The Sloper With Less Slope

Wendy was over last night. She worked on her quilt. I worked on the sloper with less slope. It didn't fit the way I'd hoped. Instead of better, it pulled across the shoulder points, the armholes were too low, and THAT WRINKLE was still there. I pinned a tuck across the upper chest front and back hoping that would make a difference once the armhole was raised. It didn't. I much preferred the sloper with more slope. I'll give this some more thought - and unpick the shoulder seams and see how they want to move when I put it on. Do I need more room, less room, where, how, what could I do?




The sloper took about forty-five minutes. After that I was too tired and too sore to do any more sewing. I worked on the black sweater. I'm part way up the two fronts, almost at the point of shaping the V-neck. So far, it's slow but good. There's no pattern. I'm making it up as I go along so we'll all be surprised to see what it looks like when I'm done.

The bark mulch made a HUGE improvement around the hedge. There was only enough to go between eight plants, about a third of the length. Howard picked up more last night and I'll finish that up later - after I clean house. We also need to clean up the slope behind somewhat - not too much as it's mostly raw and natural but enough to keep those grasses and weeds from showing above the hedge.

In the front, I dug some new dirt into one section of the garden and moved three large ornamental grasses over there. This morning, they seem to be settling in well as do the hosta plants I shifted. It's been cool and damp, perfect for moving plants. The largest section of the front garden needs much better soil. If we pick up a truck load, it'll be a lot easier and less expensive than multiple bags only we'll need to do it soon. Next week, I'd like to plant annuals.

The handsome young man (Shane) worked like the dickens. He's actually closer to my age, only six years younger. He did this rock wall in two hours. That pile of rocks has been sitting there for two years. Now it's in place. He also cleaned out most of the weeds across the potential deck and moved a pile of square cement slabs into place along the side of the house. They still need levelling and grass planted between except that...

... his wife came over just before noon with tickets to Mexico leaving today. They just moved from a big house into a condo near us and she has to go back to work in a week and wanted a holiday. Darn. I hope he'll come and do some more work when he gets back. I have a list. Maybe the patio will be poured by then. We're getting the quote this morning and the contractor said he'd need to do it right away between some other jobs. How wonderful that would be. I could sit...

... and sip ice tea while admiring my lovely hedge and my - hopefully - freshly painted fence. It took two hours yesterday to scrape off the old paint. I'll need to prime before painting since the raw wood is exposed in quite a few places. It'll be blue. We had a blue fence at our last house and I loved it. The neighbours were in shock when I painted it and after we moved, they complained that the new owners "painted over your fence in boring white". Too funny.

This is a long weekend in Canada - Victoria Day - to celebrate Queen Victoria's birthday. Howard is working a double shift today and a morning shift tomorrow, which is why we took last weekend off. The boys have plans. I'll mostly be home alone. Hopefully, I'll get a chunk of yard work finished and some sewing. Maybe just a lot of sipping ice tea. Have a great weekend.

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - all the work accomplished yesterday.

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Personal Growth - While Shane was working on the yard yesterday, he asked if we were fixing the house up to move. I said no, that we were fixing it up to stay. We want to enjoy it. Of all our moves, this house has taken us the longest to finish up. I think we both got tired of getting things just so and then moving. While the financial profit was great; the physical and emotional ones not so much. It feels like I'm finally nesting in a very strange way.

For twenty-eight of our twenty-nine years together, I worked. My time and energy was different than it is now. It's been an adjustment. For the last nine months, I've been on sabbatical and I'm relaxing in layers. I have more time to enjoy making a home only - thankfully - I'm far less driven than I used to be and my wants and expectations are way more comfortable. I move at a slower pace. I'm more thoughtful about what I want to have and to accomplish and I'm not willing to go into physical or financial debt to achieve it. This is good.

I followed up an interesting link the other day. It's Living to 100 with a multi-paged but not too long quiz about your lifestyle. By answering the questions, the program calculates approximately how long you'll live and if you click on further feedback, it'll give you suggestions for extending that life span. I answered the questions for myself and for Howard and the results were about what I'd been expecting. I'm glad I've been thinking in the right direction.

I'd be happy to add the five "extra" years "offered" if I knew I would be adding five years of quality living but not if I'm adding five years of dementia and pain for myself or my children. I've done a LOT of thinking about what I read in You Could Live A Long Time: Are You Ready? No matter how old you are, it's a book worth reading. There are definitely some things I want to change now that will improve how I age.

Did you watch Oprah yesterday? It was an interview with Simon Cowell. I was intrigued by how comfortable he appeared to be in his own skin and intrigued by the similarities between our ways of being, how we view the world, and how we feel the world views us. Of course, I don't have his money but....