What to do when waiting ...

...For workmen who are (it is now very obvious) not going to turn up. 

I am using this hurry up and wait time to crack on with ideas in my head. One or two I can not share here as they will ultimately be chrimbly gifts, however what I can share is this - and if you are a true sewist or quilt maker or patch work enthusiast - look away now!

During covid I sewed face masks for friends and family and when I make marmalade to gift, I top the jars with fabric 'hats', this has left me with various piles of scrap material. I also have several bags of scrap fabric gifted from other sewing friends and when I went through what I had - it seems I have piles of festive material - hence this hare brained idea. 

I know it is hare brained as I am now attempting said 'idea' and am wondering at my sanity.... cue cutting fairly square-ish/rectangular-ish/sort of patches to make sure my colours and patterns are spread about. I have taken up so much floor space with all my snippings that I am having to lay out half of the table cloth at a time. (shakes head) 

I am slowly sewing together all my festive scraps to make a table cloth - but instead of ensuring all pieces line up and are the same size, I am cobbling together All shapes and All sizes ....hmmmmm.

Wish me luck!

When it is done, stitched to its base cloth then ironed, I will show you (or, as I suspect - I'll get fed up and won't!!)

The evening light

edited to add - whoop whoop (hopefully not to pre-emptively - but it seems blogger just might be sort of working again!

I know my reach has dropped tremendously since blogger has been playing silly bloggers but I'll keep typing away like I know all of you are too. Keep in touch - don't disappear! 

Having had a glorious walk earlier in the afternoon, we set off back towards Lancaster. There are so few places where you can park wild in the lakes, understandably, as it would be soon over run by all sorts (I am including us too) so we use a tried and tested and accepted park up with one of the best views ever looking over Sunderland Point.

We parked up at that point when the light of the day begins to morph into smooth golden and purple shades. And despite our nearly 7 miles earlier, we just had to get out and fill our eyes and stretch our legs on a favourite 'dog loop'.

The reflections on the inky black waters of the canal were sublime and due to the time, there were so few other walkers about - again we felt to have the place to ourselves. We stopped at the marina to take a few photos as the sun slid behind the horizon. It was rather magical watching lights flicker on in the canal boats or yachts as their occupants prepared for the evening.

The reflections on the water turned to beaten copper and bronze while black silhouetted ducks paddled past searching for last minute morsels before heading to roost.

Back at the van we too set up for our evening, cooking and then eating whilst watching the sky soften into pinks and greys followed by the richest of blue black filled with stars.

The sounds of the day -  cheerful bird trilling and chirps, the occasional farm vehicle or car heading down to the marina changed to wistful whistles of evening song and the distant cronk of a skein of geese heading to their evening rest.

We knew that Saturday would be wet so we made the most of every moment of Friday, sitting up late, listening to the gentle sighs of a retreating tide and snores of a tired dog.

And yes Saturday was very wet - however there is something quite lovely about being tucked up in a very cosy nest, cuddling a mug of tea as you peer through a rain misted window..... time to go home.

I am now going to physically tap on everyone's blog I follow and see what you are up to! Sod blogger!

edited to add: I have managed to find a contact/forum page on the blogger site and left a query as to why and what can be done - see what happens ....

......and if you feel fed up enough to comment here is the LINK to that page

Trying to banish the autumnal blues

*if I don't leave a comment on your lovely blogs, it seems that blogger is not playing nicely - fingers crossed it won't be for long 🤞 

Today, in and effort to prevent my head imploding from a murky mix of autumnal blues, post holiday drearies and driech weather - I threw myself and the dog into the glasshouse to see if I could sort it out .... 

Almost a reset for both the greenhouse and for me I suppose, especially as the weather kept drizzling and that in itself is rather a downer for me, so armed with a large travel mug of tea, the radio and an easily excitable dog we trouped off to the garden much to her disappointment!

Most of the morning was wading through all the things which have been temporarily homed here from my parents move, I am hoping that this weekend we can takes lots over to their new place once Himself and I have built their shed - weather permitting of course......

By lunchtime both the dog and myself were fed up so we trudged back to the house and we had a bit of time out. In the afternoon with the shredder and the dustbin in full use, I finally discovered that I do actually have a floor in the glasshouse again.

Woo hoo I was finally able to reach my glasshouse grown vegetables and harvest what was ready - a glimmer just at the right time.

On a different note - I am launching myself into 'hand made chrimbly' I am going to attempt to make at least one gift per person. I have quite a stash of 'useful crafting stuff' and I think it is time to start using it up. I am thinking along the lines of crochet (can't knit any more as one of my thumbs just cries in pain), painting  (carefully - again hand issues), air dried clay, sewing and baking.

And talking of baking, I have just made some cracking ginger biscuits. It comes from an American site so everything is in cups. I shall do the 'Himself taste test' and if he thinks they are worth making again, I will do but I will convert the amounts into grams.

*later* 

I swapped some of those ginger biscuits for a bowlful of windfall apples - hmmm what shall I make with these? And the 'Himself verdict?' They are definitely have again.

