Grass

I have no idea what it is, but my eye was drawn to the rather elegant, dark slender stems, with these oat-like purple seed heads.  It is self seeded alongside the new fence.

Since the conveyancing process is dragging on interminably, and I was getting quite stressed and upset, we've pushed the boat out and booked a two week stay in Ireland from Sunday.  It was the only way to stop me from spending more money on fabric (another batch of fat quarters from Aldi arrived today - see extra).  We'll view some houses, try to sort out a rental property (though that depends on hearing something about a possible completion date - we don't want to pay for more than necessary), try to organise Irish bank accounts, talk to our Irish solicitor etc etc etc.

It means we have just two days to get ourselves sorted, decide on what we want to take - ideally we want to fill the car as much as possible.  Since we are intending to put most of our stuff into storage, and live in rental accommodation for several months, we need to try to anticipate what we will need, and this is likely to be more than we can carry in the car in one trip.  So we want to take some stuff this time - maybe winter clothes, a vacuum, a standard lamp to enable sewing, that sort of thing (suggestions welcome).  And we will leave it in Ireland - either in a self-storage facility or with one of our acquaintances.  Well - it gives me something to occupy my brain rather than angsting over the (lack of) progress in selling the house.