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!

शोर्ट एंड स्वीट(short and sweet)

Several days ago Sos's laptop arrived, I guess all students (or potential students) need one, Dilly would be lost without hers. So, since the sitting room and kitchen are over-run with teenagers and I can't get near the dinosaur computer I've nicked hers. Some awfully odd things are happening, for instance my typing is turning into Hindi! Look: माय टाइपिंग इस तुर्निंग इन्तो हिन्दी! Did you know I am fluent in Hindi? Neither did I but isn't it great to discover a hidden gift?

Would you like to know what the rampant teenagers have just informed me? There's another three coming to supper, going out, and returning to spend the night! And two are boys and boys EAT! I bought dog food, cheese and soya milk this morning, would anyone like to invent a supper recipe using those? I don't mind at all about them coming, its the lack of food bothers me as there aren't exactly a whole lot of grocery shops up here in the mountains.

Dad gave me a present of a new CD this morning when I went to visit- Organ Music. Wasn't that lovely? Sure aren't Dads a fabulous invention? Soon as I've done here I'm going to get out the quilting and play it. Sos is baking for the hoards, and then she will have to play 'loaves and fishes' with two frozen pizzas and a packet of frankfurters. I'd better go and make bread too, that would fill in a few gaps...Tally Ho!

My first Bloscar!

Well firstly I'd like to thank the members of Symphonic Discord for my first blog award (Blo-Oscar!) or four! Its so kind of yous! And when I figure how to get them to my side bar they will be on display! (http://symphonic-discord.blogspot.com)
This morning I sowed more lettuce and cress, planted out basil, parsley, bay, two pots of sunflower seedlings, and some left-over pansies. I picked veg to take to the folks, and then spent several hours quilting. I visited the folks for a while during the afternoon, taking them some sunflower seedlings as well as the veg. Then I took the scissors to my hair as it was driving me nuts: B decided to bake a cake this afternoon, but it was rather unsuccessful, not like her. Still, it tastes good!
Yesterday afternoon Sos and I went to the Crafter's Basket in Cliffoney with two of her friends, and got her Debs dress fabric. Its pinky mauve sateen with a pink tull overlay, and she wants tiny silver bows scattered across the front. Goodness help me! I am NOT looking forward to making it, and the fabric was rather more expensive than I anticipated. The Hub said its the last 'posh frock' she'll get from us until she can afford to buy her own! Are we very bad parents? She does have good taste though, and a nice figure, not like dressmaking for yours dumpty truly here!
Afterwards we stopped off at Streedagh beach to walk, which was lovely, but I didn't have my camera.

And that's all really, not much to show for two days. Perhaps I'll get the quilt finished at the weekend.

Bank Holiday Monday put to good use.

Is it possible to be a 'lavender junkie'? If it is, then I think I am! Lavender to sleep, for stress and distress, for cuts and bites, for hands, headaches, and lavender bags as presents. I think I need therapy...lavender bathsalts?
This is what this morning looks like: real summer weather, but it hasn't actually begun raining.
Progress on the shed! The Hub has been hard at it all weekend, and now the roof is on (minus the felt membrane) he isn't getting as wet.
Yesterday I thoroughly weeded the veg beds and boy! did they need doing. I had to slather myself in Jungle Juice as it was very buggy, but tidy veg beds are so satisfying to gaze upon.
Lots of broad beans coming along, we had the first batch with dinner last night- it's my favourite veg, but only home grown, the bought ones have no flavour.
The packet instructions of these mangetout said they were low-growing, which I took to mean they didn't need staking. Obviously it meant they only need short stakes! With all the little curly tendrils they are now a tangled mat, but very happy and putting out plenty of flowers, so I'm hoping the harvest won't be affected by my ignorance! Mum used to grow mangetout when we were children, but she kept eating them straight off the plants! The Hub tossed this mat back onto the bed whilst cutting the grass but it has to be out as a few tomatoes and a basil have decided to grow beside it.
Here you can view the rogue potato which has taken over the carrot patch. I pulled as many of the carrots from under the potato leaves as I could find, and we had them for dinner too as they weren't going to bo doing much more growing with that monster breathing down their necks. I suppose I could have pulled the potato? Oh and the white flowers are self seeded rocket.
Finally found where the nasturtium went, it was hiding under the dock leaves- what? you don't have dock leaves in your veg patch? What do you do to remove nettle stings then? Oh, you don't have nettles either? Well don't boast about it, if you had extreme rheumatism you would be wanting to roll naked in a nettle patch at dawn...or maybe sunset...or is that arthritis I'm thinking of... I planted two whole packets of tomato seeds and something ate most of them and the rest are kinda spindly. The single tomato I DIDN'T plant turns up in the scallion patch and is thriving. Sometimes I think my veg patch has its own agenda, or else it just really knows how to get up my nose.
And then when the rain set in and I was waiting for the dinner to cook, I got out the quilting and did quite a bit. Kim, at http://kimsbigquiltingadventure.blogspot.com/ is having an 'Encouraging August' for all those sluggards (like me) who need a bit of motivation to get their projects finished. Great idea, especially since I need to have two small quilts done and delivered by the end of August and I'm finding it hard to keep at them. The other top is still in blocks, not sewn together.
And as if you aren't fed up with all the photos, here's a few from the hedgerows which I took this morning. As I've said before, I love the way hedgerows develop and change with the seasons, and year to year. Patrick Whitefield has a new book out which is about how nature changes landscape through time as well as between places. Its on my wish list for next year when all the expense of Debs' dress, Kenya visitors, Sos and Dilly's College monies are done. (Tried to do a link but as some of you know my links are a bit dodgy:book is called 'The living landscape: how to read and understand it')
(http://www.green-shopping.co.uk/books/book_pages/natural_history.html#LLS)
Harebells
several different ferns growing on the wall together.
Irish lanes are often so worn down that they are almost tunnels, here the top of the bank was way over my head (as are most things...)
And there you have it! or as Bugs Bunny says 'That's All Folks!'

