Ta-Da!

The Autumn Quilt is finished. Just waiting for the washing machine to finish its current load, before I pop this in. It is good and sunny out, though not warm, but I'd like to think that I can get it washed and dry and on the bed for tonight.

Now, on to a lap quilt for my Mum's Christmas present.

Last chance to see

Thirteen years ago I bought this book from a wondrous second hand book shop in Preston. I bought it as I was and still am a huge fan of Douglas Adams. I bought it on a whim, and really didn't think too deeply about it. It lounged on my bookshelf (a fruit box stood on its end, the up most in student chic) for a few months till I found myself with a little time to read. Actually, this free time to read was in the back of a university mini bus, driving what felt like hundreds of miles north through Scotland to the island of Rum.

I ate my way through the book, and was stunned. The book was shockingly sad and beautiful at the same time. It was written with Douglas' trade mark whit, but also with his cutting observations. The book ended up being passed around the mini bus, and I think was read by at least twelve people during our four weeks of field work.

I can't speak for the others who read it back on Rum, but it really did effect me. I thought often of the Aye Aye and the Yangtze River Dolphin, and most of all about the Kakapo.

For my tenth birthday I was allowed to move into a bigger bedroom which I had helped decorate, and covered the walls with my posters of ponies and most importantly my maps of Europe and New Zealand. Out of all the places in the world that I wanted to visit (and still do) NZ topped an extremely long list. I'm pleased to say that within Europe I have managed to get to many of the places on my list, and marked off on my map but NZ always seemed to be an unattainable dream.

That was until my amazing husband made my dream come true when he took me to NZ for our Honeymoon last December. We traveled for just over three weeks all over North and South Islands, hiked up Glaciers and spent so much time just looking at the wildlife.

It was bliss.

I had hoped that we would get a chance to finally see a Kakapo, the crazy, some may say (Ian included) stupid flightless parrot which hangs so perilously on the edge of extinction. Sadly not.

The Kakapo is so rare, but thankfully so protected, it is almost impossible to see one in the wild. We saw films in wildlife sanctuaries about the conservation project which is working so hard to help the Kakapo survive, we heard recordings of it's amazing Booming call and we sadly saw stuffed birds in glass cases.

We came back to England in January 2009 and all I could talk about was the Kakapo, and how there were only 92 birds alive. So I was extremely emotional when we watched Stephen Fry and Mark Carwardine's programme, Last Chance to See which follows in Douglas' footsteps, twenty years on.

If you didn't get a chance to watch the programme, please do. They are heartbreaking and hopeful at the same time. Some animals, like the Kakapo have made huge strides in twenty years. When Douglas and Mark first met the Kakapo in 1988, there were only about 40 birds, when Ian and I were in NZ in January 2009 that total had risen to 92, and I am thrilled to say that after the most successful breeding period for the Kakapo, this summer, the total of Kakapo alive has soared to 124.

6 Billion people in the world and 124 Kakapo. Makes you shiver doesn't it?

If you get the chance, or the time please do watch the BBC series. It is terrific. Stephen Fry is wonderfully British about the whole event but at the same time he manages to hit home the problems facing many creatures in the world, which in our life time may just loose their balance and fall on the wrong side of the extinction precipice.

I will get it finished

After looking at the wonderful hand quilting done by Lucy over at her blog I have been semi kicked into action over the Autumn Quilt.

The top is finished, I finally bought some more fabric for the back, it has been baisted for over two weeks and is currently rolled up on the sitting room floor waiting to be quilted. So what is the delay?

Well the quilt is for our bed, which is a double bed, but becasue I like lots of snuggly warmth we actually have a king size duvet. So any quilt would have to be king size too.

No problem. I can make a king size quilt.

Its just the quilting that I am stumbling at.

I have a perfect little sewing space up in the guest room. But small is most definitely the descriptor.

Not king size.

So I have rather been putting off the idea of wrestling a king size amount of fabric through a very cot sized space.

Until inspiration struck.

Our dining table is a lovely drop leaf table that I inherited from my Grandparents, which can be moved quiet easily. If I shuffle that into the sitting room, bring my machine downstairs, load up the DVD machine with an NCIS boxed set, or find some Bones or Lie to me on Sky+ I can just jolly well get on and get this thing finished.

Little Miss Smug

Hello, how are you?

I'm very well thank you. Why am I smiling? How kind of you to ask.

I'm smiling because I have wrapped up and put away my first Christmas present!

I don't want to gloat. But since you asked, I found the steal of the year in TK Max. A mini Finchely Filofax in mint green, with a 2010 diary and address pages inside for the grand total of £7.99. Amazing eh? A saving of about £50.

I don't want to seem like a skinflint, but it is in perfect condition, all boxed up, and if I can save £50 on that purchase, I can spend the £50 else where on other presents.

I am normally a real humbug about Christmas. Well not actually Christmas, as I love the day, but about the three months of Advent calenders and chocolate selection boxes we have to put up with in the shops. It is just A DAY. Why do we need three months to prepare? Crazy.

But gifts are a different matter. If I see something perfect I will squirrel it away months before hand that way I know that it won't be a horrid rush and I will actually buy, or make people gifts that they do indeed want or will enjoy.

So that's me, the smug one on the settee with the large mug of tea.

Fantastic Friday

I never liked the phrase TFI Friday. But today I am feeling slightly celebratory, when I really don't have anything to celebrate. I think I may be delirious.

My team and I are having a really rough time at work. Our employer has chosen

to move offices from the Docklands to Central London. On one hand I am very please to be moving.

I find the Docklands very sterile and lifeless, and I adore where we are moving to, just on the edge of Belgravia in an area I used to live near. Just around the corner from some amazing shops (even if I can only afford to squish my nose against the window), and very importantly (for me) near the library.

Unfortunately my employers are being very difficult about the whole move and are giving us very little information or assistance. Some of my colleagues are going to find the move extremely expensive and will have some very tough questions to ask themselves. I do think that there is a very strong chance that after Christmas I may find myself part of a much reduced team.

Also, Ian has been working very late all week, and has been getting home as I have been turning off my bedside light. Though I have got rather a lot of sewing done, and the freezer is full of home cooked meals, it hasn't been that fun.

So you see, not much to celebrate.

Only this afternoon Ian rang me and asked if I would like to go to dinner. I'm so excited as I had thought he was going to have another late finish this evening. He is going to meet me at the restaurant, and I have already baked myself to a nice lobster red glow in the shower. I have picked out a dress to wear and I just need to dry my hair and I feel like I'm going on a wonderful date!

So perhaps I should celebrate after all!