Here we are in September already and I know that I’m not alone in looking fondly at those soft cashmere sweaters, the cosy slippers and wondering how soon I can reasonably think of putting the warmer duvets on our bed.  It’s not that I don’t like the warm Summer weather, just that I prefer the cooler days and a chance to snuggle in on darker evenings.  As my German friend Karin observes, “born in September and October, we are children of the Autumn”.

She’s right.

I like the cool starts to the morning, the more so if the sun gets up and brightens the day, as it did in Cheltenham on Saturday.  Not long now before those gardens will be covered in marquees and bookshops; I must set a reminder to sort out our tickets for the Literature Festival when booking opens tomorrow.

I’ve been putting one or two summer things to bed over the last couple of days.  First, my road trip journal from our Mid West adventure, which was especially hard to finish because I lingered a little too long and allowed our Irish jaunt to overlay the memories.  A good job I’d taken notes in my little book, then!

I actually created a keepsake from our Irish jolly too, but for now, I’ll keep it under wraps as it’s a little “different”.  I took my inspiration from the Waterford Charter and have had fun speaking stern words to our printer as I fed fabric to it.  I’ll share a few pics in due course, I expect

Whilst travelling through Iowa, we dropped into the Woollen Needle and unable, it seems, to leave such a shop without making a purchase of some kind, I fell for one of the cute felt cushion/ornament.  The darker skies brought out the urge to embroider and so armed with a box of odd bits of thread and a needle, I set to work.

But as I began, I looked at my stitches in horror.  What?  Have I lost the ability to create neat, even stitches?  Of course, stitching on heavy, woollen felt it isn’t easy to keep everything looking crisp and neat, but even so…

Almost finished, it’s not at all perfect.  It looks likely to give trainee craft judges plenty to get their teeth into when the next course begins!

It also provides me with the first theme of my annual September project because, oh yes, it’s that time of the year again.  I don’t think that it’s really something new, strictly speaking, but I learned that it’s worth sticking with something, even if it isn’t quite perfect, otherwise nothing would get done, would it?