Photos of Workshops and a BIG Birthday

Wow, what a busy time I've had recently.  No time to blog, no time to breathe but a great time had by all.  This catch-up post is photo-heavy (and you may have seen some of these if you are on Facebook with me) and, for some strange reason, features lots of pictures of Sam!!  Enjoy.

The poppies are blooming in all the fields around here, 

they are a glorious sight as well as a poignant reminder.

 Trudi Wood visited us at Country Roads Quilters last week to teach a workshop on Free Motion Quilting.  It was great fun and everybody learned something.  People who had done some FMQ before learned some complex-looking designs and people who were new to FMQ made excellent progress under Trudi's gentle and fun tuition.  Below is a sample piece of what we were working towards.  You can see Trudi's amazing quilting on her well named blog:  Quilting Prolifically

I had time to visit Sam who had just been surprised with a pirate ship for the garden.  Here we are aboard and I am, apparently a tour guide, Captain Sam is instructing me in my duties!

This weekend my beloved celebrated a big birthday (whisper it, 70).  Cue lots of food, family and friends and we were blessed with sunshine.

 Sam had his first taste of Prosecco!

Sam and I did some gardening while Al relaxed and chatted with guests, and then...

 Sam sang "Happy Birthday" to his Grandad!

 There was chocolate birthday cake,

 lots of presents and cards,

 and I made Al his own prayer flag in his favourite colour.

 Yesterday I joined friends for a workshop on needle felting at the Beach Hut Studio in Freiston.  We had a wonderful day, again in the sunshine, with good tuition from Debbie Mitchell (in the purple), wonderful food and fun and laughter all the way.

I got back yesterday afternoon to find my glorious "Niobe" clematis was flowering, a perfect end to a great few days.  Time to sleep now I think.  I'll share what I achieved in the workshop later.

What A Day!

As I posted on Facebook yesterday didn't turn out quite the way I expected.
Plan A:  quick trip to the dentist, pop into the garden centre, home to get glam, lunch at the local Italian with friends...
Actual day:

• half an hour with my mouth open while the dentist did a dressing and temporary crown on my broken tooth and then the decision that I'll have to have an extraction
• pop into the garden centre for perpetual spinach seeds and courgette seeds (as they were sold out of plantlets)
• home to get glam
• stressful phone call from the Job Centre Plus people with way too much information to process but I gathered they will continue to support me with Employment and Support Allowance and are sending all the information in a letter
• think Al is being silly when he can't seem to remember the friends we are having lunch with...then recall that FAST campaign for strokes and call the GP (as I wasn't quite sure) then 999. 

Then everything got blurred and frantic.  I phoned our friends and the restaurant to cancel lunch (what a waste of make up, Al definitely owes me), and while waiting for the ambulance the dispatcher stayed on the line reassuring us.  What a pleasant surprise and relief when a local guy arrived on the doorstep armed with various medical equipment.  Clive is a member of LIVES and a first responder which is an invaluable service when you live in the rurals as we do.  He stayed with us, monitored Al and was very supportive and then handed over to the paramedics when they arrived.  More tests and checks, and by this time Al was almost back to normal, if rather shattered, and then off he was taken in the ambulance - after a brief moment of hesitation when he realised he'd put odd shoes on while getting ready to go to lunch and would I swap the brown walking shoe for the brown brogue please?!!
I followed the ambulance and in A&E Al was tested, checked, bled, scanned and finally given a nice cup of tea.  He had had a TIA, a transient ischaemic attack, a mini stroke as it's called, a miraculous self-repairing warning of possible strokes to come.  The emergency department at Pilgrim Hospital were really good and Al came home yesterday evening with mega doses of asprin to thin his blood.  We have just had a call from the hospital and he has to attend the TIA clinic this morning for further support and an action plan.  He has no lasting effects at all (although he isn't permitted to drive for a month which might cause some difficulties) which seems to me to be a miracle for which we are so thankful.
It all endorses our attitude of living for the moment - you just never know what's around that corner.
Oh, and while sitting with Al in A&E I managed to finish a piece of sashiko that Carin gave me when I was in Japan - just to reassure you, dear reader, that this is still mainly a stitching blog!!
Thank you to all those wonderful people who helped and supported us yesterday.