Making hay while the sun shines

That's what I was doing yesterday and it's one of my least favourite activities of all time.

Under normal circumstances I do as little as possible in the heat because when I get hot my face gets red - if I was skinny I'd look like a matchstick with my bright red face and white body!  And the combination of sun cream and sweat attracts dust, grass seeds and bits of hay to the skin like a magnet.  Not very comfortable.  

As you can tell from the job description, hay is best made when the sun's shining and yesterday was 26 degrees.  The weather forecast said there could be rain in the early afternoon so it needed to be under cover before then.  Luckily we had extra hands this year with some of my son's friends so we got it done in good time.
The farmer who cuts and bales the hay takes half of the hay in payment, but he makes his into round bales

The advantage of these is they don't need to be manhandled and there isn't the same urgency to get them inside because rain will run off them.  The disadvantage is you really need a tractor to move them about and they're messy once opened.


The other day my daughter noticed a small whirlwind blowing the hay about

that's not a pale green bush in the middle of the photo, it's the hay.  It must have been in the other field as well because there was a big patch of hay missing there.


When I'd eventually cooled down later I made another pillowcase dress for the dress a girl around the world charity which Louise from Sew Scrumptious is collecting 100 for.
I got a sheet and two pillowcases from the charity shop last week so used one of the pillowcases.  I made the bias binding from a plain blue sheet.

Look at this cheeky blackbird having a bath this morning in the baby bath my daughter had tadpoles in.  I think this explains why the tadpoles had disappeared before turning into frogs.  They probably got flung out (or eaten) if it's been making a habit of it.