Unmistakably Autumn
We welcomed Mary from Los Angeles for a couple of days last week, on her way back home after doing a short recce for a future tour she’s planning. I had been swimming one morning of her stay and returned home eager to grab my camera to capture the fleeting atmosphere of an unmistakably Autumn morning.
As I drove home, I could see the mist in the valley and the small glimpse of sunshine suggested that it would soon lift and that special morning light would be gone.
I hoped that keen photographer Mary would forgive me as I rushed in and suggested we dash out into the garden with our cameras and seize the moment! Of course, I was forgetting that although I had been to Cirencester and back for my swim it was still only just 8am and poor Mary was probably still waking up.
But hopefully she felt it was worthwhile, particularly as she observed that back home in her part of California, Autumn feels rather different to this.
Sure enough, in the space of just ten or fifteen minutes, the light had changed completely and the mist had gone. We hurried back indoors for coffee and breakfast!
The weekend brought some “lively” weather with it and even though we escaped the worst of Storm Amy, as we drove to Exeter on Saturday morning, we could see storm clouds ahead of us. Thankfully, somewhere in there was a little ray of sunshine waiting to see his grandparents!
His enthusiastic “Hello!” brought immediate smiles to our faces and his increasing curiosity to explore everything around him resulted in his second selfie! He’s growing into a chatterbox and his “Graaandmaaaa” melts my heart.
Back home, the changing season kindles the crafty mojo and having been inspired to warp my inkle loom to try some tablet weaving following our Viking fun in Denmark, I ordered some cheap and cheerful weaving cards from you-know-where. Half of them were not fully punched however, so I sat with my hole punch for an hour or so the other afternoon, subsequently finding the “holes” here and there, including in the bottom of my tea cup! I have my Nålebinding needle and the book of instructions right here (on the same heap of good intentions) but yesterday there came a distraction in the form of a cute design to stitch on my embroidery machine.
Digital designs like this are the most effective distractions because they arrive immediately and sit there begging to be stitched out. One or two small issues left me a little disappointed but I tried not to be too picky and gave my sewing machine a bit of TLC before switching her off for a bit of a rest after those 25 thousand stitches. Except that there was somewhat of a mess around one of the spool holders.
One of the sponge bases had decomposed, leaving a sticky, horrible residue which I’d not noticed till now. Hmmm…that sponge was there to smooth the spin of the cotton reel, so was quite important. I thought I’d better investigate a replacement.
Discovering that Bernina would indeed provide a replacement for this two inch disc of foam, costing at least £9.99 (plus postage), I decided to “make alternative arrangements” and the last task of the day was complete.
Maybe I’ll warp my loom tomorrow? Or will I give the Nålebinding a try first?
Don’t ask!
