Spring has Sprung

 We are only 15 days into our second lockdown and I’m already feeling confined.   Some of the jobs on the To Do list have been done and parts of the garden are looking much better..   I have been cooking up some new recipes - two of which proved to be successful and will remain in my repertoire but I am quite unsettled.

I am trying to use up a tin of “origin unknown” embroidery floss and the last oddments of my mono canvas but even that has come to a grinding halt as I do not have the zippers for the closure of the small purses these are to become.   One is done in simple Florentine Stitch using six threads of the floss on 18 count mono canvas (all from stash). Plans are underway for another in a different Florentine pattern but using the same random colours.   

Another was done on some 28 count "Dirty Linen" using threads from this same "origin unknown" stash.   I followed some of the stitches from the recent class I took and tried to have some sort of cohesion in the colour scheme.   

Once lockdown is over I will make these into small zipper close purses.

Currently it is only my sore shoulder preventing a concerted effort to complete these and move onto a more satisfying project.   I had a telephone consultation with both the doctor and the physio and both concurred that with a fracture of the greater tuberosity of the humerus, a tear in the rotator cuff and bursitis, I should not be using my right hand and arm any more than is absolutely necessary.   Wouldn't you all agree that stitching is necessary?   But today I have made some more face masks.   Given the current situation it is likely that the wearing of these will be mandatory everywhere and not just in the present restricted areas so I decided to add to our supply.   

I have started a "Map of New Zealand", constructed of a careful arrangement of New Zealand icons.   The chart came from an Etsy shop after I stumbled across a finished product on Pinterest.  This is the top of the South Island and is so far a Wine Bottle and Wine Glass, a packet of NZ's favourite Pineapple Lumps chocolates and a Rugby Ball.  It is fun and I can do one icon each day without any painful repercussions in my shoulder.   Tonight is a Tui (bird).  This will turn into my Lockdown 2021 project although I'm yet to decide if I will have it framed and give it wall space.

And to improve the shining hour I have been reading aloud to the DBEM.   Just before lockdown I found a promising book in the local Christian Bookstore and while reading it I was relating various portions to the DBEM.   At about two thirds of the way through I realised it would be easier to read her the whole thing so that’s what I am doing.   As a child she read aloud to me Treasures of the Snow, a much loved children’s book written by Patricia St John.  So I am returning the favour by reading to her that author's autobiography.  We are both enjoying it very much and should finish tonight.

And so Spring has begun and we had beautiful weather today to prove it.   Both the DBEM and I managed a walk in the sunshine and we have had a special chicken and chips dinner tonight to celebrate her birthday.   Lockdown precludes us going out for a treat so it is homemade I'm afraid.