Tuesday, September 01, 2020

Venturing out - week 24


And so life trickles on. We had a walk to Saughton Park yesterday. There's still plenty of colour, but things are beginning to go over.


Lots of oranges and purples lend an autumnal feeling to the park.


This is a beautiful hydrangea, though.


And this lovely thing - I can't think what it is. The pink is actually the seed heads. It looked like -


this when it was in flower. Not an astilbe - wrong leaves. Must ask our gardening expert friend. [Edited to add - he says it's persicaria polymorpha. And it is.]



Today we went to a garden centre, which felt daring. Everyone wore masks and kept distant from one another. I wanted to buy a verbena, which is still flowering at this time of year in other people's gardens, but there were none for sale. We could have bought a fake Christmas tree, though. (No!)

I did buy some bulbs to go in front of the fence we haven't got yet, but which in my mind will be behind the new turfed area that we haven't got yet either, which will go where the hedge was, that we got cut down. Planning ahead, that's the thing.


I've finished my African fabrics quilt top and it's VERY BRIGHT. (And needs an iron.) I would never have chosen any of those patterns, and certainly not together, but in a strange way I'm getting used to it. My half-Zambian friend wanted me to use the fabrics, though, so I had to get on with it. It's probably good for me, a wishy-washy pastelly person, to be forced out of my comfort zone. (Way out.) I hope my friend likes it. It'll take me a while to quilt, and then I've got two cot quilts to make: one for Daughter 2's friend and one for my best schoolfriend's grandchild. He/she is a fourth baby, so it seems a bit late to me, but my friend asked me to do it so I will. But not next: the other baby is due first.

A friend's grandchildren have been tested for Covid-19, having developed a fever - so they're isolating and the friend can't come for coffee in the garden as arranged. The coffee date is a minor thing but I can see this happening all winter and beyond - why would children not get infections at school and, till given the all-clear, have to quarantine? We're not nearly out of this wood yet.

7 comments:

  1. I love that quilt since I'm a fan of bright colors. Ashley brought home a bunch of Senegalese "tissu"(for which they're justly famous) and sewed some skirts and shirts out of similar fabric. We are definitely not out of the woods on the Covid19 infections. I dread the cold weather when people are inside much more.

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  2. Well done on rising to the challenge of that quilt! I'm sure your friend will treasure it.

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  3. It’s going to be a very stop start term. The grandchild is about to go back into a full class of 30, full time and the other is back to the childminder. I can see a fractured and fractious winter ahead. And all the garden get togethers will be driven indoors with windows reluctantly ajar in a nod to the tenet that fresh air keeps the thing at bay.
    The quilt is very cheering but I veer towards brights not pastels anyway.
    I tried to go into a garden centre but there were people standing in front of the seeds so I went away empty handed.

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  4. Gorgeous quilt!! And I'm with you on the kid quarantining... they don't have the awareness to maintain focus on the importance of masks, hand washing, covering mouth when coughing/sneezing... they should stay home, and stay safe.

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  5. You have beautiful place to which to venture out! And your quilt is beautiful. I really like it. You should be very proud of accomplishing something so out of your comfort zone.

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  6. The colors of flowers "going over" in the fall is more beautiful to me than all the rest. Especially hydrangeas!

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  7. Oh Wow -- LOOK at that quilt! You've done a GREAT job Pam -- I LOVE how you incorporated the stars into the border -- a nod to the traditional while being decidedly not traditional! And now you're in big trouble -- having a queue of quilts ... there will be no end!!!

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