Normal Service Resumed

I feel like I blinked and the school summer holiday passed by. After 6 weeks of having my beautiful girl at home during the day, she's now returned to school. No longer the young ones, but to the heady heights of year 8. New school uniform, hours spent putting in name tags, shoes shined and buffed and back my baby went yesterday.

As much as I miss her smiling little face during the day, it's also good to get back into a routine and have some structure.

Today I managed 2 loads of washing, a walk around the park with the dogs, planted my cyclamens for winter and cooked a lovely roast dinner.

I wish I had lots of photos to show my lovely day, but I do have some pictures to share from my crafting makes.

Feeling all autumnal... falling leaves make me think about hedgehogs. Do you like these cuties?

Hattie and Herby, knitted in scrunchy, sparkly eyelash chunky yarn. I didn't find it the easiest yarn to work with, hard to see where I was up to, but I do think it gives a lovely effect and plan to make some more.

I'm off to have a nosey around and see what everyone else's up to.

Take care
xxx

Our First Cucumber and the Doggies

How exciting is that! We harvested our first cucumber at the weekend and it tasted more delicious than any cucumber I've tasted

There are lots of flowers, so hopefully plenty more Cucumbers to follow.

I think we may start harvesting corgettes next week and we have lots of pea pods and tomatoes in the greenhouse.

I've been treated to a new camera, she's a beauty and I couldn't wait to go outside to try her out. Off to the park we went with the dogs. I love to zoom along on my scooter while the dogs run as fast as they can and chase me. I find it so invigorating, and now I can get some photos of the dogs running without it being a large blur...

I think Penny (at the front) has all 4 legs off the ground in the photo below

Imogen was about to roll down this small hill before being covered in a pile of dogs :)

Catching a breath before the walk home

I'm quite excited about my new camera and plan to take lots more photos.

Just before I go, I must show these wonderful photos of some local yarn bombing - brilliant!

Take care
xxx

Growing in the Garden

After being struck down with a nasty case of food poisoning (knocked me off my feet for a couple of weeks) I thought I should start venturing out again. So clad in my comfy jimmyjams with the sun shining brightly, I took a walk around the garden to see how things are doing.

I love our Clematis, the flowers are such a rich creamy, milky white. It's growing just outside the conservatory so can be appreciated from indoors as well as out.

I think it looks lovely next to the bright red splash from the Geranium

I'm hoping (not very green fingers crossed) that as Summer comes there'll be some lovely blooms flowing down from the basket to say hello to the Clematis...

 Andy put this basket up for me outside the kitchen window. It seems to be thriving and hopefully we'll see some colour here soon

Some nice flowers to draw the eye away from the pipes

Ooh... another Geranium

 The dogs have been eyeing up the Strawberry plant...  quite a few flowers now...

 Some pots have had to go back in the greenhouse because they seem to be making extra comfortable seats for the dogs... squashed plants... They've grown a bit more now so can probably come back out now.

 Here's the upside down tomato plant

 It actually seems to be bigger than the upright ones

Cucumber in the corner next to the Garlic.

Lettuce and peas

 
and a pepper plant

A courgette... just one after the year we planted 3 and became overwhelmed with courgettes!

Everything seems to be growing well. It's the colour I love, looking out the window and seeing the flowers, also it's so rewarding when you eat something you've grown from seed yourself.

Take care
xxx

Everyone Loves a Bargain

I don't seem to be very good at getting bargains, but isn't it a good feeling when we uncover one. I 'd been looking for some shelves for the dining room, but nothing really appealed to me, then I found a dusty looking top half of a dresser looking a bit sorry for itself. I knew straight away it was 'The One' and felt giddily excited as I asked Andy if we could fit it in the car (Andy is a master fitter inner in our cars, sometimes defying natural laws of space and dimension)

Cleaned and ready to be painted and pampered

A couple of coats of paint and a good covering of wax turned these unloved shelves into something pretty

I think they look just right holding some pretty china

I really love them, definitely worth waiting to find the right ones and spending the time on them, they make me smile when I go past them!

Another bargain this week... some yarn at Hobbycraft working out at 60p a ball

The photo doesn't do it justice, you can't see all the sparkles! I have some nice plans for it, just need to run them by Miss Imogen first.

Take care
xxx

A Bit of Rippled Crochet

I have a very lovely husband, very understanding about my love for yarn. It was my birthday back in February and Andy surprised me with a lovely big package he'd ordered on line without me knowing, what a brilliant surprise!

Here it is unpacked and ready to be used, beautiful selection of colours.

I've seen quite a few ripple throws and blankets on line and really fancied having a go myself, what a wonderful way to use my birthday present and have a lasting object to show for it. Let the ripple making begin.

I keep stroking it, I love the colours and it also feels so soft. It's been on the go for over a couple of weeks now.

I used all the colours once, now I'm going through them again in a different order. It's about the size of a single blanket, just right to cover my legs in an evening.

I do want to start some smaller projects to run alongside it, I'll keep you updated...

Imogen started her intensive physio on her knees yesterday. My poor mite has started to have recurrent dislocations and each time they pop her in plaster

I'm really hoping the physio will help prevent this. They said her muscles are strong,  but need tightening, she also has hypermobility.

They worked her very hard though she did enjoy it too, but as a treat at home she made herself some crispy squares for school lunches. Lots of rice krispies, marshmallow fluff and golden syrup, well mixed, squashed down firmly in a tin, cooled in the fridge then Imogen cuts a piece as she fancies it for school.

Her friends have given it the thumbs up too!

Penny, Imogen's Lhasa Apso, had a hair cut today ready for some warmer weather... hopefully. Does't she look pretty

Take care
xxx

A Birthday and a Spot of Gardening

Thank you all so much for your lovely and encouraging comments on my last post. it really does mean a lot to me, thank you :)

Firstly let me tell you about the magnificent Mother's Day present my wonderful lot bought for me. I've coveted these from afar for quite a while, but this is mine... yea...

It's a KMix from Kenwood, the design is fire cracker. It's proudly sitting on the kitchen counter, though I do still need to find a good place to store the attachments for it. I couldn't wait to use it and as my son was about to turn 26... time for a birthday cake methinks...

It was a family affair, as birthday cakes here often are

lots of chocolate just like the one we made for Imogen last year as Adam had requested the same (without the 1 Direction decorations)

The easiest cake I've ever made, it was quite mesmerising to watch

All contributing, Daddy adding the icing sugar to the buttercream

Imogen doing the important taste test and bowl scraping...

Adam was really pleased and very happy to wrap it up and take it home with him, Imogen would have been more pleased if he'd forgotten to take it!


I haven't put as much time into the garden this year as I probably should have. I was hoping for a warmer weekend on Saturday, it was a bit grey and dull, but not cold. I spent the afternoon in the greenhouse replanting my baby petunias and lobelia.

I love to see pots full of colour when we're in the garden, and hopefully these will continue to grow and flourish. I wish now I'd planted more seeds, especially some vegetables. we do have some tomatoes and garlic

I also picked up this bargain tomato planter

With a photo of how the tomatoes should grow from under it

I've planted a tomato plant in it though it didn't seem very happy hanging there upside down. My camera needed fresh batteries so I can't show you how forlorn it looked, but when I checked it this afternoon it looked much more chipper, so fingers crossed! I have visions of buckets full of tomatoes and me cooking up lots of tomato sauces to freeze.

I've enjoyed touching base with everyone again though I still have lots of blog reading to catch up with.

Here's a happy picture of one of my baskets to end with

Take care
xxx