Ostrich Reaction

Quilting group this morning and a very mixed meeting

You may recall me mentioning our 92 year old group leader Cicely who I said had forgotten more than I'll ever know about quilting.

She has been unwell - becoming progressively more so - all summer since our show, eventually being admitted to hospital

Just over a week ago one of the group rang each of us to let us know that she had undergone a scan where they'd found pancreatic cancer

Sadly she passed away last Friday

Realistically we are all relieved that it wasn't prolonged for her to suffer for any great length of time but she will be greatly missed especially by some of the group who have known her for many years

Her funeral is this Friday and she has asked if those of us from the group who are attending can wear something 'quilty' - as you can imagine that had us all racking our brains

I didn't know her that well but I am free on Friday and have a large 7 seater car - several of the older members of the group can't drive and the church for her thanksgiving service, which follows a private cremation, is in the middle of nowhere a good half an hour from Taunton. So as my tribute to her, and the hand of friendship that she extended to me on arriving in Taunton last year, I shall taxi and accompany these members and consider it an honour to be able to do so.

However it wasn't all sadness this morning we managed to remember her with affection and some laughter and I like to think she would have been pleased at the second part of our Ostrich Challenge that I set them today - she always liked to both undertake and set challenges

The response to 'Circles or any part thereof' was less horrified than I expected thankfully, and bits of discussion has, I hope, sent them all on their way with their thinking caps firmly on - we shall see what they come up with :o)

Later today I decided to have a play with Part 6 - 'Opposites' and the 'Dutchman's Puzzle' ??? is what I came up with - thank goodness for that 'flying geese ruler' again

Then I laid out on the floor what I've got done so far - I'm happy with it :o)

The news on Dad is a little more positive - the unofficial result on his CT scan has showed nothing to be concerned about - they still need to do the ultrasound on his neck vessels. However they have altered his combination of medication and the attacks seem fewer and less severe so maybe we're getting somewhere.

They expect to do the angiogram tomorrow to get a clearer picture on the heart front so the fog is starting to clear

Louise had painted a sweet little picture of her and Grandad (complete with his flat cap and walking stick) standing outside the gates to Vivary Park in Taunton. This arrived with him today and lifted his spirits somewhat - Mum says he spent the entire day pestering the staff to look at it whenever one of them came within a 20 yard radius of him :o)

So we shall keep on hoping and praying for more positives tomorrow - thank you to all of you for your kind wishes and prayers :o)

The flower row for my Ostrich finished

Well that's another row done - hand appliqued flowers formed with english piecing over paper

Next will be 'Opposites'

That'll test their initiative and imagination they can interpret it any way they like

Both my sporty kids did well this weekend

Nick had a football (soccer for you girls over the other side of the pond) match away against Minehead which is a seaside town just over half an hour's drive away so that was a reasonably early start.

Before the match Minehead were #2 in the league and Nick's team, Blackbrook Wolves was #4

We won 6 - 2 and it was a cracking match - Nick plays in defence so doesn't get the same opportunities to score as his sister in rugby but he put in some good defensive play and stopped some hard pushing advances by the opposition definitely keeping their score line down

Today Sarah's team played a derby match away against our closest side geographically - Bridgwater

It was a real grudge match as last year they were a real force to be reckoned with and our last match was a loss with a 50 - Nil scoreline

This year some of Bridgwater's eldest girls have graduated to Ladies and some of our U14's, including Sarah, have moved up to U17s obviously changing the dynamics of both teams. However they were still a hard team to play and the half time score was 15 - 5 against us.

