strawberry picking and jam making ::

a fairly perfect weekend

I used the basic jam recipe that I used last year, however mid way through I took a peek at Pam Corbin's recipe in the River Cottage, Preserving Handbook, to discover her's is quite different. It was too late this time, so I guess there will have to be more strawberry picking and jam making later in the year! Along with a whole lot of scones and victoria sponges and homemade jammy dodgers and jam tarts to use it all up!

this moment ::

Inspired by SouleMama

In her words...

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

allotment ::

it must be about 6 weeks now I've had my allotment, all in honesty I haven't been there for 2 weeks. This does not bode well. However my Mum has very kindly purchased me an amazing bike, so once that arrives I'm really hoping I will be a better allotmenter.

For the time being I can share with you some of the photos we have of the experience so far ::

So far we've done little else but dig! And there is still a lot of digging to do. Eventually it will be a no dig allotment I hope, but there are quite a few weeds (it could be worse though) so we're digging it this year, but hopefully not again!

The main grass area I will build beds on to rather than dig, but certainly not this year! The main bed area at the back is big enough for now.

So far there is very little planted, we were gifted some raspberry suckers from a neighbouring allotment and there is already some fairly poorly looking rhubarb there. We've sown some chard and beet seeds, but so far that is all!

Tonight I'm taking up some bean, pea and sweet pea plants to put in though!

real nappy week ::

this week is real nappy week. We've been using cloth nappies on Milo since he was about 3 months old and we love them!

With the help of go real I've been sharing the secret of cloth with my little sister and her baby, Aston, for the last week. You can see how we've been getting on over on the real nappy challenge blog.

There are so many nappy companies doing fantastic discounts this week, you can see a lot of them on the go real page, plus go real are doing a huge competition and a big nappy giveaway where real nappy users can nominate non-cloth users to receive a real nappy try!

a new (blog) home ::

Oh my so I've moved again, but this time I really hope it will be for good!

I've come over from typepad, where I had 3 blogs, none of which I was really looking after very well at all!

I decided it was probably about time to set up a proper website for my little business, somewhere to direct people, instead of the list of online shops I have on various venues, don't get me wrong I have no intention of leaving any of these places, but I was paying for typepad, not much less than I am now paying for my own website, so all in all it seemed the best thing to do.

I have a blog on the new website which will be for all businessy type bits and bobs, but this one here will be for me, my knitting, my gardening, my allotment and of course my boy!

I have managed to import most of my old blog posts from typepad, working on the others, so you should be able to see them below.

Enjoy :)

exciting times...

...I have been a fairly absent blogger, but I most certainly have not been an absent gardener the last couple of months.  There are seedlings on every available windowsill in my house, weighing down the shelves of my little green house and even a few outside (though some naughty snail/slug has devoured two of my baby marigolds).

Here is a little list of what is currently growing in some form or another in my garden/greenhouse/house:

Fruit ::

• strawberries : some from last year and some newly purchased runners, some of these are already flowering which seems crazy!



• blueberries : 3 newly purchased little plants
  
  
  
  
  
  


• raspberries : again a new addition, I have 3 varieties and 3 canes of each.  Planted in big containers and currently covered with some plastic sheeting in an attempt at a little polytunnel for them!


• gooseberries : this is a bit of an experiment, I took some cuttings from a huge gooseberry bush just over my fence (which is currently a building site, I imagine they will remove the bush in due course) and have just popped them a pot of compost, I have no idea if this will work, apparently it's fine to take cuttings like this but it should be done in the autumn, these are already flowering so we'll see how it goes!


• watermelon : from seeds, I know this is probably a massive long shot but thought I'd give it a go anyway!

Vegetables ::

• aubergines


• borlotti beans


• carrots


• courgette


• cucumber


• french beans


• garlic


• globe artichokes


• kale


• leeks


• onions


• peas


• potatoes : 6 different varieties


• purple sprouting broccoli : some forming florets from last year and some new seedlings for next year



• runner beans


• salad leaves : various kinds


• spinach


• spring onions


• sweetcorn


• tomatoes : 7 different types this year!

Herbs ::

• basil : regular, purple and thai


• dill


• mint


• oregano


• parsley


• sage


• rosemary


• tarragon

Plus a whole lot of flowers, including ::

• calendula


• dahlias


• marigolds


• nasturtiums


• poppies


• sunflowers

It's such an exciting time and seeing it all listed like that makes it seem even more promising!

All of this was already going on and growing away destined to become potted plants in my entirely decked little garden, when on Sunday I received a fabulously exciting email telling me an allotment had become available if I was still interested and wanted to make an appointment to view it!  I had a couple of reservations (namely time and that's it a bit of a distance away, about 30mins on foot) but the thought of having a proper proper space to grow food was just too tempting!  So I am going to view my little space this afternoon, I cannot tell you how much time I have spent day dreaming allotment plans since Sunday!

I am throughly daunted don't get me wrong, I really have no idea what I am doing, I have had 2 years experience growing in pots, I have read a fair few books and I did attend a weekend permaculture course back in October, but as for proper practical work I am very inexperienced.  I have no doubt the old time allotmenters will be watching me with raised eyebrows and little smirks, but at least I am not to be sniggered at alone as the lovely Bex of stuffed nonsense has vowed to help me out.

So back to dreaming of spiral herb gardens and little ponds full of wildlife, beds bursting with lovelies, necessary new purchases such as tools and wellies and a bike (with a basket of course), whilst I twiddle my thumbs waiting for 2 o'clock to arrive when I can go and view my little plot.  In my head this little plot is covered in weeds and throughly neglected a little smaller than I'd like without a shed and in the furthest spot imaginable from the entrance and water. I figure if I picture the worse, I can only be pleased with what I get!

 

**I actually took these pictures from the garden about 10 days it's amazing how much has changed in that time, the raspberries are full of leaves now and the broccoli is huge, ready to cut any day I think!**

D ::

I did it!  I stitched together my first garment from a pattern and in Japanese at that.

I am so proud of myself, I mean the shirt itself is no where near perfect, but it is wearable, just about!

I decided that I should start with something reasonably simple looking and that wouldn't require too much fabric and I only used an old sheet.  That way if it did go terribly wrong I wouldn't have ruined some beautiful, expensive fabric.

I am so glad now that I decided to just get stuck in and have a go, because I learnt so so much by actually doing it and it wasn't until I started putting all those techniques in to practice that they started to make much more sense, some a little too late for this garment unfortunately, but that is of course what practice runs are for!

I really struggled a lot with the binding on the neck and the sleeves, it just didn't seem possible!  I actually ended up making some larger binding for the neck piece and handstitching the sleeves.  I'm not sure how to prevent this from being such a disaster next time, but I'm sure with a little more book reading and internet searching I'll get there.

I also didn't even consider raw edges until I'd finished!  For this garment it's not the end of the world, but next time I will definitely consider how to finish the edges.

I used Built by Wendy's sew u book for a lot of the technical stuff, I've had this book for ages and ages, but I've hardly even flicked through it before (I think I may have read a bad review of it just after purchase and it just got neglected after that) however it was actually really really helpful and I had it next to my sewing machine for constant reference throughout.

So next up....a dress!  Well maybe anyway.  I really want to make a dress to wear for my cousins wedding in April, but I'm not entirely sure I'm brave enough to make that big step of cutting up beautiful, carefully purchased fabric just yet!  Maybe another practice run first would be best.

• pattern D from stylish dress book 1 available here


• burdastyle notes here