Harvest getting good

I felt a bit lethargic this morning so I read 'Drowned Wednesday' by Garth Nix. 

After lunch I went to the allotment weeding, watering and picking as usual

The last of the redcurrants and blackcurrants and the first of the blueberries. The autumn raspberries should also be starting soon.

In the veg bit I'm harvesting celtuce, baby carrots, fennel and beans. 

I also have salad leaves, tomatoes and brassica leaves in the greenhouse and beetroot and chard on the allotment, apart from the heat (which is a huge drawback for me) this is a good time of year.

Green smoothie for tea.

Oh dear

I missed yesterday :( Actually I didn't but I had such a difficult day that I was so tired and put my blog on Facebook instead of on here. Doh!

Anyway the long and short is that I went to Oldham for lunch with my mum, 266 miles this time. I was in my van for 9 hours because there was a very serious crash on the M1 and I got lost in and around Oldham, what a day.

Today was a vast improvement :) I'm very stiff so I did some warm ups before I saw my trainer then we did some heavy duty exercise. After that I had breakfast and went to a quilting day at Eyres Monsell Community Centre. I have no idea how they did it but it only cost £10 for the day and that included a visiting teacher, a 3 course lunch and all materials.

We did 'disappearing 9 patch' and although we all started with 9 same size pieces of material we all ended up with something totally different. I learned 2 big new things and several hints and tips. One of the things I learned was framing.

I've unpicked the blue one, I hadn't noticed how the design turned out

Both these blocks started as a simple 9 patch block, hence the name 'disappearing 9 patch'. The framing is the dark line round the pattered block and it separates the block from the sashing to make it stand out. The second (blue) block is not finished but then I'll quilt them and sew them together as a tote bag.

When I got home I noticed that my Geum plant by the back door had shed some petals and they are perfect heart shapes, how pretty is that :)

I am not very hungry after lunch so I will have a green smoothie for tea later.

Oops, I've just noticed the blue one is a swastika so I've unpicked it and I'll rearrange the squares :(

Still hot!

The weather is still very hot and humid, I haven't slept properly for ages :( The forecast is for cooler from tomorrow, which is good cos I'm driving up to Manchester :)

This morning I played in the back garden, doing a bit more cutting back and clearing, I want to dig the beds but the soil (clay) is set like concrete because it is so dry.

OH and I moved quite a bit of shed stuff out of the garage into the shed so my tool rack looks loved again :) This is my happy pic for today.

My nephew came round today so that he and OH could do something to his mountain bike, it was lovely to see him, I haven't seen him for a while :)

Quiet day

I had a more restful day today :) I watered the greenhouses and the garden pots then went to the Post Office to collect a parcel we missed yesterday. OH was expecting a parcel so no surprise there, but there were 2 parcels to pick up.

Got back home, dropped parcels off then went to knit and natter in town. Town was very busy because the soldiers were home from Afghanistan and were having a march in town and lots of people came to watch, I didn't watch cos that sort of thing always makes me cry although I don't know why :(

Came back home pottered about, made tea. No salad today, I had home made cauliflower and potato curry yummy :)

OH opened parcels and passed one to me, it was a McCain bowl on offer from potato wedges. My daughter had sent for it cos I use them when we have mexican, they are very attractive on the outside, shame about the logo on the inside but that gets covered by food :)

Hedge

Bit cooler and cloudy this morning so took the opportunity to cut the front hedge, it is Escallonia sp.

By 10 am the hedge was done and so was I. I cleared up and pegged down some of the bits I'd left at the base of the hedge to try to thicken it up.

I've already taken some cuttings but every little helps, it looks OK when it is overgrown but very thin when I cut it :( The little bush right at the end is a bit I layered a couple of years ago :)

 The sun came out not long after I'd finished the hedge and the temperature soared again. 

I went to quilting class this afternoon and finished my maple leaf block. I'm getting better at making my corners meet :)

Weeding

This morning early I watered both greenhouses and all my pots and tubs, the weather is still very hot and sunny :(

After breakfast I went down to the lottie for more weeding and watering. I noticed that I have a lot of 7 spot ladybirds which really pleases me because it means the imported harlequin ladybirds haven't yet managed to wipe out the native ones :)

I weeded half of bed 3 when I decided to take photos so this is it half done

and this is it completed

I then gave it a good watering to settle everything back down.

I picked 3 of my fennel bulbs today and had a lovely fennel, lettuce and mint salad for tea.

My daughter came round, it was lovely to see her as I haven't seen her for ages. She took the other 2 fennel bulbs, some mint, and a lemon to make the salad for her tea.

Christmas shopping (or not)

Pilates this morning, followed by a bit of supermarket shopping for cheap gin and sugar. I'm going to try making blackcurrant gin in the same way I make sloe gin and it may end up like cassis, we'll see when December comes. I think I'll be able to use the sozzled blackcurrants as well :)

Froze blackcurrants and redcurrants, made redcurrant jelly then went to allot and picked the last of the broad beans, fennel and beetroot. The broad beans are really a bit old but I'm going to try the River Cottage recipe for hummus using broad beans instead of chickpeas.