Historically we've not been particularly good at coming back from the underdog position but today the girls did themselves proud with Sarah scoring a try under the posts from a 60 yard dash down the pitch and then converting her own try to put 7 of the 27 points on the board

Next week they have another toughie against Thornbury but at least that one's at home

My dad is much the same in hospital - I had a longish chat with the ward sister when I phoned this morning. It appears that the funny turns he's been having seem very much like text-book TIA's or Mini-Strokes and there is a very real risk of him suffering a biggie in their wake

He still needs the angiogram they talked about first of all post silent heart attack as the Medical team feel they are fighting two problems - one the post heart attack and secondly the strokes on the other hand

The thought of a major stroke will be especially frightening him underneath as his mother died during her second stroke at 51 and he nursed her at the age of 21 for the year after her first one up to her death

I really hope the CT scan and neck scan this next week will show the cause of the problem and indicate something that they can treat

Having said that if a full blown strike is inevitable I hope it's a real biggie as I know he'd hate to be left in the same state as his mother - I desperately don't want to lose him but you wouldn't wish that sort of existence on your worst enemy

We're contemplating a flying visit next weekend after Nick's football and then back later that night for Sarah to sleep at home for her match on the Sunday - I think it would give Dad a real lift to see us all including the kids and put my mind a bit at rest too :o)

A little bit of dyeing for light relief

Nigel and I spent a few hours one day this week sorting out our bedding, table linen and towels. What a romantic way to spend an afternoon I hear you say.

We have a corner cupboard in our bedroom which is a funny shape as it is tucked in under the eaves of the apex above our front door area. When we moved in last year we earmarked it for a linen closet. The removal men duly stuffed it full of boxes of linen and since then we've merrily pulled out bits and pieces as we needed them with no regard to their order or how we'd get it all back in again.

As you can imagine twelve months later we've now got to the stage that the door won't close due to the tide of linen encroaching on our bedroom

Time for drastic action!

All the linen out - all the linen sorted into sensible quantities to store for day to day usage and balance to store for future supplies (yes that's how much we've accumulated all this time, the kids won't need to buy any for university!) - sensible quantities for day to day usage returned to nice set of roller baskets for ease of access. Balance of linen on our bed to pack up for storage for future supplies

In and amongst all this for some reason it was apparent that all our lovely white fluffy towels are beginning to look decidedly grey and shabby - why is it that children seem incapable of rinsing off dirty suds before acquainting their hands with the lovely white fluffy towel on the rail

So instead of chucking out these towels I decided that as they had loads of fluffy life in them I'd buy some washing machine dyes and give them a new brighter lease of life

Of course being the lover of space dyed fabrics that I am I couldn't resist popping a few bits of white sheeting I gathered about my stash to join them in the washing machine

They are all quite light as I had them in with several towels being given a new brighter life but it was fun to see how they all came out and they will sit happily in my stash for future use

The photo shows the initial results

L to R Green overdye on some turquoise/denim blue I had kicking about

Green over dye on a piece of the pink neighbour

'Burgundy' space dye (told you they'd come out quite light)

As for other non quilty/fabric related things we've had further news on my dad

He's still on the Coronary Care Unit and should have gone for an angiogram today with the intention of possibly moving him to Sheffield in a few days for angioplasty

However he had a couple more of his fainting attacks so they decided to postpone it for a day or two

They've now decided they think these attacks are probably mini strokes so he's now down for a CT scan and a scan of his neck - all a bit scary really

When I spoke to my mum after the ghastly conversation with my sister she insisted I didn't need to rush to go up to see him and that they also don't need the worry of me travelling all that way on top of everything else

I have to say this was the response I expected although it doesn't make the discussions with my sister any less painful

Mum did reassure my by saying she'd tell me if things developed to a situation where I needed to go up and we've been keeping in touch on the telephone several times a day for reassurance and support for each other

It is hard being so far away although my brother has been a brick both with Mum and for me on the phone - as he's nine years younger than me and always been the baby of the family it feels very strange to rely on him now but he's proving more than capable of shouldering the burden and thankfully I haven't needed to talk to my sister again

We're all drawing comfort from the fact that Dad's in the right place and should anything drastic happen he stands the best chance of them dealing with it to the best of their ability rather than laying on the pavement waiting heaven knows how long for an ambulance to arrive

I just hope and pray that he will be okay but if it is his time to go that he can go in peace with dignity

A little more work on the Ostrich

Well the next round for my unsuspecting ladies after the bias applique will be 'Flowers'

They are free to interpret this in any manner they decide - I'm even giving them the option to use a flowery fabric in a different pattern if they can't face doing actual flowers

For mine I decided to applique hexagon pieced flowers and here are the first three - four more to go for the full row

The other photo shows how to keep two primary school aged children and their grandmother occupied on a miserable wet half term afternoon.

