Friday Smiles 2026 # Week 33

Phew! It has been a hot one hasn't it? That in itself says I haven't been up to much more than sitting in the garden with my sewing, or curled up with a book, but I also had a day out on Monday because I had a very virrulent sickness bug Sunday night through Monday. Fortunately it only lasted for twenty-four hours and now I am back to normal except for feeling very sleepy and thirsty. But I have been very good at keeping hydrated all week so no worries there.

Fortunately, before all that kicked off, on Sunday afternoon we had a lovely visit from my daughter-in-law and grandson. We compared notes on crochet projects and caught up on family news, and I was able to give her my wooden, embroidered Christmas decorations for our son's church's Christmas fayre. I remembered, just in time, to grab a quick photo as they were leaving.

I have a soft spot for cosmos flowers. They are so dainty on their fragile stems, swaying in the breeze and come in a lovely range of colours from dark red, through pink and mauve, to white.  So when I saw a kit to grow some in Sainsburys I bought it and planted them straight away. They all started to sprout and I knew I would need to thin them out but unfortunately we were then away in Cheshire with our son, while the bathroom work was being done, so they got very neglected for three weeks or so. When we returned they were amazingly still alive, but very weak and spindly and I thought they were a lost cause. Then I saw tiny flower buds on some of them, so although they were a fraction of the size they should be, I planted the strongest ones out around the garden and left them to 'sink or swim'.  I was surprised to find that I did get a crop of teeny, tiny flowers on some of them, but one or two that went into a tub near the back door, did develope more fully and I now have a few very pretty flowers. So they weren't a complete waste of time after all!

Yesterday I was again sitting outside sewing and I had set my chair next to a coreopsis plant that is enjoying a second round of flowers, and I couldn't help but notice how many little flying creatures came to visit during the afternoon. Apart from a common fly we had sevral common drone hover flies that came back time and time again. I thought these were honey bees but I learned later that the hover fly tries to mimic the honeybee drones, but it only has one pair of wings and the bees have two. (You learn something new every day!). They are still important pollinators and are welcome on my flowers. I also saw the bigger bumble bee again and a very pretty blue holly butterfly. This was tiny with each wing no more than a centimeter across, and it was so fast. It closed its wings everytime it landed, and was much to fast to catch it in flight, but even the underside of its wings were a pale blue.

Of course, last night I had to try to photograph the eclipse. I have safety glasses to use when I am looking at my laser cutter in action, so I used them to protect my eyes. Because of the buildings behind us, we can only see the sun setting from up in my craft-room, and most of my pictures ended up with a triple image like this one. I realised, too late, that this was because I was taking them through my window which is double glazed. 

However I did manage to get these two, one from the start of the eclipse and one from the end, as the shadow was moving off the other side. Not too bad for an amateur with just a phone camera.

Yesterday we had a brief visit from our son Mike who has spent the last few weeks running the mobile shop at various rock festivals. It is hard work with lots of lifting, long hours and not wonderful accommodation, but it pays well and he has been doing it for several summers. He has one more to go to today and then he is taking his family off for a well-earned break in Greece. He loves the heat and copes well with it. He always visited us in Spain in August! It was good to have a quick catch-up.

And that is another week that was.

Friday Smiles 2026 # Week 32

It is again time to look back at the week and highlight the happy moments. Well it has been a mixed week. On Sundays we have music in the park and this week it was a jazz band and as the sun was shining I decided to take my chair out onto the litle concrete step under the front window, to do my sewing and listen to the music. It was very plasant for a while and then it actually started to rain and I had to move indoors!

It turned out to be a damp and windy night and the next day there was a whole flock of seagulls on the grass. We are quite a way from the coast so maybe it was really wild there and they were driven inland. We do not usually see them in the park.

The garden has benefitted from some rain though we haven't really had enough to do much good. However my pink carnations are thriving, and I am pleased with these. Many years ago, my late brother-in-law taught me to grow them from the little side shoots that are always found on the stems when you buy a bunch as cut flowers. I had some several months ago and kept six side shoots in water until they started to root. Then I planted them in a container outside. The birds kept pulling them up, and I kept replanting them and five did take root properly and I have had a lot of flowers on them. They are a bit tall this year, but next year I will plant them in the garden and hopefully they will be a bit lower and bushier then.

We had a wasted afternoon on Monday as we had to go to the hospital in Shrewsbury for Chris' eye injection. The bus is only hourly so sometimes we have to arrive rather early. There is always a long wait at this clinic and I was annoyed that I had forgotten to slip my Kindle in my bag. After his initial check-up we waited an hour and he was then called down to the doctor's room. There were a lot af folk already down there so he came back because there was nowhere to sit. Eventually he was called again and then he came back almost immediately to say they weren't doing any more that day because it was too hot! It really was stifling in there so we were happy enough to walk outside for the shuttle bus to Shrewsbury bus station. But then we had another long wait for the bus back to Oswestry. We had left home at 2.00 and got back just before 7.00. A five hour trip for nothing, and we will have to do it again soon when they send him a new appointment. But the injections are helping a lot, so I guess it is worth it in the long run.

This is what has occupied most of my time. I saw the cutting file for this owl in an Etsy shop and I knew I would enjoy making it. It is probably the most intricate piece I have made so far, using my laser cutter. 

There are six layers of wood. Layer 2 is walnut and layer 6 is mahogany, and the rest are basswood ply. I went on Amazon and chose a range of wood dyes, and dyed each layer to get the contrasts I needed. Then each piece was varnished lightly and then it was assembled and glued together. I am really happy with it and he will go up on my wall with my other owls.

I have also managed to make a couple of birthday cards and aother few Christmas cards ao I catching up now.

The cloudier skies we have had this week have given us a few nice sunsets. I don't always see them because the sun goes down behind the houses at the back of us. But on Tuesday I was up on the third floor, in my craft room, and I caught this one from my window. It disappeared very quickly so I'm glad I spotted it when I did.