Whilst I Was Incommunicado

Whilst I was miserably offline I took delivery of a couple of very nice items.

I know a wheelie bin may not be everyone's idea of an exciting delivery but I've been waiting over four years to get my paws on one of these little beauties again.  I plainly remember the shock I felt when being told that Basildon Council didn't provide wheelie bins and that I would have to cart my rubbish about in black plastic sacks.  At the first place we lived here we did have a dustbin, but for the past three years we've been reduced to a black sack only.  It normally lives outside the back door, but in the summer months when the sun is beating down on it (and its malodorous contents) it has to be dragged across the garden to a shady spot.  I'd been used to having a wheelie bin for my rubbish for the previous 10 plus years and was most put out to find myself without one.  Things were particularly onerous when it came to garden waste as everything had to be shoved into a bag little bigger than a plastic carrier.  Not an easy task for things like grass cuttings, but nigh-on impossible when dealing with rose or holly prunings - the spiky bits would always poke through the plastic and scratch you as you were manhandling the darned bags.  And you were only given a dozen bags per year for garden waste, if you wanted more you had to pay for them - bloomin' cheek!

As soon as I saw the long-promised garden waste wheelie bins being delivered to our road I made sure that the one with our number on it was safely stowed away behind a locked gate.  I really could have kissed it I was so pleased to see it.  I spent one blissful afternoon clearing only a tiny part of the garden and merrily shovelling fallen leaves and all sorts of cuttings into the wide-open mouth of the bin.  It was sooooooo easy compared to forcing things into a small bag, and pretty soon the bin was full to bursting.  Sadly, it won't be emptied for another 10 days, but I'm already eyeing up all the other bits of the garden that can be tidied up, and their contents so easily disposed of.  Hopefully, the next improvement will be a black wheelie bin for the household rubbish, and then I'll feel that waste-wise we've finally moved back into the 21st century.

The other delivery was something much more conventionally pleasing.

Mum got me this book as an Easter present, and it is fantastic.  It is full of the most wonderful embroidery transfers and they are all iron-on.  There is a pattern for every taste, and any occasion, and apparently each iron-on transfer is good for up to nine uses.  There are also some fantastic photos giving lots of ideas of how to use the transfers.  So far I've only done one of the patterns but I've got loads and loads of ideas for using them in the near future.  I've got a picture in my head of me sitting at the garden table on a warm sunny afternoon happily stitching some of the patterns from this book and admiring my newly tidied-up garden.  That is if it ever warms up and stops raining!!

Comments

[joanne]

Glad to see you back in the land of the blogging :) I'm pleased you are so happy with your new wheelie bin! We have 3 here - 1 for household waste, 1 for garden waste, 1 for paper and then we have a box for other recycling which includes plastic, glass and cans! They take up rather a lot of space, lol, but I'm glad to be able to do my bit for recycling :)

[Gill]

Good to see you back online, two good things at once can't be bad although I'd be more thrilled about the restored internet connection than a wheelie bin (but wouldn't be without mine so I understand your excitement!)
Gill x

[Claire]

I have that book and it's great. It's not vintage stuff like my favourites but really simple, easy to sew patterns that actually are good for quite a few impressions. I am really pleased that m,y local craft shop is starting to get more of Jenny Hart's designs in - so excited, I need to get a life!