so this is a 'week' 'end'

so after two months of glorious free time at home on full pay (yes I realise I am incredibly lucky), the long holiday has come to an end.  My homeworking equipment showed up on Thursday and I spent Friday setting it up, jumping through the various security hoops to get logged in (camera and mike still not working though), filing time cards for two months of missed time sheets, cleaning out email, and reading through documentation on all the changes since I've been out of the loop. I even took part in an MS Teams team meeting (I could hear them but I could only communicate via chat). It felt very unwelcome and I was quite depressed Friday morning.  Having a second set of PC equipment (keyboard, two more monitors etc.) is also completely in the way although I've managed to tidy most of it off to one side onto a spare table so I can use my desk out of work hours.

For the first time in weeks, the fact that it is the weekend actually means something again.  And Monday I will have to start doing actual work - I'm hoping it's like riding a bicycle because not only is my mind a blank, my happily-early-retired brain just doesn't want to take work seriously at all because it feels like something I was done with a long time ago.  My equipment has been set up to only function on wifi, which was the final straw for our router (already supporting DH and DS by wifi) and started causing problems for them.  I've complained to my manager to see if I can get reconfigured to use an ethernet cable since I'm sitting three feet from the router.  DS and DH were not only there first, they both make way more money than me so I don't feel I should have priority just because I'm sitting closer to the router.

I made a couple more blocks for the Today's Quilter Janet Clare Block of the Month from the latest issue, then went back to working on my Giggleswick Mill quilt.  I've moved on to working on the centre and have started by appliquing a circle of bias tape, printing out 36 hexagons onto light card and glueing fussy-cut fabric motifs onto each one, and now I'm appliqueing the hexagons around the bias circle.  The centre will be filled with a broderie perse arrangement of flowers and leaves.  I have the right fabric but in the wrong colourway, so I think I am going to have to do fusible applique so that none of the incorrect red background colour shows.  If I try to do it as needleturn applique, it would be very difficult to avoid a red 'halo' effect around some of the thinner stems etc.

I finished the left front for my Hey Teach cardigan and am about halfway through the right front now.

I followed along with a needletatting demonstration on Facebook and afterwards had a go myself to produce a little motif.  I'm getting better at needletatting, but still incredibly slow and sometimes things twist that shouldn't have.  You could make several of these motifs and join them into a mat, but I don't think I will.

It hasn't rained for weeks so I am having to spend time watering the garden every few days to keep things alive.  I've given up on the lawn so it is already yellowing.  Yesterday I spent a fair bit of time bodging together a stand for the bonsai trees.  Yes, both trees are still alive from the course I took in October, although I can't say they are thriving.  They've been living on a low garden wall where they are attacked almost daily by blackbirds picking at their moss and dirt, and I wanted to get them up higher so they are more out of the way and easier to view.  We just used stuff we had on hand, so I did a bit of rough measuring and cut up some bits of old pallet we had in the shed.  DH helped with the cutting after my arm started getting tired and also sanded down the rough wood a bit. I have painted the resulting frankenstein bench a dark grey with Cuprinol stain left over from building the gazebo several years ago which tones down some of the hideousness. The result is reasonably sturdy and doesn't look too bad now it's set up.  It should last a few years. Probably longer than the trees.

I tackled the 'Rona hair mess by picking up some brown hair dye at Sainsbury's last time I went shopping.  After the 48hr allergy test, I gave it my best shot.  I stopped dyeing my own hair years ago because the dye went everywhere - after I found some on the ceiling of the bathroom I gave it up and started having it done at the salon.  This time I tried really hard but still managed to trash my dressing gown, two towels, permanently stain the bathroom floor and get a fair bit on various bathroom fixtures which wiped off ok.  The resulting dye job looks ok, it's not a very flattering shade of brown for my skin tone but at least my hair is all one colour now instead of a mess of red, pink and grey. So I'm not wincing so much when I look in the mirror in the morning. DH asked me to cut his hair so I had a go with my secondbest sewing scissors and it hasn't come out too badly, a lot tidier anyway.  DS won't let me near his mop of hair. How's your 'Rona hairdo?

Some roses from the garden