I overslept today. I don't like alarm clocks, and I'm usually awake really early so it's not normally a problem. But every so often I don't wake up, and then we're all late and there's no time to wash my hair, so it's frizzy and fuzzy and feeling wrong all day. Today was one of those days. I had to make a second trip to school as well, to drop off the middle boy's recorder for a lesson he hadn't been told about, which added to the feeling of the day getting away from me. It was one of those days where I didn't really accomplish very much.
I did hack open the last winter squash though, and used some of it to make brownies. It was really hard to get into though, it make me think I probably won't grow this variety (Turk's Turban) this year. I had visions of the knife slipping as I pushed down on it with all my weight.
Yesterday was far more productive. Down at the allotment I did some weeding, spread some manure over the asparagus bed and planted two dozen broad bean plants. At home I started unravelling a pink silk scarf that I've never worn. It's very bright, but I think if it was nicely knitted I might wear it sometimes. The yarn is gorgeous, too nice to be stuffed sadly at the back of the cupboard. I've got yarn for this cardigan as well, and I'm still thinking about that blanket. Is it a symptom of spring I wonder, that desire to start too many things?
I spent some time "randomly" arranging quilt squares as well. One hundred and twenty of them. Now they just need to be sewn together. Check back with me in a year or two.
The book belongs to the biggest boy, but I love looking through it too. It's the Observer's Book of Birds' Eggs, and all of the eggs are illustrated in actual size. We've been reading Arthur Ransome's "Great Northern?", so I had a look at divers' eggs. The tiny ones are fascinating as well. Imagine how small those little birds are. The goldcrest's egg is about 13mm long. Some of the eggs are beautifully coloured and speckled too. The Observer's books are quite lovely, small enough to fit into a pocket or rucksack but full of information. If you want to see a couple of pages from the book of birds, have a look at Jacquie's post, she has some photos of hers.
The piggie has been a bit under the weather for the past couple of days. I'm hoping that sunshine and grass will help. The vet is a great believer in sunshine therapy. Let's hope the high pollution goes soon as well. And a nice cloudless sky for viewing the eclipse would be good. The children are all going to be not looking directly at it at school tomorrow, with some complicated arrangement of cardboard. I've no idea how I'll be looking at it, without actually looking at it, but if the skies are clear tomorrow I'll think of something. Wishing you safe viewing. CJ xx
It's awful to oversleep the rest of the day never seems to go quite to plan. I went up to London for work early yesterday morning. I must have woken up 4 times during the night as I was concerned the alarm clock wouldn't wake me up! The colours and patterns in your quilt are so lovely, it will be worth all the time you have spent creating it. Bird eggs are such a range of colours, I remember pictures from the ladybird books. Sarah x
ReplyDeleteWe have just been watching a video on the BBC website on a complicated eclipse viewing contraption involving cardboard, duck tape and binoculars. I can see it won't happen. At least not in time.. I shall have to console myself with observing the gathering gloom..
ReplyDeleteI always love when your little piggie makes an appearance. I hope she is feeling better soon.
ReplyDeleteI've been so tired lately and I overslept a little this morning myself. Luckily my husband was still home and he woke the kids and got them up, but I soon took over. I was so disoriented, though. I love the look of your bird egg book. I haven't seen very many in real life but I think the variations are so interesting. Here, I mostly find plain white eggshells around, but occasionally I find what I assume are robins' eggs. If the eclipse viewer they'll be using is the kind I'm thinking of, it does work. Hopefully they'll be able to see it. We still have some glasses from the Transit of Venus (I think it was?) a few years ago. I guess they're a souvenir now, I don't know if we'll ever use them again. I hope your piggy is okay. Have a good weekend.
ReplyDeleteI know that feeling all too well....I have a really hard time popping up in the morning and before I know it I am scrambling to get all the beans in the car. The brownies sound awesome and your quilt up there is outstanding!!! But your plot! Ah! Just looks like heaven to me to be able to plant all of that goodness! Here is to a great start to your morning tomorrow....hope piggie feels better too!! Nicole co
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness that is so much sewing but in "a year or two" when it's finished it will be sooo beautiful! Hope your guinea pig gets better fast!