Nigel's parents are stopping with us for a couple of nights to see the kids and us of course. Grandad was helping Daddy with the pre-conservatory electrics, I was stitching hexagon flowers sitting on the sofa in 'my spot' and Sarah was catching up with her mates on the internet after a very heavy rugby session earlier in the day - luckily the ankle held up and she had a great time.

Nick and Lou decided to play nicely together ( a rarity in itself I might add) and started the game you can see in the photo - it's based along the same lines as Twister where you have to put the relevant hand or foot onto the continent as selected by Nanna turning the arrow for the relevant instructions. They had great fun and loads of laughs - it made a welcome change from them being glued to the PS2 or the internet

We're in the throws of a family crisis in a different direction at present, my father is in the Coronary Care Unit up in Doncaster, about 240 miles (at least four hours drive) from us having suffered a 'silent heart attack' and subsequent fainting attacks. My dear sister ( sorry the tongue is firmly in the cheek here) is now giving me enormous grief because my mother and brother (who lives very near to Mum) happened to phone me before my sister to give an update of the situation.

She is very childish and loves to play the victim - you might recall her stay here at the end of the summer and the turmoil she managed to stir up then - and to cap it all has phoned me this afternoon to demand when I will be travelling up to visit the hospital

The after effects of the labyrinthitis are limiting the length of drive I can undertake to about an hour and both my husband and children have other commitments all weekend - of course this has given my sister the prime opportunity to impress upon my parents what a dutiful daughter she is and of course by reverse what a neglectful one I am. I don't doubt for a second that neither mum or dad would expect me to dash up there especially as he is in the best possible place and not in immediate danger

Of course the net result of all this is for me to feel wretched at not being able to get there and all the more worried about his welfare for not seeing him

Families! Who'd have them?

My little spot

One or two of you including Jeanne and Amy have been showing off yor special 'sit and stitch' spot

So I thought I'd show you mine

I snuggle up in the very well worn corner of our leather sofa - don't look too close or you'll be able to see how worn the fronts of the cushions are - obviously well used and we're loathe to replace it even if we had the money as it is sooooo comfortable

I have an old Singer treadle machine table tucked into the corner there which tends to be the dumping ground for all my bits and pieces as I stitch along and tucked down between the sofa and the table is a little hidey hole area not easily viewed from the rest of the room where I tend to stuff whatever I'm working on at that moment - only tidying it up as it starts to spill out into the rest of the room

The kids and for that matter DH all know this is MY seat so vacate it when I come into the room to sit down

It has a good view of the tv so I can watch it over the top of my reading glasses as I merrily hand applique away and during the day I also get a good view of the day out of the window

The lamp is one of two I possess - purchased at great expense pre children when I had more money than sense, the other one is a 1920's art nouveau lady with a fabulous peacock sitting on her shoulder. DH thinks both my ladies are hideous but tolerates them because I love them so much. They did have to go into long-term hibernation in boxes in the loft while the kids were small - it was just too big a risk and it was wonderful to make their acquaintance again once the kids were old enough to respect them. Surprisingly the one in the picture throws out just the right amount of light for me to sit there stitching :o)

Those of you who have been dropping by for a while will see from the decor why I picked the colour scheme for my internet ostrich (with the celtic knotwork centre) and my hexagon quilt to go with this room as throws for the backs of the sofa and the armchair

So come on girls - I've shown you mine - let's see yours!

Freezer Disaster

You might recall back in August me talking about filling my freezer ready for the autumn term. Cart loads of chilli, bolognaise sauce, casseroles etc squirrelled away ready for the impending autumn and winter.

Well very soon afterwards disaster struck.

