a slow, tedious job. There are a few poppies and cornflowers in between the weeds... This is how bad it has become, but as soon as the dress is done I'll be out there.
The onions look about ready to keel over and then they can be harvested I think.
This is the lining partly pinned together. I have sewed on the under flounce now, and also the bones into the bodice. I started the dress bodice with the overlays of net and satin, but it was 8 o'clock and I was getting tired. I worked on it for six hours today, but there seems to be some sort of dressing in the net which is making my skin go numb, hands and face. Have you ever heard of that? Weird. Sos and B are shouting at the TV at present, I guess they don't like the way the programme has been done! Either that or they are having a cushion fight. They have been doing chores and tidying and cleaning upstairs all afternoon, so they've earned their 'down time'!

Sorry for the boring post, chores and dressmaking just are boring!

Home again!

Well where do I start? Ah yes, Birmingham, England!
The Festival of Quilts was stunning! I spent two whole days at it but am not entirely sure I saw everything. I did take 236 photos over the four days away, which goes to show you how much there was to see. The second morning I did a Workshop with Pat Archibald, using bondaweb applique and foil to embellish, which was very helpful as well as interesting. She's a good teacher.
There were wearable quilts as well as every shape and size of usual flat quilts, this coat was particularly handsome. Between the airport hotels and the National Exhibition Center ran these little sky-trains. I think they look like lego cars! I wanted to just sit and ride back and forth on them!
A couple of quilts, but I don't want to bore you. There were so many ideas to pick up, colour arrangement, workmanship, finishing, embellishment, traditional patterns, translation of ideas in picture quilts, machine quilting, hand quilting...
Thursday evening my uncle and aunt came to see have dinner with Mum and I which was lovely. Then on Saturday we returned to Dublin where we met with Dad and bro. Our sister had arrived safely from South America, complete with luggage, which was rather incredible as she has a bad habit of losing luggage! So we ate together on Saturday evening and talked for Ireland!

Sunday morning we met up, left all the luggage at a place near the train station, and headed out to Howth for the day, along with Dilly; six of us, three generations. On the way we bumped into another brother of Mum's and his wife, so ended up having coffee together before walking round the harbour. There were a lot of trawlers in, also some seals posing for photos! I though they had a look of our Ben-dog at dinner time actually!

Then home on the five o'clock train yesterday evening. The train got in at 8 o'c and the Hub met us and delivered the folks home to their place. I was in bed by ten to nine! Absolutely shattered!

It was a wonderful weekend though. You know when your head is so full of possibilities and ideas that you feel just about everything is possible? That's how I feel now! Actually the Hub had to wake me twice last night because I was telling him all about quilts in my sleep!!!

This morning I did some cleaning, and then started in on cutting out Sos's Deb's dress. I had to call Mum for help, and then realised I'd forgotten to buy lining fabric so she drove me out to Cliffoney for some. The dress is half cut out, but I've the tulle to cut tomorrow. I was too tired to carry on.

Goodie Goodie Gumdrops!

Wheeeeee!

Up! Up! And Awa' ! Festival of Quilts here I come!

If you don't hear from me again its because I imploded with glee!

Wheeeee!

Look away!

This has been a horrible day, and this is a real moan. Look away now if you wish.

At what point does my being pleasant and helpful turn into permission to bully me? The lady who asked me to play for her daughter's wedding asked me to keep this morning available to meet her in Sligo town to discuss the music. This morning she rang to say she wanted me in Dromahair this afternoon- not even 'would it suit'? Dromahair being twice as far in the opposite direction. My girls had made arrangements to do things around me being busy in the morning in Sligo but needed to go places in the afternoon. I told her that wasn't possible which made her very unhappy. She said she'd be available on 3rd September and would see me then- I've got visitors and Sos's Debs (Prom) that day so its pretty important to us as a family. Well she's sure I'll make time.

Having discussed it with my co-organist I have written a very polite note to the lady telling her that this is not possible and suggested she ask the Dromahair Organist. Hopefully, end of story.

When I told Mum the saga answer was: 'Its time you learned to tell the difference between a 'woman' and a 'lady'! Ah!

Why do I get so upset when people are unpleasant to me? In the grand scheme of things it hardly even rates a blip.

The Hub, Sos and B have almost finished emptying the spare room. The girls and I went and bought paint in the course of the day, and after work, the Hub and I visited the carpet shop. We chose a new carpet for the sitting room (cement gets kinda cold in the winter...) and the man agreed to bring underlay and lay the second-hand carpet we have for the spare room. The dogs are terribly anxious because they think we are moving house, so at any given moment they are attached to the heel of one or other of us! Makes for dangerous turning around! Tonight the Hub intends to begin painting.

