Sparks of joy

Deary me, my Create 365 challenge seemed so feasible at the start of the year, and here we are, last day of August without even a month's worth done.

Still, the idea was to motivate me to sort things out, one of which was a new pair of trainers which were comfortable the first time I wore them, and then, for some reason, increasingly uncomfortable. After the fourth time wearing them, I stopped and put them away.

I watched a documentary featuring Marie Kondo, and not for the first time, I wondered about the concept of 'sparking joy'. The answer seems to be straightforward, a binary yes/no.

Not generally one for getting satisfaction from tidying and decluttering, nevertheless when I went to put clean knickers away, I found myself folding them into neat little shapes, then took out some knickers that I only go to as a last resort. Why was that? Did they 'spark joy'? Actually, no. They've always been too uncomfortable, with thick elastic edges. A couple of sessions resulted in balls of  jersey yarn.

I also sorted a few pairs of old socks, a couple of sessions yielding 4 smaller balls of  jersey yarn again. Soon I'll have enough to make something!

I mended a T-shirt which had a couple of small tears in it, probably courtesy of my cat Greebo, who seems unable to jump up for a cuddle without creating holes in whatever I'm wearing.

But back to the trainers. I looked at them, all turquoise and pink and light, and was surprised to find a spark of joy. But they had been cheap, probably wouldn't last long and there was no point in keeping them if they were uncomfortable, so what to do? I slipped them on again to walk around and focus on the discomfort. Something was rubbing my heels, irritating my Achilles tendons. I slipped them off and looked at the backs - they were quite high and curved in a little, unlike my heels. The centre back seam ended in a hard knob, just in the wrong place.

I was unsure if I could fix this, but on the basis that you don't know until you try, I used a stitch ripper to undo the seam where the lining joined the outer across the back of the heel, cut both outer and lining straight across and trimmed the centre back seam, before adjusting the small foam heel pad and re-sewing lining to outer.

This worked, although they may still not last long now that they are wearable!

This batch of things: 6
Cumulative total: 28

It's a jungle out there!

The back garden, that is, although the front is no better, covered in weeds again. While I was concentrating on the front, and especially while I was a bit poorly in May and then again in June, the back garden rewilded itself into an almost impenetrable mass of brambles and pendulous sedge. The compost bins are full, I've hacked back brambles a few times and burned them in the incinerator, but everything is growing so fast! The Alchemilla mollis is about to sprawl everywhere too. I'm tempted to take it out. I've surely got enough of its seed in the soil that I shall never be without it.

The patio is also inaccessible, full of pots which blow about in the wind. I haven't done any moth trapping as setting up the trap feels just too complicated. And the privet hedges, overgrown and in full flower. The sparrows have been enjoying those, as well as the aphids on the roses.

Still, there are compensations. Apart from butterflies, and the occasional damselfly, this Common Darter caught my eye.