After an absence

 I'm back!   After the DBEM's birthday party she caught a bad head cold and then generously passed it on to me.   It has taken me longer to shake off than I anticipated and even now I'm not at 100%.   Not helping is the fact that since coming to live in The New City, the proximity of farms and forests has given me allergies and I wake sneezing and snorting (yes and generally bad tempered for a short time !)   My doctor says unsympathetically "You're closer to farmland here than in Auckland.   What do you expect?"   Well certainly not this - and a little more sympathy wouldn't have gone amiss either:-)

Spring has sprung here and with it the usual fickle variable weather.   If you look at the bottom row of my temperature chart you will see the colour changes in one week.   It doesn't seem that long ago I was bemoaning the fact that it was all blue -  well we had an orange day yesterday and have had several greens too.   

On the stitching front I've not really got a project that is grabbing my interest.   The hardanger piece is complete and I now need to visit the Quilt Fabric shop to get something suitable so I can complete it.  There's no rush as this is for a gift and not required for some months yet so it can wait a while.

In my stash I found this piece of lovely raspberry linen and am making it into a needle book - decorated front and back with pulled thread work.   However the fine linen (32 count) and the matching floss (perle 12) is proving quite a challenge for my eyesight so progress is slow.   

While I am persevering at this one I am thinking that I need to get my piece for the Embroiderers Guild annual challenge completed.   To be honest I'd like to be a non-participant in that one but with a small Guild every entry counts so I need to persist.   I can see the end in sight but I'm not enjoying the fact that this is a free style embroidered piece, mixed techniques and self designed so no right or wrong which I find disconcerting.   I much prefer to follow instructions and know that I have done what is required.   I will post a picture when the whole object is complete. 

Meanwhile, we have dropped back to Covid Level 1 and life is near new-normal once again.   I need to push the reset button and start activities once again.   The events of this year have not been helpful for getting to know people and make friends in The New City but onwards and upwards:-)