My day of rest...

Well, not exactly a day of rest as it turned out, but more of that later.
On Friday, Heather came over to spend the day with me and to sleep over. In the afternoon one of my neighbours kindly offered to dig the hole for us to bury David's ashes and plant the rose, called "Moment in Time", which I got to commemorate him. Although it was very emotional, it felt like a positive and very important step and the rose will be a living memory of David.
It was a day of very differing ceremonies and Heather and I had decided to watch the Olympic opening celebrations together, so later on we treated ourselves to a Chinese takeaway (and a very extravagant bottle of Lambrini...which is about my level of alcoholic beverage!) before settling down in front of the TV.
I was pretty sceptical about what it would be like and was quite ready to cringe through the whole thing. However, we both thought it was good on the whole, amazing in parts and not so good in others. I really enjoyed the first sections...the almost steampunk industrial vision of towers and the forging of the rings, the Mr Bean Chariots of Fire sketch and, of course, the hilarious 007/Queen idea.We had sore throats from laughing out loud at that last one!
Being a square old thing, I didn't enjoy much of the "pop culture" section, which seemed to take over much of the remainder of the show. It was good to see that there were some spiritual moments included - such as Abide with Me in memory of the London bombing victims. Not sure who the singer was but we weren't impressed with her voice at all...shame there was no Bryn Terfell, Alfie Boe or even Leslie Garrett to show off some really good singers. We really didn't get the cycling birds - any ideas? Arctic Monkeys and Paul McCartney nearly made me turn the sound off! We really enjoyed the spectacle though and it was certainly different.
Yesterday the postman brought me a big parcel which had this pink and black beauty in it - the Sizzix Bigshot.... I was also sent a nice range of Tim's dies to go with it - you can just see a few of them on the left. Personal Impressions are now stocking Sizzix products, so I can finally use them! Tim's dies are definitely my cup of tea, so I shall enjoy working with them...I'll post pics when I've got samples made up.
Last night the rain here was incredible and the sound of the water hitting the conservatory roof was quite scary - Tara was very nervous indeed! Although I got to sleep reasonably quickly, the rain woke me up again not long after and I had one of those awful nights where sleep completely evaded me. At 3am I gave in and got up for an hour...to the sounds of Thomas and Tara both snoring away quite happily! I did finally manage an hour or so before they gave me an early morning alarm call for breakfast of course!
This morning I walked into the village to go to St Chads where the service was very uplifting. The rain had just about gone and the sun started to blaze down. A real rainbow day as I call them. When I got home I made a decision to start on one really bad area of the garden. It's one of two patches that David and I were beginning to sort out but they obviously got left. Every time I look at them they make me feel so sad but have seemed overwhelming really.
However, I sometimes make a decision to give myself ridiculous challenges and today was one of those occasions! I looked out at this overgrown mess and thought "I'm going to get this done today!". So, this was at 2 o'clock this afternoon when I had just made a start (then decided I should do before and after shots!). You wouldn't believe that we'd cleared this patch once looking at the state of it. And here's a different view where you can see the area I'd just started on before taking the picture. At 3pm it looked like this...my hands were getting sore but I was determined to get it done! I was using the trowel as I find that easier to handle than a full sized spade. I was taking out all my anger and frustration on the weeds and stones which really helped! By 5pm it looked like this..... ......yes! Cleared, including the area beneath the Laburnum and shrubs at the back. I then sprayed the last vestiges of weed with a soil and animal friendly weed killer before pondering the stepping stones. They're pretty expensive to buy, so I decided to utilise what I already had. There were a collection of bits and pieces of paving stones that had been lying around so I tried them out until I found a shape that I liked with what there was. Some more digging and tamping in and by around 6 0'clock I'd managed to get to this stage. Okay, the stepping stones aren't exactly wonderful, but they look okay to me and they'll look fine when I finish the area off.
Now, that begs the question.....how shall I do that? Do I use the garish white gravel from the adjacent troublesome area, shall I add bark chippings? I'm veering to bark chippings and I'm going to make use of pots to bring flowers into this patch with bulbs planted at the back area. What do you think? Suggestions on a postcard please....or as a comment anyway!
So, I think I will sleep tonight what with the fresh air and the smell of lavender that has been wafting over me all afternoon. I've put some inside my pillowcase just to make sure. My hands are throbbing and covered in scratches, despite gloves, but it feels really good to have got such a lot done. The only thing that was missing was me running into the house like a big kid to drag David out to "come and have a look what I've done!", but I'm sure he was watching me and smiling with approval.
I have new drawings to start work on this week so I hope the hands feel a bit less painful tomorrow! I'm sure a good sleep will do the trick, so I am off for an early night now before I nod off in front of the computer screen............