Odds and Ends

No great news from Essex today, nor has anything very exciting been achieved - a fair bit of cooking, some photographing ebay items and playing pop and dodgit with the showers whilst trying to get the washing dry - but mainly a very quiet day at home, so I thought I'd have a bit of an 'odds and ends' blog post today.

Lighter Later

I came across this 10:10 Lighter Later information over at A Piece of Wood blog and thought it was such a good idea. 

'It’s about changing our clocks even further so we are awake when it’s lighter.  The current clocks forward and back will still happen, but the time as it is now moves forward another hour and then doesn’t change. So we move an hour of daylight from the morning to the evening when we are awake to enjoy it!

From the cutting emissions point of view, that means less lights being used in the evenings.

They have received huge national and local support, so please sign up if you think it’s a good idea.'

Personally I hate the dark winter afternoons with a passion, and whilst I realise that the mornings would inevitably be dark for an hour longer I feel that would be more than offset by the afternoons not getting dark until 4.30 or 5.00 pm (and that would only be in the very depths of winter.)   Plus we'd have daylight until 11.00 pm in mid-summer - how cool would that be!! 

I've got a feeling there was an experiment with double summer time in the late 60s / early 70s which I seem to vaguely remember - and I know they had it during the war too (I don't personally remember that but do remember my Dad telling me about it) in order to save energy.  It seems like an excellent idea to me and I've already signed the petition.  The link is here  if you too want to add your support. 

Mr Motorbike in the Garage Next Door

I'm delighted to report that P having a polite word with Mr Motorbike seems to have had an effect.  Although he was around every day over the Easter weekend there was very little revving of motorbike engines and what there was didn't happen until around lunchtime - which was fantastic for us.  Let's hope this is how things will continue, if we get more trouble again then I'm sure another 'chat' will have the desired result.  Mr Motorbike is a very pleasant and reasonable sort of chap - although his hatchet-faced wife is another matter (I've had a run-in with her before) - and I'm so pleased that things seem to be resolved for the time being.

Mind you, I was very surprised when we went to have a second look at a house for sale in the next road over from ours and the lady there said she'd been wondering where the annoying sound of revving motorbikes had come from (we were talking about the problem we'd had with the noise).  Just goes to show how far sound travels in a quiet neighbourhood, and how many people were probably being affected by such noisy engines early in the morning.

Homemade Birthday Pressies

It was my sister's birthday on Easter Sunday and although I failed to make her the patchwork skirt she'd requested (sadly my sewing skills not being up to the challenge,) I did make her another skirt from a piece of fabric I had lurking in the stash.

She said the fit was just right and that she was very pleased with it.  Me, I was delighted with it - having managed French seams and all - until it came to the hem which ended up like a dog's dinner.  It really wasn't my best effort and I had to put a 'warning' label on the wrapping paper saying that it was a very sub-standard homemade gift.

I also made her an embroidered cat card.  I'd done one very similar for my Mum for Mother's day using orange coloured thread to look like Lily (who is ginger and white) but made the mistake of outlining the eyes in black which changed the cat from looking like Lily to looking like the Lone Ranger!  I didn't fall for that one again and did my sister's card in grey around the eyes too - to look like her Maine Coon cat, Izzy.

Comments

[apieceofwood]

Glad you like the idea! 11pm on a summers night and it still being light sounds fab!

[Maureen]

I'm glad you made that comment about long, light summer nights because I seem to remember in particular the hot summer of 1976 when it was still light until after 10 p.m.
We've just put our clocks back here in NZ so winter is just around the corner.
UK has had a shocking winter so you all deserve many long warm summer months in 2010:)

[Dawn Hall]

The skirt is so cute I love he fabric you used. Dawn : )