Scraps

I feel 'Retired' is a stupid word. My belief is, you are not 'retired' until you are dead & gone.

However, for want of a better word, we are now 'retired' from everyday working life out in the Commercial world. We can please ourselves how we spend our time, & our meagre funds. If we want to read, or snooze in the midday hours, we can.

Although, in Gom's case, he is more likely to be found screaming around behind the mower, or the Whipper Snipper like some lunatic, in the burning of the midday sun. Hell bent on either killing himself, or driving the remaining stubs of grass into the dirt, never to dare grow again. Of course the Dandelions laugh at him, & poke their heads up defiantly, & wave & nod as he glares at them.

I find in spite of not having to worry about working life, I still really enjoy the vibe of a long weekend. I love the calm, & the lack of noise about. Though we don't seem to hear the noise of the traffic thundering along the Pacific Highway, we must hear it, on some deep level, because on the weekends, the 'noise' is distinctly different. A nice sense of peace lowers, & I feel relaxed. The occasional hoon might be tempted to rev his motorbike, or 'gun' his car engine, but on the whole, ours is a quiet neighbourhood.

After my post about noise, I kept remembering the W. B. Yeats poem, 'The Lake Isle of Innisfree'. One we learnt at school, & I have never forgotten. I know that craving for peace & the quiet. Now I am sure the English police are out there. I confess I can never remember how to use my quotation marks. Do I use the double ones for titles or is that only for speech? I am open to reprimand here!

I have been enjoying this long Easter weekend. We have had friends to visit, & spend some time laughing & talking. Family meal out at a nice Pub, with excellent food & reasonable prices. SIL was raised Catholic, & will not eat meat on Good Friday, for 'his mother's sake'. Daughter is inclined to scoff, but I admire his respect for his mother. Our outing was on Saturday, so SIL could indulge his craving for meat. We all really enjoyed our meals.

It poured with rain on Friday & Saturday. It was cool, & lovely. Yesterday & today have been fine, but still reasonably cool. I have been enjoying the peace & quiet & indulged in some of Molly's therapeutic pursuits. I have been playing about with scraps with no particular plan. I know it will evolve, I will just play about, making more scrappy nine patches.

My other project is to be posted off on Tuesday. This is just another small peek at a little eye.


Below are the results of the scrap tomfoolery. Refugee squares from other projects, for a very scrappy happy quilt to give to someone. My daughter & I tend to really love scrap quilts, & we love that quilts can contain so many memories of other quilts, as we make them.

I have been enjoying doing these, & have not been stressing about colour placement. It is falling where it may, & seems to look perfectly happy about it. I will probably make another batch today, but will need to cut more patches. My back is not happy to be cutting, or sewing at present. I will need to resort to some of the heavy artillery painkillers I think. Mentally, it is wonderful to feel I can sit in comfort, climatically speaking, to sew.

I was surprised to learn that this year Small Grandson's school was having an Easter Hat Parade. I thought all the schools had stopped any Easter activities for fear of offending the other religions, but reason must have prevailed, somewhere, & so an Easter Hat was ordered from the Mums, with only a day's notice! Bit poor on the part of the school?

Daughter & Granddaughter went off in search of a suitable set of Rabbit ears. "No NO" said SG, "Those are all pink & purple, those are GIRLS ears! I can't wear those!"

O K Plan B. Find something else

They found a black plastic hat. Perfect fit. Green tinsel- bit doubtful about that... oh well, we could rip that off.

Then they found some plain white plastic 'eggs'.

Hmmn, we could paint those.. glue them on, get some of these fuzzy little chickens...

So, the Easter hat was born! They painted & decorated the eggs. They decided the green tinsel looked like grass. They glued all the eggs & the chickens around the hat, & lo!

How cool is that! SG was so proud of his Easter Hat, for the Parade. No one else had one like his. He brought it up to show me on Friday.

Being Nanna, I had to get a photo.

Which really doesn't do it justice!

I have always been a Nanna who doesn't think too much chocolate is good for children. Never mind that SIL is a chocoholic. He is not my son, & I don't feel responsible.

I have made it a habit over the years of giving the Grandchildren other things. Usually PJs for Granddaughter. This year I got her some very timely ones, she told me. All of her old ones are on their last legs- literally. She uses the pants for lounge-around-home use. It seems to be a very popular modern habit. And why not, indeed. If comfort is the thing, what better than Jamy pants!

I hope everyone has had a an Easter weekend filled with whatever makes them happy.

Dire Straights, Love Over Gold.