A bit of this, and a bit of that...an allsorts post!

The last week and a half has disappeared to "I don't know where", and tomorrow a new month turns over. I am not ready to think about that date that is looming in the not too distant future, so won't even mention it.

I spent a fair bit of time working on this quilt that you can see in the photo. This is only the top half, and was 92" square. I quickly educated myself on Art Deco quilting, to come up with suitable custom patterns, and for some very interesting shapes!! Thanks to those whose advice I sought. I will be back with photos one day.

Last weekend, I had a visit from this little girl, who stayed while her Dad was here doing some work for me. I did have a pot plant on the seat of the swing, but we moved that and even found the oil pot to get rid of the squeak! And a cushion was necessary because the seat is very old and rough. This swing was made when DD1 was only about 2 years old, and she is 44 now, so that tells you how long we have had the swing for.

 I am still in the process of moving dirt for the new garden beds, and I had some help from Miss Bridie. We found a little pink spade, and she set to work. Notice the gloves, as I had to find her some after I put mine on.

But it's better if you take the gloves off when you play in the dirt.

And it's not so good when you get dirt in the shoes!

 She loved to pick the flowers, and it looks as though I need to attack the weeds in this bed!

We found lots of flowering things in the garden.

 She loves to water the garden, although liked spraying the fence more than the plants, and this was taken just before she turned the hose onto me, and drenched my clothes!! Perhaps I won't tell you that I turned the hose back to her, and she ended up wet as well!!

I have one photo of my son in action. He came to do a lot of electrical work for me, and replaced a lot of my lights with LED ones, and now you almost need the sunglasses to sit and sew!

He fitted a sensor light on the corner of the house, and now I don't need to walk blindly in the dark to and from the car. (There were some screws in the wall from an old light that did not work, so instead of removing them from the bricks, they now hold up my frog.)

He also did some work on the power board that needed to be upgraded, and worked out why my door bells did not work, replaced a smoke alarm, and fixed some other lights!! And then moved poor old Bones and his kennel from a neglected place in the back yard, where he was put after the move from across the road. One of those "gunna do" jobs.

And this is my work in progress in the back yard. All the years I have been in this house, (and that is just on 20 years), and this space has been used as a dumping ground for garden waste, and burnt each year. That is no longer able to happen and I decided it was time to do something. As you can see I have a large mound of ashes that may need to be removed before that area can be dug. It's a bit hard to see as this photo was taken late afternoon and the area that is planted is in shadow. Hopefully there will be better progress pictures as time goes on. DS helped to move a lot of items to a neat pile right in the back corner, and drilled some extra holes for drainage in that old bath.

He also drilled some holes in these rulers so that I can now hang them on the wall with all the others.

Miss Bridie went to spend time with her other nanna while they were in town, and so a decision was made to spend another night. As all the other jobs had been finished DS turned his attention to my shed. Now this was a disaster area, as stuff had just been dumped in the shed, "out of the way", when we moved from across the road, and or course a few more things had found their way into the shed. It was at a stage where you could hardly even get in the door, and this first photo was taken after some sorting had been done, so you can imagine what it was like. (I know someone who does not have to imagine, because she opened the door recently to look for something, and backed out rather quickly!)

And this is how it looks now! Almost room for a car?? I am very blessed to have family and friends that help. It is very humbling.

 I think that once you start to feel organised, that it seems to keep going. I had to do some cleaning and dusting after the electrical work was done, and one thing led to another. This was what my cutting table looked like, and after putting things away, and discarding rubbish,......

....and now it's like this. Wonder how long that will be for?

After DS and Miss Bridie went home, (Mum had stayed home as she had a course to do), I kept on with the tidying, and raking up outside, and more digging and shifting of dirt. And I even took the car to the car wash and cleaned it! It sure feels good to get some of those jobs done. By this time it was late Sunday afternoon, and time for a sit down and rest.

This week my time is taken up with playing in EQ, cutting and writing instructions, ready for the next Mystery retreat, and there a piles of fabrics sitting everywhere. There are too many ideas floating around in my head this week, and the week is going too fast.

Last Friday was the last day of school for 2 of my grand daughters and I have "borrowed" some photos that their mums posted on facebook.

 First is GD1, when she first started school.......

and now with her mum, DD2, on the last day of school.

And this is GD2, when she first started school,...............

and now as she finishes Year 12!

I feel like it is hardly any time since they were so little, and now they are about to embark on the next stage of their lives. Exams will be finished in a couple of weeks, and then they will have some decisions to make. I look forward to watching them in the next stage, and wish them many blessings for their futures. (But it sure does make me feel old.)

Well, that's about all the newsfromjude for now, and it's time for bed. Tomorrow the temperature is supposed to be 37deg!! This time last week it was not quite 20, so it's a sudden increase, and will be hard to take.

Blessings, From Jude