I was just listening to an episode of the 99% Invisible Newsletter called ‘Matters of time’, which included a selection of stories about the standardisation of time with the coming of the railways, the people who made their livings as knocker-uppers (human alarm clocks tapping on windows to rouse people for work), the single time zone across China and experiments with daylight saving.

I found it interesting because I’m somewhat obsessed by time or, more specifically, the seeming lack of it. Clearly, it passes and it is always packed full of one thing after another. Nevertheless, I live in the hope and expectation that, sooner or later, an interval will come along when there is nothing pressing to be done. And then I realised it was a touch ironic that, at last, I was sitting in the Makery (finally restored to a useable space and full of crafting supplies) and all I was doing was listening to a podcast!

Because this has always been a making blog, I have had almost nothing share here all Summer and I find that somehow, I have lost the the thread, lost track of all the things I was in middle of…and, whereas I used to enjoy looking back over my blog and remembering the things I had made, now, it just makes me sad to see my last post vanishing further and further into the past. At the same time, many bloggers I used to follow seem to have melted away. Bloglovin’ seems to be broken and searches for individual blogs throw up pinterest results and endless lists of commercial sites that Mr Google would prefer me to visit.

But there is one make that I haven’t posted about here. It was my offering for The Endeavourers quarterly reveal day last month and the theme was ‘Animal Kingdom’.

This quilt began as a small memorial to my dog, Lucy. We were lucky enough to walk through life together for almost 14 years and she was the best friend I have ever had. Then, one very sad day, I found myself alone, continuing that walk without her at my side.

I was originally intending to add more detail but, as I stitched, I pondered that this actually illustrates the experience of many pet owners and (you might think this a stretch!) even a comment on our times as mass extinctions diminish the animal kingdom and leave us humans in a lonelier, though ironically more crowded, world. Perhaps, even, a small illustrations of loss in general.

As I write this post, during a time of national mourning, even for many who were never enthusiastic supporters of the monarchy, there is a prevailing sense of shock and loss at the death of Queen Elizabeth ll. An abrupt end to a world we took for granted and a renewing of the personal loss of our grandparents and their generation, who fought for, built and sustained the country, the peace and the freedoms we have enjoyed all these years.

But, of course, the world does not abruptly end. Time rolls on, always packed full of one thing after another, and it is September. The nights are drawing in and, during the darker evenings when the garden must be left to itself and some of the busy-ness of the year is over, I will pick up my thread again and get back to the making that brings me a surprising amount of happiness, even though that makes no sense to most of the people I know in ‘real life’. And I will post about it here because I love this little blog, even though the personal blog seems to have become a bit passé in an age of instagram and twitter and like-and-go social media.

Wherever you are and whatever you are doing, I wish you well :)

Janine @ Rainbow Hare