Things Here Lately

I'm currently enjoying the last night of a peaceful Easter Weekend home alone.  I've done some housework, pottered in the garden,  caught up with a couple of friends and generally made the most of having no schedule to keep or anyone else to look after.  

• Autumn is definitely making her presence felt, my dahlias are pretty much finished, though my zinnias and cosmos are still flowering well.  I decided to make a big beautiful bouquet to brighten up my house this weekend, featuring the last of my dahlias, lime green iresine leaves, cosmos and zinnia.  After a few years of trial and error in my garden, it's nice to have plants that can survive a hot summer, little watering thus enabling me to finally have a picking garden.

• Another Autumn blessing is that my feijoa trees finally start dropping their fruit.  I love eating them raw or mixed with apple in a fruit crumble.  However I recently saved a recipe for Topsy Turvy Feijoa Cake, and made it today. Perfectly delicious.

• I had a sewing day last weekend with friends. I started making a new shirt which I finished off slowly over the following week.  It is the Seychelles Top from Itch to Stitch.  I made the long sleeve version, size 4B in a lovely rayon from Spotlight.  I'm really pleased with how it has turned out, especially as it was my first time doing a V neckline.  So pleased in fact, I started another one today.  Miss B,my usual photographer was away, so I had fun using the self timer function on my phone for these photos.

• I came across a new word the other day.  Tsundoku - a Japanese word for the acquisition of books and keeping them  in a pile while never reading them, it can also refer to a pile of books.  Now I know I am guilty of having piles of books in my house,  (that's an occupational hazard when one works in a library), but generally they are all read. These four books have kept me entertained and educated over the past month.  All are historical fiction, except for Banks which is a biography on Joseph Banks the renowned botanist.  I have enjoyed them all and recommend any of them if you are looking for an interesting read.

Wishing you all wonderful week ahead.