Christmas must have been on my mind from making the gin so I looked at coach trips then and there is one to York. I looked everything up and I've booked it, not that I'm interested in shopping at all but the quilt museum is not far away from the hotel and should be open on the Monday morning. I've wanted to go there for a while but just couldn't get everything organised and I hate driving in cities so this is perfect. This is my happy pic.

Same food as for the last few days, green smoothie for breakfast, salad for tea, this would be boring except that the salads and the smoothies both vary in their ingredients.

Bag day

Today has been very hot and sunny again so, after I saw my trainer this morning I decided to stay inside out of the sun and finish my allotment bag. It has taken me longer than I thought but it is done and it even has pockets inside. I'm very pleased with it.

Green smoothie for breakfast and salad for tea, eating raw veg is easy in this hot weather!

Tip trip and fruity

OH took me out for a treat this morning, down to the tip :( we took 5 recycling bags of green waste, one of hard plastic (mainly old plant pots and seed trays etc) plus a few other bits and pieces so the little rubbish area near the bins is empty and tidy again now for a while.

After that I went to the allotment. I weeded an area that I was supposed to be planting up but never got round to it and I've sown mustard seed as green manure. Then I picked; potatoes from a volunteer plant, beetroot, broad beans, another 2 or 3 lbs of blackcurrants, and redcurrants without end or side. I've already frozen a lot and picked 3 large punnets today but gave one away. I've cut down one redcurrant and one blackcurrant bush, I will dig the roots out and replace with a Ben Sarak blackcurrant in the autumn, I love blackcurrants :)

Salad for tea again, it is still very hot and humid despite yesterday's thunder and rain.

My happy photo today is a small branch from the redcurrant bush I haven't yet picked, the branch broke under the weight of fruit so I cut it off and harvested it.

Singing in the rain

Rainy, thundery, very hot and humid so I decided to play inside and tidy my craft room. I put all the 'stuff' on my workbench, Tamla Motown on the CD player and got going.

It's all properly put away not hidden out of camera shot :)

I had another little go at Tunisian crochet, just to make sure I remembered it and I did, that's a proper hook for the job sent to me, with some yarn, by my niece.

We've had some amazing cloud formations today, like in those American 'end of the world' films.

I think my tidy work top will have to be my happy pic for today :)

Lots of happy things

Lots of things made me happy today. 

• We had a fair amount of rain in the early hours, which will do the allotment good
• I watered the greenhouses and the garden tubs and found very clear signs of a leaf cutter bee which I've never seen/noticed before

• My pots and baskets are looking beautiful

• I walked about 2 miles into town
• I went to knit and natter and sewed some more of my maple leaf and, of course, nattered
• When I got home I stoned and froze some cherries off the market and the blackcurrants from the lottie
• I had salad for tea
• Then I hid inside with the curtains closed to ward off the sun and the heat from the hottest day of the year so far. Thunderstorms and heavy rain forecast for overnight

Too hot and worse tomorrow

I can't cope with hot sunshine, I never have even as a child and today was hot and sunny.

I saw my trainer early before it got very hot and we concentrated on body weight shoulder strength exercises, very hard!

After that I had a green smoothie for breakfast and then went to allot. I weeded, watered and cleared some of the broad beans so I have a heap of those to shell and freeze. I gave up before lunch and came home for a shower and to pack my bags for quilting.

Lovely afternoon at the quilting class, the room is shady and the doors were open either end so there was a through draft but I can't say it was cool. My maple leaf is coming on well, it is hand pieced in the American style.

Some of it is sewn but it not finished. Had salad for tea.

Early start

I was up at Asda for about 7ish this morning but they hadn't got what I wanted :( Went to the allotment on the way home and watered, weeded and picked some fruit, some celtuce and a few baby carrots.

Blackcurrants, red currants and the last few strawberries

Came home, had a shower and went to pick Kate up to go to Seldom Seen Farm to pick raspberries. It was a bit disappointing because there wasn't much fruit there but I got enough for us both to have some today and tomorrow. I expect, with the schools having just broken up and it being fine, they have had a lot of people coming. Note to self, go before school breaks up next year. It isn't much of a problem because my autumn raspberries should start coming in next month.

After picking Kate and I went to a pub for lunch and I had a salad. Another lovely day out :) 

More flowers

Pilates this morning for an hour then home and a green smoothie for breakfast/lunch. It was hot and dry again today so I played in the greenhouses, tidying my tomatoes and cucumber, cutting back the old foliage on the strawberries and planting up some kale to give me greens in the winter. It's all looking very tidy and healthy. I then gave everything a really good watering as there is no rain even forecast until Friday.

I'd just finished when Kate popped in with a bunch of flowers to say thank you for doing her garden.

I ordered a couple of Tunisian crochet books from Amazon and they came today, it seems to be reasonably straight forward now I know the basic stitch, at least, some of the stitches are, so I'll have a go at a scarf pattern when I've finished the little bolero I'm knitting.

