'Rona Hair

I skyped with an old school friend in British Columbia a few days ago, and the moment she saw my video feed appear, she opened with "ha, you've got 'Rona Hair'.  Yes, yes I do.  A nice British person probably would have tactfully ignored my growing patch of grey/white hair against a background of straggly half-dyed/half-natural tufts but with typical west coast Canadian directness, she went right there.  British people have this perception of how polite Canadians are - I don't think they meet many west coasters.  I am increasingly despairing of my morning appearance in the mirror - I'm tempted to try dyeing my hair myself if I can find a product I'm not allergic to. It doesn't look like hairdressers will re-open here until July at the earliest.

In other unwelcome news, my manager has informed me that I will get my homeworking equipment this coming week.  He seemed to expect that I would be thrilled by this development - I somehow managed to contain my enthusiasm.  I suggested that I had perhaps forgotten completely how to do my job, he thought this was a great joke and assured me that all the teething problems with the system have now been ironed out and I'll be fine.  Sigh. I know I'm incredibly lucky to have been paid to do nothing for several weeks, but I think my brain has segued easily into 'retirement mode' and work just seems like a very long time ago.

The red overlocker threads I ordered turned up, and I was able to finish my attempt at a sun dress.  It fits pretty well but is perhaps a bit heavyweight as it is made out of quilting cotton.  Still, compared to my usual results at dressmaking, it's turned out fairly well.  I've ordered some more fabric to try sewing a different version.

Now that the dress is finished, I can get back to quilting: the next issue of Today's Quilter has arrived with two more BOM blocks to sew, and there is still the quilt on my design wall.

The next instalment of my Sew Darn Sweet subscription box turned up, once again with some cute fabrics.  This time there are simple patterns for a sewing wallet, a pouch to hold the supplied thread snips, and a face mask (of course).  The Fabric is from Makower's Stitch in Time collection which I like and already had some from so glad to get more, and some printed sayings from Benartex My Happy Place collection.  I'm enjoying getting this treat in the post.

Other than the dress, I've continued to knit on my Hey Teach cardigan, stitch my cross-stitch sampler, dabble with needletatting and have done a bit of bobbin lace.  The little dollshouse mini kit isn't going very well, the pieces don't fit together very well and it isn't holding my interest.

I'm having to water the garden every few days as it hasn't rained for ages.  Unfortunately it has been extremely windy the last few days, which has shredded the brief glory of the paeonies and destroyed a lot of rose blooms which might otherwise have hung around for a while.  The garden is littered with rose petals.  But before that happened, I did take a few pictures of the rose hanging down romantically from the pergola.