It's very tiring being a responsible adult. Lots of work and cleaning and sensible decisions. To get me through all that boring stuff I choose something I really want to do, and use it as a treat to keep me motivated. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. For weeks I've been using a trip to a neighbouring town as my reward; yesterday, having done three of the four things on my list, I sanpped and called Mereth. 'We're going to Jamestown' I declared.

Jamestown is a pretty place about 45 minutes from here, a beautiful drive in this late spring weather. I had the coffee and snacks packed in minutes, picked up Mereth and we were off. Our destination is also home to a very nice patchwork shop, but that is entirely co-incidental. We used to come here with Mum, and drive around choosing which house we wanted to live in, and which garden we loved the most. Lots of happy memories there.Ahhh, Roses!
I love hollyhocks, but have never grown them. Mereth said they selfseed in my front garden here, so maybe I can finally have some of my own.

At the patchwork shop I reminded Mereth to remind me that I wasn't in the market for more fabric, and I didn't want to buy anything.

Didn't work a bit. The nicest garden of the day was actually in another tiny town; the roses forming a hedge were breath-taking, and I love all that riot of flowers; perfect cottage garden.
And this is a curious little house, only half a house really. Maybe they intended to build the other half later, and never did. I love the blue it's been painted, very pretty.

Back to work now....

Every morning when I walk into the workroom I brush into a dangling spider web. Just a thread or two, but enough to make me stop and reel it out of my hair and wonder, Is this like Charlotte's Webb, or Night Of The Arachnid?

Yesterday I was in the workroom, auditioning fabric for the border of the Anvil, and noticed a spider that had just abseiled down from the ceiling and landed on the lucite table round the sewing machine. So that was the culprit! She looked harmless until she turned over, and then

(link to picture of horrid Red Back Spider) Don't look if you don't like spiders!

Yep, definite Night Of The Arachnid stuff.

I investigated a couple of sites for info, and one was written by someone with English as a second language. I had to smile when I read 'The most effective way to control Red Back Spider is to find them out and distort...'

I certainly distorted this one!

My DD was bitten by one as a child, and I can say with certainty, these things HURT. We spent 8 hours in the Emergency room, and it was awful. Her arm was painful for weeks. I don't want to share nicely with these critters.