It's been a while since my last post and I apologize for that,
but the past two weeks have been hectic with family matters
that required me to focus my time and attentions elsewhere.
I decided to take a bit of time today to update my blog and
let everyone know that I'm still around, even if I haven't
been able to comment on your blogs much.

Two weeks ago on Thursday my Mom was taken to hospital,
and she's still there at this time. At first they thought she might
be suffering from pneumonia. When she was
admitted to hospital she was put in a room by herself,
effectively in quarantine. Eventually it was decided that
she did not have pneumonia, but rather had suffered a
severe reaction to some medication that she'd been
prescribed to help her with water retention in her legs and
feet. She became severely dehydrated.

She's been having ups and downs since then in her
recovery, although I suppose none of it has been terribly
drastic. Thankfully. She's not too happy with the hospital
food (not surprisingly) but she's got to eat and build up
her strength before she can go home. She has been on
her feet, sitting in a chair, and walking to the door of her
room and back, which is good. She's fretting because she
hasn't been able to put on her makeup, which is also a
good sign. And she would probably do just about anything
for an hour with a hairdresser.

We're hoping that she'll be able to return to the retirement
residence within a few weeks, assuming that she's able to
get back on her feet and safely mobile. But we'll just have
to wait and see how things go.

So I've been spending evenings and weekend afternoons
at the hospital with her. Fortunately the Georgetown
hospital is just a five minute drive from where we live,
and I can walk home from there in under half an hour if
I have to. Thank goodness it's still summer here so it's
not a problem if I do have to walk. I've also been spending
a great deal of time on the phone when I'm home keeping
friends and family up to date on things.


I've been stitching on my lunch breaks at work as usual, and
I've been taking my stitching in to work on while visiting Mom.
So I've finished off Violet, and the title square in my Cottage
Garden piece, and made a small start on the final square, which
is Bluebell. I changed the thread colour that was supposed to
be used for the wording of Cottage Garden. It was suppose to
be a pale mauve, the same as was used to stitch the tiny flowers
at the bottom of the square. But I didn't think that the colour
showed up well enough on this material to do that, so I chose
to use the yellow instead.

Now I'd like to start a new main project, but I have to take
some time (!!!) to sort through my stash and see what jumps
out at me. I feel like starting something from Waxing Moon
Designs but then again I may just latch onto something else
when all is said and done.


I've been able to finish the second and third books in the
Magic trilogy by Maria Snyder, and they were every bit as
enjoyable as the first book was.


I loved that I had the three books to pick up, one right
after the other, instead of having to wait a year or more
for the next book to come out. But at the same time I
find that I then get so engrossed in the world, and the
events and so attached to the characters, that it's hard
to move on to something else afterwards. I am reading
a biography now, as a drastic change to snap me out of
the "magic" mind set.

****************************************************

Barbara, my DH is 6 feet 5 inches tall. Our friend Sue
is just about 5 feet tall, give or take an inch. Thus you
have the height difference that you see in the picture of
the two of them together. Sue is a minister, so when
she's preaching on Sundays she has to stand on
something so that she can be seen behind the lectern
I'm around 5 feet 6 inches by the way.

******************************************************

We're in the throes of election fever (??) here as the
sitting Prime Minister has called an election for October
14th in hopes of trading in his minority government for
a majority. Here we go again!!

What with the American election, which receives as much
attention as our own election does in the media and
around the water cooler, and all the hoopla and sniping
between the candidates here, we're pretty much inundated
with political news and views at the moment. It's
fascinating stuff, except when it's annoying and frustrating.

And in the end, we're most likely going to have another
minority government with the same leader (conservative)
as we have now.

*****************************************************

I would like to take a moment to thank Kathy A. and
Dani and Beatrice and Lynn and Sandra for your kind
thoughts and comments regarding my Mom. And Kathy
and Dani especially for being so gracious and understanding
when at the last minute I had to cancel a long anticipated
visit to Kathy's home for a stitchers gathering because of
my Mom's illness. It looks as though you had a wonderful
weekend ladies. I was so looking forward to meeting all
of you in person at last, but alas, it wasn't meant to be.
Someday....

I will be visiting blogs as time allows, and I hope to
make the occasional comments when my brain is
functioning enough to allow for reasonably
intelligent posts. In the meanwhile I send my
best wishes, and deepest appreciation to all of you
who comment and who blog. Visiting you helps me
to relax, smile and keep my spirits up.

Take care everyone.....