My Thursday Smiles 2025 Week 42

Thursday again, and I am doing a quick post. Later I need to pack a case ready for a long weekend in London. 

It has been a bit chilly and overcast this week so last night we gave in and lit the fire in the sitting room for the evening. We are not using the central heating until we get back after the weekend, just in case there are any problems, but the fire was just right to make the room cosy.

I have managed some crafting this week. Of course I wanted to try out the exhaust box for my laser cutter so I made these two little angels.

I have since made a set of six of them , and also two of these hearts. I made these previously from paper but thought wooden ones would be more durable.

Despite my decision to buy as little craft equipment and materials as possible now, (I have enough to last me three life times as least!), I did buy a new set of pens this week. Even as a child I loved having a new set of colouring pencils or pens, and as soon as these arrived I sat with them balanced on my knee while I filled in the colour chart they provided. These are acrylic paint pens which I have never used before, and they are lovely to use. They are very smooth and for a block of solid colour they are perfect. I am not sure how well they would blend but I haven't tried that yet. I bought them to add colour detail to some of my wood cuts and for that they work very well.

Chris has been busy in the garden tackling a variegated ivy that had swamped our out buildings. It was tough work and at the minute he is managing with secteurs, but he got it down. The debris has filled two bins so far and there is still some to be done. We decided to leave some ivy at the bottom as it is more attractive than the brick wall, but at least we can nearly access the shed door now. We still have to cut back next door's climber that crept over their fence but that can wait for another day.

The birds seem to like the well pruned tree across the road from us. After the rain, the grass in the park is covered with worm casts and the crows come in every evening to have a good fill. They like to perch on the very top cut branches of the tree to survey the area before swooping down to ground level.

I said I was looking forward to seeing the colours of autumn in the trees and this week they  have been shining everywhere. Sadly some dropped their leaves very quickly but there is still plenty of colour across the park, because there is a wide variety of trees over there. So here is a collage of some of the trees.

As I write this, my cutter is working away next to me. It has nearly finished so it is time for me to sign out and get our lunch, so I am ready to find a suitcase this afternoon.

My Thursday Smiles 2025 # Week 41

 You may notice I have changed the name of my blog from Friday Smiles to Thursday, as it is generally more convenient for me to sit here writing it on a Thursday afternoon, and Friday mornings are usually busier. And of course, while there is no-one to link up to on Friday mornings, I may as well post it when I write it.

Anyway, that is enough waffle.  The week has gone very fast again. Last Friday we got drowned walking to a doctor's appointment and then doing the shopping. I discovered the coat I thought was waterproof, wasn't!! but I have just sent for a waterproofing spray to treat it. Fortunately the rain did stop in time for us to cross the park again for a fish and chip dinner with our son Jonathan who had the day off work. He lives even closer to the chippy than we do, so it is an easy place to meet up.

By Saturday the rain had eased a bit but it was windy enough for the park gates to be closed again. On Sunday Ben came over to have "one of mum's Sunday roasts". He did a few little jobs for us and then went over to see his brother, Jonathan. It is convenient for him to be able to see us both in one visit. He stayed here overnight and on Monday he took me to another doctor's appointment and helped with a big shop from Iceland (frozen food shop). Then we decided to go out for lunch before he went home and we ate at a little pop-up shop on the corner of a small square in town. Most of their seating is outside and it was like sitting out on a summer's day. The sun was really warm and everyone was shedding coats and jumpers because they were so hot.

When Ben had left, hoping to make it home before the end of school traffic slowed him down, I spent the afternoon planting spring bulbs randomly around the front garden. My little friendly robin was beside me again, quick to spot any worms I dug up. I hope we will have some colour in the front next year now. I love all the spring flowers.

The pansys I planted a week or two ago are looking good now. They were enjoying the brief spell of sunshine we had on Sunday.

Following on from last week's post, I have had one more rearrangement in my craft room. I knew I wanted to buy an exhaust box to cover my laser cutter. It takes all the smoke and fumes through a hose and out of the window, But I hadn't realised how big they were. So the one I needed wouldn't fit on my existing table. In the end I bought a bigger table and moved my desk along a bit to make space for it. Yesterday I built the box. The frame was relatively easy but it was extreemly hard to pull the tight cover over it. But I wouldn't be defeated, and in the end I did get it on. So here it is now almost ready to go. 

I decided to wait and let Chris attach the fan and hose as he can do screws up much tighter than I can, and it needs to be a good fit to work.

I do seem to have a lot of doctor's appointments at the minute but I am having injections for shingles, flu and covid, all on different days, plus a blood test to see whether the medication I take is still working for me. Next week I have an ECG and a session with the diabetic nurse, so it is a good thing the doctor's surgery is only a short walk from here.

This morning I had a message from my granddaughter to say she was stopping at the park with her little boy, on the way home from the school run, so I walked across to meet them. We had a nice chat while little Reuben collected acorns and chased after squirrels to feed them. Needless to say he never caught up with one but he had fun trying!

As I entered the park I spotted this fungi growing from the crack between the pavement and the wall. I don't recognise them but they were rather splendid.(Google lens gave me some highly improbable results as it thought they were growing out of a tree, not the wall).

My fan for the laser exhaust is now fixed firmly in place (Thank you Chris), and I have edited my first simple file ready to cut tomorrow, to test out the settings before I try anything more complicated.

So it is about time to publish this. Thank you to all who took time to visit me last week. 

P.S. Friday morning I took a better photo of the fungi and can now identify it as a shaggy inkcap. Apparently it is edible when young, and makes a sepia (smelly) ink!