We have two freezers, a little 'under-counter' one in the kitchen which houses ice cream, frozen peas and about a weeks worth of meals to save me going outside to the garage where the bigger chest freezer resides.

DH had been busy during the summer knocking odd jobs off his 'to-do' list to keep out of the way while my parents were in residence. One particular day after doing some outside gloss painting he had left a tub of white spirit complete with brushes in soaking on a low surface directly next to the freezer.

One of us inadvertedly knocked the aforementioned tub into the open freezer - aaaarrgghhhh!!!

I wiped up the spillage and removed any affected food from the top of the 'totally full freezer' - well it would be wouldn't it - these things never happen with an almost empty one.

Having done this I thought I'd dealt with the problem but sadly it became apparent over the next week or three that everything we took out of the freezer was tainted.

Not having realised the quantity of white spirit that had been deposited in the freezer it didn't occur to me at the time to empty everything out and clean out the bottom of the appliance.

Of course white spirit, being neat alcohol, doesn't freeze at domestic freezer temperatures and was sitting in the base gradually pervading everything in there.

Being the busy sort of people we are it took us a wee while to get round to investigating the situation more thoroughly and once we did we realised we were going to have to destroy the entire contents of the freezer - hence the fascinating photo of these items going into bin liners before being transported to the tip.

As you can imagine having spent all that time filling the dratted thing I could have wept at having to empty it all again and waste all that food.

Sarah was a real gem and sat and made a full inventory of everything as it was discarded so I now have the joy of valueing it all (not that easy when things are homemade) and then seeing if there's any way we can claim on the house contents insurance - hence the photographic evidence.

This morning the entire Bebbington clan (well the Taunton contingent anyway) had a multiple dental appointment - our twice yearly check-up. NHS Dentists are notoriously difficult to find in the UK now but we were lucky and managed to sign up with one here in Taunton - we were never that lucky in Gloucester. Thankfully because of this it only cost us a total of £31 for Nigel's and my check-up and the kids go free.

I'm glad to say that we all had the all clear, I'm very proud to say that none of my children have needed any dental work at all except Sarah's orthodontist brace - very rare in this day and age considering the amount of sweets and fizzy drinks that their peers consume. Neither Nigel or I can boast that we got to their age without any fillings, that's for sure. Mind you fluoride in the toothpaste and the drinking water has also contributed to this difference 30-40 years down the line.

Because, when I booked the appointment six months ago, I didn't realise Nigel would be taking some leave from work, I booked the appointment for 8.15am so he'd be able to head straight off for work.

As you can imagine it was a bit of a pain having to drag everyone into town for that time on the first day of the half-term holidays.

Still it meant that we managed to visit the dentist, do all the little shopping bits and pieces in town, pick up some fabric (me on that one of course) and do some supermarket shopping before returning home around 10.45 - wow, can't you get so much more done when you get up in the morning!

So the rest of the day up to now has been doing some more cooking to refill that beautifully spring-cleaned empty freezer - shepherds pie base, chilli and lamb and garlic casserole simmering away as we speak.

The fabric photo shows my purchases - what looks like a fairly boring assortment of sand shades for my ongoing group ostrich, which is precisely what I'm going to do a bit more on now. I never did get that baby quilt sandwiched yesterday but it is draped over my sewing machine quietly reproving me for not sorting it out so that's still on my immediate to do list too :o)

It's Carnival Time here in Somerset

October and November are Carnival Time in Somerset

For all you bloggers outside the UK the English have what might seem a very odd tradition - 'Bonfire Night' aka 'Guy Fawkes Night' where we celebrate the thwarting of a plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament in the 17th Century by one Guy Fawkes Esquire by lighting bonfires burning a 'guy' (effigy of a man made from straw and old clothes) on the top and setting off copious quantities of fireworks

In Somerset these celebrations also include a number of town carnivals all around the county where on various weekends the townsfolk line the streets after darkness has fallen to watch a procession of illuminated 'floats' interspersed with individuals and local groups in costumes.

