I rearranged some of the boys’ books today. There’s been a small crate of reference books sitting upstairs waiting for a home so I spent a while trying to figure out where to put them so they’re accessible for the boys. While hunting for a space I came across the book that is probably single-handedly responsible for my inability to throw out anything that could possibly be used in a future craft project: Things to Do with Odds and Ends. My book as a child. It brought back so many happy memories of making (or trying to make) some of the things in the book. Time to pass it on to Ben, I think!

I did find a suitable home for the kids’ reference books, and sent a message to Steve to ask if he could get some brackets to put a couple of shelves up – the printer desperately needs a home!

Once that was done I had no other jobs to do really so I was able to sit with Erika for a while until Steve messaged to say he was on his way home, having got a lift with a work colleague so he could pick up sone brackets for shelving and still get home at a reasonable time. He and Daniel sat out in the sunshine with beer and crisps, putting the world to rights. I enjoyed some sunny weeding, pulling up nettles, yards and yards of nettle root systems. The kids playing on bikes, on the climbing frame, and making potions.

Quick change after Daniel went on his way, we still needed to bring in a tree to see us through Saturday. This one was not a windfall but it was very obviously dead so Steve cut and pushed it over, after some of the brash was cleared out of the way. They’re always bigger than they look! We fought our way through to near the top of it and worked our way down, clearing brash and trimming branches off. I realised I’m a lot stronger than I was even a month ago, I’m able to take on the bigger branches with the loppers and win now. We worked until the light faded again to bring enough of it in for tomorrow, then fed the children quickly – it’s a good job our days are a few hours out from “normal” as teatime that late is actually not that bad a thing really!

I quickly made a lump of dough to sit in the fridge after everyone else had gone to bed later on, and then sat down to have a quick look at the cardigan sleeves – and realised I’d done half the increases wrong on one sleeve. What to do: rip it back, or ignore it and hope it’s not a problem?! I’ll sleep on it….