garden stuff

garden tidying

For the last few days I've been dodging the showers to be out tidying up in the garden because most of my harvest is over for this year. If I'm
lucky I'll get a few more handfuls of raspberries from our canes and
maybe 2 more pullings of carrots. Funnily the carrots have done really
well this year – just when I had decided that I'd not bother growing
them again they decide to prove that they are a worthwhile crop, so
they will be on my list of seeds to buy for next spring afterall.

 

Carrots

 

The beetroot is also still going well and is such a pretty crop. This year I gew a variety called Chioggia which has pink and white rings when you cut it. It doesn't stain your fingers as much as the full-bodied red kind but is just as sweet and earthy to eat.

 

Beetroot

 

It's time to tidy up the beds and fix the protective fronts and backs – back in spring I was lazy and didn't seal up the gaps and so the cabbage white butterflies have feasted on my cabbages and broccoli – that will learn me!

 

Lacey cabbage

I do love growing things in my garden and it's a bonus when you can eat them too. I've roasted the beetroot I picked earlier and will shortly be peeling them, tossing in some balsamic vinaigrette and eating them with some goat's cheese, salad and crusty bread for lunch.

 

Roast beetroot

Do you grow things to eat and if so what are your favourites?

 

crafts & knitting

1,193 different kinds of happy

Though actually when I was reading through those 1,193 (!!!) comments on the giveaway post it struck me that they weren't all so very different because there's a commonality in what people find happiness in: family (both the human and animal kind), time to yourself to spend as you like, making things and other small and simple pleasures. I've genuinely enjoyed reading all of those comments, smiled at so many of them and nodded in recognition lots of times. Thank you all so very much for taking the time to share your happinesses. I will go back and read through them whenever I need a little pick-me-up, they are a wonderful reminder that happiness can be found all around when you can take the time to notice it.

 

Sept 12

 1. saffron, 2. sunny, 3. delfine, 4. elspeth, 5. ellamae, 6. jemima, 7. danica, 8. rowley, 9. abner, 10. sylvie, 11. dorrie, 12. beatrice, 13. Alouette, 14. ethel, 15. Violette, 16. winsome, 17. fayette, 18. maelie, 19. aurelie, 20. christabel, 21. merry, 22. didi, 23. florissa, 24. clarise, 25. brodie

Win giveaway
Anyway, the draw has been done (I still can't believe how many comments
were left!) and the random number generator picked comment number
611, which was Ellie.

She gets to choose from the batch above which are all finished and their photos uploaded to flickr now (click on the name links to see any of them in detail).

 



Thanks again to everyone who took the time to comment, I truly appreciate your kind words about the things that I love to make. Thank you x

 

crafts & knitting · Giveaways

a give-away

Well, the animals are now fully armed (though not dangerous in the least little bit) and they have their tails and buttons attached in the appropriate places too.

 

Drawers

So to celebrate the start of my 7th year of blogging I'm going to give one of them away. To enter just leave a comment below. Any kind of comment will do but if you have time then I'd love to know what little things make you happy (as you probably already know, for me it's my knitting and a bit of peace and quiet). I'll draw a name at random next tuesday and then the rest will be up for sale (I'll email details to the mailing list and keep facebook up to date too).

I'm off now to start on some more animals. I'm feeling drawn to browns and reds and oranges at the moment – it must be the start of autumn which explains why I have a few hedgehogs on the go too. I've also been playing around with a few nordic ideas for my traditional christmas bunch, though I'm reluctant to start thinking too much about that time of year just yet. I also hope to catch up with emails and my blog reading. Things have been a little intense on the family front lately and I've fallen behind with a lot. Hopefully everything will be back to what we call normal soon.

Enjoy the rest of your week x