Now I need a nap!

Today was the day for taking the camping and personal kit to the collection point but first I had to finish packing and weighing it. There were the custom forms to complete as well, 5 copies in all. By this point my dining room looked a mess. I'd folded the table down to give myself more space but when you are dealing with a large mess tent plus other kit the room soon fills up.

The photo was taken as I was moving equipment into the room so it's missing 7 sleeping tents, cool boxes, two large double gas burners plus a lot more.

To add to the fun of the day many of the roads were closed for 'Ride London'. If you want to read more about this click Here . It was amazing to see huge numbers of cyclists streaming past on the closed roads but very frustrating when you need to be somewhere else. Where we live is surrounded by road closures which are in place from 7 am this morning until late tonight. This meant the routes that were open were very crowded and therefore running slow. What should have taken 2 hours or 3 at the most took all day. Once home I could start the job of turning the temporary camping kit store back into my home.

Once that job was done I set about making some plum jam. We had bought some plums last week, not a large quantity, just 3 pounds but more than enough to make sufficient jam for our needs. First I had to gently boil the plums and water to soften the plums and then add the sugar and simmer until the setting point was reached. I used my small kilner jars for the jam. I can't wait to have toast and jam for breakfast. The plums I used were the big deep purple ones with red flesh  which yields this beautiful dark red jam.

Now I have some time to do some slow stitching. I'm carrying on stitching Mildred and on Friday I had got to this point. My aim this evening is to stitch the second sleeve and the blue spots on that side of her apron. If I get that done I'll stitch her eyebrows, eyes and  mouth before moving the hoop.  I may not get that all done as I'm quite tired from today and the fact that it rained heavily most of last night. The rain kept Scamp and Picasso awake and in turn they kept waking me and John up. On an up note at least it didn't thunder as they both hate and are frighten by thunder.

The 8th bag lady is in my personal kit bag that went off today. I hope my bag doesn't go missing! Constance is a totally different character to Mildred and as always I'm hoping to finish Mildred before it's time to start on the next lady. To date I've only completed three of the bag ladies so I have a bit of catching up to do. 

I'm linking this post with Kathy at Kathy's Quilts for her Slow Sunday Stitching. She's celebrating hosting this link up for the last 5 years. Why not go and see what folks have been working on today. I love this link up as it reminds me to slow down on a Sunday and it has also made me more aware of trying to do a little hand sewing every day. Thanks Kathy it's a great link up each week.

Right I've got to rush off I missing my stitching time and I need to chill out after my hectic day so I'm nice and relaxed by bedtime.

Lyndsey