glimmers

I am taking a self enforced rest day today - the last week of joyous sunshine and a happy me working in the garden has taken it's toll on my hands and they are rather painful. I am very grateful I learnt to touch type at school and can type with relatively little hand or finger movement.

So the three of us are sitting in the summer house, Willow napping on her duvet, Pan popping in and out or watching the frogs VeRy.cLoSeLy... sorry frogs - we think she needs specs coz she gets so close to look at them. 

Himself had constructed a little fence to prevent an elderly cat from entering the pond area, but the 'old dear' still has quite a spring in her step and with a bit of thought has found a route in.

One of my jobs this last week was to try and thwart her but have failed..... I have just watched her analyse the alterations, think about it, then just jump over a different way and - with equal rickety ease - jump back out... sigh. Back to the drawing board.

It has been a rare pleasure being able to spend a run of gently warm days in the garden. At the moment I am smiling quietly to myself as I watch all the birds using the bird feeding station I constructed on Tuesday. I had had a rusty metal version up for quite a few seasons and each time I looked at it, I gave it a hearty frown. Tuesday was the day of it's demise. 

All the hooks and tray holders were fine so I sawed them off, drilled holes and used one of the branches left over from the cherry tree removal from last week. I tried to take a flattering photo of the new and hopefully improved feeding station - but I just can't get a good one - so you will have to imagine it!

Something else that has made me smile, is the gentle improvement in cat and dog relations - Pan has lived with two other border collies in her life time so this one is just another inconvenience, however Willow has never met a cat and it has taken some weeks for her to stop reacting as 'sharply' as she has been. 

Today I held my breath as I watched a cranky old cat quietly soothe a scared little dog .... Willow is terrified of large men - especially those with loud voices. Our neighbour is both large and loud and he coughs and clears his throat with the explosive force of a snorting bull. And he does it regularly.

Willow was startled, sat up trembling, and Pan came into the summer house, went over and booped noses, stood near until the dog stopped quivering and lay back down, then she went back into the garden. Situation defused.

I can't ask for any more than that...............

well, may be one more thing -

a dog that does not think that walking at full steam-train-speed is 

The.Only.Way.To.Go

What gentle gems - glimmers - have lit your day?🩷💚

How is your gardening growing?🌱🪴🌿🪻🌷🌹

Here is to a lovely weekend - long may the springy weather keep on springing ☀️

Gently sharing the love

Edited to add:

 apologies if I don't reply to you here or comment on your own blogs - since yesterday afternoon Blogger has refused to let me comment??!! any idea why?

I spent the whole day in the garden yesterday - let that sink in......... (apart from nipping into the house to put the kettle on, make lunch or use the loo but that aside).... 𝕥𝕙𝕖..𝕨𝕙𝕠𝕝𝕖..𝕕𝕒𝕪!

At one point the three of us (Willow, Pan and I) were sitting in the summer house having a break and we were all just a little too warm - hang on a minute - does that mean.... there was sunshine, actual sunshine??

Yes! and it was absolutely blimmin' marvellous.

And there has been a bit of a break through - it is amazing how a good dose of sunlight and being outside can help soothe differences. 

I had to hold my breath - long may this gentle progress continue

After years of working at the walled garden where there was an almost indecent need to sow seeds in vast quantities for the coming growing season, this year I really needed to rein in my enthusiasm for filling every available tray or module with potting soil! 

Fortunately I do have more than my own garden I supply plants for - both my sons and my brother have new gardens and sharing plants and seedlings is a form of love. Eldest's garden has just reached the point where he is able to start sharing back - splitting herbaceous perennials, passing on self sown seedlings and collected seed heads. 

So, while my two supervisors were investigating the back of their eyelids, I made 'seedling rolls'  filling them with summer annuals for my brother's garden. Once made up, they take up so little room that it makes them easier to transport (up to Scotland) and then all he has to do is un-roll them and plant out the seedlings.

Today, I am planning another day out in the garden, I am sure my two side-kicks will be more than happy to play out again. Although I do have to take Willow for her walk first otherwise she natters at me until I get the message!

Yesterday's walk produced a very muddy doggo - which I think we can call a win - means she has played hard and is happy to hang around and chill while I potter with plants.

