A Summer Problem

The last week or so I keep noticing that my pyjamas are muddy.
Odd, thought I.
How'd my pyjamas get muddy?

Finally I figured why...(intelligence en't my strong suit!)

With the arrival of the lovely warm weather we have been enjoying the last few weeks, I have been getting up very early to make tea then walking straight outside whilst the kettle boils. I pick beans, do a bit of weeding, water the windowsill pots, inspect what new has come up or flowered overnight, and just generally potter in the yard.

Hence, muddy pyjamas!

I know most people would get dressed before heading outside, but even when we were children we used to be outside in our pyjamas, both really early and really late if it was hot and we couldn't sleep. Not an everyday occurrence here in the windy north west of Ireland, but an enduring summer habit nonetheless.

So I guess that muddy pyjamas are just another sign that summer is finally here.

And its beautiful up here under the mountain.

Bag End, home to Mr Underhill?

Got There!

I survived the jolly season.

Let me tell you that that alone is an achievement.

I decided I couldn't bear to be an add-on to another family's Christmas, so despite the fact that three friends were kind enough to invite me for Christmas Day, I declined. They said they understood. Church was fun in the morning, and since my girls were all there I got to see them then.

New Year I listened to the annual RTE Concert from the National Concert Hall which is always fun.

Still, tomorrow things return to normal. You may be sad, I can't say I am.

Now I need to get on with some paperwork and sorting out the usual junk...like finances!!


Just to put a positive spin on the outlook, I was thinking about next summer. Part of the privilege of being school secretary is that the pay is barely over the minimum wage and I don't get paid for nine weeks in the summer, so as well as needing to save up for rent and signing onto the 'dole' I have zilch hope of getting away for a break. SOOOOO I was thinking of volunteering somewhere and then...I remembered reading about the WWOOF site...I know its kinda more a young peoples' thing but I could work to travel couldn't I?

A change being as good as a rest and all that...as long as I didn't lose my nerve at the last minute...

Any opinions or experiences?

I WorkWorkWorkWork...

....work the whole day long...

Isn't that the dwarfs song from Sleeping Beauty?

Well believe it or not, there have actually been enough dry spells in the last ten days for me to get some work done in the garden! A few drenchings too when I had my head down amongst the weeds and didn't notice the growing blackness of the sky, but maybe if I stand in the rain often enough I'll grow.....? Faint chance at this stage!

Firstly I weeded all along the montbretias, front and back, and was a bit disappointed when I realised how much of the growth was weed, not flower! Oooops! However in the last five days they have come along beautifully and are now just about flowering.

The grass and weeds along our verge were almost waist height as the strimmer is banjaxed. I took out the good old 'slasher' and hacked them down to a reasonable size. Its still all weeds, but its tidy weeds- a step in the right direction!!

 The blackberries are flowering ever so late; if we don't have an Indian summer nothing will ripen, but if we do we'll be inundated. Last year's crop was very patchy so we could do with plenty for jam!

 And I detest pulling up thistles even worse than nettles as they always seem to get me. Mind you, I was plenty stung too- anyone would think I was growing a nettle farm here. I lined the thistles up to put on the fire in the hopes of killing off any potential seeds, so alas alack but this fella is no more!

It doesn't look much does it, but the growth this summer has been something else with the wet and warm temperatures. I've done a fair bit of work around the patio and the beds along the walls but you can't really tell.

Oh well, I know everything is a bit tidier!!

You Know That...

Summer is nearly over when...

...you begin to collect and break up old pallets for the woodpile...
...you need to rust-proof the trailer before another winter's use...

...the raspberries are finished, the Summer veg becoming sparse, and the second bed is being prepared for sowing winter veg...

...the salad bed is full to bursting and you just can't eat enough to keep it in check!

...the montbretia are flowering...

(And how did that one get into the salad bed anyhow, I'd like to know? Cheeky!)

Then there's the return to School, naming new uniform, turning up school skirts, finding mouldy PE kit from last term...

Ah well!

We've had some beautiful weather this year, better than we have had in many years, so I'm not complaining really. Its just a little melancholy to smell Autumn on the wind and see the leaves beginning to turn...

Status....?

Weather: Wet, chilly, misty, grey, dark, dull.

Laundry: Damp, Widow Twankey-ish...leading to....

Kitchen: festooned in wet laundry.

Dogs: Bored...leading to...

Floor Rugs: all MIA, presumably hidden by the dogs to entertain themselves?

Children: One in Galway, one location unknown, one working at local Bible Camp.

