Jack of all crafts...

I'm back...

2011-10-18T20:21:00.000+01:00

I've been away for some time. Not away...away...but not blogging. I was upset by the nasty comments on Little Cotton Rabbits blog - I guess I thought it was just lovely like minded ladies reading these crafty blogs, not nasty stalker type trolls whose one aim in life is to upset and intimidate other people.
However...I'm here now and have nothing much to report. The allotment has reached the point where the grass and weeds have almost stopped growing, but so have the vegetables which have sustained us over the summer months. We have a good stock of red potatoes, onions and garlic to keep us in staples over the winter. Something surprising that we grew for the first time this year was spinach - as long as you keep picking it, it grows away without needing much attention at all. A must for next year. The strawberries this year were amazing - we are still picking the odd one or two which, believe me, do not make it home! I was lucky enough to acquire a good second hand jam pan for a fiver from Fakenham market while on holiday and I made several batches of jam and froze a load for the lean winter months. Plums also were abundant this year, and again I made several batches of plum jam.
There are 6 raspberry plants sitting outside waiting patiently to be planted over at the allotment and I have four fruit trees on order, a Victoria plum, Cox apple, Conference pear and Morello cherry, so we should be self-sufficient in fruit in a few years time!

A sad place to be

2011-06-04T22:11:00.000+01:00

We lost our little Ellie yesterday at the grand old age of 17. After a short illness, she decided enough was enough and stopped eating. We had to make the heartbreaking decision to have her put to sleep.

Today is a strange day and a sad place to be. I know in my heart that it was the right decision and she had lived a lovely life with us, but it's hard to let go when they are so much part of the family. It doesn't matter that she had lived a long and lovely life, for me, it just wasn't enough. Ellie, we miss you.

Ellie enjoying 'her'
new patchwork cushion cover!

Sleeping on my denim patchwork quilt

Don't tell Dad

Cupcakes or fairy cakes? An old friend in disguise...

2011-04-12T22:48:00.000+01:00

What's cooking, I hear you ask? As well you might! When I was a little girl these little cakes were called 'fairy cakes' but today they wear the posh title of 'cupcakes'. Never mind the name, they taste the same and contain the same amount of fat and calories.

DD is leaving her current job tomorrow and is off to the big smoke to pastures new, hoping to make her fortune with her bag of magic beans. We thought it would be nice for her to bake and take in cupcakes on her last day.

So to prove to the sceptical that DD actually can cook, here they are in their raw state waiting to go into the oven...

...and cooking away, rising nicely in the oven...

...cooling... (notice we even tasted one to make sure they were safe for public consumption LOL)

...and wearing their posh frocks! Each a miniature work of art.
Have a lovely last day, my beautiful DD, enjoy!

Eeeeeek.......and........Oooooooo!

2011-02-15T20:37:00.000Z

Valentines Day. Mmmmmmmmmm. These were waiting for me by my morning cuppa. The strangest thing. It's never happened before in 26 years.
Should I be worried!

Since I've become addicted to sewing in a serious way, I've coveted a Horn Cabinet. They are seriously expensive and provide the ultimate sewing experience.
I've been watching Ebay for a bargain, not only do they hold their price amazingly well second hand, but also being a serious bit of kit, they are too heavy to put in a jiffy bag and send via the post lady and so need to be within collecting distance. This cabinet came up and I immediately knew I had to have it - I loved the drawers and the colour and was about an hours drive to collect.
I put my bid on (I daren't tell you how much!), waited with baited breath until the auction finished and found myself the proud owner.

Saturday afternoon DH and I set off to collect the cabinet. Two junctions clockwise round the M25, the sat nav took us efficiently to our destination - East Tilbury in Essex. What a God forsaken place, I have to say. Now I've been there and done it, I hope never to have to go there again. Luckily the seller met us at the garage where the cabinet was stored - we couldn't have left the car for more than 30 seconds before it was either burnt out or stolen. Not a nice experience. The cabinet was a bit disappointing viewed in the dank, musty old garage, covered in grime and cobwebs but once home and elbow grease applied, looks good as new and is in full working order.

There is something that tells me that It and me were meant to be an item, which makes me feel a whole lot better about the amount I had to pay for it: the plexi glass plate is purpose made to fit a Toyota sewing machine and mine is a Benina. I searched the web to try and find one for my machine, having come across somewhere that sold them some time ago. Typically I couldn't find it again. So I set my machine up regardless and, funnily enough, the plate fitted perfectly. Spooky or what?

Am off now for the ultimate sewing experience!

Another year...another quilt

2011-01-21T23:06:00.000Z

I found a fabulous second hand book called Memorable Scrap Quilts. Fabulous, not because of the quilt projects but because of this paragraph, 'Scrap quilts not only have a wonderful homely charm but they embody the old fashioned virtues of frugality and making do. These are not the beautiful quilts that win Best of Show awards - they are the quilts we wrap our young ones in when they have the flu, and in which we ourselves snuggle up on cold winter nights.' This is why I love making quilts and why I'm not too bothered if they're not quite perfect-they are made with love and care.

Anyway. My latest finished project is a lap quilt in a discontinued Moda jellyroll, Aviary, with a few fat quarters thrown in for good measure. The photo doesn't really do the colours justice-it's difficult to get good photos in the winter-too dark indoors and the flash distorts the colours, outside, the sun was mega bright and glared a bit.

It was intended for my Folksy shop but I love it so much, I can't part with it! I feel like I've been through pregnancy (only a couple of weeks, I'm pleased to say,) birth (a difficult one), and this is my beautiful new baby. How can I sell it? It looks fabulous on the chair in our newly decorated dining room. Definitely not for cats...

...or little boys!!!

Merry Christmas

2010-12-19T21:12:00.000Z

Weston Church

Well, here we are again...a few more days and Christmas day will be upon us once again. In past years I've dreaded Christmas but this year even though I'm working full time...I'm ready! My Nan always used to say 'the more time you have, the less you want to do' and I know it's true. Given less time, I make use of every moment - it's amazing how much you can do in 10 minutes. So I'm feeling relaxed and excited about Christmas.
And I'm loving the snow. For us it came at the perfect time; Saturday morning shopping done, DS collected from the station after his return from Manchester and the snow started in earnest leaving the world wrapped in a blanket of white. This morning we wrapped up warm and headed out for a snowy walk, with the camera of course.

Soft, fluffy barbed wire!

I just love barbed wire and was thrilled to find this strand transformed into something soft and fluffy!
I hope you all have a lovely peaceful and healthy Christmas and New Year. Enjoy! See you next year...

It's been a while..

2010-11-20T22:06:00.000Z

...since I last blogged...and I apologise...it's just that nothing much has been going on - the allotment is dormant and as I'm working full time up until Christmas, there's not much spare time or energy to craft or blog. I must admit I did go to the Chilford Quilt Festival a few weekends ago and bought two new projects which will have to wait until the new year to get started but otherwise all is quiet on the Weston Front.

You may know that it was a BIG birthday for me this year. I was given loads of lovely presents and had a FAB-U-LOUS birthday on the beach. One of my presents from my Mum was a workshop at the wonderful Art Van Go in Knebworth called 'Changing the Surface' .

Mess!

I forgot to take my camera but luckily I had my phone with me and took a few shots of the organised chaos. This is my Mum, Jill, on the left, engrossed in sticking and gluing, and Penny on her right, a lovely lady sharing our table that we got chatting to.

We started off with either brown paper or fabric and applied tissue paper, threads, string, skeletal leaves or fabric using either pva glue or thick gesso. We made four of these and left them to dry.

Can you guess what it is yet?

At this point, I couldn't actually see the point but went with the flow...

My Australia piece

The drying process took ages, but once dry, we started to add colour using acrylic paint and ink. I found a pot of bling that got applied in vast quantities. By the time the pieces were finished, they were works of art. The hardest part was knowing when to stop! More was definitely more!

Maureens finished pieces.

I wish I'd thought to take a picture of my mucky fingers!

We had such a lovely day. I just need to think of a way to use the lovely pieces that I created. Maybe a book cover or perhaps they will get chopped up and used on scrapbook pages! The world's my oyster. Or it will be after Christmas when I get to be a lady of leisure once again.

Art Van Go workshop and gallery

Here is the link to the Art Van Go website-they are releasing their workshops for next year in a few weeks, so check it out if you like inking, painting, gluing, sticking, sewing. Drop in if you get the chance-they sell loads of beautiful books on unusual art and crafts as well as all the usual art supplies and the works of art on display in the gallery are awesome. The staff are all very helpful and friendly.

Notting Hill come to North Norfolk?

2010-10-04T21:45:00.000+01:00

Having been away on holiday, I feel that the summer is well and truly done. Our fortnight in Norfolk wasn't blessed with the Indian summer that we have enjoyed for the last two or three years but all the same we got out and about. This year we stayed in a lovely cottage in the little village of Brancaster on the North Norfolk coast; handy for the coastal path, the beach and the Coastal Hopper bus (very handy when you walk the coastal path and need to get back to base-they allow the dog on for free and run every 30 minutes!)
The thing that used to appeal to me about North Norfolk, besides the big blue sky, is that it seemed to be suspended in time, about 50 years ago, for example, there used to be very little mobile phone signal and the pace of life seemed slower, calmer and more peaceful. But all that seems to be changing.
Visiting Brancaster and the surrounding villages in September highlights the fact that many of the properties are second homes and holiday homes that sit empty throughout the winter months. Once upon a time Brancaster would have boasted a village shop, a butcher, baker, blacksmith, a market and a post office. The residents would have had no need to leave the village. Last year the only shop left was the village shop but this year it has been transformed into a very trendy holiday home. The village shop has moved into a portacabin and the post office relocated into the local club house open only a few hours a day.

The Post Office located in 'Club 71'

The village shop opens 8 am to 1 pm

Exploring the coast in both directions, there are no end of trendy pubs, restaurants and delicatessens springing up - sadly it smacks of 'Notting Hill come to Norfolk'.

Whilst visiting the Post Office situated in Club 71, we got chatting to the 'post master', he asked if we'd seen the seals. We thought he meant the seals at Blakeney Point. But sure enough Brancaster boasts it's very own small colony of seals! We were lucky enough to see three seals swimming at low tide and were amazed at how curious they were, not at all afraid of us even though we had the dog with us. Just who was watching who?

My Folksy Shop...

2010-08-29T18:32:00.000+01:00

...and a new look to my blog! I hope you like it as much as I do. Blogger has just given us a whole shed load of new templates with a huge selection of backgrounds and colours, so much to choose from. I chose the ribbons because it kind of covers a multitude of crafts and seemed appropriate to my blog.

And if you like these little guys, you will shortly have the opportunity to buy them, should you wish. Even if you just like to window shop, please visit my Folksy Shop, LoveToCraft where you can see my Denim Lap Quilt and more of my handmade items.

Happy Bank Holiday to you.

Love it or hate it?

2010-08-25T22:23:00.000+01:00

We live in a little Victorian cottage that was originally a one up, one down, but over the years has been extended and the extensions extended. Not always very well, I might add. DS had a bedroom downstairs but now that he has gone off to other climes, we have a plan. We thought it might be nice if his room became a dining room. You know, a room that has a large table with chairs around it where you might sit and eat your dinner? I read about it once. Having always been the sort of slovens that sit in front of the telly with a tray, I actually thought it might be sort of...civilised...to eat at a table.

Anyway, that's the plan. Once the seed was sewn, it became a reality in my mind. Only in my mind, mind. In reality the room needs a tad of work done on it before it can become civilised. But I know a man that can, it's just that trying to get that man to actually get anything done, is a bit like trying to climb a mountain in bare feet.

Without harping on about it, we're still waiting.

Anyway, in this dining room in my mind's eye, I want a sideboard. To keep things in. Glasses, cutlery, place mats etc. But I'm not keen on modern furniture which seems to be made of chipboard covered with a wafer of wood, so we set out on a mission to find something old and made of solid wood that fits the criteria.

Until DH pointed out this cupboard on Hitchin Friday bric-a-brac market, I had passed it by without a second glance. On closer scrutiny, it fit the bill. Lots of cupboard space, drawers for cutlery, a rack for wine bottles...and a secret drawer. But...I couldn't decide if I loved it or hated it. Know that feeling? What do you think?

Anyway, we parted with £75 and the nice man delivered it there and then. And now it's sitting in my workshop waiting for the room to be refurbed. I'm going to strip off all the varnish and wax the wood to show off the beautiful oak.
It's not really missing a drawer. I was so excited, I took it outside and stripped off the varnish using some horrible toxic chemical that burns your lungs and takes your skin off, but look at the result.

Before

After

It's not waxed yet, but I think the ugly duckling will be transformed with a lot of wax...and elbow grease!

An update on the new family

2010-08-23T22:05:00.000+01:00

As Godmother to this little family, I'm perfectly entitled to sneak into the Wilsons house and up the stairs to their bedroom to visit the cat family who are comfortably inhabiting the bottom drawer. Ruby is looking very well after her ordeal, and apparently eating like a horse. She didn't bat an eyelid at visitors who insisted on 'ooing' and 'arrhhhing' and taking flash photos.

The kittens seem to have doubled in size after just 24 hours. Their coats are glossy and fluffy and they are so much stronger. They weigh between 4 and 5 ounces and we tried to work out how much weight Ruby was carrying just before giving birth; the kittens alone weighed 2lbs without all the fluid and other stuff. Probably about a fifth of her body weight!