And now for the thing I'm looking forward to:- tomorrow Mum and I are flying to Birmingham, UK and on Thursday to the International Quilt Exhibition! I've never been, in fact I only once went to a small quilt show so I am SO looking forward to this! Dad's given me a spare memory card for his camera and boy! am I going to make the most of this opportunity! My Uncle and Aunt will join us for dinner one night too and they are lovely- I used to live with them when I was a teenager and they still like me, which proves how lovely they are! We return via Dublin on Saturday and I'm staying the night at Dilly's flat. Bro flies in and Big Sister arrives home from her three year South American posting! Its going to be great! And having her home for a few years is going to be even better!

So that is the plan for the next few days. I will tell you all about it when I get back!

Flower Power Shower!

The Hub was really impressed with me this evening when he went to have a shower after a very weary day and discovered this:
...how else am I to remove the dust off my precious plants?

It was a long day, you know how some are. I have a theory that time is like a concertina and it warps and shifts; just because every day has twenty-four hours doesn't mean that every day is the same length. But then I also think that the roads in Co. Claire move so you can take that as you like...
Anyhow this morning the Hub took Morning Prayer in the Nursing Home at 10 o'c, followed by another Church at 11 o'c. His homily concerned the teachings of Paul and how the Epistles have been passed down to us to help us live a Godly life. The part of the readings which seemed particularly relevant to me was 1 Kings Ch3 v 9, wherein Solomon askes the Lord for a discerning heart. I think it demonstrates how few truly wise and discerning leaders there have been through history in that Solomon remains a giant of excellent judgement. Perhaps if more of us ran decisions before God, or even 'gasp' listened to His wisdom there might be more to write home about.
The organ playing went ok, except in the second hymn when I accidentally knocked on a stop which produced unexpected extra volume, and nearly jumped out of my skin!

One thing was amusing though. After the Service when people were standing around talking a lady came up and asked did I know either of her sons? I recognised one name as being a school-friend of my brother's and said so. 'Ah,' sez she, 'They'd have been ahead of you then, you being so much younger.' Yah-hey! Score! I emailed my bro to tell him and he sent back a denunciation of the lady's eyesight, and a written snort! Reason? I'm nine years OLDER than the bro!!!

Broga nua? In Dublin on Saturday the Hub finally bought himself a new pair of takkies so he's bouncing round like Tigger at the moment! 'Runners?' sez you, 'Trainers? What's so special about new runners?' Forget not, my fellow blogospherics, this is someone who grew up in the African bush and shoes remain one of life's wonders!
The quilt is put together now, and one border on. I can't decide whether to add some more hand quilting, or whether it would look silly with the machine quilting on the main part. Yesterday I unpacked the trunk holding our pictures. This is a MAJOR event! It has been packed since 2000. When I opened it it smelled of our shack in East Africa which was rather nostalgic for all of us. It was such fun though discovering pictures I'd forgotton but meant a lot, and also several of the girls' paintings from when they were little. When we were packing up I tried not to be too ruthless and to save items which I thought would be meaningful to them in years to come. Meaningful? They were roaring with laughter! So much for that notion.

The Hub worked on the shed all afternoon and now has three of the four windows in. Its looking good! I'll give you a photo tomorrow as I am not going out in the drizzle in my pyjamas to take one now! Contain thy souls in patience until then!

New books!

During the week I received a package from Amazon containing two books I was really looking forward to studying:

Fearless Design for every Quilter- L. Torrence and JB Mills

Aurora- Jane Kirkpatrick

The 'Fearless Design' book will have to wait until September, but I have been dipping into 'Aurora' and it is a lovely collection of quilts, photos, and writing. Last year I read Jane Kirkpatrick's book 'A Clearing in the Wild' which is the beginning of the story of Emma Wagner Giesy and her trek from Bethel, Missouri across to the Oregon Territory, and eventually, Aurora. Emma was a real person and in the 'Aurora' book she becomes even more tangible as we can see her quilts, and her daughter's. Its like spending time with family, or in your Grandmother's linen chest, just lovely!

Another thing I came across today in a magazine is a website for rural women enterprisers...enterprising women?...entrepreneurs, that's the word! http://www.farmtasticwomen.com/ , I'm going to download one of the free documents and have a look.

