This is White Dutch Clover blooming. It's a common plant that grows wild nearly everywhere on the continent and is my personal signal of 'Summer' arrived. If you click on the photo you can go read about the benefits of growing clover as a cover crop or mixed into your lawn. :) There is lots of it abloom in my neighborhood right now. I have not personally seen the pink variant growing here, yet, but I'm sure it is. Bumblebees and honeybees love the stuff and I ran barefoot over fields of it (sewn and grown by my Grandpa Hampton for his bee hives) as a child.
Yesterday I spent the afternoon doing family chores for my brother at his apartment. He complained of the early morning sunlight coming in his windows and shining on his TV screen so I ordered him some light blocking curtains and a rod. Yesterday he helped me install them in his room:
The entire operation was a comedy of errors, starting with the delivery. I _ordered_ royal blue curtains ... but medium gray was what came. Grr. Kevin decided that they were ok so I did not go through the return/reorder travail. :P Then we had to find and get out the cordless electric drill and bits to make the mounting holes for the rod.
Took forever and two referrals to YouTube videos to figure out how to change the bits in the drill (what was in it was a screwdriver bit - was the right size for the mounting screws so I imagine the bit had been there for at least a year, since we put up the curtain rod in the other bedroom). After crawling up the two steps in the short ladder and marking the hole placement, I drilled out the holes in the wall (scary - reaching over my head to drill and teetering on the short stepladder).
I don't think I drilled them in exactly the marked places. sigh. Of course, marking them included finding the level and yardstick to make sure they were horizontal. Then, having drilled the holes, I had to hammer in the molly bolts (I _think_ that's what they are called - plastic sleeves for the screws as the holes are just held up by dry wall and aren't into studs). That meant finding a hammer - which turned out to be included in the kit that held the level - a cute little handle-less hammer which worked fine.
Then I had to change the bits in the drill back to the screwdriver bit to mount the curtain rod holders. Kevin kept saying he thought they were wrong ... took us forever to decide that he thought the two end holders were supposed to be hanging down with the same hook orientation as the center support bracket. :) Kevin is pretty stubborn and it's hard to convince him that he's wrong - was gratifying to let him figure it out for himself and I actually got an apology. :)
THEN, having put up the brackets, we had to figure out how to screw on the rod - first on the left side, then weaving the curtains in and out of the rod, then finally on the right side. Not feeling very confident about whether the rod is secure, but it all held up (so far). Gratifying!
I'm sure my husband could have done the chore in less than half the time it took us two newbies ... but we did feel triumphant with success afterwards. LOL.
I had intended to spend today working in my sewing room to tidy/sort ... but it is pretty hot in our upstairs (I am convinced the a/c unit we bought several years ago is not large enough for our house as the upstairs is always hot in the summer). I am going downstairs in the cool to do hand quilting until evening when it will be easier to work in my sewing room.
:) Linda
PS. Here are some more photos from our Sew&Tell meeting last Sunday a week ago:
This is Amy with her finished charm quilt made with Liberty of London lawns - all from various Hello Kitty collections.
Another Liberty fabric collection used in a quilt by Amy.
A beautiful top made by Barbara using a GE Designs pattern.
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