weird times

while in the mediterranean, china and some places elsewhere people suffer extreme floods - we "suffer" the opposite. ok, it's not a drought yet, but seriously: you'd expect much more rain in the west of ireland than we've had for the last weeks! the only thing close to rain were the clouds in the picture above - so close, but nothing happened.... today I saw that perennials, which have been in the ground for years are starting to wilt! well, they'll have to wait and hope - I can't/won't start watering those plants or very soon I'd have time for nothing else! maybe the colour for this week - brown - will be fitting for our garden soon?

of course the most important "brown" in our house is dog Dobby (naturally her aunt Timmy is just as important, but then she's black/white:)), followed by Mr Schindler, the cat that adopted us. Mr Schindler is on no 2 simply because he has only been here for a few months....

the rest are small brown "things" that I came across when walking around in the garden: my clay witch in the front garden, now nearly covered in roses. a bit of rust on a dilapidated shed roof, some brown and pretty dry soil in a container - and a fly, not in the ointment, but stuck on a piece of freshly painted window sill.  

oh yes - and my last book order arrived today! just in time to send one embroidery book away again as a birthday present. but the other three will stay here. all three are bobbin lace books; two of them in french (not really a big problem - though I don't speak very well, I can read it ok and the drawings are the most important bit anyway) and about torchon lace - the third one in englisch, german and - danish I think - about bobbin lace in clothing - though the title is slightly misleading, because for me clothing means pants, blouses, jackets etc. - but the patterns are of the decorative sort, not full garments. I like the style though,easy enough to work and pretty modern - I am just not the type to wear frilly and/or flowery stuff. the book contains large photos and explanatory drawings and most of the patterns are on separate sheets, which is very practical, because I don't have to torture the book to copy the patterns!

as I said the two french books show torchon lace and I like pretty much  all the patterns (mostly "tableware", but also bookmarks, card inserts etc.) - but they are not for the faint-hearted, where the amount of bobbins is concerned! I think I saw one hankie corner with "only" 40 pairs, but that is the exception. the avarage is probably around the 80 - 100 pairs and 160 plus is on offer, too! good thing that I bought the stackers a while back:)) of course most of the patterns could be adapted for yardage or even as a square "collar" for a blouse - though I do like making runners, mats and doilies. the problem for me usually is what to do with the finished product - apart from giving it away! to be honest I would be far too lazy to wash and iron those things all the time - and given the fact that I live in a household full of "piggies" - this is just what happens. on the other hand - I don't really knit or spin a lot for myself anyway:)) there's only so much one person can wear! hm - another possible conclusion could be that I should stop buying craft books altogether.... good thing that DH doesn't read my blog:)) oh, sorry, I nearly forgot to show you the book covers:

the one thing I don't like about those two french books - no separate sheets, all the patterns have to be drawn by hand or copied from the books..... on the other hand: compared to prices of some other lace books they are reasonably priced. the problem with those books is that in contrast to knitting books the publishing numbers are pretty low! and every additional feature such as extra pattern sheets will make them more expensive - can't win them all:)) now - where do I find that elusive 2nd pair of hands......

btw - I bought the books from here.