Bathroom Continues to Fail

There is still a gap between the bath and the tile board that is in the splash zone whenever anyone has a shower. Bear has a shower daily before school and any other event, and I thoroughly approve, but not at the expense of potenitally rotting my floorboads. This is 22 months after the start of the refit of a bathroom that's maybe six feet square and with nothing moved around. It's a mess. 

I am not a happy bunny.

I'm considering my options. I am just so fed up. Also, very tired. 

However I'm on Day 2 of 'Getting My Act Together' and while it's not brilliant, it could be worse. I've done a few bits while waiting around for the dratted plumber, but I couldn't focus on much. And I've nearly finished off another big project, so that's something. I'll post a pic if (when) I finish it. I'll start again tomorrow.

Hugs and good health to all. 

Good Friday

I've told this story before, and no doubt I'll tell it again, but it's my favourite memory from Good Fridays of the past and from long before bear was born. 

I fail at going to church, but I felt the urge to go to the local church on Good Friday. When I was growing up, my local church had a tradition of a vigil all through Good Friday where people could come and go, but that wasn't happening at the local church and their service was over before I realised. DH very kindly offered to drive me to Leeds Minster, to see if there was a service there. 

Image from WikiCommons, taken by David Dixon and used under the Creative Commons Agreement

Of course, with my amazing timing, everyone was just coming out of the one short service that day. So I made the suggestion that perhaps we could go to Ripon Cathedral. It's a bit of a drive, but we've had some good times in Ripon. Besides, I liked Ripon Cathedral because it was a working church. A lot of cathedrals are all about the history and tourism, but this had crayon pictures from the Sunday School pinned up and a really good feeling about it. 

Image from Wiki Commons, taken by Michael D Beckwith who kindly released it into the public domain on the condition that it is not to be used for commercial purposes

So we headed up the A61 and were doing quite well until we hit Harrogate when we ran into gridlock. We inched along until we reached a junction and then, with absolutely no idea of where we were going or what we were doing, we turned left onto the A59.

I couldn't drive then, but I've had a look at the A59 and it's not necessarily an easy drive. It's the sort of drive, if I remember rightly, where you can see gaps in the wall where over confident drivers have driven through down to the river. It wasn't that long after DH had passed his test so it was a little nervewracking for him although he was awesome. But I saw the signs and it said that we were heading to Skipton. I said that there was a nice church there that may have something on, and that there may be something open on Good Friday for us to get a snack. I expected most places would be closed but there would probably be a petrol station or something. 

Image from WikiCommons taken by Caladon and used under the Creative Commons Agreement

The above image is the market, taken with Holy Trinity Church behind the camera and giving no sense of the absolute bedlam it was that day.

We drove into Skipton. Not only was nearly everything open but the place was absolutely packed. They have a market in the street and it was jammed with people. Cars were everywhere and parking anywhere near the church was impossible. We inched through to the local Morrisons supermarket and parked there. After we caught our breath, we bought the absolutely minimum in Morrisons to cover the parking and then we drove home. We'd picked up some snacky stuff for lunch and were more than ready for it by the time we drew up at home. We had spent maybe ten minutes outside the car thoughout the long journey.

DH looked at the dashboard, looked at me, sighed and said, "We've just driven 79 miles for a cornish pasty." 

My late mother told me that in her young days, the rule was that you couldn't leave your parish on Good Friday. After that cornish pasty, I've stuck firmly to that rule. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Partial Miracle

They came to finish the bathroom today, nearly two years after they started. They didn't actually finish the bathroom but it's a lot further on. Walls and ceiling edges have been finished off, the bathroom plug has been fixed and we have a new floor. All we need to do next is to get the edges of the bath properly sealed. Allegedly, they're back on Tuesday. 

Gladys is waking up. 

I reminded bear of what he did last year and told him to go and do it again. He seemed happy with that idea. 

Speaking of bear, he's had all of his results back and he's happy with them. He also got a book about Quantum Mechanics as part of some sort of reward thing. He's happy with that and I'm baffled but happy that he's happy.

I sold something on eBay but the envelope I had didn't fit so I raced to The Range. There are a lot of pretty things there but I only bought the envelopes that I went for.

I consider it a miracle. 

Mind you, part of it was because I couldn't walk properly so I just about managed to get to the envelopes, the till and then back to the car. I'm trying to get myself sorted but I'm not saying anything until things are in place. 

I've been watching a lot of YouTube videos that involve quilting. I'm not starting until I've cleared my knitting stash. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

All Going Well

Thank you for all your good wishes. I don't deserve them but my relative definitely does. They are awesome and finally picking up. I've not been on the front line for this. Other people have taken the burden, but I've been worried and I'm glad things are picking up.

I've not really been keeping up with anything at all for the last month or so. I've decided, and I'm risking putting it here, I'm going to make a start in April. I don't care how I'm going to do it, I just am!

