Excuse my dust

The butterflies are doing very well this year, but the birds are suffering from the heat. J spends lots of time filling the feeders and washing out the bird baths after work.



Fruit flies are, unfortunately, thriving too. I'm not the world's biggest fan of spiders, but this morning I found myself telling one on the living room windowsill, 'Well, do your bl@*%y job then!'

Yesterday was much cooler here due to a breeze off the sea and although it was still 18 degrees C people were wearing jackets when I went to the supermarket. This is an odd indication of how quickly we adjust to new temperature ranges, because this is the part of the world where (young) people go out in short sleeves for a night out in winter.
I enjoyed a cooler day and my feet looked like, well, feet for a change.
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And on the subject of feet...I've signed up for Sockwars, brought to us by Yarnmonkey



Looks like (stressful) fun.

My brother rang to say they are coming for a vist tomorrow so I have begun a better-than-usual tidy up as I am confined to barracks waiting for deliveries. I'm tackling the tidying in nibble-sized chunks (not even bites). Tidy a bit, reward myself with a latte or some PC time or a few rows of knitting. Due to the construction of our large storage room/study and PCs area we no longer have a guest room. Consequently, having four visitors means much shuffling around to fit everyone in. Fortunately, j is more than happy to sleep in the study as he spends most of his time there anyway, but bedlinen needs changing and the house must be toddling baby-proofed as far as is possible in a house full of vivariums and electronic equipment. Maybe I should just take the Quentin Crisp approach ('dirt doesn't get any worse after the first four years...') or the Dorothy Parker approach ('Excuse my dust').

I finished Ruby's hoodie last night. It was lovely to work on something in such thick yarn that knitted up so quickly. Having been unable to get a cerise open-ended zip to match the yarn, I had my first experience with a clear zip. Horrible! Unwieldy, rigid mesh fabric and it took ages to sew in every point and edge that might possibly scratch her. I should have just got a contrasting colour in a fabric zip.



It looks too big; hopefully, she'll grow into it over the next 10 years or so...

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Time's up! Waxing the dining room table awaits me...

One more Dorothy Parker quote, possibly my favourite: When challenged to use the word horticulture in a sentence. 'You can bring a horticulture, but you can't make her drink.'