All throughout the year various carnival clubs work in secret to build these illuminated floats in great secrecy hidden in out buildings away from the general public and the prying eyes of their competitors ready for their unveiling at the first carnival

The floats have countless electric light bulbs often mounted on moving parts with lots of loud music and people dancing away on them and take the form of a long trailer with a huge structure on top linked with a second vehicle usually housing a generator to power all those light bulbs and the PA system blaring out the music

It is a real spectacle peculiar to the county and brightens up those early winter evenings - lots of money is collected for local charities around the way with several dump bin type vehicles that the kids love to throw coins into to hit a painted target along with many people shaking collecting tins as they walk by

Last night was Taunton's carnival and having watched it as new residents last year it really brought it home to us that we've now been down here over a year. It took well over an hour for the parade to go past our spot in its entirety and thankfully the weather stayed dry as we've had some terrific rain over the past few days.

This morning Sarah had county training about an hour from here at Wells - home of a beautiful ancient cathedral - mind you standing out in the drizzle watching the girls hone their passing skills meant the cathedral was the farthest thing from our minds

Fortunately the ankle stood up to the session and should be okay for the TID day on Wednesday

This afternoon, as her coach still hasn't produced the youngest supporter of the Fillies Team and will be induced on Wednesday if nothing happens naturally before, I've pulled out his quilt top and am going to sandwich it next thing - that'll test my knees :o( scrambling about on the lounge floor with a box of safety pins and my pinning tool.

Ostrich progress

Wooohooo - not such a technophobe after all - well at least I managed to download some photos onto DH's laptop anyway!

The 'person' photo shows the determination of DD1 to continue using the computer despite being advised to elevate and ice her sprained ankle - would that I could get my leg up that high never mind use the computer :o(

Still it shows her determination - it seems to have paid off and she's almost back to normal again - she will have to take it steady at County training tomorrow and work with it well strapped but it appears she will be ok for the Talent Identification Day on Wednesday.

The other photos show all the work I've been merrily putting in on my group ostrich.

The initial row was 'Stars' which I've shown you before and needs to be completed by 1st November

Then after that I'm giving them 'Circles or any part thereof' - for this I did Jockey's Cap I think they're called.

I'm surrounding each row with 3/4" borders and then separating them with a 3" sand coloured strip with the heart, leaves and berries design you see just in the centre.

The third part will be 'Nine Patch or other squares' - for this I did nine patch with four patch in amongst

Then the fourth part will be 'Bias Strips' - they can choose to use these however they wish and a few of them want to learn Celtic knotwork - I felt that Celtic knotwork wouldn't really fit in with the overall theme of my quilt so plumped for using the bias strips as stems for my flowers

Out of the seven parts this one will be the middle one so I can allow it to be different from the other six which are made up of 7 x 6" blocks set in a line with 3/4" sashings between them

I have decided on themes for the other three months but I shall keep you in suspense until I've completed them

So far the quilt will be - from the top working down - stars, jockey's cap, nine patch, and applique flowers with bias stems

I'm a bit naughty working my way through ahead of everyone but I'm enjoying it so much I can't bear to put it down and of course my excuse is it's nice to have my part completed when I announce what the next part will be.

This of course is why I'm not fully assembling the thing as I go or else they'd get clues about the following part before their time :o)

Well that was the plan anyway

It sounds to me from different people's comments that I've got off very lightly with this labyrinthitis - nothing like as bad as your descriptions - thank goodness. It is still lurking around but I don't have to take quite as high a dose of the balance tablets so am not perpetually trying to doze off at every opportunity now. Not clear of it yet but working on it :o)

Well the plans for the weekend were made in good faith and as is the case with all such things they ended up being adapted on the hoof!

MIL rang Saturday morning while DH and DS were at football to put us off as she had a stinking cold and couldn't face visitors, plus didn't want to pass it on to us either.

