THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS

The amaryllis I blipped a couple of days ago has grown to even more enormous proportions. I climbed up some steps to take this photo into the mirror over the mantelpiece.

I decided a few weeks ago that it was time I overcame my aversion to sewing and so bought a(nother) sewing machine, supposedly suitable for beginners, to replace the two or three in my life that I've given up on after being reduced to rage and tears and then given away. I have struggled with sewing and sewing machines ever since my first school needlework project was still unfinished at the end of the year when everyone else had completed it before the first half term holiday although I can hem, darn, sew on buttons and chain-stitch my name on a PE kit bag. But I'm a grown-up now and these times call for us to step up to the mark and I'm seeing frequent posts of friends and acquaintances in masks they've "just run up". I found patterns on line for "foolproof" face masks, acquired some elastic and some bias binding and cut up some old shirts ready to make face masks that apparently "can be made in five minutes". After all,  how hard can it be to sew rectangles in straight lines with a brand new machine? I'll tell you... two hours later, more rage and tears, tangled thread, unthreaded needles, twice-unpicked seams and no semblance of a face mask. That was two days ago, and after taking some deep breaths and giving myself a good talking to, it was the same again today. If the development of civilisation had depended on me being able to sew a couple of hides together for warmth, the human race would have died out a very long time ago. I have now decided once and for all that sewing and I will never get on and will now be looking for a local "scrub hub" voluntary group who might like my machine as an indefinite loan.