Memories of summer past

Today is horrid.  AGAIN.  Yesterday it was cold and it poured with heavy rain all day.  Today it is even colder and the rain is still falling.  I need to go into hibernation.  Many areas of our country are flooded again.  There seems to be a pattern emerging here.  Around the last 8 summers have been terrible.  Each year as spring dawns I am hoping desperately that lovely warm, sunny days lie ahead. I have been wrong.  In fact the last  few years have just been getting progressively worse.  This year summer was non existent.  The last few winters have been harsh.  The rain just seems to go on and on.  I fear that this is the way it is going to be from now on.  I don't do cold.  I am a summer girl. This is the rain on my window.

Anyway to cheer us all up I thought I would post some photos of a picnic we had back in the summer.  I never got around to posting these ones.  We did manage to fit in several family picnics in between the rain and this one was at Ferry Meadows in Peterborough.  It was just the family members that live locally.

Don't you just love those last two?  Evan went first and Flynn copied him.  monkey see, monkey do!

Now winter is pretty much here and we have got all this rain my garden is looking sad and bedraggled. here is another summer memory.  The lilies that were in a pot by my front door.

Just gorgeous.  And the best thing of all?  They will come back again next summer.

Tuesday 9th October

It is 5 days since my last blogs which is better than I have been managing recently.  I don't know where the time goes. I am still attempting to keep up and read the blogs of my friends who went off to different places.  It is quite a faff  having to log in to different sites.  I have got Google reader set up now and I can  use that to go directly to a blog if I want to comment.  However......... It won't let me do that with Blogster only Ipernity.  What a pain.  Consequently I am not connecting much with the friends that went over to Blogster.  I am really missing Pam and Eileen.

Nothing much is new here. Same old, same old.  The weekend was quite pleasant.  Saturday the sun even came out.  It didn't last though and yesterday and today have been really cold.  We had the fire going in the evening on Sunday.  First time this autumn.  I think it will be a regular thing now.

With the good weather Simon was able to crack on a pace with the garage extension. He worked on it all day Saturday, most of Sunday and Monday until 2pm when we went out.  It now has a roof!  With no holes!  All the ridge pieces are in place.  No rain can get in!!  He has done the cladding on the end pieces, both front and back.  He ran out of time yesterday so there is still one last piece to go on at the front.

 Note that the cladding has not been done in this photo!

So the structure is built.  There is still work to complete on the outside. Just under the roof there is a gap of 6 inches or so which is awaiting boards to which the guttering will be fixed.  There is still some trim to go on some windows too.  Basically the outside work is done.  The next job is the electrical work which will be done by an electrician.  Simon has to dig a trench across the edge of the front garden and drive to accommodate the cables which need to be taken from the front right around to the back.  More mess.  I am still waiting for the drive to be redone.  It was wrecked when we had the skips on it. Once that is done he will add insulation and board out the whole of the inside.  At that point it will be complete and he can move his stuff over from his barn.

Then we can start work on the garden.  We still need to get the fence at the far end of the garden moved.  We are missing 6 feet of garden there as the fence has been put in the wrong place.  Given the width of the garden, that 6 foot is quite a chunk.  That area all needs clearing and rotovating as it will be my veggie patch.  We need to fence it in too so dogs cannot trample it.  Now all the building materials have been moved from the side of the house we need to pave that whole area.  We have the slabs ready and waiting.  Then there is the drive way, not to mention the fence at the front too.  There is loads to do.

Yesterday afternoon we went for a drive to Spalding where there is a factory outlet shopping place. I wanted to go to the craft place where they sell paper crafting stuff.  I needed more pages for the scrap book I am doing of my Mum's life.  I got about 20 pages which I was pleased with.  I also got some doggie themed pages too for my Rosie's scrap book.  While we were there we wandered around the other shops.  Marks and Spencer yielded some good bargains.  Three white shirts for Simon for school and a very nice silk tie, black with purple and pink flowers!  I got a pair of slouchy boots which I love because they are warm and comfy.  They are fashion boots though so no good in wet weather.  I have other boots for that.

Today I have been to Coralie's where we had a sewing session with Denise.  I went in with Simon in the car and he dropped me at Denise's house at 8am.  We had breakfast together which was nice but I really do not do being up and out that early!  Denise and I then drove over to Coralie's and Denise dropped me off at the bus stop after lunch.  I caught the bus home and got in just after 2pm.  We had a good sewing session.  We worked on our teddies.  We got the feet sewn on and then got all the joints in place and stuffed them.  The joints were fiddly and I had a struggle to bend the cotter pins.

Once I was home and had done a few quick jobs I worked on getting my teddy all sewn up. It is not that easy as you are trying not to catch in the fur.  Don't want her seams to show!  Then it was on with her ears and ......... I have made a teddy bear!!!  I am dead chuffed with myself.  If you had asked me a year and a half ago if I would ever be able to make a teddy I would have said "no way". I am really pleased, She looks good.  She is called Elsie.  I have got some fur left so I am going to have a go at making another one for Jessica's birthday.  I am keeping Elsie for myself as she is the first one I have made.

A quick "Show and Tell" for you.  Here is my finished purple wall hanging which I forgot to post last week. Simon might get round to hanging it for me soon!

It doesn't really bend in the middle, it is the way I have taken the photo!

This is a cushion, totally made from scraps.  It is for my Aunt Jean, my Dad's sister.  She saw the one that I made for my Uncle Derek and wanted to know why she hadn't got one!

I made another 23 denim squares for my scrappy quilt. That gave me a total of 96.

I laid them all out on the bedroom floor so that I could get a good arrangement of colours and patterns.  Once I was happy, I stacked them up in rows.  I have begun the process of sewing them together now.  So far I have one row done.  It takes a while as you have to clip all along each seam to achieve the frilly frayed look once it is washed.  (Hopefully)!

You will notice that I am still 9 short.... so I had to make more!

I am going to work on this tomorrow.   It is my birthday tomorrow so I intend having a housework free day!  It will be a long day as Simon has a school open evening for 6th form students which he cannot get out of as he is head of upper school.  He will not be in until about 9.45pm so I am not best happy about that.  Not just because it is my birthday but because 16 hour days are not good for him.  He will be so tired and wiped out.  Good for nothing.

Right, I think it is time for me to finish this.  I want to search for some fabric on eBay and it is getting late now.