NEWS FLASH

Tonight, while walking in Church Meadow at dusk in this green and pleasant corner of England, we saw four barn owls all together, another lovely little family.

The miracle of new life...

2010-08-20T20:45:00.000+01:00

...puts everything into perspective. Puts right all the wrongs in this world.

Family of eight

Remember that little kitten that was lost and found 3 weeks later in a tank? (If you don't know the story, have a quick look on my blog for the 19th July to catch up). Well, about that time, Ruby's husband, a beautiful grey and white tom, had been seen visiting her, and it soon became apparent that Ruby was expecting again. The kittens were due, I think, from yesterday. This morning, at about 9am, I got a phone call from Susie to say Ruby was in labour, and as we have an unsaid, unwritten pact to do anything for each other, would I sit with her while Susie went to work. Usually animals want to be left alone to get on with this sort of thing, and especially if they are sick or injured but strangely, Ruby wanted the reassurance of someone with her. Luckily she didn't seem bothered that it was me and not her 'mum'. Susie was about to leave for work, when I noticed that the first kitten was about to be born, tail first. Alarm bells rang at this point. I suddenly thought that maybe I wasn't sure I wanted, or was qualified, to be a midwife. But before I could say 'ring the vet', the kitten was safely out.
Never having witnessed anything being born in real life, other than my own children, I felt quite overwhelmed and privileged at being allowed to witness this mini miracle. Within minutes the kitten was washed and crawling towards the milk bar. Ruby had it all under control and new exactly what she had to do and safely delivered seven kittens in all. The only thing I did for her was to break the membrane around the sixth kitten as she was tiring by then and slow to do it herself. I left the little family quietly sleeping feeling all was right with the world.

First kitten, fourth litter

A pile of wet kittens

Have a good weekend.

Go on...I dare you

2010-08-04T13:48:00.000+01:00

If you've got two minutes to spare, have a look at this little movie.
At the very least it will make you smile...and you never know...once you see how that burger/steak you're about to eat once had a sense of adventure, maybe you'll have cauliflower cheese next time instead.
I live in hope but won't hold my breath.

Just where has the summer gone to? Looking at these well developed conkers, it must be nearly time to get the winter woolies out again. And I haven't even had my holiday yet!

Battery hen farmers - watch this and weep

2010-07-28T22:33:00.000+01:00

While sitting at the bottom of my garden enjoying a cup of tea with my girls, Rosie and Annie, I made this little video on my phone. I apologise unashamedly for the quality, but hope it will make you smile.
All I ask is that next time you go to the fresh meat aisle in your local supermarket, please, think about the quality of the short life that animal might have lived.

I came across these wonderful spiky plants the other day, in my little corner of the world. They are very dramatic against the big blue sky.

Little kitty goes to Liverpool

2010-07-21T23:11:00.000+01:00

Little kitty has packed her bags and started her long journey to her new home in Liverpool. Looking sleek and shiny and none the worse for her adventure, kitty was collected by her grandparents and driven to Toddington services where she was transferred to her waiting taxi, before being whisked away and up the M1.

But before she left, she bid a fond farewell to Indie, which involved a lot of spitting, raised hackles and bushy tail. Just as well there are no dogs in her new family...

Alien abduction or miracle...you decide

2010-07-19T22:35:00.000+01:00

This little kitten is 9 weeks old and has used up all of her nine lives.
One of 6 kittens born to Ruby, she was the last to go to her new home. As she had to make the journey up to Liverpool, Susie, Ruby's pet, had agreed to keep her a week longer. A few days before the kitten was due to leave for her new home, Susie, the dogs and three adult cats including the mother cat, went down the meadow for their evening walk, leaving the kitten sleeping in the garden. Gone only ten minutes or so, on their return, they found the kitten gone. Despite extensive searching that night and throughout the days following, the kitten was lost without a trace. As temperatures soared into the 30s and neighbours reported seeing a Red Kite in the area that evening, all hope was lost that the kitten had survived and the search abandoned.
Three weeks almost to the day later, Ruby went missing. While over in the yard searching for her, Susie could hear a loud wailing. Thinking it was Ruby, she followed the noise to a disused tank on the far side of the yard, and on peering inside...found the kitten.

She was perched on a ledge about a foot off the bottom of the tank, but was too small to jump out from there. The kitten appears to have been inside for the whole 3 weeks, and survived the heat probably due to the silt and rust on the bottom and to the rusty old bit of corrugated iron partially covering the tank. The mother cat appears to have been feeding her as there were bits of bunny at the bottom. How she didn't drown in the torrential rain at the end of the hot spell, we'll never know.
Anyway, she is safe and sound back in the kitchen, acting as if she's never been away, except she doesn't stop purring...or eating.
The weird thing is that the tank is right by a workshop regularly used by people. How come no one heard her before? Hence the alien theory...

Look what I found

2010-07-13T22:34:00.000+01:00

While searching for a way of preserving courgettes, as I suspect we are going to have a glut of them before long, I came across this web site, Veg Box Recipes. It is brilliant! Not only does it tell you how to preserve your produce, it has loads of recipes.

I made this soup today with our own grown courgettes, potatoes, herbs, onions and garlic-all organic of course, and it was delicious. And it freezes well. By the way, I made half the quantity and it made enough for 3 hearty portions.

Courgette Soup
What? Courgette soup? Are you sure? Yes! Sceptical at first, but now converted. Amazingly simple and a great way of using and preserving a glut of courgettes. So whether you've got courgettes in your veg box for the 5th week in a row, or a glut from your allotment's 15 courgette plants, this soup makes a tasty change.
Ingredients Serves 4 1 kg courgettes - any size and colour 250g potatoes (suitable for mashing), peeled or scrubbed 2 cloves garlic, peeled & crushed 1 medium onion, peeled & chopped 30ml olive oil 150g soft cheese (see note below for alternatives Handful fresh chives, chopped Handful fresh summer herbs of your choice, chopped 1 ½ pints water (or mild-flavoured stock
Method Wash the courgettes and chop them into chunks. Cut the potatoes into cubes (smaller than 1 inch). Heat the oil gently in a large pan. Add the onion and garlic. Gently cook for about 5 minutes, to soften. Add the potatoes. Stirr. Cook gently, covered, for about 15 minutes, until about half-cooked. Add the courgettes and stir. Cook for about 5 minutes until softened, stirring occasionally. Add 1 1/2 pints of water - just enough to cover the contents of the pan. Bring to the boil and simmer gently for 10 minutes, or until the potatoes are soft. Remove from the heat and liquidise the soup. Add the Cheese & herbs. Season to taste with salt & pepper. Serve with fresh bread.
Cupboard-To-TableAbout 40 minutes. (Most of this is waiting, so actual preparation time is about 15 minutes

How childish

2010-07-12T22:40:00.000+01:00

While in Manchester a few weeks ago, moving DS from the halls into his house, we stayed in the local Westin Hotel. It was a fabulous hotel, the breakfast was unbelievable and they were considerate enough to provide this massive, over sized chair as the perfect photo opportunity for the tourists. Being a simple country girl let loose in the city, I insisted we take advantage of it. If you think the photo itself is amusing, imagine the fun and games the three of us had actually getting onto the chair, especially me; having to balance the camera on the back of a chair, set the timer and leg it over and up in ten seconds, trying to fit my ample derriere in between those of my DH and DS. Did we laugh?

Why...?

2010-07-06T22:12:00.002+01:00

Hmmmmm...I'm trying to blog with the TV on. My mind is boggling. It's the Sex Education Show with Anna Richardson and to be honest...I'm a bit shocked. I definitely can't concentrate on blogging. What has possessed two women to get their most private and intimate body parts out on national TV? Having asked that question, I think it's a brilliant way to teach youngsters about sex. Sex education in schools in the '70's was non-existent and as it was a taboo subject with our parents at that time, we were left to work it out for ourselves. No wonder so many girls got themselves into trouble. The article about disabled people is really touching.
It makes you think.

OK. Now for my blog entry!

A friend of mine, who has 3 boys, took my DD to a school fete when she was four, I think so she could pretend just for a little while that she had a little girl, and bought her this cactus. In those days it was tiny and occupied a vending machine drink cup. It's sat on my window sill for the last 19 years, growing incredibly slowly and occasionally stabbing me with its evil spines. But every couple of years, this ugly old cactus produces the most beautiful flower. It lasts for one day only but is absolutely perfect with paper thin, pale pink petals. Another version of the duckling/swan story maybe?

Inky and painty fingers

2010-07-03T22:07:00.001+01:00

For those of you who love messing about with ink and paint, and subsequently get inky and painty fingers, here is Rangers blog where you can see a host of techniques using their fantastic products-click on the 'tips and techniques' link at the top of the page. Another blog I like to visit is Tim Holtz who also loves to get inky and painty fingers. Enjoy!

While the cat's away...the mice will play...

2010-06-30T23:03:00.000+01:00

This old cat has more beds dotted around the house than most...and where does she sleep on a hot day? Yes, on our bed. She looked so cute, I hadn't the heart to move her (especially as she was on DHs side.)

(He NEVER reads my blog, so he need never know! LOL)

Scary!

2010-06-24T21:44:00.000+01:00

Who could this one be modeled on, I wonder? She looks familiar...

Nothing serious, darling...the house needs binning

2010-06-24T16:13:00.000+01:00

After our nasty scare last Sunday, which was due to a fault in a socket which left us with only partial electricity, we had some electricians in this morning to carry out a survey to assess the state of our electricity supply.
In a nutshell, my text to my DH read:

The good news is: we only need 2 dozen skips to put the house in.
The bad news is Neil* is pants at electrics.

(*the kitchen fitter who has done a somewhat botched job on the electrics whist fitting the kitchen and bathroom in the past)

NB I shall leave a poor box at the end of my allotment for those of you who feel sorry for me.

The Weston Allotments Scarecrow Competition

2010-06-20T21:26:00.000+01:00

How fabulous is this? It's a 'scareboy' made by my little friend Feebs and her dad and is the very first entry into the Weston Allotments Scarecrow Competition. Innovationally made from recycled materials in true allotment style, this scareboy is sure to keep the pigeons away. (Feebs, I challenge you to use the word 'innovationally' in a sentence, to your teacher at school tomorrow, after your dad has explained what it means, of course!)

So, all you Weston Allotmentiers, young and old, Feebs and I want to see your scarecrows. You've got a couple of weeks to get them made and positioned on your patch, and we'll ask John C to come and judge his favourite. You might even win a prize!

The sun has got his hat on

2010-06-07T23:00:00.001+01:00

At last the good weather has arrived. The sun has got his hat on and the allotment is blossoming. I can't believe how rapidly the veggie plants grow once they are put in the ground. At this rate we'll be harvesting very soon.

The potatoes have been earthed up well and are now well above the earth, and I noticed flowers have appeared this weekend.

I planted broad bean seeds in the autumn, but only a couple withstood the -8 degree temperatures. They are doing well and the pods are about six inches long. The beans I planted in the Spring are not far behind, and at this rate, I can see a glut of broad beans shortly!

The community spirit is also blossoming and we're busy swapping plants, tips and watering duties. The plot next to us has been taken on by new allotmentiers and the weeds have been chopped down and some serious digging done, so all is well again.

Beautiful...and unique

2010-06-05T20:08:00.001+01:00

My good friend H and I did a workshop on Thursday evening at the Scraprevolution shop down in Baldock and had a fab time inking, painting, gluing and sticking. This is my take on the mirror Lorraine designed and made for the workshop. We spent a great deal of time chatting and drinking tea and got a bit left behind, leaving at about 11.30 pm with lots of bits and pieces we had created during the evening. I wanted to savour placing and sticking the pieces in my own time and finally got the chance to get down to it today.

There are several aspects that I really love-this rose made from Grunge paper is a little work of art in it's own right. We started off by spraying the die cut pieces with a mixture of distress ink, perfect pearls and water, and when dry, cut, curled and stuck the pieces together to form a beautiful rose.

I love the texture and dimension of this piece. We spread Gesso onto a square of chipboard and allowed it to dry for 20 minutes or so, before etching a design into it. When completely dry, we applied a colour wash of diluted acrylic paint over it. I filled the line of the heart with less diluted brown paint as I wanted it to stand out. The embellishment is a stitched tin tile and bosher inked with alcohol inks and layered up.

This is a piece of self adhesive canvas which we stamped onto with Perfect Medium using a foam stamp, allowed to dry and then either inked or painted with a diluted colour wash (I used distress ink) and then stuck onto a square of chipboard. The rectangle embellishment is an image stamped in black archival ink onto plain white paper and adhered to a Tim Holtz acrylic fragment using Glossy Accents. A small matching button completes the piece perfectly. The square to the right of this piece is the same technique but we distress inked the stamped image using the blending tool before sticking it to the fragment.

We had a fabulous evening and came away with a beautiful and unique piece of artwork. Thank you Lorraine, for your inspiration and hard work.

Four divided by two equals two?

2010-06-01T21:03:00.000+01:00

I'm in shock.
All my life I've believed that a hen lays one egg a day. Today that belief has been turned on it's head. I don't know what to believe anymore.
Why?
Two hens lay four eggs.
How does that work eggactly?
But even more puzzling, one of the four eggs is brown and three are white. Work that out.

