Good day to anyone who is reading this. It's nice to have you
coming by and visiting my blog. Hope you enjoy your time
here.

As usual I'm beginning with a picture of the weeks progress
on my latest project, formally called Gate With Lantern, by
Graphs by Barbara and Cheryl. I love the visual depth that
is being achieved in this project, even with the main focus
of the project...the black gate....not yet stitched in. And it's
cool stitching the different types of brick work for the houses
on either side of the alley, and the gate's pillars.

Yesterday DH drove me up to the Needle Gnome in Acton
so that I could finally pick up some black DMC thread. We
took the old car to give her her weekly run, and it was a
nice drive with all the windows open, as that is the only
method of air conditioning that we have for her.

Although there were a fair number of charts to look through
at the store, the selection of fabric and threads to stitch with
were disappointing. Only DMC, and a bit of Carons Waterlilies
which were quite expensive and a few of another brand of
thread that I've never heard of. I ended up only picking up
the DMC threads that I needed.


It started raining here last evening around supper time,
and I believe that it's been raining through much of the
night. This morning it's been raining hard and steady,
which is annoying the DH because he got up early
yesterday to give the garden a good soaking with the
hose, which in hindsight was a waste of time. Ah well.
Above is a picture of the very wet, very pathetic looking
petunias taken this morning. There's nothing sadder
then wet petunias.


And in this picture you can see the red Straw flowers all
tightly closed against the wet. If the sun comes out later,
as the weatherman seems to be predicting right now,
then these flowers will spread open their petals to
reveal their yellow centres.

Last evening I sat in a chair on the front porch and watched
the rain come down, and listened to it taping against roof,
leaf and car. The birds were singing the evening to a close
and some were making their way to their nests and beds.
The air was cooling down after a long, hot day, and it smelt
of rain and wet grass. It was very restful and peaceful.


I caught up on some of the books that have come out
recently that I wanted to add to my collection. These
arrived this week and I'm delighted with the lot of them.
I think the majority of these are by authors that I've been
collecting for years, and are also part of various series that
I'm following. Specifically the books by Laurell K.
Hamilton, Charlaine Harris, and Jacqueline Carey. The
biography of Elizabeth Taylor is by J. Randy Taraborrelli,
and I've now got three biographies by him.

Nefertiti by Michelle Moran has been well reviewed and
widely recommended around the book blogging
community so I made note of that when ordering this
week. It does sound like it's going to be a good read.

Girls Like Us is a biography of three of the most
successful and influential women singers/songwriters
of the 60's and onwards, Carole King, Joni Mitchell
and Carly Simon. But I gather that it also covers
the history of women singer/songwriters through
that time period in general. It was brought to my
attention by a friend who loves biographies and who
found a review for the book in a Toronto newspaper.
I am really looking forward to reading this one.


This is my current read, and was also included in the pile
of books that arrived this week. One of my favourite
characters in fantasy literature was created by Lynn
Flewelling about 12 years ago and introduced in her
first book Luck in the Shadows. I am seriously in love
with Seregil (don't tell DH) and have missed reading
about his adventures since Flewelling finished the
trilogy that she started with Luck in the Shadows and
moved on to write another trilogy with different
characters, in another time, although still in the same
world as the first books. But now she's written another
book about Seregil and his partner Alec and I couldn't
help but pick it up out of the box it was delivered in
and start reading it immediately. I am enjoying
myself thoroughly. :)


I've had a traumatic week because of a dreaded visit to
the dentist. I have had serious issues with going to the
dentist for the past few years and am getting worse
each time. I usually start moderately freaking out when
making the appointment, and from there get progress-
ively worse as the time for the next appointment
approaches. On Thursday I went for a filling, which is
really no big deal when considered logically, several
days after the fact. But logic and practicality have
nothing to do with the situation for me.

We tried gas on me this time, which I've never had
before, to see if that would help calm me down. I was
so hopeful that it would pretty much knock me out
for the duration. Nope! Didn't do a thing for me.
After fifteen minutes of waiting and breathing in, I was
still stiff as a board, nails digging into the armrests,
and shaking like the proverbial leaf. So we went
ahead without the blessed relief of oblivion for me,
and eventually managed to muddle through without
the dentist loosing a finger, or me loosing my mind.

But the relief of surviving that visit has turned into
a bit of a problem. It seems that the dentist was a
bit over generous with the freezing, and along with
freezing my cheek and gums, he also froze my
tongue. I didn't know this. I've never had my
tongue frozen before. It never crossed my mind
that what kept getting caught between my teeth
during the evening might be my tongue. I thought
it just felt odd trying to close my teeth because of
the freezing.

My tongue is sore and perhaps a bit swollen on
one side, and you can see my teeth marks on it!
It's sore to eat, sore to talk and a general, all
around nuisance. I'm not impressed!

And I keep talking like thith becauthe my tongue
ith thore and feelth funny!

Hope everyone has a great week, with lots of
sunshine and lots of thtitching...er....stitching!!

Cheers!