Husband: Soggy (too much cycling to and from work in the rain).

Garden: Ditto (minus the cycling).

Books: Library raid imminent...like tomorrow morning!

Projects finished: NONE!

Summer: Last seen June 26th; would whoever borrowed the Summer and forgot to return it please do so IMMEDIATELY!

...or we will NOT be responsible for the CONSEQUENCES....

Interview with...Myself!!

Before I begin, here's a few photos from yesterday. The weather was just glorious so we camped out in the garden all day! Sos came home before lunch- she has radar when it comes to food...it was lovely to see the girls catching up with each other...Do you like our Summer Kitchen? Wonderful murals on the walls, huh?!

Widow Twankey's Laundry- Sos arrived home with three loads for the machine...typical!

And after such a lovely day I decided to make a new Treasury: Lazy Hazy Summer Dayz!

And now to the business of the day, for which you have waited with bated breath:

Interview with a (Quilting ) Vampire!

Heckety: So then, Heckety, what has inspired you as an artist?
Heckety: I was sewing, crafting and creating long before I ever thought to consider myself an artist, and even now it does seem a little high-faloutin and grandiose to call what I make ‘Art’.

I think I would be more inclined to call it attractive and useful thrifting! A bit like myself, really, attractive and useful, that is...

Heckety: Hmmmm. Matter of opinion. What is the first thing you remember making?
Heckety: Dolls and dolls’ clothes! I used to use Mom’s dress-making scraps to make fashion clothes for my ‘Disco dolls’ (anyone remember them?!), and then I progressed to soft furnishings, with furniture made from cereal boxes! I had nearly a whole house made at one point which drove Mom nuts as it lived on the bedroom floor and I went ballistic if my baby brother got at it whilst I was at school!
Later I began making rag dolls- I was convinced that there was a perfect doll waiting to be created, I still am convinced, and I still haven’t achieved it! Dee’s Annie comes very close though…

Heckety: Are there artists (famous or not) that have influenced your work?
Heckety: I can’t think of any particular artist but I think there are two main influences which have played their part:
Firstly Mom took me to a Quilt Exhibition in London when I was 11 or 12. I was making very rudimentary patchwork by then as a way of using the afore-mentioned dress scraps. I can’t recall where the Exhibition was held but I remember the beauty and richness and history of the Quilts.

Secondly, our parents have always taken us to places of interest:- museums, Art Galleries, Castles, chateaux, caves, beautiful scenery, Carnac, Brittany to see the national costumes, London for State Occasions, the Tower of London, stately homes, Craft shows, flower shows, Gardens of every sort, steam trains, Windsor, the State Apartments in Dublin Castle, Chester Beattie Library, potteries, weavers, artist’s workshops…even if something wasn’t planned, if we drove past, we stopped.
In retrospect I see that we were VERY privileged because even though everything was done on a budget we were given access to an enormous range of experiences and information. (Including the time my sister got stuck in the loo in a French restaurant and with my execrable school French I had to find a waiter and explain (in French ) that my little sister was stuck in the toilet and could he help?)
I firmly believe that EVERYTHING is grist to the mill in our lives: if we look with an open mind and active imagination then everything is ‘input’. As a result I am lucky enough to have a vast pool of experiences and visual memories upon which to draw when I am creating.

Heckety: Are there people in your life that have inspired you or your artwork?
Heckety: My parents encouraged us as children to try out things which interested us- for me it was music, crafts and sewing. Without that I doubt I would have ever started down this road, none of my friends followed an even remotely similar path. As regards the actual skills, I've learned everything out of books!

Heckety: I guess you like books so! Is there a moment in your life when you knew you were supposed to be an artist?
Heckety: Definately not! It was always a hobby, something to do in the evenings, or school holidays, or on Maternity leave…it was only when my health took a downward turn in about ’98 that I began sewing to earn. Since then I have tried on three occasions to return to full-time teaching and each time I’ve been beaten back by poor health. I recall some time ago a doctor asking anxiously would I be bored or unhappy since I could no longer hold down a job and I replied that I was never bored in my life, which is absolutely true! He was most surprised!
Despite all that it is no hardship to me to be turning my sewing into a business…or attempting to do so! I love sewing and creating, knitting and using all the various skills I have acquired to create useful things. I like having the freedom to live in an ethical and ecologically sound way. I like being able to choose the content of my days. And I like not being tied to the rat-race.

Heckety: And that's all for today folks- tomorrow we'll be back with the second half!