Friday Smiles 2026 # Week31

It is hard to believe another month has gone by, but here we are at the start of August which is usually a fairly quiet month for us. I mostly relax with a good book or do a little bit of sewing, and occasionally some crafting. I have almost given up on the garden until the autumn as I feel guilty hosing it at night, though I have managed to keep my tomatoes going, but many of the plants are dying off already. I hope they will return next year!

I have started having my milk and eggs delivered twice a week as it saves me carrying them from the shops, but the delivery is usually at around 3.00am, so it sits on the doorstep for several hours before I get up to retrieve it. While it is so hot I have agreed to leave the empties out in a cool bag with a couple of ice blocks in it, and the new delivery is put in there so it stays cold until I am awake. Last night I put the empties out just before I went to bed and I was captivated by the moon seen through the big tree in the park. I took several photos trying to catch the atmosphere and here are the ones I lked best.

Also peeping through one thing to see another, here is the main flower beds in the park, viewed through a statue of Wilfed Owen, a First World War poet and soldier who was born in Oswestry. His poetry tends to describe the horrors and futility of war, unlike other poets at the time. He is commemorated in various places around Oswestry, but this is a relatively new statue in the park.

The sun is now streaming through my window and I am too hot to sit here any longer so I will close for now and prepare this for posting in the morning.

Friday Smiles 2026 # Week 30

The temperature has dropped just enough to make this a more pleasant week so my time has been divided between sewing in the garden and making cards up here in my craft room. This week I have made a set of six Christmas cards each with five little angels on it, so there was some colouring to do, but fortunately my Silhouete cameo did the cutting out for me. You can read more about how they were made here, on my craft blog.   

I am sewing little bits of my counted cross stitch/embroidery project most days, but in the evening the light is not good enough for this so I have done some simpler sewing and made a set of four of these Christmas decorations. They are cut from thin wood, and the pattern marked on them using my laser cutter. Then two identical ones are stiched with embroidery floss, and then blanket stitched together which hides the untidy back of each one.

When there is enough shade to sit in outside I do my sewing and am entertained by all the birds. A pair of wood pigeons visit daily and their wings make so much noise and always make me jump. But this week we had some other visitors. These three baby sparrows are just fledged. They followed their mother onto the fence and then sat there, not quite sure how to take off again. They chatted together, demanded food, and eventually took off to land on the fence on the opposite side of the garden. One of them missed and needed a second try but he made it OK.

Then this very scruffy juvenile blackbird hopped along the path. I think he is just shedding his baby fluff and getting a full set of feathers, but he is very untidy right now. I fed his parents all through the winter so it is good to see they have successfully raised at least one young.

I really wanted to grow some runner beans in the garden but the ground just wasn't ready in time. So instead I have four tomato plants, one golden cherry, one red cherry, one standard red and one big beefeater type. I bought a very flimsy box to plant them in, and because it kept blowing over and falling apart, it is now roped to the wall. 

Despite the rough ride they have had, they are growing well and yesterday I picked my first two 'sungold' cherry tomatoes. There are lots more to come so I hope the sunshine keeps coming for  while yet.

There has been nothing particular in the park this week, but now some of the schools have broken up, there is no shortage of people to watch. It is very well used throughout the day.