Project 365 day 241: coffee on my balcony

This was probably my favourite twenty minutes today: I took my coffee up to the balcony, along with a bit of hand sewing to stitch a velcro fastening to the little project I blipped as Tuesday's extra. Nearly nine years ago, when I viewed the house for the first time, I stood on the balcony in the rain, watching mist and low cloud drifting up the valley  and soggy sheep snuggling up to the hedges for shelter, and knew I could love this view for the rest of my life. This, as well as the plot with the large garden and what was then the last decaying remains of an old orchard, is what convinced me we should buy the house. 

The balcony is bigger now: the original small wooden one was lost when we extended around the back of the house to provide for J's access needs, but instead we have the flat roof of part of a downstairs room, which is big enough for a table and chairs and quite a lot of plants. Sadly, we haven't used it much, mainly because it's not accessible to J, but my little upstairs gallery space, which is my study/sewing room/junk store, opens onto it, and this summer, since J's PAs came back to support her with some of her daytime activities, I've tried to find time to sit on the balcony with my coffee when it's warm enough to read, write, sew or mend outside. I think my little blue needle case has already featured in a blip: it was my first primary school sewing project, maybe 54 years ago, pre-cut felt shapes in my choice of colours, to attach and decorate with whipped running stitch. I love realising that it has served me for the whole of my sewing life - I will never need another one.