ReplyDeleteGood luck on seeing the eclipse.. I've seen a few and they are always amazing. I liked the bird's egg illustrations.. one rarely gets to see wild birds eggs, do they? I hope tomorrow is a better day for you. ((hugs)), Teresa :-)
ReplyDeleteWhat a great selection of photos, and the one of your guinea pig at the end was the best, I do hope she is ok. Now the weather is warming up we have started to put ours outside again, it really wears him out because he doesn't nap when he's outside.
ReplyDeleteI love your quilt squares, and your realistic time frame for completion!
Just noticed the mist is burning off so am hoping for good things for the eclipse, although I shall be driving at the time so may have to stop in a lay by!
Have a good weekend CJ
Caz xx
This post had me nodding and smiling! I haven't planted or sown anything yet.
ReplyDeleteIt's overcast here this morning so I doubt if the eclipse will be visible. Flighty xx
I don't use an alarm clock either, not since being home with the nipper instead of braving the commute from hell every day.
ReplyDeleteI'm really starting to feel like starting an allotment campaign locally. There are lots of us terraced house-dwellers in the village with small yards so who knows? Maybe we'll get somewhere.
That squash looks pretty but yes, they are a bugger to cut up. Hope you enjoyed your brownies.
Wishing you a lovely weekend planting, sowing and growing.
S x
Lovely post as always - that quilt will be worth waiting for I am sure! Eclipse here in Somerset will not be visible unless the fog lifts before then but I guess it will go dark anyway.
ReplyDeleteI don't like that feeling of a day going wonky before you even start. I wash my hair every morning too and know exactly what you mean about it affecting your entire day if you can't!
ReplyDeleteI LOVED seeing the pic of your piggie. Our piggie, Brave Sir Robin, arrived when L was 5- they learnt to read together and he lived in L's bedroom, going outside for grass and sunshine during the day. I still miss him hugely, such a dear soul. xx
I love those quilt squares, how pretty! I hope you find something nice for that lovely yarn, the colour's great :) I thought about Turk's Turban at some point but we never quite got there, we did the Jack o Lantern pumpkins last year and there was no taste at all - I guess they're more for carving! I'd like to try squash again this year, despite the effort required to peel it it's my favourite veg. Hope piggie is feeling better soon x
ReplyDeleteYour quilt is going to be stunning when it's finished - beautiful fabrics. Your music and metronome made me smile - E takes her Grade 8 piano on Monday and if I have to hear another scale I feel I may emigrate! Your pumpkin looks good - I've never tried that sort but it certainly looks interesting. Hope your little piggie perks up soon - we could all do with a bit of sun. We were hoping to see the eclipse but it's too cloudy hereabouts. Have a lovely weekend. x
ReplyDeleteYour quilt is going to be amazing! Are you hand sewing it? Bad hair days are the norm in my house. I can never find a brush, and the dryer has been missing for weeks, no doubt repurposed for one of Sam's explosive experiments. The eclipse cam and went and the cloud cover was complete. It did get darker, the light sensitive safety lights outside my work came on. Have a lovely weekend. xx
ReplyDeleteWow - you've been busy! I hate alarm clocks too, and it's always the joy of school holidays for me that I don't have to rush. In fact, I'm usually awake at the same time, but there is something about not setting the alarm clock which makes it better.
ReplyDeleteHope the piggie feels better in the sunshine.
We had so much cloud the eclipse was a bit of a let down. I remember the last one, and it was fantastic here. Oh well ....
have a great weekend. x
You never seem to catch up with the rest of the day when you oversleep, not a nice feeling. I've said exactly the same thing about the squash I grew last year, Little Gem Rolet, their skins are so hard it's impossible to break through them. I won't grow them again. Hope you managed to see the eclipse. I got a text from Daniel, he's studying Astrophysics at uni, to say that they'd had telescopes set up on the Astrocampus to watch it.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful quilt colours :-)
ReplyDeleteCJ - that quilt is going to be AMAZING! The fabrics you chose are so beautiful and full of detail - love that owl and chickadee square! That squash looks like a beast - I hope you had plenty of band-aids on hand just in case.
ReplyDeleteI love the colours and patterns in your quilt. It will beautiful. I love the photo of your guinea pig. We had one very similar when the girls were small. I think they make such lovely pets.