Hope there is sunshine where you are today☀️

And if you are working in your garden, hope too you see all the new shoots and the promise of this year's plants and flowers beginning to wake up. Certainly here in my shady garden in the north of the country - we are considerably later than others, my anticipation is bordering on desperation!

making things a 'hole' lot better!

Some years ago, when in a charity shop, I came across a modern punky interpretation of a woman's kilt in a dark grey, black and cream tartan. A heavy full skirted affair cut across the bias with a multi layered handkerchief hem.  

I loved her. She twirled and swirled and hung with a weighted and rebellious charm.

Then, for some reason she seemed to migrate to the back of the wardrobe. Quietly becoming invisible and then forgotten.  

One winter we had a terrible infestation of clothes moths and several items of clothing were rendered as holey as sieves. Some were given careful repairs, others thrown or repurposed and one or two mended very visibly with joy and defiance.

Couple of years later, now that I am at home and feeling feral and free (although my freedom slightly curtailed by truculent weather) I decided to continue with my 'operation de-clutter' and targeted my wardrobe. EVERYTHING was hauled out and piled on the bed, then the space was given a wipe down and refresh. 

Now I was ready to go through each item of clothing.

I was honest with myself - would I really wear that again? Does it still fit? Do I actually still like it? Did I like it in the first place? By the end I had a large pile for the charity shop, a small pile for the bin, a clean and surprisingly well arranged row of clothes ...... and my skirt ... which had inexplicably been missed when I did the clothes moth check.

My skirt seemed to have been feasted on by the clothes moth caterpillars and created a rather 'fetching' network of holes on one side. There was only one thing for it - reach for my embroidery thread and repair all the holes with love and defiance.

Randomly selecting a colour then enhancing each munch hole and adding little seed stitches around kept me busy for a couple of evenings (especially as I had to unpick several embellishments coz I stitched them inside out - duh)

15 holes later - I was done.  All my skirt needs now is a wash and a light press and she is good to go! 

I might just be wearing her again a lot more this year!

Have you been mending?
It is certainly a form of rebelling against fast fashion.

Did you also get 'mothed' a few years ago? - I remember the infestation even made the news!

Is it still raining where you are?

It is here and us three - Pan, Willow and I are heartly sick of it. We do all still go out but - enough now!

What did we get up to yesterday?

 A photo an hour 6am - 6pm - well, as near as I can get it.

6am (actually a little after)

Curtains thrown wide revealing the day before the weather turns

7am - back in bed

Pan having eaten breakfast, slipped out in to the garden, has now returned to bed.

8-ish am

Toast - food of the gods, 

especially with lemon curd or marmite and washed down with a mug of tea

9.30ish

The morning walk, post breakfast, with Willow.

It seems we are now part of the 'Women who walk' their dogs in the morning. 

More talking that walking seems to occur. 

Willow and I pass our greetings then walk on leaving them to natter.

10.30ish

In the greenhouse, tidying it in preparation of the new growing season.

11.45ish

Someone has found a rare slip of sunlight, whilst we are inside for lunch

1pm

Back outside and spotted some primroses in the wild part of the garden

2pm

Working in the garden with these two, 

tidying up the shredding from yesterday's garden hurdle making

2.45pm

Planting onions in modules to give me time to prepare their growing space

3.40ish

A precious half hour at my art desk,  

quietly working on a year long project following the seasons

4.40pm

Sewing on a butterfly patch whilst the pasta sauce simmered - 

I'd torn my trousers whilst working in the garden today

5.45pm

Our 'getting-on-a-bit' old lady - a proper heat worshipper 

Thank you for coming along with us through our day. Hope yours was as gentle and productive as ours.

Garden wafflings on a Wednesday

As I wove little step over hurdles in the garden from the brash left over from the tree removal on Monday, I whispered thank you to the erstwhile cherry tree.  

The tree team kindly left a pile of the longer and lighter branches for me to work with and with the dog's 'help' and supervision by the cat, I spent most of the morning cutting and hammering in stakes along the edge of the flower bed. 

Then after a much needed mug of tea, cat and dog treats, we returned to the garden where I attempted to weave wayward branches along the stakes. Cue a bit of swearing...... ok may be a fair bit.