Live life abundantly!

Exhibit A: one loaf of bread.
Exhibit B: one bread maker (square-ish white yoke behind champagne bottles from Sos' eighteenth birthday, and yes, that unfortunately is the state of the utility room at present).
I'm putting these first because the sermon yesterday was based upon John Ch 6 v33 and the symbolic attributes of 'bread'. Bread is essential to keep us physically fed, and there is enough food produced on our planet for no one to go physically hungry. But in the same way that the available food does not reach everyone, spiritual food does not reach everyone either i.e. the importance of loving, sharing, forgiving, accepting, there's plenty more to add. And very often it is the spiritual famine in our own communities which is the nearest to us and most straightforward for us to act on. The Minister was not calling for us to pack up our bags and head for Africa, nor was he suggesting we all begin vegetable gardening, he was just pointing out how easy it is to smile, be polite and helpful and friendly to folks we meet, people on the margins as well as our best friends, to be AWARE. Sounds so easy huh? Pardon the pun, but plenty of food for thought....!!! (sorry, couldn't resist...!)

One more throwaway remark he made at the end of the Service was this- 'To whom am I accountable?' That has me stumped, because as adults in theory we have free choice in almost everything. For me my faith keeps me accountable to God, and obviously I'm accountable to the Hub in behaviour and many choices (like the housekeeping money...aargh!), and socially we are accountable to the law or we'd all be merry little axe-murderers, or not, but think about it, where does the buck actually stop for each of us?

Later in the afternoon the Hub went and fetched Sos and a friend who is visiting from Dublin. They'd had a good few days, actually I don't think they'd actually slept for the previous two nights through all the hooleying. I made everyone pasta to keep them going until supper, and then keeled over about four o'clock; two days of Services and organ playing takes it out of one. Luckily there was bread made so they got themselves toasted cheese and snacks and watched several videos I think, judging by the mess I got up to this morning!

The Hub finished the roof on the shed and started cladding the walls, in between deluges. It's been so wet he can't cut the grass, which is happily invading the veg beds. A real pain. I tell you, if John Wyndam was ever wanting a sequel to 'The Triffids' he could visit my garden and receive all the inspiration he needed; perhaps I could be his 'Muse' and have a horror novel dedicated to me! Ha ha! would that be irony, freudian slip, or just desserts? (rhetorical question- DO NOT ANSWER).

Oh hang on, is he still alive even?

Quiet day

It's a fact, sad but true, that my dog Ben has no brains. I was just being really gross and eating pineapple chunks from a tin (umm yes, literally...) and Ben sits by me, begging. He doesn't like pineapple. He KNOWS he doesn't like pineapple, but still he begs. Like I said, no brains, worse than the Scarecrow in 'The Wizard of Oz'. I once worked in a plantation school for Del Monte and we used to get eight pineapples a month as part of our pay!

The funeral today went alright; it was sad but not overwhelmingly so. It was eight months to the day that Cecil's wife died and really he was ready to pass on. It was draining though and I've spent the rest of the afternoon listening to the soundtrack to 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' and reading an old Lee Child book- 'The Visitor'. Odd combination, I know. I so love Yo Yo Ma's cello playing, that's why I got the soundtrack.

Anyhow, got the hymns for tomorrow's Service sorted, the Hub is watching TV and grazing his way through last night's grocery shopping. Don't you ever get fed up buying food? No sooner have you it all neatly in the fridge and press than up pops the family and eats it the lot and hey! guess what! you repeat the whole process...