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful collection of fabric for your quilt, I've never seen a quilt like it, it's going to be beautiful and there is nothing worse than a bad hair day, mine very much has a mind of its own! Poor piggy, hope the sun helps. I love them they are so much fun and so cute, I had them as a kid and my lids had them when they were wee :)
ReplyDeleteLike you I don't use alarms, I prefer to wake up naturally.. I hate oversleeping.. luckily it doesn't happy very often and I'm usually up at around 6am.. but if I don't wake up till 6.30 or worse 7am.. the rest of the day feels out of sorts. Hope your little piggie feels better soon. Too cloudy here to see any of the eclipse.. oh well there is always 2026! :o)
ReplyDeleteOh, those days are the worst! It seems like when the morning routine doesn't go well, the whole day suffers for it. Those quilt squares are beautiful, and I can't wait to see the finished product. I'm starting to get the creative bug, too, but just find myself thinking of a lot of projects but not really completing anything:) Hope the piggie is feeling better soon. More sunshine will be good for us all, I think! Have a great weekend, CJ!
ReplyDeleteWe all have 'bad hair days' sometimes - we don't get up at the right time and the day (or us) is always out of step somehow ....... but tomorrow is another day and usually back to normal.
ReplyDeleteI too love the The Observer's books, we have the ones on birds, plus sea fish and freshwater fish.
Have a good weekend
All the best Jan
love those quilt blocks, just gorgeous xxx
ReplyDeleteHey CJ,
ReplyDeleteYou keep it very quiet, but you really are a clever old thing aren't you? You seem to just quietly get on with it, while everyone else (myself included) trumpets the fruits of their labours. You are not alone with the misery of bad hair days. Every day is a bad hair day for me. I actually lost loads over Christmas when Dad was really ill. I joked at the time that it was sympathy hair loss, but in reality I was appalled by it all. It hasn't grown back yet. I'm not a particularly vain person, but I am struggling with it all.
Have great weekend,
Leanne xx
I't s horrible oversleeping, isn't it? Makes you feel out of sorts for quite a while afterwards. Your quilt looks gorgeous, and that pink wool too. Hope the spring sunshine does your guinea pig some good - I think we all benefit from it :)
ReplyDeleteCathy x
No cloudless eclipse here, We also need to use up our winter squash. I hope Piggy us feeling better poor little thing,
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteBad hair day can quickly roll into a bad bad day. But it sounds like you found some silver lining there in fizzy and frizzy curls of yours. Lovely quilt project you have going on there... I am in awe of your accomplishment. Happy weekend dear.
Xxx
Annette
I wonder if you are right that it is spring which starts us going with far too many projects. I am just the same and have knitting and sewing projects bubbling away in my brain despite the fact that there is so much to do outside that the idea of doing anything major inside is clearly a nonsense. The longer days make me feel so much more energetic I think I can do everything!
ReplyDeletethere's nothing worse than an oversleep -- you simply never catch up with the day. and i hate being late for things so that only compounds the frazzle of oversleeping.
ReplyDeletei love old books like that.....something about the typeface and the inks they used for the illustrations...*sigh* <-- book-nerd moment.
i'm trying not to be jealous of your seedlings and planting. :)
Ah we had an oversleep here on Friday, which rarely happens. My teenager got off to school late and missed his first period. Now mind you my husband was awake but forgot to make sure his son was too. I usually hear the shower start and that wakes me, no shower alert so I was fast asleep. It happens rarely but it does sort of throw you whole day off.
ReplyDeleteHugs to you,
Meredith
That quilt...oh my goodness. It reminds me of an Angie Lewin print, with the colours and prints you've chosen and the strong theme of nature. It's going to be stunning. x
ReplyDeleteI do like the colour palette of your quilt squares. Are they all paper pieced?
ReplyDeleteyour post reminded me of a bus ride with my mother - I was a teenager squeezed at the end of a seat next to someone rather large, the bus made a sharp turn and I ended up in the aisle both my mother and I collapsed in giggles as I picked myself off the floor - but the rest of the bus did not crack a smile, which of course made us giggle all the more.
ReplyDeleteThose quilt squares and book are beautiful. I feel relaxed just looking at pictures of them! Of course, with the quilt squares you've done all the work so it's easy to feel at ease observing your hard labor. I hope the piggie is feeling better now!
ReplyDelete