Soledad's Journal

Today we had 34 degrees again. And I had to go out and do the big grocery shopping because the fridge was basically empty. When I got home, I was so dead I had to lie down for a while.

Due to this, we had a very late breakfast and decided to leave the cooked meal for tomorrow. Not that I'd actually want a cooked meal by these temperatures, but Mum needs it with some regularity. I for my part could live on sandwiches and coffee (and fruit and ice cream) for weeks when it is this warm.

So, no cooking, no warm lunch, just some dozing in front of the telly. I did finish another pillowcase in the early afternoon, but my brain cells were way too melted for even thinking about my sorry, messed up chapter. So I called H. instead and we chatted for a while about domestic stuff until the GBBO started.

Tomorrow is supposed to be colder. We can only hope. I'm not made for this weather.

... that make our life a sweat-soaked hell. Today we "only" had 32 degrees - compared with the 36-38 from the previous days - but on those previous days we had wind, which helped a lot. Today the air has been entirely unmoving, and it feels actually much hotter. As if the previous days hadn't been bad enough. :((

At least the morning was somewhat bearable, so I brought up the energy to sew a 15th lavender sachet. It wasn't really necessary, but I didn't want to push around the plastic box with the remaining lavender (which was little enough) until next year. So that's out of my hair, too. Invigorated by the success, I also cut out the necessary parts for two more pencil holders, one penguin and one Santa. The penguin will look like these and the Santa like the one in the lover right corner. Unless I mess up something hopelessly, which is always a possibility.

Other than that, we had laundry day - complete with changing the beds, oh joy! - but not much else was done. We watched some telly, ate leftovers (I took that pilaw out of the freezer) and rested as much as we could. I tried to call H. but couldn't reach her; I hope she was just busy. Will give it another try tomorrow.

Tomorrow's cleaning got postponed. Apparently, next week won't be quite this hot, so I decided that a couple of days won't count. I'm not sacrificing myself on the altar of housework.

All 14 sachets sewn in advance have been filled, sewn closed and decorated.

Here they are!

I think they've turned out rather neat, but I'm biased, of course. I still have enough lavender left for one more sachet, but I don't feel like sewing one just yet. Perhaps when I start making the cherry pit pillows...

My only other "crafty" activity was removing the glue left from the labels of the bottles I kept for the ginger syrup I want to make - with the help of the cold fat dissolver I originally bought to clean the inside of the oven with. It was a suggestion of our cleaning lady of old and worked like a charm. I don't know why they use such industrial strength glue for those bottle labels, it's a real pain to get rid of it.

Otherwise it was a quiet day. It's still very hot, we tried to do as little as possible. We had some leftovers, but I did cook the potatoes for the Roesti I'm planning for tomorrow - that was all kitchen activity, though. We watched some telly, took our respective naps and I talked to a retired ex-colleague on the phone; a delightful lady with whom I worked at the same school for twenty-four years. It's nice to keep occasional contact, and we are both in the choir, too.

We had 38 degrees today. Oh, merciful God, it was HOT! It's still 32 degrees outside, although they promise one somewhat easier day on Friday. We'll see - and feel, I'm sure of it.

Nonetheless, I was somewhat crafty today. I've started filling the lavender sachets, now that I can hope for more raw material. Seven are filled and sewn closed, seven more to go, depending on how many lavender I get tomorrow... and perhaps even later on. But that was about the full amount of my activities today.

Other than that, we ate leftovers, watched some telly and rested a lot. Mum feels marginally better, even though said margin is really, really narrow. But we keep up hope. The heat doesn't help, of course; all our joints are suffering from it.

I even did a tiny bit of writing - still just jotting down ideas that might or might not be used in actual stories, but building up a solid background is important for me. I need to know those things, even if nobody else is going to ever hear of them.

Speaking of writing: I've been swamped with PMs from FF.Net, in which so-called visual artists are offering to turn the one or other story (mostly "Timescapes, though) into a comic or make illustrations to it or whatnot. I steadily ignore them, but I do find the whole thing slightly odd.

In that order, just to stay organized. *g*

The weather is ungodly hot still. I refused to leave the house today, as it was 28 degrees around ten in the morning already. Tomorrow promises to be a bit milder, and I'll try to get up an hour earlier. We'll see if I can. Weather forecast promises 34-35 degrees for Thursday in our district; after that, temperatures are supposed to go down a bit, to more bearable levels. Again, we'll see.

At least the invasion of the flying dinosaurs seem to be over. It must have been mating time or whatnot. I have seen one or two of them outside, but the huge swarms are gone... for now. According to my internet research they swarm from May to August - I only hope it doesn't happen repeatedly!

Mum is doing slightly better. She's still in a lot of pain, but - being the trooper that she is - she doesn't allow it to stop her. Today, when I wasn't looking, she marched into the kitchen and washed the dishes. And in the evening she suggested that we took the rubbish out; granted, it was only along the corridor in front of our flat, but still. Considering that she can only hold her cane with the injured hand. Shoulder, armpits, upper arm and knee are black, blue and purple on the right side like some odd painting made by a mad painter in LSD high... that will remain for a while I'm afraid.

Crafting-wise I labelled a few more cellophane bags for the fair. That's all.

... concerning the basket weaving. I've tried to put together the existing three sides and the basket promises to be an uneven, clumsy and ugly piece of work. I will finish the fourth size, just because I'm stubborn like a mule, but will never give this pattern another try. I've found another one on YouTube - more than one, actually, all of which are done without any glue involved, meaning that the end result won't be sticky and spotty and altogether disgusting. I hope. If not - well, there will be another way to use up my collected toilet rolls.