One egg is never an oeuf...get it?

2010-05-19T20:36:00.000+01:00

Yesterdays little white egg seems to have prompted the other hen to lay today. In the nest box this morning, nestled in the straw, was this miniature brown egg! A similar size but brown.

It's really difficult to show the size of something in a photo, so I've put my girls' little eggs in with a normal sized egg, and hope you can appreciate just how small they are. (The ceramic egg box was a pressie from Auntie Susie when the hens first arrived and I love it!) Assuming the hens produce an egg a day, I'm going to save up make an omelet with herbs and cheese.
I just have to find out which hen lays which colour egg...

A proud parent

2010-05-18T20:48:00.000+01:00

Look what was waiting for me in the chicken coop this morning. I couldn't believe it! The straw in the nesting box had been arranged into a cosy nest and in the middle was this tiny but perfectly formed egg. I feel like a proud parent all over again! But...how to eat it. More to the point...can I eat it?

Here on my little planet there are all sorts of beautiful and interesting nooks and crannies. This tree is tucked away on the Weston estate and we know it as a handkerchief tree. It it has a complicated Latin name, Davidia involucrata, but 'handkerchief' describes it perfectly. Isn't it amazing?

All is not good in the garden of Eden

2010-05-16T21:11:00.001+01:00

On the whole, things ARE looking good in the garden of Eden despite overnight frost two nights in a row during the week which caught out most of us one way or another. Even though my Grandad passed away over 20 years ago, I still hear him saying 'never shed a clout, 'til May is out' but since Global warming became fashionable, I kind of assumed that it should now read 'never shed a clout 'til April' is out. I lost both of my pumpkins, a couple of squash and the odd courgette. Luckily I had extra squash and courgette plants at home and was able to buy a pumpkin at the car boot sale. Our potatoes survived unscathed as I had earthed them up well the day before the first frost, but others weren't so lucky. But it's a learning curve for all of us and we've learned a valuable lesson for next year.

Our broad beans are getting on fantastically now and the bird scaring system seems to be working OK - it's amazing how resourceful you get to protect your 'children' - a few plastic drinks bottles on canes and milk cartons loaded with beer bottle tops threaded onto string that bounce in the wind work a treat.
Carrots, chard, onions, shallots, spring onions and sprouting broccoli are all pushing their way up through the soil and looking healthy and strong and the onions and garlic that I planted in the autumn are well on their way to feeding us. I shall be waiting until the May Bank Holiday weekend before I dare plant the rest of my 'babies' out!

So, the reason why ALL is not good in the garden of Eden

This is the plot next to ours.

I say this with (hypothetical) tears in my eyes.

This plot was allocated to a lady resident in the village. She appeared once last autumn and hasn't been seen since. On the allotment that is, not in general. Now it is knee high in weeds and will probably have to be sprayed off. What a waste.

A labour of love

2010-05-09T21:19:00.000+01:00

It's done. Truly a labour of love. I must admit that I ended up cheating. I started quilting my cat quilt by hand and actually got about half done...but lost the will to live in the end and knew that it would sit forever more on the chair in the corner half done. So...I unpicked my stitching and quilted it by machine using a walking foot. Horrahhhh! It's done. It may not be perfect, in fact, it got a bit puckered even using the walking foot, but Hey! It's handmade by me for my beautiful DD.
When I started this project, DD was in her first year at uni and the fabrics were her choice and the quilt was meant to brighten up her room in halls and then her house, and give her a little home comfort. She finished uni two years ago with a degree in English Lit and Linguistics but sadly the quilt sat for much of that time on a shelf, partially made.
Well, it's done now, and will be put away until she leaves home as the decor in her room at home would definitely not compliment the browns, creams and gold colours in the quilt. Cest le vie!

Its official

2010-05-04T21:30:00.001+01:00

Officially Spring has arrived, bringing the promise of warmer weather and longer days, and of course, April showers in May. How do I know Spring has arrived? The first cuckoo has been heard and the bluebells have appeared in a purple carpet in the ancient woodlands in our beautiful corner of England.

My SIL popped down to the country for the day, leaving the big smoke behind for a few hours of fresh air and country wholesomeness and of course wanted to take a walk to the bluebell wood. I can't tell you where the wood is, I'm afraid, but it's very beautiful and if you're really quiet there are often deer or buzzard about.

The colour of the bluebells is never true in photos for some reason, but you can see how thick they are. Literally a carpet of bluey purple. It had rained the day we went and the smell of the flowers was amazing.

Being late in the day, the sun was low and filtering through the canopy of leaves onto the bluebells.

And of course I had to take a photo of the three of us using the 10 second timer on my camera - a fun and useful feature. Some of my favourite photos have been taken this way. Even Indie knows to look at the camera when we count down!

Another one makes FIVE!

2010-04-29T23:10:00.000+01:00

This week has seen three new additions to the family, two of which demand to be watched and clucked over...worked it out yet?

This year sees a big birthday for me, I'm not letting on, but it's a BIG one! To mark the occasion, my lovely Mum decided it would be nice to give me something momentous, and what better, to compliment my passion to live 'the good life', than a pair of chickens. So welcome, Annie and Rosie, into the fold. Annie, the white one, is a Sussex hybrid, whilst Rosie is a Bluebelle, another hybrid egg laying machine and both are 14 weeks old, although it'll be another 4 or 5 weeks before they start to lay.

At Thornes Poultry Centre all the point of lay birds were in a big barn and roosted just in the litter on the floor. Our chickens have to navigate a steep ramp up to bed in their coop, so Monday evening at dusk I went down to check on Annie and Rosie. As expected, they were settling down in the straw in the run not having a clue about the ramp and the sleeping quarters above. After a bit of persuading, Annie, the braver of the two, safely navigated the ramp and had a bit of a look around the roost while Rosie was encouraged up the ramp. Being fairly sensible, Rosie settled down on a perch while Annie promptly went down the ramp again, not in the least bit sleepy! I could see this was going to be a battle of wills but she was persuaded to get into bed once I'd shut the door!
In the morning, the two of them were sat at the top of the ramp, not quite sure they wanted to make the descent. A bit of a prod on the derriere, and they both slithered down safely!
I did worry that I'd be having to put them to bed and get them up forever more but by Wednesday they had got the hang of it and can now go up and down the ramp all by themselves. I'm now working on getting them to try food stuffs other than the growers mash that they are used to. Oh, it's a big, scarey world!

Poor Indie...I think this photo says everything!

And I hear you asking...what's the third addition to our family this week? LOL. Another Vintage Singer!

Ooops...I've done it again

2010-04-25T20:50:00.001+01:00

It was looking good...I'd got to the end of the stalls on the Saturday morning carboot sale having spent the grand total of a couple of quid on the usual sort of tat; a cable needle, a zip, a bag, a book for my baby nephew (Elmer The Elephant and Friends - vintage!) and were on our way to the exit when DH reminded me to pop back to a stall a few rows in from the start where he had spotted a vintage Singer sewing machine. On closer inspection, it was obvious that it was originally a handcrank model but had been converted to electric, fairly good condition in a case with the original book and a few bits and pieces but sadly missing the foot pedal. The girl on the stall said it had belonged to her Grandmother and was sure that the pedal was knocking about in a carrier bag somewhere. Hence the reason why we returned. Sure enough, the pedal had been located and the deal was done. £7.50 for a piece of history that was made to last a lifetime. Priceless.

At home, DH had a quick look at the wiring on the plug and knowing that I was eager to see if the machine worked, promptly cut the plug off! The girl on the stall had said that as far as she knew, it was in working order. Hmmmph. I should have noticed her nose growing! The connection into the motor is also dodgy so I think the plan is to whip it down to the nice man in Baldock at The Sewing Machine Box for him to have a look.

What I really like about this machine, is the foot pedal. As you can see...it really is a foot pedal! Probably not a Singer foot pedal, me thinks!
That's it now...NO MORE MACHINES...a girl can only use one at a time after all! LOL

However...but...mmmmmmmm

2010-04-20T22:16:00.010+01:00

Well, she's back from the very nice man in Baldock, overhauled and working, tension perfect, the stitches neat and even.

However...but...mmmmmmm.
Having bought her from a carboot sale, as I said in my previous post, she was missing her wooden cover, so I decided to make her a dustcover and thought it would be appropriate if she did the sewing. That's where the 'however' comes in. I stitched the first two seams on her and realised that a) she has no reverse or zig zag stitch and b) it's actually very difficult to stitch in a straight line steering the fabric with your left hand (when you are right handed) while turning the handle with your right. (My foot kept trying to find the pedal ~chuckles~) How on earth did women make CLOTHES using this type of machine??? And if the booklet that accompanies the machine is anything to go by, they made clothes with RUFFLES!
OK. That's quite enough of that. Back to my trusty (modern) Bernina, and the job was done in no time at all.
But she does look beautiful...the detail of the decals is amazing, gold on black...beats the Bernina on looks, hands down!

Another project that I finished to day, was a doorstop inspired by Poppy Treffys book, Free and Easy Stitch Style. If you get chance, have a quick look around her website. She started her business in 2004 by herself and now employs lots of staff and sells her products in shops all over the UK - truly inspirational.

The fabic is 100% cotton ticking that I bought in one of the fabric shops in Holt, Something Special, but instead of the handle that Poppy gives instructions for in the book, I've made a tie, which I quite like.

I used split peas for the weight and stuffed the top half with wadding which makes it nice and sturdy.

The free style embroidery took some getting used to, but it's actually very liberating, and the wonky stitching gives the pieces character - I even engineered some 'wonkyness'!
So now I have a very nice doorstop for sale...offers, anyone?

A beautiful (impulse) vintage buy

2010-04-15T20:41:00.002+01:00

If you read my 'about me' page, you'll know that I love all things vintage, and love to trawl around car boot sales, charity shops and junk shops. One Saturday morning about 3 years ago, whilst wandering around our local carboot sale, I came across a stall selling junk. Amongst the junk, I spotted a beautiful vintage hand crank Singer sewing machine. Covered in cobwebs and dust, it was totally seized up, unloved and way past its sell by date. The stall holder was obviously desperate to sell it and said she wanted £6. I ummmed and arrrrrred, having already got two good sewing machines at home, it was probably the last thing I needed, but it was so...vintage, and so beautiful. In true car boot style, I said I'd think about it and moved on. But I was smitten! Five minutes later I was the proud owner of a vintage Singer sewing machine having parted with the grand total of £3! Having got it home, I dusted off the cobwebs, gave it a good oil and enjoyed the clunk, clunk as the wheel turned, but as it was missing the bobbin case, was no longer up to stitching.

Since then, my impulse purchase has sat on a cupboard looking beautiful but redundant. But yesterday, I suddenly decided, quite out of the blue, to get it refurbished and working again. How strange! Ten minutes on the web and I found a local man offering sewing machine servicing down in Baldock and today I took my pride and joy down to him. I was quite chuffed when he said it was a nice one! How childish! In about a week she'll be good as new. Watch this space...

My very own cross to bear

2010-04-13T22:09:00.000+01:00

After reading Clare Faders blog entry yesterday, and being saddened by it, mainly because I fear that I would have been one of those people tutting and turning away, and not seeing the bigger picture, I have my own cross to bear.
Driving out of the village this morning, on the way to the vets to have the last remaining little furry put to sleep (RIP piggie), I was gob smacked to see piles of rubbish at regular intervals along the side of the road. Someone had obviously driven along in a van or low loader with an accomplice in the back chucking out rubbish as they drove along. This evening I popped to Baldock and it was obvious that they had driven up into the village from the Gravely road, into the village and out the other side dumping bags of builders rubbish, bags of cement, plastic boxes, metal etc as they went, much of it causing a hazard in the road. When exactly did they do this and how come nobody saw them?
Is this another issue the new Government should address? You don't have to be a rocket scientist to work out that if you charge businesses to dispose of their rubbish at landfill sites this sort of thing is going to happen.
Sorry, all in all it's been a bad day.

Its good to be green. Another epitath

2010-04-10T23:28:00.001+01:00

Having returned from a mini-break in Blakeney, on the north Norfolk coast, I am trying to readjust to normal life. The trouble is that Norfolk feels like 'home' and every time I leave it, my heart aches. I love the big blue sky and the peace and tranquility, but more than that, I love the simpleness of Norfolk, the way the old 'ways' seem to matter and new fangled things don't. As if to prove a point, we were sat in a pub in Blakeney and the bar tender answered the phone. Obviously the caller wanted to make a booking for dinner. The bar tender explained that they didn't take bookings as 'that would confuse things cos we're just simple folk' - his words, not mine!

The highlight of our stay for me was a visit to Letheringsett Watermill to buy flour as I bake all our bread and rolls and needed supplies. We've visited numerous times in the past, but on that day the mill was working so we paid to go behind the scenes and see the machinary working. It was absolutely facinating. The whole building throbbed with the vibration from the water turning the wheel and the stones grinding the grain, like a giant heartbeat. All the machinary is now behind bars and grills and glass, and in it's hayday the mill would have worked much faster than it does today; it wasn't difficult to imagine how easy it would have been for men to be killed or injured falling into the machinary (Shudders).
The present owners bought the mill 25 years ago complete with planning permission for conversion to flats but chose to restore the mill to it's former glory and get it working again. Now the only working water mill in Norfolk, it supplies flour to many bakers, hotels and restuarants, and all the grain they use is locally grown, much of it organic. If you are ever in the area, do call in and have a look.
I promise that if you make bread using their organic flour which contains nothing but flour, you will never buy bread from a supermarket ever again! It's easy-just flour, salt, sugar, yeast and water-it really doesn't need all the additives and preservatives thrown in at the factory, as homemade bread is so yummy it all gets eaten that day and doesn't need to last a week.

