Last week saw the final flush of summer. Sunshine, smiles and gloriously warm days. From Sunday forwards the nights grow longer and the weather is cooling.Time to tidy up the garden and plant daffodils and tulips ready for spring.
SHELF STACKING My grocery supplies live within easy view on a couple of shelves in a kitchen cupboard. How is it that some tins manage to lurk right at the back, forgotten and quietly creeping past their “use by’ date? And why did I even buy a tin of lychees? The manufacturers’ use-by dates are always printed so small that they are difficult to read, so before putting away my tins I re-write the dates on them in thick marker pen. Any tin that is past its use-by date is now out in full view on my kitchen counter so that I can work through them and use them up. None of the tins is “blown” and I shall check the contents after opening to ensure that they are still usable.

SORTING This time it is the turn of my fabric stash. Yes, I could use that length of cotton to sew an apron or that length of felt to make a book cover. But am I going to? How many years have those fabrics lain in my drawer? Come to think of it, I do need a new apron so that length of cotton has a reprieve. Otherwise I am hoping that the textile department at my neighbour’s daughter’s school will accept some more donations.

CHRISTMAS PLANNING With only 93 days left until the Big Day it is time to begin thinking about how I am going to produce my Christmas cards this year. I rather fancy printing from a Lino cut so now I am sketching out ideas in my notebook. Three years ago I used a combination of painting and stitching to make my cards. Luckily Second Class Postage remains the same – at 85p. First Class Postage goes up again on 7th October to a whopping £1.65. However, my friend Sue up near Aberdeen and I get great value from First Class Post when our letters to each other usually arrive the following day after posting.

READING I have read and loved the “Thursday Murder Club” series by Richard Osman. Why? hmmm! Well, I felt that he portrayed his elderly characters with sensitivity and I wanted to know more about them. And the murders they solved were improbable, of course, but these are works of fiction so that’s allowed. So the minute Osman’s latest book “We Solve Murders” was on the market I bought it and settled my chair, ignoring chores etc and started to read. Oh dear! I was SO disappointed. I could not relate to the two main characters and there were so many other characters that I lost the plot. . . Later I decided that maybe I’d been a bit unfair so I started the story again and this time read more slowly and listed each character and their links to the plot on a page in my notebook. Ah! That was better. I started to invest interest in what was happening and to whom. The plot was definitely veering towards being more Lee Childs than the gentile romp of Osman’s previous efforts. But I shall buy book two just to see how the duo solve the next murders.

CONTEMPORARY ELDERS My local art gallery holds monthly sessions for over 60’s. Last month we made plaster casts of our hands. This month we learnt all about using plant dyes. Our tutor prepared cotton fabric beforehand, treating it with a mordant to ensure that it ‘took’ the dyes. She taught us about “bundle dyeing”. After spraying our piece of cotton to moisten it, we arranged a selection of leaves, petals and seeds over it. Then we rolled it up really tightly and placed it in a steamer for 60 minutes. The bundles needed to dry for at least 24 hours, then they were unwrapped. After pieces of foliage were shaken off, the fabric was ironed with a dry iron.

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