Evening stroll, rallarros

In fact we had a mid afternoon stroll to this exact spot, and repeated it at 9 in the evening with the visitors. No biters int eh evening, plenty in the earlier part of the day. Go figure, as they say over the pond. It is usually the reverse! Rallarros is the Swedish name for rose bay willow herb, it means navvy's rose. I love the colour, especially against all that green.

Today I have cut out another two masks, mended two shirts and a pair of shorts all Keith's, and redesigned the sleeves of a tunic top that was mine. And mended the first blouse I ever made. It was browns and beiges, Liberty lawn and very very simple. I was 12 or 13 and it was my first real garment. So it's lasted well and I can still wear it! I love having my machine out, it fills the room with cloth and bits and pieces and I can see it creates a fair bit of clutter - ironing board, threads all over the place, heaps of possibilities... Soon it will be in Betty's and less messy at home!

I bakes Shrewsbury biscuits with currants, shortbread using rice flour, and some coconut macaroons which didn't work out as planned. My eggs were probably bigger than the recipe eggs and I wasn't sure what the dough should feel like as it was a new recipe. They were browning nicely but still raw in the middle! So I pulled the tops off and finished them off in two pieces. Delicious, weird looking but delicious. Made some soup with my left hand whilst this production line was being sorted. 

It was sort of sunny, sort of rainy today. Too wet to garden, too sunny to fester indoors.... so I was in and out... the lake is so lovely with all the greenery around. The water birds seem to have lit out for the territory, as Mark Twain has Huckleberry Finn say. Not a swan in sight, not a duck or goose. The cows are peering expectantly round the corner of their byre. The farmer has staked out a path, and fenced off a gorgeous, lush area by the lake - they seem to know that soon they'll be out! Not sure why it's so late this year... they were out earlier but he has sown barley where they were...

The family spent the day in town visiting three different museum/exhibitions and going to the beach. They seemed very pleased with their day. We helped plan some more expeditions for tomorrow. I have a meeting, almost like a regular working Monday!