Hence we ended up travelling the 80 miles to our old home town for the match on the Sunday morning and returning immediately afterwards. It was very strange to drive past our old house and see the changes the new owners have made. I'm glad to say I didn't feel at all homesick for anything about the town but it was odd to see changes that have occurred like a brand new Tesco on previous wasteland

We had also planned to call on a good friend while in the area but he phoned as we were leaving on Sunday morning and cried off with a similar maladie to Nigel's mum - obviously lots of it going around!

So just the match it was ...................

And what a hellish hard match it was too. We knew that the opposition were no pushover and the final score of 39 - Nil against us was really no surprise but to our girls credit the score really didn't reflect the true picture of the game. Our girls played harder, better and with more conviction than I've ever seen them before and the score, if it were to be a true reflection of both teams performance, should have been much closer.

It was not a game without casualties - Sarah sprained her ankle (fortunately only mildly) plus there was a suspected broken collarbone and a pretty substantial case of concussion on our side. The opposition lost one player with an ankle broken in two places and dislocated which meant an ambulance on the pitch and game abandoned part way through the second half. Jolly rough sport - Rugby - even if they are girls.

The ankle sprain has meant Sarah has spent Monday and Tuesday this week at home with her leg elevated and iced to try and ensure that she's fit for Sunday's County training and more importantly the Talent Identification Day next Wednesday where they select the top 30 girls from around the country at a total of 4 locations to put them forward on a fast-track accelerated training programme to really encourage and develop the cream of the game for future England squads.

As she will probably be the youngest participating there is little chance she would be selected this time but it entails a full day of expert coaching which is a real priviledge to be in receipt of and keeps her name in the frame and profile high for the future.

She has had more than a little confrontation with Dad tonight as she wanted to go down to club training as usual but just stand around in the cold and damp watching the others - he felt, understandably, that this wouldn't help her ankle at all and refused to take her down except for the last half hour so of course he's now the owner of the dubious honour of being 'THE worst parent in the world!' ........... well it makes a change from me I suppose although she doesn't usually throw that one at me very often :o) Don't you just love teenagers - why does nobody tell you about all this at ante-natal classes? But I suppose if they did we'd never believe them :o)

I've spent today on a training course - 'Introduction for Clerk to Governors' which is the other half of my role in my job. Pretty heavy stuff but thankfully delivered in a light-hearted and interesting format although I did come back pretty brain-boiled. So nothing new there then!

I could have really done without being out of the office as I only have tomorrow and then am off for two weeks and a day for half term with three inset (teacher training days) wrapped round it - Hurray!!!

The two younger ones have a tag rugby tournament after school tomorrow teatime - both representing their school with Nick as team captain - they're both fast and nippy runners who are good at swerving to avoid their tags being removed - makes for entertaining watching and I get just as excited watching them as I do watching their big sister participating in the rough stuff

Who knows maybe they'll follow her into full contact rugby eventually - we'll see.

Later on tomorrow evening we have a presentation do at Sarah's school where she will be presented with no less than five awards - house prize, science, PE, french and food technology. As far as we can gather no other pupil has been awarded that many so we're very proud of her even if we are the worst parents in the world - strikes me we can't be doing too bad a job if this is the end result!

The picture is an old wallhanging I made for our bedroom when I was playing once with a buggy barn pattern for hearts. The colours match my Flightless Beauty but it's never got as far as the wall yet - maybe I'll put it up when we decorate the room eventually

I've been merrily stitching away on my group ostrich - you may recall I said the next round would be circles or any part of. I've done a row of jockey's cap blocks in similar materials and I've got so carried away I've done the following month (3) of 'Nine Patch or Squares' and am working on month 4 which is 'Bias Tubing in a format of your choice' - I'm using it as stems for a long row of hand appliqued flowers. I'm really enjoying working in the muddy colours which would never be part of my usual palette. It's good to stray outside your comfort zone every now and then. I've no idea what I'll do with the finished quilt eventually but I'm loving working on it.

Once I've sussed the blessed camera and downloading it on this machine I'll post some progress photos for you

Sarah's coach still hasn't had her baby (now three days late) so I plan to sandwich and finish her baby quilt on Saturday - I have got as far as getting the wadding out of the loft so we're making progress albeit slow!

