Slugs......

...awful creatures.  Came out of my patio door yesterday and there was this huge slug sunbathing near the lock.  By the time I got out my camera he had moved across the glass.  

Urgh!  I noticed all over the back wall of the house, all the way to the roof were these slimy trails.  Not nice. 

Here is another shot of him from inside the house.

So? You want to know where I have been......

my last post was the 24th February 2014.  Goodness me that is four months ago!!  Well I haven't been sitting idle, far from it.  Its just that one day I tried to get onto the blogger account and I couldn't, and I tried several times and gave up.  And the months flew by and tonight I thought I would try again, and I managed to log in....so here I am again.

  I won't remember what I have done, so I will start again with the latest news.

I had a really super sewing machine I bought over 40 years ago, and although it hadn't been used much, I never thought it would break.  It was a Viking Husqvana, Model 6440.  My mother said to me when we first got married, you need a sewing machine.  She was a wonderful seamstress and the gift has been passed to my two sisters, but it never came my way.  So my father suggested I go to dressmaking classes.  I remember it well, I had bought enough fabric to make a dress with long sleeves.  In the 1970s sleeves were all sorts of shapes, gathered into cuffs. Me?  Well I cut out two left sleeves and I was so upset.  My teacher was amazing person, she had so much patience, and said to me give it to her and she will see what can be done.  I did complete the dress, but the sleeves were nothing like the pattern, thanks to my teacher she re-designed them.  I did go onto making my own clothes - I still have lots in boxes in garage (used for oily rags now), and I continued to make my daughter dresses when she was very young - not out of new fabric because I could not afford it, but out of adult clothes I unpicked.  Then at some point in time the machine went away until about ten years ago, it came out for another airing - mainly patching my OH work clothes and mending pockets.....until a couple weeks ago it literally went up in smoke.

Unrepairable I had been told, so sad - I bought another one.  It was delivered yesterday - A Brother Anniversary.

One like this!  Has all the stitches I need - and is light as a feather (my old one I couldn't ever lift up on the table it was so heavy.  I haven't made anything yet, only had time to count all the bits and pieces that come with the machine.

I have to admit I am looking forward to trying out some sewing.  Perhaps I will just throw out all the mending and make something nice.  First I got to make time in my life to do it.

I have one solution.  A young lad is looking for work.  He is saving up for his ski trip.  I can't wait to meet him, as I have a long list of jobs he can do for me - well he can do my house cleaning and a bit of gardening and I can use that time to get to work on some sewing. So fingers crossed I won't scare him away with what I have in store.

Reading?  Yep I have done some of that this last few months.   I have read:

Fault Line by Robert Goddard
Secret Smile by Nicci French .
Driving Lessons by Ed McBain
Ralph's Party by Lisa Jewell
Case Histories by Kate Atkinson
Body Count by P.D. Martin 
The Kinsella Sisters by Kate Thompson
Pyramid by Tom Martin
Life, Death and Vanilla Slices by Jenny Eclair
The Small Hand by Susan Hill

I really can't write reviews - hopeless at it, so I have decided not to.  But running through this list I will say that Fault Line wasn't one of the best by Robert Goddard. And I have read better ones by Susan Hill.   All the rest were good. 

Very pleased with my crop of strawberries this year - these were the first few. 

 I am going to try and post here a bit more regularly.  I must now read up on all the blog posts I have missed the past few months.