The little town of Holt is just up the road from the watermill and just begs to be visited, boasting not one but two shops selling patchwork and quilting products! But my favourite shop is Good to be Green - a shop that sells products either made locally or fairtraded and also has lots of genuinely vintage items. Having recently broken my own vintage mixing bowl, I was lucky to find this beautiful Greens mixing bowl with a yellow inside. Pottery bowls make the best bread as you can warm them for a few minutes in the oven and they get the bread proving a treat. Plastic is rubbish!!!

Another of my favourite haunts is the pottery shop in Cley, called Made In Cley, funnily enough! Every time I visit, I have to buy something. I'm collecting this beautiful stoneware with white glaze and a blue swirl on the bottom and now have four large and four small pasta bowls and a garlic pot. Will have to save up for the dinner plates but it's a good excuse not to give dinner parties LOL

Happy Easter and all that Jazz

2010-04-04T22:55:00.000+01:00

You might think it weird that I spent an hour at the allotment this morning. It being Easter day and all. It was kind of early, and cold and windy and there was no one else about. I like digging. While I'm digging, I'm thinking and pondering, and being thankful for the lovely life I lead and for my lovely children. I may not be the sort of girl that goes to church and thanks God. But I am thankful all the same.

And there are signs of life on our little patch at the allotment at last!
Last weekend we were given some rhubarb which had been split from the parent plant in Keiths garden. (Thank you Keith!) When I planted it, it was just a little bit of green sticking out of the top...but today...it's almost ready to pick! A miracle...I say!!!

We've had a lot of rain over the last week, and the plots on the end nearest the gate have suffered a lot from flooding, but here in the middle, we are unscathed. Another reason to be thankful. We also have the water tank at the end of our plot. So many reasons to be thankful.

I took this photo last weekend from my position in the horizontal. The black sheeting we used to suppress the weeds worked brilliantly, and is also great for laying on when you're knackered from too much digging. Unfortunately Indie thinks it's the perfect opportunity for a game and insists on trying to sit on your belly. Weighing in at about 30 kilos, she's really much too big for this. While she was distracted pulling tissues out of my coat pocket and shredding them, I got the opportunity to take this picture of DH taking a turn at digging. Sadly, we only have one fork.
Thanks for visiting and enjoy the rest of the holiday. It's going to be great weather tomorrow and you know where you can find us...

Does perfection come any more perfect than this?

2010-03-31T20:55:00.000+01:00

Welcome little one

2010-03-23T22:13:00.000Z

Today, 23rd March 2010, is a very special day. My sweet little nephew made his appearance into the world in the early hours of this morning. Weighing in at 9lb 8oz, baby James is not so little, and barely fits into his newborn gear, taking after both his dad and my DS, both of whom weighed in at the 9lb mark! We've all got big bones!
Baby James's mummy was convinced throughout her pregnancy that the baby would be a boy, but I knew it was a girl having had a dream where the baby was a girl and having seen 3 magpies together a few months ago. So certain in fact, I insisted that my brother look again. I know it's probably at bit early to say this, but this dream baby girl is obviously their next child!

Another photo has just pinged across the airwaves from Lister Hospital Maternity Unit to my phone. This one is really cute. Baby James is not looking at all like a newborn baby. For a start he does NOT look like Winston Churchill. He looks...well, he looks beautiful, and pink and edible.
I can only say I am soooo excited at having a whole new scrapbooking experience to look forward to. So much crafting, so little time! I think that could be my epitath, or maybe 'less is more' or perhaps 'live, love, laugh...a lot', I don't know and I probably won't care.
That's all for tonight, have to nip off and put my camera battery on charge LOL

Nowhere else I'd rather be...

2010-03-21T19:59:00.000Z

Imagine if you can...sunshine, the smell of the earth, church bells ringing in the distance, birds singing. It's 9.30 on a beautiful Sunday morning and I'm turning over the soil on my patch at the allotment. At this moment in time, I can honestly say that there is nowhere on earth that I would rather be.
Spring is definitely on its way. The earth is delightfully moist and seedlings are beginning to push their way through to the outside world; all that hard work in the autumn is now paying off. Gradually people start to arrive with their gardening paraphinalia, call out greetings, begin work. At home, my little greenhouse is bursting with newly sewn seeds, and whilst digging, I daydream about all the produce that will grow and sustain my family. It's begining to feel like a reality.

Here are photos of two very different plots, both testimount to an incredible amount of hard work and dedication, but very different. Our patch is just kind of evolving and doesn't really have any rhyme or reason to it, but will hopefully be just as bountiful. We seem to have drawn a good position, the soil is fantastic, it doesn't suffer from being waterlogged like some others, and we have the water trough right at the end of ours!

Never work with children or animals...should read 'never have children or animals'.

2010-03-17T21:37:00.001Z

This is the most recent cushion cover I made. I made it in Modas 'Spring Fresh' Jelly Roll fabrics. It's very cute. Ellie is modelling it here for you!

And here she is looking cute again. See how her little paws are crossed? I can't believe that she is coming up for 16 later this month.
She absolutely hates the winter and refused, point blank, to go out in the snow. I did begin to wonder when she was going to burst. All became clear when the dog refused to get in her bed. Mmmmmm. On closer inspection I realised why. Yes, Ellie had been using it as a litter tray. I promptly nipped down to that well known pet store, risking life and limb in the snow, to purchase a litter tray and appropriate litter. Ellie ignored the litter tray and continued to use the dogs' bed. I put the tray in the bed. Again she ignored the tray and wee'd on the blankets. I put the bed away (poor dog) and positioned the tray where the bed used to be. Hoorah! She sat in the tray...and wee'd over the edge! Eventually, she got the idea and is now a seasoned litter tray user. And yes, for those of you losing sleep worrying about poor Indie having to sleep on the cold, cold quarry tiles, the bed is back, abeit in a different place. Now the sun is shining, and Ellie is confident to go outside now that the back door is open...and pop back inside to use the tray! Cats!

A nice photo of Indie listening intently to her Dad getting breakfast in the kitchen!

Food for thought...

2010-03-09T22:19:00.001Z

Who's Who?

I used to think nurses were women,
I used to think police were men,
I used to think poets were boring
Until I became one of them.

A thought provoking poem by Benjamin Zephaniah. I love it and felt the need to share it with you.
By the way, I got the 18th birthday card made.

Spring is Sprung

2010-03-08T23:10:00.000Z

Well, here it is. Proof that Spring is here at last. Like Narnia, our little corner of England is beginning to thaw and snowdrops, crocuses and daffodils are starting to appear. I love the spring. In fact I love January through to November but dislike the last month of the year. December that brings the dreaded C word, (for me, the equivalent of the White Witch) the short, dark days and the incessant rain and misery of winter. But once December is done and dusted, all is good.
With the better weather and the longer days, my creativity seems to have increased. I have so many projects on the go at the moment, that I don't know what to do next.
Somehow, my cat quilt is being quilted by hand. I went to see my good friend Michelle, who has been quilting for 30 years and she insisted that I quilt by hand as it is all part of the lovely process of making a quilt. I do believe her. It's just that it is taking sooooo long and it makes my fingers sore and the cat wants to get on the cat quilt while I'm quilting it, which, to be honest, is a bit awkward. But Hey Ho-it'll be worth it in the end.
I've even made a card. Here it is...

I was given a somewhat free rein with this commission. Good Luck for a longish trip to Cambodia being the main criteria, maybe with an animal print theme. Rummaging through my stack of papers, I came across a K and Co 12 X 12" pad, the name of which I have forgotten for the time being, but being Journey themed, they seemed perfect. I used a section of a sheet with the journal and passport pictures on as my background, found a postcard journaling block in my stash, cut out the words which seemed kind of appropriate, and printed the words 'good luck' onto cardstock and cut out the tag. Job done. I hope the recipient liked it; I must admit that I was pleased with it and although it looks fairly simple, it did take a little while. I especially like to add layers so that they create texture and dimension.

Not got a lot of inspiration for the 18th birthday card I need to make though.

Broken...my New Year Resolution!

2010-02-21T23:27:00.000Z

Well, it lasted until well into February, which is longer than most peoples. That is, my New Year's Resolution to finish each project before starting a new one. My only excuse is that there is so much crafting to be done and not enough daylight hours. (Also too many chores to do, but hey! Promise yourself a little crafting time after chores and they soon get done!)
Anyway, my cat quilt is waiting patiently to be quilted, but to tell you the truth, I'm a little nervous about starting it. I want it to be fantastic and am worried about messing it up, so I thought I'd practice on something smaller. And so these cushion covers were conceived and born, adapted from a lovely tutorial by Bloom over on Moda Bake Shop's blog. I used a Moda Jelly Roll called Spring Magic, which is sadly now discontinued, but the colours are very...Spring. My sofas are looking very bright and cheeful now. Only one small cover left to complete and one large cover to make and all will be done and I can get on with my cat quilt...hehe.

The Hairy Growler Jewellery

2010-02-16T19:53:00.000Z

This website is absolutely amazing! This very talented Jeweller makes pieces out of coins and silver cutlery. I just love the idea of recycling old stuff into something beautiful and unique. My DD and I are off to Cambridge on Saturday to check him out - he's on the craft market there and we are so excited to see his work. I will let you know how we get on.

My 'nearly' quilt

2010-02-11T23:13:00.000Z

Hiya! I'm back at last. It's been quite a busy week for me, and a strange one. My eye is almost back to normal, thank goodness. At first, I was very aware of it, and didn't want to leave the house, let alone see anyone. I now have an inkling, and a new respect, of how permanently disfigured people must feel.

My New Year's Resolution this year, and so far I've stuck to it, is to finish each craft project before starting another. This is harder than it sounds. I start off full of enthusiasm, but gradually it wanes a bit, and the next new project pops up, and the old one is delegated to the pile of unfinished projects. So this year I'm going to persevere and get each project done and dusted.
Having really got into sewing again, I have picked up a patchwork quilt that I started for DD when she first started at Uni back in October 2005! It's a simple design, made from 10cm squares, in four different co-ordinating fabrics and has got to the 'nearly' a quilt stage.

Meaning - that I have sewn the 560 squares together to make the quilt top of the 80 x 60 inch quilt, a single bed size. It is a labour of love, I can tell you! Today, I have sandwiched the top, the wadding and the back together, which was no mean feat in itself, pinning it ready for quilting. If all goes well, I hope to get started on the quilting tomorrow. Watch this space...

And finally, a poem posted on The Sewing Forum by MRSH - I love it!

The Patchwork Quilt by Elizabeth Fleming

She mixes blue and mauve and green,
Purple and orange, white and red,
And all the colours in between
To patch a cover for her bed.

Oblong, triangle, star and square,
Oval and round, she makes them fit
Into a wondrous medley there,
Colour by colour, bit by bit.

Over her knee it swiftly flows,
And round her feet, a bright cascade,
While at her touch it grows and grows,
Until at last the quilt is made.

And then across the bed it lies,
A thing of gorgeous crazy bloom,
As if a rainbow from the skies
Had shattered in her little room.

My poor, poor eye!

2010-02-02T20:30:00.002Z

I had a terrible day yesterday.
I'd been at my Mums house, tidying and cleaning after finishing her decorating, and thought I would pop to Waitrose on my way home to get something nice for tea. As I was driving along, I felt something in my eye that could have been an eyelash or a hair, just irritating, not painful. I pulled up behind a car at a junction and looked at my eye in the rear view mirror. Ahhhhhh!!!! My eye was full of blood! Like I said it was not a good day yesterday, but unknown to me at that point, it was going to get a whole lot worse.
My first thought was to get to the hospital. Luckily, I was only 5 minutes from A&E, but parking is a nightmare there so I parked in Waitrose carpark and rang DH, who was able to drop everything and pick me up and drop me at the hospital.
To my dismay, the waiting area was packed with broken and damaged people. I dutifully joined the queue to check in, which was done in no time at all by a lady who was both efficient and curt, and was then told to take a seat and wait to be assessed by a nurse. 20 minutes later I was summoned by the nurse who made a very basic assessment and told me I would be looked at and that the wait was 2 - 3 hours. '2 -3 hours!' I wanted to say, 'but i've got private health insurance!' It suddenly occured to me that private health insurance wasn't much good to me at this particular time and that my choice was to a)wait b)leave. I opted to wait.
Anyway, to cut a very, very long story short, I was seen 3 hours later by a very nice lady Doctor who explained that my condition is a subconjunctival hemorrhage, better known as a burst blood vessel, and that it is a fairly common, but frightening thing. True. I was scared. It will go in a few weeks. A few weeks!
Today, I went to Waitrose, I felt like a freak! I couldn't look at anyone, let alone talk to anyone. It looks so horrible. I was going to put a photo on to show you my poor eye, but it is SOOOOOO horrible, I can't do it!
You'll just have to imagine.
On the up side, I did get to bond with all sorts of people in the hospital-3 with appendicitis, 2 with cut fingers, 1 with a dog bite, one with a broken(?) foot...