In other news, it's still freaking hot over here. Temperatures peaked at 32 degrees, they are still at 28 degrees at the moment. Mum is suffering with her aching joints a great deal, I'm just uninspired and sleepy all the time. I had to do the grocery shopping in the early morning, when it was "only" 22 degrees, and that meant getting up an hour and a half earlier than I usually do. Getting up early isn't something I do easily, but needs must. I'll have to do the cooking in the early morning tomorrow, too, or else I'd keel over in the kitchen. Oh, joy.

As for social life, I talked to H. and my friend Evie in the early evening, so at least we still know that the other one is alive. Evie is still at working age, and (my former) Boss Lady is getting more insane with each passing year. Poor colleagues are run ragged, and a lot of things she makes them do are overblown or completely unnecessary. God, am I happy to be an old hag and retired!

I've got up to 24 degrees in the morning. By the time Mum and I made our morning excursion (she admiring the toddlers on the playground, me hopping over to Lidl), it was 28 degrees - at half past ten in the morning, mind you! Currently, it's 31 degrees. We are sitting in the flat with blinds down and all windows firmly closed to keep the heat out. Ah, well, at least I didn't have to cook today!

Crafting-wise I've made one side of the little cardboard baskets. It was harder than I imagined. Part of the problem was that I can't for my life, cut things (even paper) in a straight line, so the individual strangs didn't fit as they should have. Another part of the problem was probably the wet glue that I used. I do own a hot glue gun, but... well, let's just say that the piping bag isn't the only thing I'm fairly hopeless with.

I'll try a different kind of wet glue tomorrow... and when that doesn't work, either, I'll switch to the glue stick - and to double-sided tape if nothing else helps. Those all have their own nasty tricks, so this promises to be a really interesting project (in the Chinese curse sense of "interesting"), and the four sides of the poor basket will probably turn out all different. But we all learn through pain, right? *g*

Lidl is having Greek days right now, so I've bought some frozen spinach and feta satchets, which we'll bake up in the oven as soon as temperatures go down a little. I've also bought halva with pistachios in it. I hope it will be better than the supposedly pistachio-flavoured ice-cream I bought on Friday and that tastes very artificially, almost like perfume. Grrrr. We had to pour eggnog over it, which is a waste of good alcohol, but what else could we have done?

Oh, and before I forget: congratulations, adafrog, to the 20th birthday of your journal! It seems we've all been on LJ for a considerable time. :)

at my little sewing kits, shall we?

This is what they look in the outside, with the lids closed.

And this is the inside, with the little pincushions and the reserve buttons.

I think they turned out cute enough. Not very professional but cute. I'm content with the outcome.

Not much else got done today. I cooked lunch, solved some crossword puzzles, we watched some TV and took our respective naps. My way-too-smart phone tried to make me believe that there were 23 degrees in the outside - well, it definitely didn't feel like that when I opened the windows. That stupid wind we've had for about two weeks by now makes even lifting the flat complicated. When I open the window, things start flying across the room! *Grrrrrrrrrr!*

Weather forecast promises rain for tomorrow. If the wind keeps this level, I see dark about the balcony. :(

We had lovely sunshine, no wind and nice,warm-ish weather in the morning, so Mum and I decided to brave the great outdoors and have breakfast at our corner coffee. It went so well that I even bought some (yummy but overpriced) stuff for supper and tomorrow morning. The old homeless gentleman was sunbathing on his customary bench and greeted us in a friendly manner as always when he's not too drunk to recognize us. On our way back, when we rested a bit on our customary bench, an old student of mine showed up, and we chatted amiably for half an hour or so. It was really nice.

Coming home, we both had a lie-down (Mum did get a bit tired, since this was the first time she left the house ever since the weather turned so windy and cold), then a light lunch, then watched a bit of telly. By that time, it was raining in the outside. Fortunately, there wasn't any wind accompanying the rain, so it stayed outside where it was supposed to stay.

Mum then declared that it was time for the long overdue task of rearranging the lowest shelf of her wardrobe. So I took all the clothes out, placed them on my bed, where she could make new piles of them at her heart's desire. Then I put the new piles back onto the shelf. She was happy with the outcome, although she didn't find the things she was looking for. *g*

In the meantime I worked a bit more on my felt rest processing project. Finished all the blues and the greens - only the browns, greys and blacks are left, but I might postpone them for later and start decorating the little sewing kit boxes. We'll see.

I got up in the morning, took a glance at my way-too-smart phone, which told me that it was 10 degrees outside. Thanks the insulation work (that killed my satellite TV a few years ago), twice as much was it inside, but still not enough for us to be really comfortable. So I switched on the oven right after taking a shower and made a Topfenstrudel. The kitchen got nice and toasty in the process, so we decided to have our breakfast there, instead of in front of the TV in the living room. Mum especially basked in the warmth.

Alas, it didn't last long. As soon as the oven was switched off, temperatures started dropping again. Currently, we have 21 degrees in the living room, which is nice as long as one is moving around constantly. Sitting in one place... not so much. Especially for old people whose circulation isn't the best to begin with. So, we are back to double layers of clothing and plaids over the knees... that sort of thing. In mid-Mai!

Anyway, we didn't do much afterwards. I made a Tütensuppe to go before the Topfenstrudel (after having a nap), and then continued processing my felt rests. Added small flower and leaf shapes to the geometric ones for more variety. This will take some time yet, considering how many felt rests they are, but I can do the cutting out in front of the telly, too, so I hope I'll have several boxes of such small parts eventually. After that, the actual decorating can begin.

Not having much else to do, I had an extra online session in the afternoon, catching up with the lined up YouTube videos I wanted to watch. That is success, too, right? *g*