End of week round-up

A familiar scene - sitting at the table with a cup of tea.  The sun is low in the sky at present, and it casts long shadows through our lounge windows.  Perhaps I should call this 'The Thinker'  ;-)

Gosh, I'm not sure where this week has gone to, it seems to have flown by.  Some of the things we had hoped to get sorted haven't happened, but that has given us time to mull things over a cuppa and some home-made cakes and biscuits :-)  We have spent quite a bit of time thinking carefully about how we can make the flat work best for us, and how we can achieve that.  We're still 'thinking outside the box' as far as storage is concerned, and today the penny dropped for N (as I was quietly hoping it might) that the old desk that he wants to get rid of from the bedroom could actually be utilised as shelving/storage in the hall cupboard.  I knew he'd get there without me mentioning it, we think along the same lines, usually arriving at the same conclusion, just not always via the same route!  He also came up with a great idea to replace the washing basket problem, one which I hadn't thought of at all, so I was really pleased with his lateral thinking on that.  So we're really put our 'spare' time to good use, spending it thinking rather than doing, and solutions have been found.  

N has had two visits to the dentist this week, and is now well-versed in interdental brushing techniques.  I know he didn't enjoy the treatment (who would, with no fewer than 10 injections?) but a lot of the staining on his teeth has finally been removed.  We are both being far more attentive to how we clean our teeth now; I think the realisation that a bit of time and effort does pay off in the long run has finally hit home with us.  We now have a multi-coloured selection of those little tiny brushes - just have to remember which ones I use.

This morning we took advantage of a dry spell to plant some daffodil bulbs.  We originally planted them last autumn; they flowered this spring and once they had died down, we lifted them, dried them and stored them.  I know most people leave the bulbs in permanantly, but space is tight here so up they came to make way for some bedding during the summer.  Hopefully they'll make a good show again next spring.  

All those worms being busy in the garden

We were delighted to see so many worms in the beds as we were planting - we moved several into the new beds to go to work on the manure we put down last week.

The clocks go back soon.  We have really noticed the sun is so much lower in the sky now, throwing wonderful long shadows.  From our lounge window we have seen that the sun sets over the neighbouring roofs rather than over the trees further around.  We can just about manage our evening meal in natural daylight; we need the lights on soon after 6 o'clock now.  Once the clocks go back, reverting to GMT from British Summer Time, the daylight hours will be considerably shorter and our energy usage will reflect our greater reliance on electricity and gas.  

The quilt front . . . 

. . . and detail of the quilting on the reverse.

Finally, the quilt centre is now in one piece.  Phew!!  Unfortunately I have a problem sourcing fabric for the borders; I can't get any more of the black fabric I used for the linking triangles (sold out - should have bought enough yardage to begin with) and I haven't been successful in finding an alternative, which is really annoying.  I'm trying to think of a Plan B.

I shall try to be good tomorrow and observe 'screen-free Sunday'.