Work? No time. Too busy playing!

2010-01-24T22:44:00.002Z

Hi, and welcome. I've taken a bit of a break from blogging - have been engrossed in my sewing projects!

I couldn't resist showing you this photo of Indie, well, a photo of Indies nose really. She lives the life of Riley-she sleeps on a huge beanbag with a poof as a headrest, by the radiator of course! I love the perspective of this photo and the way it makes her sniffer look enormous!

Here is the next cover I made, this time to cover a plain white (boring) A4 ring binder file. I have found a brilliant site here which explains how to make a journal cover much better than I ever could. I then went to town adding fabric and wadding for dimension, cotton twill, ribbons and flowers. My lovely friend Zoe Sheep gave me a fabulous piece of pink felt for scrapbooking, but I felt it was far too precious (and pink!) to use on a scrapbook page, and so it's just been safely filed and admired now and again, but was perfect for this project. I managed to machine sew it quite sucessfully onto my cover. I am very pleased with the rouched flower and it was dead simple to make - I will show you how in a second. I sewed a row of tiny buttons down the spine of the cover - another good use of scrapbooking stash!

Instructions for making the 'yo yo' flower.

Cut out a circle in fabric,a fine fabric works well as it lays nice and flat when finished, I think mine was about 5 inches in diameter, but can be any size you like. Sew a small running stitch all the way around the circumference.

Gather the fabric by pulling the threads and arrange the folds to lay neatly.

Sew on your button, and hey presto, job done! Attach to your project.

Ideal for scrapbooking and cards too!

And just a glimpse of another project that I have recently completed. I can't say more at the moment, but this is a gift for someone very special.

That's all for now, thanks for visiting. Please call again.

My bookie wook

2010-01-05T21:43:00.000Z

My friend Al gave me a diary-he said I'd need one to keep track of what I plant, and when, at the allotment. Makes perfect sense.
Don't get me wrong, he didn't 'give' me a diary, as in, he didn't buy a diary to give me. He gave me a diary. He insisted I have a diary. The pile of diarys in his office reached nearly to the ceiling. No wonder he gave me a diary. And a calender. But hey ho!
Anyway. I got home with my diary. It is pretty good as far as diarys go, with colour maps of the world and a chart for ascertaining the day of the week for any given date from 1800 to 2050. Useful. But it's not a pretty diary by any stretch of the imagination.
So a plan formed in my mind. I could maybe make this book a cover along the lines of a scrapbook page. Mmmmm. A few minutes research on the web and I found brilliant instructions on twowackywomen.com
Shut away in my workshop for a few hours, I created this fabulous book cover. Eat your heart out Al, you are so not having your book back.

I love the freedom of this project; I had to measure the dimensions of the diary carefully of course, and choose colours that went well together, but after that I just kind of went for it. I love the shabby chic finish-the frayed edges of the fabric add to the texture and dimension. And of course, it's unique-not another one the same in the world. How satisfying is that?
In fact, I had such a lovely time making this project, I think I might pop in and see Al tomorrow to relieve him of another diary! I will be sure to take photos of the work in progress as I make the next book cover, and maybe put a little turorial on here so that you can all make one! Thanks for visiting.

Supermarket V Snapfish

2010-01-04T22:38:00.002Z

How cute is this snowman? I just had to show you. My DS and his friend created this work of art in our garden. Well, I think DS stood and watched and laughed, while his friend did all the hard work! His face is sooooo cute and his hat is at the perfect jaunty angle, even if his arms are a bit...well, weedy. But I love him and soon a scrapbook page will be born, if I ever get around to ordering the photos.

I don't know how you get your photos printed but I used to traipse down to that well known supermarket with my memory card, which I had to wrestle from the cameras depths and keep safe and sound in transit. Once in situ, having queued for a good long while, inserted the card into the machine, typed in my name and address, selected the photos for printing, decided on the size and finish, queued to pay (and remembered to remove my memory card from the machine,) I'd wonder if it was actually worth it. A few days later, I'd have to go back to said supermarket to collect my prints. (Not so good for my carbon footprint or wallet or limited free time.)
But then I discovered Snapfish. Sitting in my armchair I can plug my camera directly into my laptop, download my photos, edit them, upload them to Snapfish, pay less per print and less than a quid for P & P, and Hey Presto! Job done! I can 'share' my photos with my friends and family, and they are kept safely in Snapfishs digital vault as a great backup should I lose mine. In a few days, my prints drop through the letterbox ready to be scrapped!
No need to ever leave the house again. Except maybe to walk the dog...

The best Christmas

2009-12-26T12:37:00.000Z

I don't want to be rash and say 'The best Christmas ever' because I've had some pretty good Christmas's in the past, but this year had to be one of the best. My brother and his wife cooked up a feast of a Christmas dinner, making it appear effortless, and seamless. In between courses we lounged and laughed together. Gifts were exchanged, the feast was eaten, my lovely daughter drove so DH and myself could enjoy a drink, and a great time was had by all. Exactly how a Christmas should be.

A whole new world.

2009-12-26T12:09:00.000Z

Looking at these photos, it makes me wonder if anything will ever grow! All the hard work put in by the allotmentiers over the last few months has been obsured by a think blanket of icy snow.
But how beautiful it is! Magical. A wonderland. I know it's caused chaos on the roads and that people have died as a result of it, but I've enjoyed this whole new world. The dog and I have walked miles, spellbound by the results of frost on frost on snow, and I've got a shed load of snowy photos to scrap as well!

A Winter Wonderland

2009-12-18T10:11:00.002Z

Waking up this morning was weird. Weird in a good way. Quiet. Silence that only a heavy snowfall can bring.

Of course, I suspected it might be snowy this morning, having walked Indie about 9.30 last night in the snow. But that was swirling, bitingly cold, wet snow in the dark. This morning it lay white and gleaming and magical. We had the usual dilema-should we attempt to get into work, or stay at home and have a walk in the snow and then get tucked up on the sofa in the warm. Dedication to work won and my family embarked on their mission to make it to their offices while I, being on a late shift, dressed up warm to walk in the snow. Of course, it was the perfect opportunity to take some photos.
The first two were taken by the lake in the woods. I love the way the branches form a tunnel. It's so funny watching Indie snuffling about in the snow-it must be odd to her-almost like the world has been wiped clean of smells!

Who needs to buy a real Christmas tree!

2009-12-07T19:57:00.001Z

This is the current view from our landing window. How many people can boast their (almost) very own 20 foot tall Christmas tree, real of course, complete with tasteful white fairy lights?

Ta Dah!!!!

2009-11-29T20:52:00.004Z

As promised, here is my winning entry in the Ready, Steady, Scrap Challenge at the Scraprevolution retreat last weekend.
This picture really doesn't do the photo and the colours of the papers justice-I had to take it this morning in the half daylight before I left the house.
I think it was a winner only because the photo is so fabulous and the colours in the photo matched the papers perfectly.
The kit included a sheet of die cut shapes, some of which were frames within frames. I used the frames layered together and tied with a pretty bow, which made a nice embellishment. I covered the large letters with the plain green and distressed the edges, and used them as monograms. The buttons added a cute dimension to the plain green. The scalloped edge was made using the 'threading water' border punch.

This close up hopefully shows the colours and detail in the papers and ribbon.

Today, I had a stall at the Weston Craft Sale. It was pouring with rain this morning, which later turned to hail and being so dark, I was tempted to stay at home, but having committed to the event, I felt duty bound to go.
I was actually glad I went. Not because I made a heap of money, but because there were so many talented people there also trying to sell things that they had made; patchwork quilts, bags, paintings, turned wooden items, jewellery, cards and much more.
In this day and age of 'disposable' and 'cheap and cheerful', it was refreshing to be reminded that we are still able to replicate the things that our ancestors had to make and use.

Scrapbooking Heaven!

2009-11-25T22:16:00.002Z

I spent a fabulous weekend at Scraprevolution's Christmas Retreat. The classes were fabulous - this is the first class project - a nifty advent calender. The little decorated squares are magnetic and are removed and stuck onto the edges of the baking tin (yes, I did say 'baking tin'!). As December progresses, the appropriate numbered square is stuck onto the grid right up until Christmas day. How much fun is that!

The afternoon class was a 'grungy' kind of scrapbook page, which involved chopping a pizza box into a 12 x 12" square, wetting it and peeling the smooth cardboard off to reveal corrugated card underneath. This was then painted to within an inch of it's life! Very messy. I will try to take a photo of the page very soon, if I ever manage to be at home in the daylight hours again.
(I am beginning to feel like a mole!)
The Ready, Steady, Scrapbook Challenge was...challenging. For those uninitiated in the art of scrapbooking, everyone who takes part is given a pack of identical scrapbook papers and embellishments, and the challenge is to create a scrapbook page using a photo of your choice and just what is in the pack. I was slow to start, lacking inspiration, but once I got into it, created a passable page which went on to win! Was I pleased???!!!!
Sunday was equally lovely - we created a fabulous page in the first class, and got to burn nylon fabric over a candle! Can you imagine 23 ladies burning nylon fabric over 23 candles? Awesome!
My thanks to Lorraine at Scraprevolution for organising this event so that it appeared seamless. Thanks also to Sue and Clare for the fabulous classes, and thanks to my lovely Mum for being the perfect crafting companion. Love you Mum xxx

Real progress

2009-11-15T22:30:00.008Z

Amazing progress is being made at the Weston allotments due partly to the good weather throughout October and November, but mainly to the enthusiasm of the allotmentiers!
The water troughs are now in situ and up and working - this is the trough at the end of our plot - very handy, thank you! The fences and gates are in, making the allotment 'cattle proof' but not yet rabbit proof, although I haven't yet seen any evidence of rabbit damage.
Tony is the first to erect his shed and can be seen proudly standing at the door. His patch is looking wonderful with all sorts of vegetables beginning to grow. He was unlucky enough to get the plot with the telegraph pole bang in the middle. I keep threatening to make it into a totem pole!

I just had to include a photo of these little beauties! They look beautiful in a tall glass vase.

Lest We Forget

2009-11-10T20:16:00.001Z

Until this year, I knew nothing about my ancestors. A chance remark from my mother's childhood friend sent me on a mission to trace my family on my Grandmother's side. It's a long, long story, and I won't bore you with the details, but I managed to trace my Great Grandfather, Arthur Gray, who turns out to have been mum's friend's Grandad's brother, and my mother's Grandfather. This means Arthurs father was both my mother's and her friend's, Great Grandfather, making them cousins and my new Auntie!
Arthur had emigrated to Australia about 1914/15, joined the Australian army and went out to France in November of 1916. Sadly he was killed on 14 February 1917.
But the amazing thing about this is that I found his army record on the National Archives of Australia website, and also his Red Cross records; how he was killed by a single bullet wound to the heart, and eye witness accounts from his friends and comrades.
And so, tomorrow, I will be wearing my poppy with pride, to commemorate Arthur Gray and all the others who fought in the Great War and in all conflicts since.

For Peace and Freedom, we thank you.

In Flanders Fields

by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD. Canadian Army (1872-1918)

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row

That mark our place; and in the sky

The Larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow

Loved and were loved, and we lie

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.

One more chapter towards my book

2009-11-07T20:58:00.000Z

My two year long holiday is over and I am going back to work. I will be joining the rest of you on the A1 at rush hour. 40 hours a week will be dedicated to serving a different cause. Work, work, busy, busy.
How I'm looking forward to it!
You know how much I love Weston, but sometimes even Weston gets tedious. Especially on those days when I don't leave the house other than to walk the dog and when I don't see another human being between the hours of dawn and dusk. Well, all that's a thing of the past. Onwards and upwards.
And what's more, I'll be getting paid!

F1 off!

2009-11-01T20:30:00.000Z

Hope there are no boys visiting today cos I have to gripe about the F1 Grand Prix motor racing.
I think this so called 'sport' was invented by men, for men. It seems to me to be just a glorified excuse to get them out of weekend chores.
Why else would anyone want to sit for hours watching toy sized cars whizzing by at the speed of light while having to listen to the high pitched whine that they make? Beats me!

Another project bites the dust

2009-10-28T19:53:00.003Z

Too much chocolate ice cream - more is definitely more where homemade chocolate ice cream is concerned.

Sorry to keep harping on..hmmmmm, that phrase reminded me of my Nan who was always saying it. I must have been a child that whined a lot...about my holiday in Norfolk, but while on a visit to Blakeney , I noticed that there was a craft fair on at the hall on the quay. I love a craft fair, mainly because the stall holders make fabulous things that give me ideas or inspire me in some way.
There were only two stalls, but both together filled the entire hall. One was handmade jewellery. OK. I make jewellery but this definitely wasn't my 'thing', and the other were handmade fabric items, IE peg bags and shopping bags etc not exactly my 'thing' either...but the lady on the stall was making a rag rug. Wow!
This is something I'd always thought about doing, but having so many other hobbies, had never got around to it. This rug was beautiful. Made from an old hessian sack (washed, I must add) and strips of old tee shirts (also washed), in white and shades of blue and turquoise. It was amazing. I bought a neat little rug making kit from Jerry which included a rugging tool, a sort of measuring tool (but not a ruler) and a piece of hessian all of which came in a neat little bag she had made.
On our return to normality in Weston, eager to get started on my rug, I raided DS wardrobe. When he left for his new life in the big smoke of Manchester, he took all his favourite gear and left everything else behind. Mmmmmmm, I know what you're thinking. Yes, I've cut up all his old tee shirts LOL. All's fair in love and crafting!
The colours in the photo arn't great, but my rug is white, turquoise and pink, although I had to use one of my own tee shirts for the pink-DS is not into pink in any shape or form.

