long day, and then some

Celebrated solstice in a very subdued manner after a long day in the office; with all the wet weather we've been having no chance of a bonfire, so Django and I went for a late evening walk along the river just on the other side of ‘our’ dike. We were accompanied by a rumbling noise in the background, on one side of the dike the temporary pumps doing what they’re supposed to do, on the river side the makeshift fountain overflowing powerfully.

It made Django jump and then he continued his usual sniffing and peeing. We walked to the water’s edge further away from the gushing and all of a sudden it was very, very quiet: no breeze, pale blue skies streaked with soft clouds, the water’s surface completely flat and calm, no other humans or dogs in our vicinity, the only sound the chirping of birds. I saw two terns flying back and forth to I assume their young as they flew towards the river empty-beaked and back to the presumed nest with something in their beaks.

I didn’t bring my phone/camera, I just wanted to be there and instead of taking pictures, just soak it all in.....before we went to bed I took this pic of the moon outside our bedroom window

a day later, you can see what I was on about

 meanwhile the larger cloth is gaining momentum, inspired by this image I found in the newspaper, this mother earth type figure is just what the piece needs; had to figure out what kind of stitches, tried back stitch, both single thread and double, didn't like that, especially not on the reverse, pulled it all out and tried washing out most of the pen markings....have to be more delicate next time drawing straight onto the fabric!

decided I liked a running stitch with two strands of embroidery thread best, with a longer stitch on one side, first pic is the reverse; the dog was sewn on using a different method as can be seen in the pics above, also his outline is a single black thread

addendum:

our youngest pouring pink champagne as we celebrate his highschool diploma, a milestone!

two photo's from a walk nearby, somewhere last week; I like them so much I just had to add them.

last but not least, for those of you who are not on facebook, my mum celebrating her 82nd birthday!