First fruits!

[flick]

This evening, we're having courgettes for tea! (Also asparagus and the first new potatoes, from the veg box. My asparagus plants have produced about two spears each this year, but They Will Grow!)



And I have been sewing:


Bob was at the vet today, and we didn't get too much of a telling off for the way he's been fiddling with his stitches (he will keep licking at them, through the t-shirt). They're coming out at the end of next week, but he isn't allowed zoomies for a few days more after that: poor Bob!

The Aga had a service today, and got a clean bill of health, which is good, but less good is that the door seal on the dishwasher has gone, so I'm going to have to wash up by hand until Thursday when they come to fix it: poot.

Comments

[batwrangler]

Yay for the good news and gorgeous swan!

[clothsprogs]

Oh that swan has come out beautifully 0 what will it be when it's finished?

Teddy

[flick]

Thank you!

I'm (eep) planning on making four of them, with two different background fabrics, and arranging it so that it's two swans facing each other, reflected in the water.

Whack a bit of sashing around the edges, and it'll be a bed quilt!

[clothsprogs]

Gorgeous

Teddy

[armiphlage]

I saw an Aga in Belgium once, and it seemed indestructible. What kind of servicing does it need?

[flick]

They are indeed pretty indestructible. (We're pretty sure that our old one (1940's ish) survived the burning down of the old house and then had the new kitchen built around it, as it's in a little nook built into the chimney. When we got the new one, they went around the factory measuring them all -- they're cast, so there are slight variations -- looking for the smallest one they could find to be sure they could get it into the space.)

Servicing depends on the fuel source, pretty much. Our old one was originally coal-fired, so all it would have needed was sweeping out the ash and cleaning the chimney. It was then converted to gas, so I guess that it'd have needed the mantle changing and jets cleaning. After that, it was converted (not terribly well) to oil, and by the time we acquired it it was getting rather elderly, so we used to have to have soot cleaned off all the burning-related bits twice a year, and all the connections checked and adjusted: it got to the stage where we couldn't actually light it without having it serviced first, and shortly before we got rid of it the service guy spent a week phoning around all the retired plumbers he knew trying to get an obsolete sized bit of water piping to replace a leaking connection in the oil flow.

Then we got solar panels and had it replaced with an electric one, which is reliable and has a consistent temperature and can be turned on and off when you like... and has far more potentially breakable bits than an indestructible coal-burning one, but at least you don't have to shovel coal into it! Still, it got a clean bill of health, and after this only needs to be serviced every five years, so that's a bonus.

[birguslatro]

A lovely swan.

Ever done an image search for swan boats? It's interesting... I like swan boats. :)