Haircut

Haircut day; I missed my last appointment so it was a bit bushy but it's much neater now.

Soil I moved yesterday from the front garden, a better pic to show how much there was.

After lunch I went to Kate's to have another go at her garden. I took down the 4 bags of soil I dug out of my front garden and some planks to make a temporary edge to make the lawn bigger along the side of the garden.

Before, the bed is at least 5 inches lower than the grass.

Temporary edging and soil added, it needs quite a bit more soil before it's level

 I also had another go at the back border, took out weeds and dug out some soil for the permanent edging that's needed because the back is quite a bit higher than the front of the bed. This was tough because the soil is very hard and full of roots.

Edging lying on the soil as a measure before digging out.

Doesn't look like much has been done but it has.

Salad for tea.

Diggin'

Rainy morning but much cooler, OH and I decided to clear the remaining bed in the front garden. I've tried to keep it nice but with the mess next door it's just impossible.

I cleared all the plants out, some for Kate's garden, some for my compost and some for the tip. Then I dug out mounds of soil, I really hadn't realised how much there would be. I bagged up 4 bags and put a large mound on the new bed by the shed.

After that we put some layers of landscape fabric down and bark on the top, it looks much neater now and will only need spraying a couple of times a year to keep next door's weeds at bay.

This last pic is my happy one for today. After that we had a late lunch and I took cuttings of Choisya, Escallonia, Box, Viburnum x carlcephalum (scented snowball) which I have growing in the garden and which I am either going to move or which need bulking up.

Nothing day

I've felt very lethargic and out of sorts all day and every time I sat down for more than a minute I fell asleep, I hope it is just because the weather is very hot and humid and not because I've got some bug.

I had salad for lunch.

I made myself go out about 6.30 pm, when it had cooled down a bit and I hoed off the weed seedlings and planted up my box hedge, this is my happy pic.

The soil out side the bed edging will be going on the new bed next to the shed when I've dug it over and added some compost, then the path will be moved over.

New skill

Had a green smoothie for breakfast then took my parcel of craft stuff to the Hermes drop off shop to send to my niece.

Today was knit and natter day in town. It makes an enjoyable day out; walking some of the way in (exercise), knitting and nattering (social and creative), lunch in town (fun), and shopping on the market (amazing choice and new fruits or veg to try). What more could I want for £1!!!

Lynn, one of the other natterers wanted to learn Tunisian crochet from a magazine article she had so we worked on it together and I learned a new skill :D I did a very small sample piece using an ordinary crochet hook but it was very easy once we got our heads round the written instructions. I've sent for a book from Amazon to try a small project to see how I get on following a pattern.  The sample square is my happy pic for today.

Right side

Wrong side looks like knitted garter stitch

Rest day

I've been doing a lot these last few days so I declared today an idle day, I didn't even go to my quilting class which I love.

So I:

• changed my sheets
• watered garden tubs and greenhouses
• did a load of washing and hung it out
• sorted another box full of crafting stuff to send to my niece
• filled the paper recycling bin with old papers and boxes I sorted out
• sorted out the bag I'm quilting so I can finish it over the weekend
• charged up my MP3 and downloaded Week 2 of C25K ready for Saturday

Not bad for an idle day :)

My final pieces came today for my posh tea set, 3 tea plates

I was at a bit of a loss how to picture doing nothing for my happy pic so I took a pic of my corner of the sofa with my knitting and a magazine.

Beautiful bouquet

Kate and I went to Furniture Barn in Market Harborough this morning to look at oak dining tables. We had a lovely morning, the furniture place isn't hard to find (we only got lost once!) and it is HUGE. We came home via Wistow craft centre and Glebe garden centre for lunch (I had my salad for today). I dropped Kate off about 2.30 and then went home to pick up my stuff for knit and natter at Palmers garden centre. 

There was a huge box by the back door waiting for me, it was/is a bouquet of flowers from Emma to say 'Thank you' for the craft stuff I sent her. It was a lovely surprise and my happy pic for today.

Today's knit and natter is the one where the lady asked for the little jumpers for the African babies, she was thrilled to bits with 18 jumpers I took her from me and the ladies at my Friday group. I'll tell them when I go on Friday.

Done enough today

Pilates this morning, then the allotment to weed, water, pick some celtuce for green smoothie and collect some planks to make edging in Kate's garden, which I'm giving a make over. It is taking me a lot longer than it takes those people on TV. I've done the side bed until autumn, when I'll put in more plants.

After lunch I went to Kate's and made a start on the back border which is full of weed and a bit of a mess, the aim is to reduce the size of the bed, level the soil which is very high at the back and grass it to make a much smaller bed. either of the 'after' pics is my happy pic for today.

Looking to the right before

Looking left before

Looking right, after

Looking left, after

I dug down to sink in the edging plank and used the soil to help level the area to be grassed. It took me ages because the soil is full of tree roots and stones and is very hard, but already it is a lot more level. The right hand corner needs a couple of low branches trimming from the lilac tree but I wasn't up for that today, next time maybe.

Green smoothie for tea :)