Apart from that I cleaned the house, very boring, sewed on the one border of the quilt I'd put together, progress, read most of a Georghette Heyer novel I haven't read in years, yummy, made two lots of soup and boiled the chicken bones for broth. The trunks were delivered today and Dilly came home for a few days to be mollycoddled! This evening I had a call from a previous parishioner of our Church asking whether I would play the Organ for her daughter's Wedding in October. The hymns for tomorrow are prepared: the Hub is taking the Service in another Church tomorrow as their Rector is on holiday, and as his portable Organist, I'm playing.

Trunk Call, Was Beans, and Raptors

Last night we watched Jurassic Park and just at the end of the film Ben-dog stuck his nose round the door as he wanted letting out. For larks I yelled 'Raptor' and lept on him with the blanket I'd had wrapped around me. He was extricating himself no problem when his brother came barrelling in from the hall and launched himself into the scrum! My family just lifted their feet and moved onto the next TV programme whilst the dogs and I re-enacted the final scene with the raptors in the Lodge! Didn't do the sitting-room furniture much good, but hey! what're the dogs for but to entertain me? (What's that about acting my age and not my shoe size?)

We were just now leaving the supper table when I noticed the time- 10 o'clock! Yikes! And the others are driving to Dublin first thing tomorrow morning; I apologised to which the girls responded that since I was the most disorganised person of their acquaintance things like eating at ten were no longer shocking...Oops...Well they were all watching a James Bond movie so weren't very bothered before the meal.

I've been sewing quite a bit of today, but it was so grey and mizzly that I had to have the lights on all day. I ask you! August how are you! And it is cold enough in the evenings too that we're glad enough of the range being on, although we haven't gone as far as to light the stove yet. Anthow, that's by the bye, would you look at the state of the dining table:
Kim may be re-discovering the furniture in her Sweat Shop, but I think I'm achieving the opposite!

Just for your amusement, this is the Bird's Nest fern in the hall. Its about four foot in every direction! I put it up on the table for the moment as the girls keep dropping the vacuum cleaner thingummy on it. Its obviously enjoying the climate!

And here, me dears, are the two medieval Trunks which are going to Dublin tomorrow for the Fringe Festival. If you happen to be passing and would like to see them in their debut performance, here are the details: The play is 'Anatomy of a Seagull', a translation of Chekhov's The Seagull, performed by Loose Cannon in Smock Alley Studios from 8th September for one week. If you do get to see it, be sure you go backstage to meet the Trunks, tell them I sent you and they'll be delighted to sign your programmes or whatever.
(They really are most awfully dilapidated, aren't they?)

And here are some photos of the broad beans from the garden, we ate a whole pan of beans and mangetout this evening at supper. They were, of course, exceptionally good! LMB ( http://littlemsblogger.blogspot.com ) asked whether these were the same as lima beans, I hope the photo is clear enough for you to see what they are like? The Hub has the shed completely roofed now, and started putting in the windows this morning, but it was too wet to try to take a photo.

Dilly is much better than she was at the start of the week, the kidney infection is clearing up. At work today they plonked her in front of the computer and phone to get on with correspondance, publicity, ordering stuff, etc., so she was able to be there doing things but not wearing herself out. The trouble with being a theater techie is that it is so physical and if you are not feeling well its kinda tough. B has a cold so was a bit grouchy today, but not nearly as bad as she could have been. She tried to make out she had all sorts of terrible diseases, swine flu being one, of course, and that I was a heartless mother not mollycoddling her. As she was watching DVDs and shrieking with laughter inbetween being pathetic, she kind of ruined her own cause! Sos had her flute out for an hour or so this afternoon, I think now that the results are out she is beginning to relax as she never plays for enjoyment when she is het up. The opposite of myself who pounds the life out of the piano when upset- Beethoven Sonatas are particularly suitable!

Enough waffling, I'm going to finish the first border of the quilt and see whether the pieces already made for the next border are long enough. I'm listening to the soundtrack of the film 'Stardust' this evening, its great music, really keeps the fingers moving!

Yippee Two!

Well here is the second completed project, quilted and bound, even if I wasn't intending to do it. I expect it will be a suitable Christmas present or house-warming perhaps for someone.
I spent ages today trying to find the missing project. The thing is that I'm going to the UK next week and was hoping to have it ready to give my aunt, since it was intended for her first grandson. Now I don't know whether to haul a finished baby quilt from my random stash and give her that, or give her nothing.
At least, in searching through boxes I have managed to do some tidying and putting away of accumulated 'stuff' so that the kitchen corner (my sewing place) is a little tidier. Apart from the dining table, which is now covered in little heaps of fabric which had become mixed up but is all for different ideas. It looks like a scale model of the Cairo desert with a lot of pyramids!
And onto the next project which I abandoned some time ago as it was annoying me. I am joining the side strip to the right of the photo. The roll of green by the magazine is part of the border as I decided I didn't like the one in the pattern. I was going to augment it with flying geese, but the quilt and the intended fabric became separated when we moved house three years ago. Now I have everything together it will be my number three project! I still love the design, but parts were going wrong before. Lesson: don't try to finish a quilt when moving house!