Despite the formidable pile of brash and branches, it was difficult to find long slender and supple branches to wind along the edge of the bed so it is not as neat and as picturesque as it was in my imagination however it is doing the job it is required to do - Keep Willow on the pathway and out of the flower beds.

Want to finish the first one then attempt a second one today. However, having just looked out, I suspect that the weather will stop play - it is miserable out there - oh what a shame! It means I will have to stay indoors and paint 😆 and - TBH my hands are rather painful today, they still need to heal from years of strain from gardening. 

And to finish on a good note - the amount of sunlight that flooded the garden yesterday morning was utterly utterly glorious - removing that cherry tree has given me soooooooooooo much more sky and  that has lifted my heart 💚☀️

Sleep or the lack of it!

I'd had one of those nights when at about 2.30 the eyes opened then the brain woke up and that was it. No amount of me trying to persuade my head to stop wittering would end the mental debating society enthusiastically discussing the pros and mostly cons of having a shady garden. So I gave up, joined in and pottered off downstairs. 

I sat nursing a mug of peppermint tea while the cat insisted it was cat breakfast time. I decided to quietly read about cottage garden plants, eventually returning to bed around 4am and drifted off just in time to hear the alarm at 6am .... drat.

Having waved Himself off to work, I dragged myself back upstairs and decided that I would go back to sleep - something I very rarely do. I was so tired I fell asleep instantly only to be woken up by my phone.  It was the tree surgeon - 'are you home? We can be there in half an hour'........ 

When I originally spoke to the company they said would get in contact when they could do the tree - to which I said that would be fine, never did I think I would only get 30 minutes notice!

You have never seen me leap out of bed so fast, the dog thought this was a brilliant new game and joined in as I hopped around the room, toothbrush in mouth, one foot in a sock as I kept an eye on the clock. Rushing downstairs I went straight out, there were plants that needed rescuing and access to the tree to be cleared! 

It wasn't until the tree team turned up that I actually began to feel awake and offered them a brew. I am now sitting inside and I can hear the crunch and thud of a tree being brought down to size - I think tonight is going to be an early one .... yawn!

You can see how big the tree is in comparison to the others - 

it towers above everything else

However, it does mean more sunlight in the garden and that can't be bad!

Pigs, hearts and dogs - what more could you want?

 We sat, Himself and I, mug of tea each and ginger biscuits for three (Willow) and as we cronched them we both agreed that they were not particularly gingery - Willow on the other hand just cronched and wanted more declaring them the most delicious thing eaten EvEr!

So we (and still eating biscuits) reminisced about the collies that we have had and how they all seemed to love ginger biscuits then Himself remembered it was actually our second 'bordering on a collie' (pretty sure she was just barely a hint of collie) Cleggy came with a predilection for the gingery snack. Moss who was full on, top notch registered border collie but worth nothing to the farming community due to her inability to be a working dog, she too said that yes - ginger biscuits were yum.

Now Willow, who was sitting quietly minding her own business, leapt up and asked could she too have a biscuit as they were of the ginger type and scoffed them and inhaled the crumbs. Any hoo - where this is leading to is -

1. Are ginger biscuits generally less gingery and seem more sweet than before?

2. Do all collies have an affinity for a cronchy ginger biscuit?

SO!  I then remembered that a couple of years ago I made a load of Swedish Pepparkakor - Ginger biscuits and decided to do it again. When adding the spices I tasted the dough (which was yum BTW) I upped the ginger from one teaspoon for a heaped tablespoon and suddenly it tasted right!

A small and red dog decided that being in the kitchen Was.The.Place.To.Be whilst things smelt warm and gingery and now that the biscuits are out she keeps popping in to 'check if they are cool enough to eat' - well that is what she has told me.....

If you fancy making some here is the link and I didn't bother with the 'let it sit for 24 hours' I just bunged it in the fridge for the time it took to wash up, wrap three birthday pressies and make a brew -then I rolled the dough out and voila - Sweddish(esqe) Pepparkakor Pigs and Hearts.

I have just eaten one - hmmm - not bad, but not quite what I was looking for - the quest continues!

Do you have a suitable punchy ginger biscuit recipe? Or am I just chasing a ginger pimpernel 😆