I spent most of last Tuesday painting my folks shed which had the bad grace to fall on both the dog and myself courtesy of a huge gust of wind. Willow decided she'd rather sit inside the van for safety and I had to wash paint off my arm, out of my hair and chuck my shirt into the washing machine!

Any hoo - end of grumble, tomorrow is another day (shed building) and to round up Friday - Himself has lit the fire - autumnal vibes anyone? 

Autumn slips in uninvited

I've just stumbled back in from a dog walk - we, Willow and I, definitely needed the air and now we have returned, she has fallen asleep at my feet and I am contemplating a brew - hmmm - yup, I agree with myself, I do need one.

Thank you everyone who commented so kindly on my last post, I won't go in to details how awful these last few days have been especially as it seems we have come through from the other side and I don't want to dwell on what has happened.

Has anyone else noticed the nip of autumn in the air? I know that trees have shed their leaves early this year due to water stress however, that metallic scent of decay that comes with the cooler weather seems to be swirling around first thing in the morning when I take Willow out for her first piddle before breakfast.

I am not ready for autumn. I never am.

I watch for the swifts and mourn when the skies have been left empty and then when the swifts go a few short weeks later - I can feel my heart crack. I have been scanning the sky today - nothing. They have left whilst I was sinking in the mire of moving house and truculent parents. 

It doesn't seem that long ago I was all nerves and white knuckles while I was learning to paddleboard with a dog who hated water (which as we all know turned out to be a fallacy and this woofing lunatic loves swimming after all!) 

Not mushroom in my head

Nursing a dizzy-making head cold is not exactly conducive to a sparkling post full of wit but then, being well doesn't guarantee one either... let's see what my fingers will tap out tonight...

Autumn shades and temperatures have landed alongside strange aliens found nestling around tree roots. 

Visits to both RHS Harlow Carr and NT Nostell Priory were filled with flying saucers of the fungi kind, shaggy rockets of inky delight, tumbling bracket fungus and delicate parasols.

They are secretive or showy, glorious or rather gloopy (the Shaggy Inkcap) , cute and bijou des-res for pixie folk or staggeringly beautiful with hallucinogenic and psychotic results as in the case of the Fly Agaric

However they are all amazing vessels for the imagination as well as a transport system for trees - carrying nutrients into their root zones - how amazing is that both deadly AND symbiotic.

An unknown (to me) voluptuous white fungus growing upward in a blousy and luxuriant almost indolent manner had me crawling around in the leaf litter trying to capture it in all it's glory, all the time being watched over by a gloriously stately tree.

Post script - I can not promise that 'normal transmission will return shortly' but the sooner my head stops spinning quite in such a vertiginous way - the better. 

So - send gossip and updates and please tell me you have escaped this dreaded lurgy which seems to be pouncing on unsuspecting folk x

Pumpkin patch

We've grown some rather hefty pumpkins at work - the one above is 22kg or over 49lbs and I was inspired to have some at home - but smaller and quicker and easier to 'grow'. 

Then having made one, fancied another, then a third and now four mini-kins along the line I wondered if you'd like to have your own 'pumpkin patch' of mini-kins too!

This is not so much a tutorial as a ... this is sort of how I made them, hope it helps you make them too!

You'll need:

Some suitably coloured yarn (I used quite a thick ply carpet wool)
Scissors and crochet hook or large tapestry needle
A card roll - I used the inner of a silver foil roll, but loo rolls, kitchen towel roll would work just as well.
Mug of tea or coffee or something stronger.....

I cut the card roll into 2cm/1 inch lengths, then snipped a notch in one side to tag the yarn in to. Wrap the yarn round until the card is hidden and the centre almost filled (this is where the tapestry needle or crochet hook come in handy).

When I reached a nicely full mini-kin, I knotted the thread leaving one upward to form the stalk and the other I tucked in and out of sight. The stalk yarn I then trimmed a little shorter.

It was at this point I thought I would add a little bit of green yarn as foliage, tying it around the 'stalk' then knotting it to give a quirky texture - voila !

I might just have to make some more - I can feel a garland of mini-kins being added to the pumpkin patch!

Post script: Thursdays are my 'work at home day' - where I have to pretend to like housework.... the weather has not been that conducive to gardening so in the absence of my usual entertainment - I have crafted (but with a gardening theme!!)🎃🎃

One brief weekend

 It must be something about the melancholy of approaching autumn that makes me return to blogging.

I started my first blog in September 2009, which after a few years morphed into my second version mid November 2012 and now this one - my third. 

Why the changes?  Well, like changing the carpet or the car, it felt that it was time to move to 'pastures new'.

I suspect I am a landlocked mermaid - we spent a glorious long weekend up in Dumfries and Galloway and at every opportunity I stared at that liminal line between sea and sky.

Watching the last of the late summer swallows tumble in the evening sunlight was magical and heart breaking in equal measure, when they go, then so does the last of the summer's warmth. 

Plans are being made for a garden make over - I struggle with mine, I can advise and design a garden for anyone - except me. This autumn will be different and my garden will evolve into something new. I am actually excited at the prospect - something I can't say I have felt for my precious little piece of earth for a very long time. 

Here is to turning the earth and tuning in with the turning of the seasons.

PS why are weekends the fastest/shortest days of the week?