Something rare - time at home!

This week has been one of the busiest that we have had for a long time - many regular commitments and some irregular ones have all happened together, but now we're enjoying a rare afternoon at home.

It hasn't been totally wasted, though; a small project was assembled at sewing group.  Mind you, the pieces were cut out two months ago and have just been sitting around in my sewing room since then waiting for an opportunity to be made up.

Isn't it interesting?  My Victoria, B.C., friend Lois (who doesn't have a blog) gave me this row by row "West Coast View" last year when we visited, it's from Snip & Stitch Sewing Centre, Nanaimo, one of our shopping stops on a trip up island, on a freezing cold day with a howling gale blowing.  I love the colours!  It will have a border or two added and become a table centre.  Rose Marie also gave me a row by row from Ontario (which, coincidentally, uses very similar fabrics and colours) and it is next on the 'smaller projects' list, once Winding Ways is quilted; I plan to have a go at needle turn applique on that one so it may even go away with me next month.

Six days to go until the challenge quilts are revealed, mine definitely won't be finished.......but I can live with that.  The world won't stop spinning on its axis because of it.

This morning the uke group played at a Christmas fair for a local worthy cause and it was fun, as usual.  We even had people dancing when we played "Sway"!  Two more weeks until the next gig, we'll be famous yet, you know.

It hasn't been all fun and games lately, though.  Last weekend our choir director's partner died; he had been ill for some time so it was not a surprise, but was still sad.  Yesterday he was given a send-off with much love, music and friends, and a couple of songs from the choir.

Today is one year since we arrived back from our trip to Canada, and given today's heat I would gladly go back.  If only it wasn't for the long flight up there in a tin box with 300 of my new best friends and 97 crying babies........

Saw my GP earlier in the week for a check up, and pointed to a 'thing' on my right cheek.  Oh yes, he said, peering at it through that magnifier thingy doctors use, it's a sun spot.  Keep an eye on it, he said.  (pretty difficult when it's low down on my cheek south of my eyes)  Take photos on your phone looking in a mirror to track its progress, he said.  Um yes, I said but I probably won't take a skin selfie, next time I see him in a couple of months he can check it again.  You're not burning it off, I said, you can burn anywhere else but not my face.  No, he said, it will probably have to be (gulp) surgically removed eventually.  Something to look forward to, for sure.

Oh, the fun of having ancestors from northern Europe.

"Freckles.
Freckles are of two kinds.  Those occasioned by exposure to the sunshine, and consequently evanescent, are denominated "summer freckles;" those which are constitutional and permanent are called "cold freckles".  With regard to the latter, it is impossible to give any advice which will be of value.  They result from causes not to be affected by mere external applications.  Summer freckles are not so difficult to deal with, and with a little care the skin may be kept free from this cause of disfigurement.  Some skins are so delicate that they become freckled on the slightest exposure to open air in summer.  The cause assigned for this is that the iron in the blood, forming a junction with the oxygen, leaves a rusty mark where the junction takes place."

What do you know.......I have rusty skin, and here was I thinking that it was only my joints which were rusty.

Enjoy your days!

Finally......quilting has started!

Yesterday the sewing room was re-organised, small tables were moved to better positions to support the weight, and today the first quilting stitches were taken on Euan's quilt.

 It's quite bright.......that orange sashing and border is only one inch wide, so I am quilting a wavy line down the middle using the walking foot.  My first thought was something more adventurous but it is for a baby, so the quilting doesn't need to be worthy of taking first prize in an international show.

As promised, here are some of the flowers and buds on one of our pretty correa plants.

It's not very big yet, so I hope you appreciate that I had to get down on hands and knees to take this.  Getting down is still not too bad, but getting up again is a different story.........

On Tuesday I had a minor medical procedure.  For some time now there has been a blemish right smack dab in the middle of my forehead; it has been frozen/burnt off twice but still comes back, so I made an appointment to have it seen to.  The doctor didn't think it is anything ominous but as Australia has the highest rate of melanoma and other skin cancers in the world, I felt it was worth checking.  I almost wish I hadn't, now.......first there was an injection at the edge of the blemish, then a couple of minutes later another one nearby.....I don't like injections at the best of times, and having to have two - TWO! - in my forehead was a bit much......then he took two scrapings of skin to be sent for biopsy, one for each injection, because there were two patches of scaly skin.....then the nurse slapped on a large white dressing, and I was given instructions on how to care for the wound.  The dressing looked like a headlight, a beacon shining forth from my head, but as the instructions were to soak it off in the shower the following morning the indignity of wearing it was only for one day.  Then there was the delight of having a scabby forehead that looked as though I had taken on someone bigger and stronger than myself, and lost.......but it is healing nicely now, although a small bruise next to the wound will, I suspect, take a little longer to go away.

If the biopsies don't show a problem then nothing more needs to be done, but if there is cause for concern I will be notified about a follow-up visit.  No news yet, so fingers crossed!

Like many Australians my ancestry is from the British Isles, England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland, and like many Aussies I have skin which would be better off in a milder climate away from our harsh sun.  However I was born here, my parents were born here, two of my four grandparents were born here, some of my great-grandparents were born here, great-great-grandparents too......my family roots in this country go back to at least 1800.  Like many people of my generation we were sent outside to play, we wore no hat, no sunscreen, no shirt - skin cancer hadn't been invented then, obviously.  I can recall being quite badly burnt more than once in my life, and people of my generation are now paying the price for that neglect.

"To remove freckles.
A good freckle lotion is made of honey, one ounce, mixed with one pint of luke-warm water.  Apply when cold."

Ladies in 1885 were really concerned about having freckled skin.  Apparently the reason was, a woman who wasn't a lady might spend time outside, gardening, working in the fields, hanging out washing.....but a true lady didn't do those things.  She stayed inside to preserve her complexion, and if she needed to venture forth she wore a hat, long sleeves, gloves, and kept a parasol over her head at all times.  The emergence of a freckle would have been greeted with horror.

Enjoy your days!