Now you see it.....

....and soon you won't.  This is a corner of our little back yard, all of which will be re-modelled this week.  The palm tree in the corner has been gone for a while and the corner bed is now home to feral geraniums.  Grass doesn't grow well in the yard because it's shaded, but there is a thriving crop of assorted weeds which do grow.  I was going to take a few pics to show you the ordinariness of it but didn't....however, you will see the new yard when it's done.  We will having things removed, and things added, and the grass will go, and there will be some new garden beds and lots of lovely native plants and a new gravel path.

We had thoughts of doing the work ourselves but decided against that, as some of it will be hard work and we are Olde Phartes.  Paving stones will be dug out and re-used, and concrete edgings will go, and the stones edging the current beds will be moved.  Some of those stones are granite probably from the hills just north of here, and even though they are not huge they are fairly heavy.  We are looking at making life easier for ourselves as we get older so making the garden low-maintenance is a good place to start.  A local horticulturalist looked at our yard and came up with a plan which we like; this week the heavy work will be done and new garden beds laid out, then next week the new plants will go in.  There will be two beds closer to the house than at present, which will make for kitty television once birds start visiting......mind you, I'm not sure that either of our cats would know what to do with a bird.  Binky was a good mouser in her younger days but as far as we know never caught a bird, while Bianca has been an indoor cat since a very young age.   They don't take much notice of birds, but a leaf blowing in the wind sends Bianca into spasms of excitement.

Quilting on the challenge quilt has been started but has been grinding very slowly.  Hopefully it will pick up this week.  The first two pieced blocks don't look too bad with quilting on them, but I had a brain snap and thought that perhaps quilting on each of those 2-1/4in pinwheels would look good.....and it would, you know......but have decided to do the rest of the quilting first, then - perhaps - all 125 of those little pinwheels will get quilted too.  One at a time, because there isn't a lot of scope for continuous lines on them.  If I don't run out of quilting oomph first.  Just the thought of having to weave in all those thread ends is enough to bring me out in a severe case of hives.........but it would look so good.......

It's been a busy week!  Thursday night choir is back - we had several weeks off because our director had to have medical matters attended to - and a local woman is starting (re-starting actually, there used to be a branch here a few years ago apparently) a branch of the Australian Sewing Guild.  Its first meeting was held during the week and will, I think, be excellent.  I am so fed up with clothing choices available in shops, once one gets to A Certain Age many of the clothes are very uninspiring, and the boutique-style shops have prices that make me gasp and styles that look as though they are trying too hard to be different with floaty bits here and asymetrical panels there.  Fine if one is very tall and reed-thin, but when one is short (5 foot two inches on a good day) and not slim any more.....sigh.....one would look and feel as though one was making a spectacle of oneself.  While one doesn't mind standing out a little from the crowd, one doesn't wish to be a figure of fun.

"Showy dress.
The glaring colors and "loud" costumes, once so common, have given place to sober grays, and browns and olives; black predominating over all.  The light, showily-trimmed dresses, which were once displayed in the streets and fashionable promenades, are now only worn in carriages.  This display of showy dress and glaring colours is generally confined to those who love ostentation rather than comfort."

Well, now......comfort before ostentation, I always say.  But brown?  Having lived through the surfeit of brown in the 1970s I'm not so sure about wearing a brown dress ever again.

Enjoy your days!