Right-handed book advance copy arrived!

Yesterday morning when Belinda and I were carting stuff out to the car, a truck pulled up out the front with what looked to be council workers in it. I said “Looks like some guys have come to dig up the footpath or something.” Then I noticed their woodchipper on the back, and realised they had come to chop down the great big liquidambar tree that was on council land out the front of our house.

The tree was marked several years ago with spray paint, which meant that it was earmarked for chopping down. It was large (and lovely) but kept uprooting sections of footpath, which council had to replace every few years or risk being sued. In fact, I still remember the day that Nanna and Pa were visiting, and we were saying goodbye to them, and Nanna tripped on the path and hurt herself. Nanna hasn’t been with us for quite some number of years, yet I can still see her falling in slow motion.

So anyway, they came to chop it down. A guy came over to explain to me what they were going to do. He asked if we had any cars that would need to come out during the morning. I said yes. He said, “Well I might get you to do it now, if that’s ok.” I replied “No, actually, because we are packing it.” He said that they’d just have to move when we needed to leave.

So they set up a huge cherrypicker and proceeded to make a lot of noise with their chainsaw. I didn’t take much notice though, as we were just slightly busy packing boxes into the car (it all fitted!!). They were a little annoyed when we indicated about half an hour later that we needed to leave. But we did warn them!

I came home hours later to find a stump. It’ll be ground out when they get the chance.

Both my daughters cried and cried when they saw it. We really had no warning, so it was a bit of a shock for all of us. Of course, we had known for some years that they would cut it down, but when it takes so long for them to get to it, you don’t really imagine that they ever will.

But as the title of this post says, in the midst of all that, the courier must have been able to find his way to our front door, because there was a lovely parcel waiting on my doorstep in the afternoon, with my advance copies of The Right-Handed Embroiderer’s Companion inside.

OH they look wonderful!! So I will have one – under a VERY watchful eye – with me at the craft show this week, and those of you who are right-handed can have a look before ordering your very own copy, due to come late July.