I'm pleased with the result. I love the colours and the texture although it's a bit small to be a real rug, being about the size of a bathmat. But what a bathmat!
It will probably find it's way onto my stall at the Weston Christmas craft fair next month with an exorbitant price on its tag!

I visit North Norfolk at least once a day!

2009-10-27T21:40:00.009Z

If you asked me which room in the whole world I like the best, I would have to say my bathroom. It's not a large room by any means, in fact it's an average bathroom sized room. It's downstairs, which is a bit weird, has two windows so is lovely and light, and has the usual bathroom paraphernalia but...you know how much I love North Norfolk, well, I have tried to replicate the seaside in my bathroom!

Here are a few photos of some of my most precious things. Things that I have bought or collected over the years that we have been visiting Norfolk.

I love the coloured glass balls because they reflect the light in blues and greens.

I bought the little boat, which is made from driftwood and painted, in my favourite shop in all of Norfolk, Bringing The Outside In at Holkham. Martin, who runs the shop, is a fantastic photographer and buys such wonderful products to sell in his shop, much of which is locally made. This is a link to his shop-please visit, I know you will love it.

The basket of shells and beach finds come mainly from my
sister-in-laws travels across the world. She bought me some beautiful coral (dead, of course) from Haiti.

A collection of dangly things including another driftwood fishy from Old Hunstanton, a loofer and a bag of shells all hang from a cute little boat with a hook which I bought in St Marlow a few years back.

The beautiful whale came from Le Stange craft barn at Old Hunstanton. It's made from driftwood by a local artist. I just love it and had to have it! It fitted on the wall above the window, perfectly.

I bought the two handsome little fishes at the same place last year. The craft barns are amazing and well worth a visit, and sell many items made by local artists (beware of the stuff made in China just inside the door though). Go through to the book section and browse before wandering through the antiquey bit. Carry on and there are some nice little units where local artists work, including a potter who makes the most wonderful hares!

I hope you've enjoyed visiting my little patch of North Norfolk, now you should go and see the real thing, I promise, you will love it! See you soon.

Less is more...sometimes

2009-10-21T22:25:00.001+01:00

Just a little treat for you today - a recipe for the best, the easiest and the quickest homemade icecream from my friend Suzie who got it from her sister who DOES NOT COOK, so it shows it must be easy.
I made it today and it was heaven, with no calories and no fat. Actually I lied. It IS heavenly, but it does have a shed load of calories and fat, but it's very rich, so in theory you only need a little.

You will need:
A can of condensed milk
300ml double cream
Few drops of good quality vanilla essence

Whip the cream until thickened but not stiff. Stir in the condensed milk and vanilla essence. Job done. Pour into a plastic container and freeze overnight.
Suzie makes chocolate icecream by stirring in a few squares of melted plain chocolate. You could add chocolate chips. Make coffee icecream by mixing coffee powder with a little hot water. Fresh fruit would work well too.
Let me know what you think.

A maths Diva. That's me.

2009-10-19T21:46:00.003+01:00

After my lovely holiday, I thought maybe it's time to get a job. One can have too much of a good thing-my Nan always said 'the less you do, the less you want to do' which, in my case, is entirely true. I function best when I'm firing on all cylinders (no idea what that means but it sounds good).
So, I make an appointment with an agency, promise I'll send my CV by email so it can be perused beforehand. I send the email straightaway. All is good. Get to the agency at appointed time; all is going well except they hadn't got my CV. Oops. Forgot to attach it. Dam, not a great start. The nice lady says not to worry, do the tests and send the CV when I get home. OK...tests...what tests! I hate tests. Only two tests?(Agency requirement to check stuff on CV not lies?)
Test 1) data entry Test 2) maths.
Data entry test-piece of cake, just copy info into another box exactly-I can do this-I've done a lot of data entry in my life (but with hindsight, why didn't I copy and paste instead of typing, I ask myself. Would be cheating, I tell myself.)
Maths...mmmmmm...not my strongest asset. 34 questions. God these are hard. Haven't done long multiplication and fractions since school a good few years ago. Example of question: 'Fred takes 40.25 kg of drinks cans to a recycling centre and gets 22p per kilo, how much does money does he make?' Huh? Why would anyone have 40.25 kilos of drinks cans? How could anyone carry 40.25 kilos of drinks cans? OK Lesley, think. Me thinks: maybe I don't need to think outside the box for this test?
My saving grace, tho, is that the questions have multiple answers so I end up guessing most of the them and finally click the close button and wait for the nice lady to escort me to the door for having the worst score ever.
'You did very well', she says. I thought she said it without any sarcasm too. 'You got 100% for the data entry,' Ha! Wait for it... ' and 85% for the maths'. 85%???!!! Was she talking to me? Apparently so. How did that happen? Obviously a lucky guesser LOL.
See you tomorrow.

North Norfolk - the place I love best next to weston

2009-10-17T23:11:00.001+01:00

Well howdy folks! I bet you wondered where I went. I've been on my hols and have so much to tell you!
Firstly tho, a big thank you to DD Mel, for holding the fort, and to Susie for helping look after Ellie the cat.

I have to tell you that our holidays, much like our Christmas's, usually follow the same format. But unlike Christmas, these holidays are my idea of Heaven, with a capital H, you'll notice. We rent a cottage in North Norfolk, take my mum, the dog, scrapbooking stuff and walking boots. If it's rainy, mum and I scrap, if it's dry, DH and I walk.

This year, we walked the whole of the North Norfolk coast from Old Hunstanton to Cley, but not all at once. The weather was FAB-U-LOUS (got that from Craig on Strictly!), warm and sunny most days, so the walking boots got walking. I think Indies legs are at least two inches shorter now, but being the 'four wheel drive' type of dog, she loved every moment. By the end of our two weeks, she had even got to grips with the coastal hopper buses, but could not be persuaded to swim. Have you ever heard of anything so strange- a Labrador that won't swim? mmmm.

Our cottage was on a working farm between Burnham (up)Market and Brancaster. The Pheasantry, one of several lovely holiday homes on Sussex Farm, has four bedrooms sleeping 8 in total, two bathrooms, large lounge and kitchen...and a huge table for scrappin'- again FAB-U-LOUS darling LOL. Five minutes drive to the glorious sandy beach at Brancaster and also to The White Horse at Brancaster Staithe where they let you take the dog into the bar (the sister pub to The Fox at Willian), surrounded by countryside, completely dark at night with owls hooting all around, and no traffic. Perfect.
My brother and his new wife and yummy mummy-to-be, bought DD and her boyfriend up for the weekend and we had a lovely time at the beach. I managed to get some really good photos by setting the timer on my camera, which gave me 10 seconds to get into position. This was no mean feat for this photo especially as I had to balance on my little post while being attacked by the dog! Did we laugh!!!

I have put a link on to the website for the cottages, should any of you fancy this sort of holiday.

Tomorrow, I intend to pop over to the allotment to see what's been going on in my absence. Good intentions...and all that. I think it's going to take me a little while to get over my holiday-depression has set in at being home again after having had such a lovely time. Oh dear.
I will also show you some of my scrapbook layouts that I created whilst on holiday...please check back soon to see them. Oh, and I have also discovered a new craft to try out. Bye for now.

Shock me, lick me, scrap me!

2009-09-30T21:50:00.002+01:00

Good evening and thanks for stopping by. Before I ramble on, I'd like to say a special hello to two little boys, Ethan and Ptolemy, who live next door to me. Their mum told me earlier that Ethan looks at my blog EVERY day to see my photos, so HELLO ETHAN, AND THANKS FOR VISITING!

I created this scrapbook page today and just had to upload it to show you the photo-it is so funny and wild and...random! I titled the page 'Shoba WHY' purely because...well, why would Shoba want to do this??? I just love the look of horror on DS face even though the photo is obviously staged. You can see why I love it and just had to scrap it?!
Shoba has just jetted off to San Francisco to stay with her Dad for 6 months, and we chat often on Facebook. I made her a little scrapbook with photos of 'home' to remind her of all her friends here in the UK who miss her. Shoba, hun, don't worry about us riding winters wave while you sun it up in California. Lucky girl! We miss you Shoba!
More soon...bye for now!

The Alexandra Palace 'experience'

2009-09-29T21:35:00.001+01:00

Welcome to this little corner where I am laying huddled with exhaustion along with Lorraine and Ronnie from Scraprevolution, my favourite scrapbooking shop in the world. I was lucky (or unlucky) enough to be invited to help them at the Big Stamping and Scrapbooking show held at Alexandra Palace on Saturday and Sunday. I kept a sort of mental diary of the weekend and thought you might like to share the experience. Even if you're not really interested, take a look at the photos of Ally Pally-it is an amazing place.

Lesley's Ally Pally weekend diary.

Thursday: Chaos as a huge delivery of yummy scrapbooking supplies arrives at the shop in Baldock. Has to be checked and priced and packed up, along with all the shop stock. Totally fills the van from floor to ceiling.
Friday 10 am: Meet Lorraine and Ronnie at their house. Stuff last minute things into the van. Hardly room for my packed lunch! Head off to Ally Pally. Arrive 11am after a short detour suggested by the Sat Nav which is a red herring. Drive into the great hall and park up at least a mile away from the space that will become our stand. Lug the stock, avoiding other exhibitors' stock and body parts, to the space. Erect the stand, lighting, hang up stock. At 6.00pm we abandon the stand as Ally Pally closes and fight through traffic homeward bound. While sitting in a traffic jam, I watch people waiting at a bus stop. They seem to just accept the traffic, the noise and the pollution as 'normal'. I can't help thinking that they would hate the countryside with it's clean air and silence at night punctuated only by owl hoots and fox calls. Very strange.
Saturday: No work for me today, and the easiest day for Lorraine and Ronnie.
Sunday: The van arrives to collect me at the ungodly hour of 7.15am. Hugging my thermos mug of strong black coffee, I squeeze into the cab and away we go. The sun is up and it's a beautiful autumn morning with mist hovering a few feet over the land and flowing through the fences along the motorway and down the embankments. We are first to arrive at just before 8am and hurry to the stand to restock and tidy after the frenzy of yesterdays selling spree. The doors open at 10am and the whole of the world seems to spill into the hall, cash in hands. Right up until the end of the show at 4pm, there is an orgy of spending, and I'm sorry to say, shoplifting. I dread to think how much money has changed hands over the weekend, and how many tons of paper-crafting goodies have been carried away. Once the last reluctant-to-leave-customer has been escorted from the hall by security, we begin the frenzy of packing the stock back into boxes and back onto the van. There is a quite a pile of empty cardboard boxes which indicates the amount of goodies we sold. We wave goodbye to Ally Pally for another six months when we can do it all again, and reach home at 7.30pm. A long old day!

Too much digging. My back aches

2009-09-24T20:33:00.001+01:00

What a beautiful day again, warm and sunny. It's almost as though September has become our main summer month-we had two weeks in Norfolk in September last year and had similar weather.
Having popped over to the allotment yesterday to water the strawbs, I was horrified to see how much the weeds have grown. The plots that haven't had any attention are almost covered in docks and other noxious weeds. Feeling guilty that I hadn't been over for a little while, I sacrificed my scrapbooking day and gathered my tools, donned my boots and tried to sneak over without the dog. But she is a wise old bird and having clocked me, insisted she come over too and then complained when I tied her up. I actually managed to dig for about 10 minutes before Tony popped over for a chat, then Nicky and her family distracted me, then an old friend called in and before I knew it, it was lunch time! How ever am I going to get anything done?

As the weather has been so dry this month, all the trees are turning and autumn will be upon us before we know it. I took this photo yesterday-the flaming red of the Virginia creeper embellishes this beautiful flint wall perfectly. At it's best now, it will be over in a day or two. If you are familiar with Weston, you will know that this little gem is opposite The Red Lion PH.
Why don't you pop up at the weekend-we have a lovely circular walk around Weston which takes an hour or so-you could have lunch at one of the two pubs here, visit the lovely little church and see for yourself why we Westonites love living here. Maybe see you then, take care.

An introduction to scrapbooking

2009-09-22T22:32:00.001+01:00

Just a quickie this evening-an introduction to scrapbooking.
During the long winter months, I am confident that there won't be much going on on the allotments, so will be posting a bit about my crafting life. As a taster, I would like to show you this scrapbook page I did of DS MMU accommodation.
Scrapbooking is the perfect way to enjoy your photos as well as using your creativity and design skills to produce pages. I love nothing more than to get my scrapbook albums out to 'show and tell'.
Don't be put off, I have been scappin' a long time and sometimes 'less is more' - in my case 'more is usually more' LOL. I just love to keep adding bits and pieces to add colour, texture and dimension.
Will be back sometime soon - committee meeting tomorrow night. Mmmmmmmmmmm.

Another new chapter...I'll soon have a book!

