Do sunshine and crochet mix?

That was a rhetorical question.  In my, not at all humble, opinion, they most certainly do not.  I made decent progress on my striped beach tunic, but today the sun came out and, well, not a single stitch so far... 

I'm not ashamed.  This is Ireland, which means that you have to make the most of rain-free days.  There aren't that many. 

I'm in the process of filling my brand new raised beds.  As you can see from the picture below, this is a slow, gradual process.

At the moment, I can't quite afford to buy topsoil, so I have to do things the hard way.  In a far corner of our new property, there is a small hill covered with grass and nettles, and once you strip the greens you find plenty of topsoil mixed with building rubble.  Once again, this is Ireland, rural Ireland, so by 'building rubble' you can substitute 'stones'.  Lots and lots of stones, big ones, small ones, mixed with some rubbish and even bits of broken glass.  I sift through it all shovelful by shovelful and then trawl buckets of topsoil across the garden and into the beds.  See?  Slow process.  It takes me about two days to fill one bed but hey, I'll get there in the end. 

I'd get there sooner, but someone keeps scratching my precious soil away. 

I didn't catch the culprit red-handed but I'm 99% sure it's the chickens*.  They act fast, the little monsters.  I finished filling less than an hour before taking the picture! 

Anyway, there's still some crafting planned for the evening.  I'm a few rows away from finishing second part of the tunic.  At this stage, I have to juggle between four balls of yarn which drives me up the wall.

Just one thing worries me.  It's hard to see on the picture, but the tunic looks very, very small.  A child's garment, rather than adult woman's.  NOT funny.  I'm putting a lot of faith into fabulous stretching qualities of cotton - how much do you think it will grow in blocking? 

I have a plan B up my sleeve - crocheting little inserts on the sides to make the tunic more roomy - because no matter what happens, I am NOT frogging this thing.  I never had a chance to tell you (what with the Internet starvation and the Big Move), but this is my fourth attempt at this design and I simply can't stomach another.  No can do.  Whatever I end up with this time, stays.  Please send stretchy thoughts my way.

* Or neighbours' dog.  But since he's probably the only thing standing between our chickens and Mr Fox during daytime, I won't hold grudge.