I haven't hemmed the curtains yet. I'm going to wait until the men are around, then take down one curtain at a time, trim as necessary, turn up a double hem and hand hemstitch. I know that I will effectively be hemstitching 460cm each curtain (181 inches, or 15 feet, or five yards), but I've done that sort of thing in the past and it's surprisingly quick. Until then, the curtains are bunched up to keep the heat from the radiator in the room.

By the way, that's full sunlight in the middle of the day. They're not bad at blocking light and I think that they'll do well. If push comes to shove, I'll pin a fleece blanket on the back. 

The magpie's nest is still there and it's huge. I managed this pic.

but it doesn't do justice. Either they're planning a big family or want to rent out a room - it looks massive. 

Bear is being very bear. He was on his way to bed and then paused and said, 'oh, by the way, I got my results back and I got A+ in pure maths and statistics'. I'm sure I don't know all of the good stuff he's done. Apparently tomorrow is some sort of award day and bear said he wasn't looking forward to it. Sigh. From what he let slip, he may get some sort of 'this lad done well' recognition but the chances of me finding out are very small.

Ruth - I've been looking into the reasons why thread snaps and I suspect that the tension is wrong. I've been a bit concerned and I dialled the tension down to 0. I've been thinking, and I think it's worth persevering.

Hugs and good health to all. 

That Monday Feeling

I'm feeling less organised than usual, which is epically unorganised. Worries about relative continue.

There is nothing so helpless as sitting on the sidelines when someone who you love dearly is poorly when you are really only a connection. Their family is awesome and navigating tricky waters so all I can do is add prayers and worry. 

When I first moved to Yorkshire in 1988, I found it very hard to make connections. It took me years to feel at home here. Yorkshire isn't your average English county. It has an international football (or soccer) team - the sort of team that is part of a region that has a strong identity, like Tibet or Cascadia. The rules are here if you are interested. The point is, Yorkshire is very much its own place and there is even a (fairly small) Yorkshire Independence movement. Moving a hundred miles to be here felt almost like moving to another country. I'm sitting and waiting on news of someone who made me welcome, like a stranger in a strange land. That wonderful human being that talked to me like I was worthy of conversation is in hospital and I'm still worried. 

In other news, here is a poor pic of the magpie nest.

DH spotted two magpies working together to pluck the poor rabbit. The tail is now completely detached.

The pic that I managed didn't really do the nest justice - it's big! It's like they're building it big enough to rent out an extra room!

I need to get working in the garden, but at the moment I feel like I'm dithering and not getting much done. 

Hugs and good health to all.

A Little More Distracted Than Usual

It's not really mine to tell, but someone in DH's family is now in hospital, so I'm worrying about them at the moment. 

I try and limit what I write about others on here, and that relative, who is awesome and who has always been incredibly kind to me, deserves privacy. But I'm thinking about them and I know I'll want to do some more running around over the next few days.

And I haven't finished the conversion from pillow cases to bags. The thread on the sewing machine keeps breaking. I think that there's a problem with the tension but the thread may also be weak. I don't feel like pushing a sharp needle through stiff ribbon on half a dozen pillow cases. I haven't shortened the curtains either. I have been prodding around them, and the only solution that I think I could plausibly manage is to take the curtains down, trim the bottom and then fold over a double hem and hemstitch by hand. I've done that before, but it's a daunting task. 

On the bright side, we've spotted a nest where a lot of the fibre may be going - it's a magpie nest, it's large and it's at the top of the laurels across the way. I'll try and get a pic. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Sew Far, Sew Good

I've been very hit and miss over the last few days. I think the rabbit on the front step has been plucked.

It's nesting season, a lot of small birds are used to coming in the garden even without the bird feeder and the fibres seem very tempting. All I know is that it's getting more and more ragged every day. 

The curtains in the living room have been hung.

That was taken at midday and they are doing an okay job of blocking out the light. I tried to line the study curtains but realised that was was just not up to wrestling with a total of eight square metres per curtain plus interlining and that it would be okay if I gave up. I checked on the label, it turns out that the king sized duvets are longer than standard so they over hung the radiators when DH and bear put them up.

The window is 90 inches by 76 inches, which needs a fair amount of fabric. I plan to try to turn them up tomorrow. 

I've had a go turning one of the pillowcases into a bag. I know that there are all sorts of fancy things that I could have done, but I didn't do them. Instead I got some ribbon and cord and aimed for the basics. I sewed a strip of ribbon each side of the pillowcase opening.

But the cord that I have is too thick. I'm going to have to replace it. I had a mare of a time trying to thread it through. In the end, I taped one end to a dinner knife and pushed it through that way. Elegant it wasn't!

Hopefully I'll get some better pics when I return to the sewing machine tomorrow. 

Writing stuff - the latest instalment from the White Hart is here. 

Hugs and good health to all.