2009-09-21T22:10:00.005+01:00

Now DS has headed off to greater things at MMU, DD has inherited his little car. She passed her test earlier in the year and then went off traveling. On returning, she got a job in town and had to enlist the services of 'Mums taxi' to get to and from work. Living in a village, it's incredibly difficult to get anywhere at all without wheels, unless you want to get the bus to Hitchin on a Tuesday at 10.05am and leave at 1.20pm! Heaven forbid that you should want to go for office hours! We did debate whether to get her a car back in July, but knowing that DS was off in September, we resisted. Every parent knows that 'The Bank Of Mum and Dad' is permanently overdrawn, and it doesn't seem to stop when they are grown up for some reason.
Anyway, we spent most of Sunday clearing out the car, which for some reason had been used as a rubbish bin, hoovered, disinfected, washed, polished and even 'back to black'ed! Now it looks good as new and smells fresh as a daisy.
So, not only do I NOT have to wash DS three shirts a day, but 'Mums Taxi' is redundant. Just as well I have loads of hobbies, a dog to walk, an allotment and friends wot lunch!
Oh, and a little treat for you. Another gem to be found in our lovely corner of Hertfordshire. Please call in again.

A new chapter

2009-09-20T21:25:00.001+01:00

At the grand old age of 21, having left school a few years ago with 3 A levels, my son decided he should go to Uni to get a degree that would be useful in the real world. Don't get me wrong, he's not a shirker-since leaving school he has always worked, but the jobs that he found himself in haven't been the best paid, nor long term career options. He applied to 5 Unis, and having a reasonable amount of points, was accepted at all of them. After long deliberations, he selected Manchester Metropolitan, studying Internet Computing. So for the last week or two, we have been planning and shopping for his departure and yesterday we packed up the car with his collection of clothing, trainers and guitars and set off. After 5 hours and 180 odd miles of motorway traffic, we arrived at the campus, checked in, located his room (on the second floor, of course) and helped him unpack. I had bought 30 coat hangers and assumed that would be plenty. How wrong I was!
30 'T' shirts later, all hanging neatly on hangers, there was still a pile of folded shirts, I laughed and said that there was at least a months supply of clean shirts. He replied in all seriousness, 'But Mum, you know I have to change at least 3 times a day'. Hmmmmm. Wait until he has to take them to the laundry and PAY to wash and dry them! I think he will soon be wearing just the one a day!
Today, I feel strangely unsettled. It's a new chapter in his life, but also in mine. Whatever am I going to do now I don't have his 3 shirts a day to wash?

I think I am addicted

2009-09-17T22:48:00.003+01:00

I didn't get chance to blog last night and I missed it. Does that make me an addict? Quite often I find myself composing stories in my head and arrive at my destination totally at a loss as to how I got there. When I'm driving it's actually very scary! Anyway, never mind, I survived another day to write some more words.

It's funny how things have a way of evolving-take my dog walk this morning. Indie and I were just going to do a quick swoop around the field as I was going to spend the day with my mum: scrapbooking in the morning, cinema in the afternoon.
If you know me, you will know that the direction a dog walk takes depends on where the cattle are situated at any one time. I don't mind grown up cows with no calves, or even adolescent cows, but I hate cows with calves, especially new calves.
Today the cattle (cows with calves!) were in the new meadow by the church except for about 8 grown ups in the field with the footpath, so I braved it. Most of them totally ignored me and the dog, except for a mean looking black cow, who proceeded to bellow at the top of her lungs. As I got to the style, the whole herd stampeded down the hill mooing and bellowing. Was I glad to be safely on the other side of the fence, even though it didn't look very substantial. Anyway, what I was mooving on to (sorry about the pun), was that as it was a nice day, I decided to take a longer route and walk around the back of the Weston Park house. Once the mooing had died down, it was a perfectly still and quiet morning. The trees were all turning and the conkers hanging fat and ripe from the branches, a sure sign that autumn is almost upon us. Having reached the park drive, I found this oasis, which I think most people don't see from the road. Another little gem in our corner of Hertfordshire.
Friday tomorrow...and then...Saturday. I will enlighten you on Sunday. Thanks for stopping by.

A treat for my new camera

2009-09-15T21:49:00.001+01:00

Here we are again, Tuesday almost done and dusted.
We went to Woburn Safari Park on Sunday, a family treat to celebrate 3 recent birthdays, and a great excuse to try out my new camera which hasn't really had a proper outing to date. There were no shortage of photo opportunities - both human and non-human. In the birdhouse, the Lories and Lorekeets made us laugh with their greediness for nectar and their screeching. It was a bit unnerving when several land on your head and have a good old rummage! If you go, remember to go here as soon as it opens at 11am, otherwise the birds are full up and don't come down for the nosh.
The elephants have a wonderful new house with huge outdoor areas - this photo was taken from a fair distance and the result was pretty good. It was fascinating watching them tearing up clumps of grass with their trunks and knocking the mud off against a leg before stuffing it into the black hole - very efficient eating machines. They eat something like 10 supermarket trolleys full of food a day!

Again, the giraffes were a good distance away, but the zoom lens on my camera dealt with the distance like a true professional. We were in the Australian Walkabout when a woman with a lens about 12 inches long pushed in front of me wanting a photo of an albino wallaby that had just sat up on it's back legs. By the time she had focused, it was long gone! I had to chuckle. My little Lumix FZ28 compact had done the job!
The rhinos were THE most photogenic animals. The male was in a securely fenced area, charging around and looking...scary, while the girls were just grazing and taking no notice of his manly behaviour or indeed of the stream of passing cars. This photo was taken without any zoom at all - the rhino was only about 3 feet from our car. They are truly prehistoric looking animals.
The creature that gave me the most pleasure, very unexpectedly, was a hen, who was rapturously dust bathing. Out of all the animals we saw, hers was the only TRULY natural behaviour exhibited. I find that quite sad.
But at the end of the day we were all exhausted having walked miles, and had had a wonderful time, even if the bobcat slide and the train were pants. The seven hours we spent there made the £15.30 entrance fee well worth it. (If you book online, even the day before, you save 10%).
Well, that's me done. Have a good evening and please pop back another time.

An allotment progress report

2009-09-14T21:19:00.004+01:00

Hope you had a good weekend and thanks for calling in again.
I popped over at the weekend-I think I said, mainly to water the strawberries, but also to take some photos. The photo to the left shows the field newly ploughed-the top photo was taken on Saturday. I don't think you can really see the progress particularly well in the photo, but in real life the progress is amazing. Most of the plots are being worked on, many have been covered with manure and black sheeting and will be left until the spring. There are raised beds and compost bins appearing everywhere, even a table and chairs on one plot.
I love the close knit community that this project has already created, how everyone loves to stop and chat and swap ideas and share plans for the future...but what I can't get over, is the time and effort and money that people are prepared to invest in their dreams of self sufficiency. What a wonderful opportunity this is for the village of Weston. Who knows, maybe next summer, we may be able to raise funds for the allotments by selling surplus produce to other Westonites? I hope so.

Did you lose sleep over my spell checker - if so, read on...

2009-09-12T18:51:00.000+01:00

Hey! Just a quick blog tonight for those of you who lost sleep over my spell checker-you can sleep easy tonight-I downloaded Google Toolbar with a spell check on it. So all is good. (No bonfires today either!).

I've been to the garden centre and bought onions, red and white, strong of course, and garlic, strong of course, which I will be planting over the next few days. Didn't get to work on the allotment today, although I popped over earlier to water the strawbs and to have a natter. Tony is back from his hols, which he spent worrying that we were going to get ahead of him for some reason ~chuckles~ he said they got back at 6.30 am and he was at his patch at 7.30 am! mmmmm?
See you tomorrow.

Don't you just hate it?

2009-09-11T21:07:00.002+01:00

I don't want you to think I'm a moaner, but some things are just so annoying, I HAVE to let it out!

Thursday dawns bright and sunny. Me thinks, I'll change my bed, and DSs bed while I'm at it. Strip the beds, sort it, shove it in the washing machine with that lovely new Bold 2 in 1 gel, hang it on the line x 3 TIMES. Sit with well earned coffee watching the laundry blowing in the breeze. Hold on, what's that smell. I don't believe it, or rather I don't want to believe it. Bonfire smoke. Bonfire smoke that's blowing in the direction of my freshly Bolded sheets and duvet covers. That's just so typical! A lovely sunny perfect-for-drying-washing day and someone lights a bonfire...grrrrrrrr...

AND, yes, there's more, I've lost my spell check! Having upgraded my blog settings to allow me to drag and drop my photos where I want them...the spell checker has vanished.
So if anyone knows how to get my spell check back, please leave me a comment. Otherwise you'll just have to put up with the odd spelling mistake.
Sorry to be such a grouch...back to normal tomorrow LOL

Am I a veggie geek - what are the symptoms?

2009-09-09T21:53:00.003+01:00

Welcome to my little plot 6a with strawberries in situ, looking nice and perky still.
I've just watched Nigel Slaters Simple Suppers on BBC1 - awwww - he's just so passionate about home grown produce. If you have time, check out the website, here is the link - there's so much to read. He popped down to the allotment and whipped up a meal, picking and using veg in season. Mouthwatering. Check out the gallery-there are some mighty weird vegetables out there-and a lot of veggie geeks too!

It's just making me agitated, I want to get on and GROW stuff and EAT it!

Some time ago, I invested in a fab book, Allotment month by month by Alan Buckingham-how to grow your own fruit and veg, published by DK, which has become my bible and bedtime reading. As the title suggests, it tells you month by month what you should be harvesting, sowing and planting. It has lots of pictures too!

Checking out September, I'm glad to say there are still things that can be done to get a head start for next year-spinach can be sown now, winter lettuces, onions and...Strawberries. There's a neat little tip too-it says to save, dry and store seeds from things you grew this year; beans, peas, squash, pumpkin and tomato seeds-and I thought you had to buy them anew because they are 'disease resistant' etc. Hmmmm, what do I know? Although it does go on to say that as they are not F1 hybid varieties, they may turn out to be somewhat strange (my words, not the books LOL).

If you looked at the Dig In gallery (see the link above), you may notice the 'allien carrots', I wonder if these were grown from second generation seeds haha.
Glad you popped in, please call again.

What Have I Let Myself In For?

2009-09-08T22:01:00.008+01:00

Hello all. Nothing much to report tonight. Have been to the Allotment Committee meeting and can't honestly say I have anything of any interest to tell you...yet. Oh yes, one thing I worked out - having a committee is a necessary evil. Pleeease don't hold it against us!

I couldn't resist taking a photo of the sunset from The Cricketers garden, it was spectacular!
Please drop by again.

The Weston Trail

2009-09-07T22:30:00.005+01:00

Hi, I'm back after a hectic weekend, feeling absolutely shattered!
The day of the Weston Trail dawned bright and sunny luckily. Old Farm hosted the dog agility course and novelty classes, the teas and the cow that needed much milking, and stalls were set up in the front gardens all along Fore Street and on the green by the pond. There was a steady trickle of dogs and their 'pets' at the dog show, much sniffing and wagging went on, and everyone was very well behaved except for a couple of escapees who really didn't want to go around the agility course for the third time. I didn't get to walk the 'trail' other than picking up a years supply of books on my way to help at the dog show, but everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Hopefully all the hard work will have paid off, and a reasonable amount of money raised.

Before I move on, I'd just like to introduce Paddy the Greyhound. Paddy spent the day at the dog show looking for someone to adopt him-he is currently in a foster home, but would really like a family of his own. Being a greyhound and trained to chase small furry things, Paddy wears a muzzle in public, but he is an absolute poppet-if you think you might like to audition to be his 'pet', please email me for more information at
indi8ana-bones@yahoo.co.uk.

I popped over to the allotment this afternoon to check on my strawberry plants which are safely nestled in the raised bed. They are looking very perky and happy to be in situ. The last plots have now been ploughed and a trench dug for the fence to go in. The water supply isn't in yet, but there is a trough fairly close so my strawbs get to have a drink now and again-I have to remember to leave the watering can full of water else it would be blown to Baldock-I didn't realise how windy that field is!

I should hopefully be able to report on the committee shortly as the first meeting to 'formalise' The Weston Allotment Field Association Committee (WAFAC) takes place tomorrow evening. Having been invited to the meeting, I'm reading through the agenda and feeling a bit anxious-it's been a long time since I saw anything quite so formal-and I thought the committee would be to there to advise on 'crop rotation' LOL.
Anyway, I'll be back soon, have a good week.

THE best chocolate biscuit cake recipe

2009-09-04T20:39:00.008+01:00

Greetings and thanks for coming.
I've had a wonderful day-DH woke me early with a cup of tea in bed, and DS and DD gave me lovely pressies. We took a leisurely drive over to Olney where I was allowed a free rein in my favourite craft shop, LB Crafts. Stocked up with goodies, we had lunch in The Courtyard Brasserie in Rose Court before sauntering home again.

As you know, it was DHs birthday yesterday and I made him THE best chocolate biscuit cake to take into work, as is traditional. Several of his colleagues, who enjoyed the cake, have asked for the recipe, and so I thought this was the best way of sharing it. It is the easiest cake in the world to make, but BEWARE: it is absolutely loaded with calories!