A shocking discovery...

Ladies and Gentlemen,
Umbrellas and walking-sticks,
I'd like to tell you something...very shocking..
I think I have a Quilt-Project-Gobbling-Monster loose in my house and its VERY worrying.

Yesterday, full of virtue and motivation, I pulled out the basket wherein my next project resided and behold! to my consternation! it WASN'T THERE! Oh no! and I can't find it in any of the other usual places so I have to come to the unwelcome conclusion that my next project has been Gobbled. This is all that is left:
But in the hunt I found this:

Its so old I can't remember why I began it, who it was for, or even when I began it. So I backed it and quilted it all afternoon, and just have to bind it now. I'm wondering whether it will count as a finished project considering it wasn't on my list, and I'd even forgotton it was there.

Kim suggested that actually it wasn't a QPGM that got the other unfinished quilt, but the Hub or the dancing dog? She could well have a point- you know the Calvin and Hobbes cartoon 'Something under the bed is drooling...' well I'd rather not have a resident QPGM but I'm scared to check under the bed just yet. If anyone is passing this way and would like to do me a favour..?

Something completely different- today the Leaving Certificate results are out. Sos at first refused to get out of bed and go into school to collect hers, but eventually she did, and to our stunned amazement she has done well! I don't know who was most amazed, the teachers handing out the results, Sos, or her family. So now we wait until Monday's postal delivery when the first round of College offers comes out.

Dilly is unwell and really frustrated because the Dublin Fringe starts this evening. She says she's sitting in her flat directing everyone by text and phone, and colouring in a colouring book which her flatmates bought her to stop he moving around and breaking things! One of my sisters is sick too, and since she's trying to pack up from her overseas posting and fly back to Ireland next Thursday she's fairly frustrated too. Another sister arrived yesterday in Columbia on the next stage of her South American Odessy. She doesn't half get around the continent!

'Tagged' list...and shed progress...

OK, here goes, ten things you didn't know about me (and probably didn't want to know either, blame Paulette you guys!) :-

1. I once played such a brilliant, I mean bad, trick on the Hub that he was raging for a week.

2. I am mad into re-cycling, all things environmental, and permaculture systems. It drives my extended family crazy.

3. At school I was told to leave the Home Ec class for threading the sewing machines wrongly, getting ahead of the teacher's instructions, and messing about.

4. I really hate telephones.

5. This year I've eaten all the ripe raspberries straight from the bushes...but I shared the strawberries! (there were more raspberries though)

6. About half way through a novel I always read the end, so I can breathe.

7. I detest shoe shopping. The best part of living in East Africa for 15 years was being able to wear flip-flops all the time- no shoes!

8. Its got to the point that when I admire my friends' clothes, their immediate response is -'you can't have it for a quilt.' How mean!

9. I am very forgetful; once I forgot my daughters' start of term, I forget to buy new school books and uniform and shoes, I even forget to make meals. As a result my daughters are fairly good cooks, and fairly good at getting themselves organised...

10. I LOVE books, I taught myself patchwork and quilting from books. Whenever I have a spare moment in school I go and read stories to the Infant classes.

Well there you go, very dull I'm afraid. It was Paulette who tagged me, should I thank her or not?...http://sweetp-paulette.blogspot.com/2009/08/ive-beentagged.html

Now I need to find ten more people on which to play the the same mean, low-down dirty trick...hee hee hee cackle cackle what dastardly secrets can I unearth about my fellow crafters....
http://www.midnightcrafts.net/
http://bitsmyway.wordpress.com/
http://www.quiltingliterati.blogspot.com/
http://moosellaneous.blogspot.com/
http://somethingforsophie.blogspot.com/
http://leighsquiltingblog.blogspot.com/
http://www.thecalitzfamily.blogspot.com/
http://quiltinggourmet.blogspot.com/
http://creativeembroidery.blogspot.com/
http://raspberrylady.blogspot.com/
Sorry about all the web site titles, but I STILL haven't sorted out how to do links. The one time I thought I had it sussed I discovered I'd linked back to myself!!!
So now I will let all these people know they are 'Tagged'. It may seem a bit of a random selection, but they all have lovely work, and for me, blogging is about touring the world as well as making friends and learning from y'all!

