A suggestion

Now here is a really good suggestion for anyone out there. When you are refilling your pepper mill, make sure you do not accidentally toss a NEW container (LARGE... we like black pepper) in the air. Before you actually manage to get any peppercorns in the mill. I have just spent an edifying 15 minutes on my hands and knees crawling around my expansive kitchen floor picking them up one at a time. Tiles are hard on the knees. I know. I do believe I may have bruised mine. Sigh. They hit the floor and bounced, and you have no idea how far they can fly. For you homeschooling Mums, this could be a great science experiment. Measure the distance covered! I am just full of sparkling ideas. Sadly, no little ones about who might have thought it exciting, and then I would also have had to stop muttering interesting words as well.

Enough of the moans.

Every time I poke my head out the door, the heavens open and great torrents of rain descend. And every time I settle down to do more work, the sun shines. Typical. But I am getting there, and slowly the files are begining to look more or less complete. I cannot tell you what a relief it will be when it is over. The Inquest date is the 10th October, by the way. This time in 2 weeks time, it should be finished, and tomorrow in 2 weeks time, I will be in Switzerland with my sister.

For light relief, I have tidied up the work surfaces in my sewing room, sorted the washing, made a photograhic collage for the sublimation printer which I will do at school tomorrow. A sublimation printer prints your designs on to special paper with special inks, and then you use a heat press to transfer the image IN to not ON to the fabric. It becomes a part of the fabric itself, and then you can cut it and use to make whatever you like. My girls used to love designing their own fabric when I was teaching them, and I am going to make some things for Christmas using this technique. It helps to have a sublimation printer at hand! I do have to teach the staff how to sew in exchange, but I can do that.

I drew up a rough list of people I need to make/get Christmas gifts for, and nearly had a heart attack. There is not a great deal of time till Christmas left....not if you are making things. Not to mention posting dates for New Zealand come quite soon too. In fact, the sea mail ones may have gone already.

I have been thinking about how many places I have visited this year, with all of you out there. There is New Zealand, of course, both in reality and through Diana's eyes, and then there were two cruises that Morning Glory and Susie took to Alaska, Kathleen's Neighbourhood tour which went from the Black Hills all over the place, Susie's photos from California, Jewels' country life in the North East, Pea's photos from Ontario and Niagara Falls...... so many places I have seen through your eyes. Ree's ranch and Dawn's holiday trips, Crystal's time in Eastern Europe, Mary's trip to Ethiopia to get her girls, and so many more trips with my friends out there...... seeing them through your experiences has been fascinating, and it makes me think that when I one day do get to see them for myself, I will need you to be standing there pointing out the things you know about. I have learnt so much and just loved seeing all the photos....it is the next best thing to being there.

The world is indeed very small, isn't it!