Ingredients:
8oz digestive biscuits
4 oz butter or margarine
1 tablespoon golden syrup
2 dessert spoons drinking chocolate or cocoa powder
7oz milk chocolate-Cadburys Dairy milk is best

Melt the butter and syrup together in a large bowl (you can do this in the microwave), stir in the drinking chocolate/cocoa. Roughly break up the biscuits and stir into the butter mixture. Lightly oil a plastic container and pour in the biscuit mixture, press down lightly and chill. Melt the chocolate, again you can do this in the microwave but heat for only 20-30 seconds at a time until melted. Pour over the biscuit mixture and refrigerate. For DHs cake I trebled the ingredients and it made a BIG cake!
Enjoy!
Don't forget the Weston Trail tomorrow!

A little white bull...do you remember that song or am I very sad?

2009-09-03T16:55:00.006+01:00

Welcome back to my little corner. I'm afraid I don't have a lot of time to blog today as it is my DHs birthday and we are going to that lovely Thai restaurant in Hermitage Road, Hitchin-sorry, can't remember it's name.
After yesterdays blog which got me all wound up, I have two photos to show you, again on an animal theme, but much more upbeat! The first is a little white calf belonging to Weston Park Farms-I was out walking with Indie, my lovely black Labrador, and we were halfway across the field from the rec to the woods when I realised that the cattle were in the corner by the gate. If you know me, you will know that I hate cattle, having been almost trampled on a number of occasions, but I did a quick risk assessment and calculated that I could make it to, and through, the gate before they noticed me-and I did! Horahhhh!!! Walking down the path past the cattle on the safe side of the fence, this little white calf examined me very closely and begged me to take it's picture-I just had to oblige and here he is.
The other photos is of the two most adorable long legged jack Russell puppies currently napping at North Herts Farmers at Weston Barns. They are two weeks old and have just opened their eyes, a dog and a bitch, both with tri-colour markings. I think Alistair (their adopted dad) would like suggestions for names. Please leave a comment.
As it is my birthday tomorrow, I may not be back depending on what surprises are sprung on me, until the weekend. Don't forget it is the village trail on Saturday-bring your dogs to Old Farm for fun and games! Look out for photos after the weekend. Bye for now.

Battery versus Free Range

2009-09-02T21:31:00.012+01:00

Welcome to my little corner-you may not want to linger too long-I am going to touch on a subject that many of us sweep under the carpet-battery chickens.
Like many people, the things in life that I can't do myself, I pay other people to do; hairdressing, servicing my car, plumbing. The same principle applies to the rearing and slaughtering of animals-I can't do it myself, so I pay someone else to do it. Sadly, I feel that animals have been compromised for the sake of greed. They are often raised and kept in inhumane conditions and since this was bought to our attention by Hugh Fernley Whittingstall and Jamie Oliver last year, I made the decision not to eat meat. Having never been a big meat eater, I haven't missed it in the slightest. Eggs however, form a large part of a vegetarians diet, and whilst I buy free range eggs from the village shop, many food products contain eggs from battery hens; mayonnaise, chocolate, cakes, pasta.
There are 20 million of these poor creatures and they spend a year in a cage the size of a supermarket basket, crammed in with other birds, laying an egg a day, never knowing the luxury of dust baths, roosting, scratching, grass and sunshine. At the end of their useful life, having laid 300 eggs, they are taken to a meat processing factory to be killed and turned into pies and animal food.
Now to the reason that I am writing about battery hens. Fortunately, there are people who rescue some of these birds but sadly only a small number are actually rehomed. Karen Pedder and Sue Wilson arranged to rehome a small number each. The battery hen rescuers, who buy birds from the farmer at £1 each before they go to slaughter, collect them, take them to a safe place where they are given a health check, have their nails clipped and are then collected by their new owners.
I have put a photo up of one of Sues hens who was obviously at the bottom of the 'pecking' order and bullied by the other hens. As you can see, she is just about ready for the oven! For the first few days, the hens are too frightened to come out of the hen house, but gradually they come out and begin to scratch about and do proper 'chicken' things and within a few weeks will have regrown all their feathers and be normal chickens.
If you would like to rehome a few chickens, look out for the link to the rescue site in a few days. If you can't rehome chickens-like me you may not have the space/facilities-please spend just a few pence more and buy free range eggs.
I promise that next time I will be back on a light hearted theme-I'm feeling very depressed now and am seriously thinking about becoming VEGAN! Here are Sues ex battery hens practicing being chickens.

Deviating just a little today

2009-09-01T19:31:00.010+01:00

Some of you will know Pam and David Walsh who lived for many years at Leatherwells at Halls Green. David has been living in France for many years now, renovating a barn ready for when Pam retires. Pam has now retired, but sadly the barn is not ready mainly due to Davids enthusiasm for flying! It does have walls, floors upstairs and a chimney now. Luckily, they do have another house to live in in the meantime. Back in the spring, Pam started a 'potager', which is French for veg plot. She is growing courgettes, tomatoes, broccoli, chard and currently has 14 butternut squashes growing.
I have to digress a little here-Sue Wilson and I went over to stay with Pam in July while David went off to the Alps for a spot of flying. Pam had grown her squashes from seed and there were about a dozen seedlings left over. Sue thought it would be a good idea to bring some back with us. She had only taken hand luggage and so there was no room for seedlings. Fool that I am, as I'd paid to take a case, I offered to carry the plants in my hand luggage. They were dutifully secured in an ice cream container and carefully carried through Customs, onto the plane and home. It was only then that my DH pointed out that we weren't actually allowed to bring plants into the UK. I could still be doing 'time' in a French prison-all for a few butternut squashes!
Pam and David will shortly move into their barn and Pam will come out of retirement to do Bed and Breakfast. They live in Les Noyers (the walnuts) in South West France in a beautiful valley overlooking a lake and have designated their land, about 50 acres, as a nature reserve. In the spring, the grass is awash with orchids and other wild flowers, birds and wild animals including snakes ~shudders~and there are lots of lovely walks and interesting places to visit ie vin yards and horse treking should you be up to it! At night it is completely dark and completely silent (except for bird and insect noises which can be raucous).
When the web site is up and running, I will add a link just in case any of you fancies a few days in the Lot/Gironne region-for now I have put a link to the old web site.
Please call back tomorrow-you will never eat eggs from a battery hen again!

Perfect Bank holiday weather-is this a first???

2009-08-31T20:49:00.012+01:00

Hello again and welcome to my little plot 6a.
Well, what a weekend it's been-weather wise it's been fabulous. Perfect weather for chilling out in the garden, on the beach and at the Weston allotments. So much work has been done on the allotments; muck has been spread, beds dug, plastic spread and chatting and socialising done by the ton.
We are so lucky to have been given the opportunity to grow our own produce in our lovely village on the hill-thank you John and Paul Cherry for 'gifting' this land to us-please drop in now and again to see how we're getting on.
My DH and myself have now dug and manured 4 beds ready to plant broad bean seeds in October. I can't believe how perfect the soil is for digging at the moment-it's easy to think it's always going to be this way but I know that come the winter, it will become waterlogged and digging will be impossible. The soil at the Norton allotment site was terrible-really solid clay not at all like our beautiful Weston soil!
I'm keen to try growing garlic so am off to the garden centre this week to buy a disease resistant variety that keeps well-we eat a lot of garlic by the way. I'd just like to mention at this point that I am vegetarian so growing vegetables organically and picking, cooking and eating them all within a few minutes seems like a little bit of heaven to me. I know I'm going to make some mistakes and have a few disasters, but hey! I'm going to give it a good go.

The good news...and the bad news

2009-08-30T18:10:00.005+01:00

Hello again. Thanks for calling in and please leave a comment if you like something-or if you don't. None of these words are set in stone and can be changed.
Well, have I got news for you? A reliable source (thanks mum and Pam), have let out a little secret. A secret society exists. Yes, sooooo secret, only a chosen few know it. But it's out, and I'm about to tell you all about it!
There is an Allotment Society, which you can go along to providing you are an allotment holder, and buy useful stuff- seeds, compost, plastic sheeting, that sort of thing, but only on a Sunday morning. The shop is at the Norton allotments, off of Flint Road in Letchworth. (Go down Blackhorse Road as if going to the dump, but turn left halfway down into Flint road. Go along to the end, through the black gates and park in the car park there.) The shop is open 9am-12 during August and September, 9.30am-12 October and November and 9am-12.30 February to July. I think you will need to show your contract and membership costs £6 per year. That's the good news. The bad news is that it was closed today!!! So I can't tell you anymore for certain. But I will go again next Sunday and check it out and report back.
While I was there, I had a walk up the allotment site-it is a long established site and some of the plots are amazing. Some were overgrown and neglected, but most were well kept and producing fruit and veg. I took a few photos, shown at the top of this post. The plot shown in the top picture was amazing-all sorts of things were growing, including sunflowers. Lots of the plots were growing sunflowers so I wondered if there was some sort of competition going on. Sadly, no one stopped to chat so I can't enlighten you. The bottom photo is of a group of chard (i think-please correct me if I'm wrong)-they were beautiful and worthy of a scrapbook page! I'll show you that in due course!
I'll be back tomorrow with an update on the work going on on the Weston allotments over the bank holiday weekend, so please call in tomorrow.

Insults and Injury

2009-08-29T10:03:00.011+01:00

Hello again, and thanks for popping back. I was standing on my little plot the other day, which by the way, measures about 8.4 x 14.4 metres and isn't so little, thinking. Thinking about all the weeds that will have grown by next spring when I suddenly remembered reading Tim Ms tips on the handover letter-something about covering the ground with black sheeting to supress the weeds. Hey! Good plan. No, GREAT plan!
So DH (for those of you that don't know scrapbooking terminology, DH is darling husband, DS is darling son, DD is...ok, you've got it) and I wizz down to Wicks and low and behold, sheeting is 40% off. Next stop, Do It All, and low and behold, seeds are half price...and they've got a long 'use by' date. What to buy? Broad beans, peas, sweet corn, aubergine, brocollii, cauliflower...maybe we should have had a full size plot...ok, lets be sensible-wouldn't it be a great plan to share seeds with my neighbour. By the way, my immediate plot neighbour to my right, Sophie, also happens to be my next door neighbour, and Sophies neighbour at the rear of her, also happens to be her next door neighbour, confused yet? Anyway, we get home, and I throw the packet of seeds in a drawer-actually getting to the stage of planting seeds seems such a long way away-and head over to the allotment with the new border fork I also bought in DIA-the seeds may have been half price but this fork cost an arm and a leg and I thought I could do this stuff on a budget! Insult is added to injury,when, arriving at the allotment, a nice man tells me he bought his spade and fork at a carboot sale for £3, and I think he meant he got both for £3! Mine has got a nice, smooth ash handle tho...

An afterthought!

2009-08-28T16:45:00.002+01:00

I think perhaps I should tell you a little of the history of the beginning of the allotments to put you in the picture. Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin.
Once upon a time...ok, that's daft, I'm thinking you are probably all grown up if you're remotely interested in allotments ~chuckle~ Anyway, the local landowners/farmers in Weston, a beautiful corner of north Hertfordshire where I live, (and have lived for some considerable years, long enough for my children to go through the local nursery and primary school, secondary school and university (enough said?)), offered Weston residents the chance of an allotment (thank you John and Paul). Apparently there was so much interest, demand outweighed the number of plots available. But being Westonites, a compromise was reached, and everyone on the list found themselves 'an allotment holder' of some size or other. Once the meadow was ploughed, the allotment holders got to work and the rest you know, except the saga of the manure which will be told another time.
I know this all sounds idyllic, but 'allotmentiering' (did I just make that word up? Anyway, if I did, it's going to feature regularly in my vocabulary) is also THE biggest way of wasting time on the planet. Chat, chat, chat. Much more chat gets done than work. Chatting is sooooo much easier than digging, don't you know? ~chuckle~I can see this becoming a social meeting place, tea being brewed, dogs and children playing, stories being told, watching the sun going down.
I should also mention 'The Committee'. But like the manure, that's a story to tell another time. (Mainly because I don't know much about it at the moment and so can't embellish it yet).

Enough of my ramblings for now. Please call back another day for an update. Thanks for visiting.

In the beginning

2009-08-28T11:16:00.005+01:00

Welcome to my little blog. I've yet to decide where I'm going with this, but thought I'd start at the beginning. That is, the beginning of my latest project-my new allotment. Well, it's not...actually...an allotment...yet. In fact, it's little more than a field that's been ploughed, but in my mind's eye I can see all the beautiful, fresh produce growing away but fear the pain of all the digging that needs doing LOL. Seeing as I am vegitarian, I like the idea of pulling up my carrot and eating it complete with soil - do you remember when carrots actually looked like they grew in the ground and were crunchy and tasted like...well, like, carrots, I suppose. These days they taste like water and dirty water at that! Anyway, I'm taking photos regularly, not just of my plot, but of some of the others too. It's interesting to see what other people are doing with their plots-mostly it's a case of 'the blind leading the blind' as most of us are complete novices, but Tony, ahhhh, Tony is not a virgin, in the allotment sense that is, he already has an established allotment elsewhere and knows a fair bit about them! He's probably forgotten as much as the rest of us know about allotments (put together, that is!) I wonder if he's having a giggle at the rest of us. For example, I can dig for all of six minutes at a time before collapsing in a heap and having to swig huge amounts of blackcurrent juice. Tony can dig for hours AND hump tons of manure around!
Aaaaa. Manure-that's another story. Maybe I'll tell you that one another time! That reminds me, I must take my rotting old bench over to collapse onto.

Thanks for visiting. Please visit regularly for updates on the allotment, and also for posts on my other crafting talents!