And just for your amusement- here's progress on the shed!

Yippee! and I've been Tagged...

As usual I've managed to load the photos in the wrong order, so my finished quilt is at the bottom of the page. This was meant to be at the end- the Hub dancing with Ben!

This is just for a laugh; its the contents of the Hub's trouser pockets on Saturday, ie a week's accumulation of detruitis. Is it any wonder he complains of having holes in his pockets? I don't know whether you can see, but there are a number of screws, nails, a line of connectors, and a USB there amongst the screwdrivers, stanley knife and maglight...

And herewith one small quilt finished, the whole thing, and then some close-ups. Its going to a friend at the end of the month as a wedding present- a teacher marrying a farmer.

Yesterday's Morning Service was quite intense as we had a celebration and a good-bye. Our Minor Canon, a non-stipendary member of the clergy, is moving to another Diosese as her husband's work location has changed and she found the commute to the west just too far, especially with the winter coming on, icy roads, storms, and all that. So reluctantly the Congregation bade her farewell. She has been with us two years and been involved in everything that's gone on, especially the preparation of the Confirmation Canditates.

The celebration was of another order: our Reverend was Ordained 25 years ago exactly! Our M.C. had unearthed a photo from the day, and he and his wife looked so young! The M.C., in preparation for Sunday had baked a cake and, with the Select Vestry, had organised a stay in a lovely retreat up North near Larne for the Rector and his wife during September. She preached from the Book of Joshua, as there are many well-beloved Scripture quotes from Joshua's exhortations to his men. The best known is probably:

'Choose you this day whom you will serve,...as for me and my house we will serve the Lord.'

Her point, of course, being that our Rector had chosen who to serve and devoted his life to serving. I played all the Minor Canon's favourite hymns and Canticles, and although the Congregation wasn't huge (due to one of Ireland's main Agricultural Shows being on this past weekend) the singing was mighty and I was able to really open up the Organ. It surely was a 'joyful noise unto the Lord', and everyone was wrung out by the end of the Service!

On Saturday there was a funny request from Dilly in Dublin: one of her productions in the Dublin Fringe needs an old travelling trunk as a 'prop' so could she please borrow my Dad's old school trunk? (which houses the Christmas decorations)...Hmmm...I am rather attached to that item, it has a long and venerable history. My Dad grew up on a remote farm on the then Mozambique/Rhodesia border. Getting to his Secondary School involved a five day train journey to and from Grahamstown in South Africa at the beginning and end of each term. Then he came to Ireland to University, by boat. Same trunk. Dilly promises they will look after it and added-'just think of the stories it can tell its grandchildren about being on stage...' Do trunks have grand-trunkie-babes?

This has become awfully long, so I'll continue tomorrow with the 'Tagged' answers!

Sos and the Teletubbies!

The farmer across the valley has been cutting his summer silage so his fields look all neat and tidy. I wonder whether he'd come and do the girls' bedrooms?
You know the way when you watch schools of fish they cluster together, then dart here and there in a swarm, with the occasional one drifting away and rejoining, or another being left behind then frantically chasing after the others to catch up? I think herds of teenagers are like that...Last night about 7pm onwards they arrived, milled around, grazed, dolled themselves up and then around 10.15pm departed. The amount of smells, stinks and pong needed to gird themselves for a night on the tiles!! Afterwards B and I had all the windows open! Anyhow here they are, only five actually, but it seemed like more.
I was standing at the stove chatting to them at one point and suddenly all the washing up toppled off the draining board. It was the funniest thing watching the boys try to catch five baking tins, several wooden implements, two mixing bowls, two jugs, all the washed tetrapack recycling, cooling trays and a saucepan! Not rugby players for nothing! I wasn't quick enough to get a photo unfortunately, but it was terribly funny!

At 4pm this afternoon this is all that's left...

well, besides the empty fridge, empty packets, dirty dishes, cold tea-pots and mugs, sleeping bags and duvets around the sitting room and general rubble. I love it that they come and go from here. I love the conversations they have and the way they leap from serious to daft and back again.

It would appear that they didn't eat the dog food though.

The Hub returned from work having stopped at the Hardware Store, with a roll of felt for the shed roof. After several incredibly windy days the weather is both calm and warm today so it's a good opportunity to put it up. In fact the weather is gorgeous!

I've been working hard at the little quilt and the end really is in sight. I have to say I'm rather tired of it now. Maybe two hours of quilting and then the binding. If the next post starts with 'Yippee!' you'll know I've finished!