Roll on tomorrow tea time and no school for over two weeks - YES!

A funny old week

It's been a funny old week this week

Firstly I've been not too good as I'm suffering with Labyrinthitis - a previously unheard of (by me) complaint affecting the inner ear which keeps making the room spin when I least want it to.

The doc has given me balance tablets but they make me, if not drowsy, pretty tired all the time

Things have been incredibly busy at work and as I've had the Area Finance Officer in twice and the Governor Support Adviser in once I really couldn't afford to be off this week as the doctor really wanted me to be. So I've battled through and Nigel has been a real brick coming home from work as early as he could get away with to do the taxi runs and enable me to go to bed early just to be able to cope with it all.

Still we've got to the end of the week relatively unscathed and the balance thing is improving albeit slowly

The two younger ones are both cub scouts and the other week they were all given a quiz about the town to answer for a 'local area knowledge' badge.

So two Sundays ago we spent the afternoon as a family wandering round our adopted home town looking for clues and generally answering all the questions to the best of our ability. One of the answers was given to us by friends who are locals as it's the colloquial name for a particular bridge which we would never have found written down anywhere. However the rest were all our own work

The photos above are pictures of various views of the town which I gleaned from the net as I haven't managed to get long enough near the laptop to work out how to download from the camera

The funniest thing about all this was that the kids found out on Tuesday that they were two of the only three cubs who got all the answers right - Akela (the cubscout leader) thought this was hilarious as they're the only ones who don't come from the town. The other boy to get full marks was the boy we kept bumping into on that Sunday afternoon as we looked round and searched for the solutions

Tomorrow after Nick has played football we head off up to Worcester to the Out-Laws (Nigel's parents) for an overnight stay as Sarah has a match against her old club in Gloucester on Sunday afternoon and Worcester is a good deal nearer to make the journey from on Sunday morning. Plus we get to see Nigel's family and probably catch up with some friends in Gloucester too - lots of birds with one stone there - Result!!!

Gosh it's been ages

I hate posting without pictures - it's always nice to see what everyone is doing but today I have no choice

Our home computer has died a death (well almost) it's about at Intensive Care level anyway and has gone away to be fixed - who knows when it will be back - your guess is as good as mine

Hence I'm using DH's laptop and obviously have no access to all our photo files so can't post anything picture wise until I can take some new ones and work out how to download them onto this machine

With only being able to use this laptop while he's at home, the times I'd usually post are not available to me either so I may well be posting less frequently over the next week or more

I've done stitching this week, but in dribs and drabs, rather than having the chance to get a good run at it.

Work is challenging to say the least - lots and lots of learning to do so by the time I get home, run the taxi service, feed the family not to mention trying to tackle a bit of basic housework etc I'm so brain-boiled and shattered that I can only concentrate on easy stuff

Most of the bits and bobs I've done have been handstitching on my ostrich - paper pieced flowers, leaves and butterflies all hand appliqued

Sarah has had her first club rugby match of the season this afternoon - she and quite a few of her team mates had moved up an age group and were playing with the big girls and this was the first outing for the new line up

They really did themselves proud and it was hard to tell who were the newly moved up members. The match was excellent with Sarah getting 7 points on the scoresheet with one try from a 62 yard run and a conversion. Our girls went on to win 32-27 against Clevedon which had three of Sarah's regional mates on their side. A super match and a terrific first win of the season for a strong looking new squad - long may it continue :o)

Sarah's rugby coach is due to have her baby next Saturday so she was waddling around with a very low looking bump and the rest of us looking on anxiously just in case we had to call for hot water and towels rather than the usual medi-kit staples of dry ice spray and the magic sponge!

So I must now get that black, burgundy and white cot quilt sandwiched and quilted because that new Taunton supporting baby could arrive at any time

It's good to be back posting - now I'll have to get the junior members of the family to instruct their technophobic mum how to download photos onto Dad's laptop - Don't hold your breath!!!