in the garden

butterfly on the spearmint

the entire garlic harvest

sweet peas! finally!

I've not been out in the garden much lately, but it does all seem to be carrying on rather well without me. We're eating rocket every day, and we could be eating courgettes every day if we wanted to as well. It's looking like we might get some broad beans, there's a couple of tomatoes growing, and there's plenty of chard to go round all and sundry.

I really will have to be a bit more organised next year though. I planted quite a lot of garlic, but it all seems to have, erm, got lost under the geraniums, and one bulb was all I could find. The sweet peas have rewarded my haphazard style of gardening though - I planted them out months ago, mourned a tiny bit when they didn't grow, and then gave them up for dead, only to have them sneak up on me and start blooming this weekend. I do like surprises like that!

So this week in the garden I've got a basil to nurse back to health (which I seem to have inadvertently made *worse* - it was perfectly healthy when it arrived...), and a redcurrant to plant somewhere in the garden, which suddenly seems to be rather full. I'm also plotting a 'feature' outside the kitchen window, which needs to stay quite clear and low to the ground to keep the neighbourhood cats away from the bird table. I've had an inspiration, but as so often my mind is far more capable than my hands, I might keep my mouth shut about this one til I've tried it...

a little stroll

a little gem of a sandwich shop

'the quiet place'

round the edge of the lake

I was all a bit hot and bothered at work yesterday, so I took myself off for a little stroll around and about, because it's always good to know the outside bits of where you work as well as the inside...

And to my delight, I discovered a most excellent little sandwich shop, selling all kinds of goodies, groaning shelves set into old brick walls, organic fruit and veg, and lots of yummy sandwiches and hand made cakes, just up the road from the office. This might just test my resolve of making lunch to take with me...

This week I'm mostly concentrating on finishing off a PhD chapter, so there isn't much time for cheery making and baking and gardening and things. I did manage to put up a little honeysuckle fence in the garden though, and tonight I'm making some blackcurrant jam. Tomorrow night I'm due to do some gardening for a woman in our local LETS scheme, but if it carries on raining like this I suspect she'll call it off.

In amongst all the writing and computer-screen-staring though, I'm trying to plot a few cheery things for when this chapter ends. On Thursday we're off for a departmental day out at work, which I'm very much looking forward to. My mum and auntie are visiting at the weekend (oops, best fix the hoover and do a bit of tidying then!). I might even sweep the garden, you never know!

Hmm, and a little knitting needle investigating is in order too, or else I'm never going to have a finished cardigan to show you. So many things to do!

weekending

strawberry tea at the Women's Institute cafe

a garden bouquet

a tiny sunny garden

This weekend's been mostly filled with PhD work , but I did manage to squeeze in some cheery little moments. Strawberry tea at the Women's Institute (which never gets missed out, no matter how busy I am), and a friend's birthday tea in a cheerily sunny little garden. How lovely, and what a nice break from the computer screen!

eating from the garden

Well, I have to say, the garden's carrying on pretty well without me these days. Yes, it could do with some weeding, and a bit of tidying up, and yes, the cabbages on the windowsill could probably do with planting in the ground, but other than that, it's all going to plan.

Not that we've been able to give up food shopping or anything! I'm sure our garden could be far more productive given the time and energy on my part - which I just don't have right now. So for the time being, it's just ticking along nicely, and every so often we get a cheery little surprise for dinner.

These peppers have been growing on the living room windowsill. I bought the plant for 50p a couple of years ago, and last year got one small pepper. Then it looked like it had died, but I carried on watering it, because you just never know. This year we've had three peppers! It doesn't look like there'll be any more, and again, the plant looks like it's on its last legs, but I'll keep watering it, and who knows what will happen next year!

Anyway, we ate these all in one go, with some tasty cheese, and home grown rocket, all rolled up in, er, pancakes, which must be on the list of most-often-eaten food in this house.

I'll pop out into the garden later today to investigate what other edible treats are in the making... Hope you're getting something tasty from the garden too!

phew!

redcurrant pancakes

by the lake at work

a Peak District paddling pool

in the park at sunset

I just can't seem to keep up with myself at the minute! I'm doing lots of chasing my tail and not getting anywhere fast. But here we are at the end of another week, not unusually busy, but I don't seem to have managed much cheery crafting or gardening either, I'll have to see what I can do about that!

What I did manage was redcurrants from the Women's Institute. An unusual departure for me - I generally just buy cakes there... But I can't resist redcurrants, they look just like jewels. I've still not grown any myself, and you very rarely see them for sale... and these were home grown, just around the corner... (have I justified it enough yet??). Anyway, they were only £1, and I've had them with cereal, yogurt, on pancakes, and there's plenty left. We picked up some tasty broad beans there too.

Something else I've been up to this week is walking. Usually mid evening, we decide we've not been out of the house enough, or we've worked too hard, or not hard enough, and quite fancy a stroll. And we often walk the same way - up the hill, past the allotments, down the footpath, over the fields, through the park, back along the high street. It's a route I often do - I posted a few pictures of it last year. We're often there as the sun's setting over the hills, and it's a lovely way to round off the day.

I've also been trying to get out of the office at lunch time on the two days I work at my new job. The buildings where I work aren't much to look at, but some of the space around the lake is ever so pretty, and there's always a duck willing to share lunch.

Other than walking and eating (!), this week, and weekend, has mostly involved working, and PhDing (yep, it's still there!), and van buying and selling. Urgh. I don't think there's much chance of me becoming a second hand car dealer any time soon! I'm thoroughly fed up of ebay, mpg figures, decisions, and everything else that goes with it! Our van should be sold by tomorrow night, sadly! But there's no deadline on getting a new one, so this could go on for a while...

Here's hoping for another cheery, sunshiney, productively idle week :)

boudoir bunting

What fun!

eating from the garden

the first proper strawberry harvest

and there's still some left!

lettuce, mint, and rocket

Things have been getting rather exciting in the garden round here lately. All the lettuce planted in the ground was eaten by slugs, of course, but the ones I sensibly planted in pots are pretty much ready to harvest, and in fact I did just that at the weekend. The mint, as predicted, is overtaking everywhere, and I'm trying to overcome my general dislike of anything minty to invent a variety of things to do with it (not that I invented the idea of having mint with new potatoes, mind you!).

And the strawberries! Last year I only got a couple of measly, half munched ones, but this year, they've blossomed and taken over half of the front garden. I picked a good handful on Sunday, and there's plenty still ripening. I don't think we'll have enough for jam, but we'll certainly have enough for a bowlful to share at the weekend. And I'm starting to think I wouldn't mind if they *did* take over the entire garden - they've been so easy to grow, even for me, and just *so* tasty, that maybe I'd be happy if that was all I ever grew....

There are a few courgettes ripening, the rocket's starting to take off, and the broad beans are showing some signs of enthusiasm (although admittedly not many). I don't think we'll be harvesting rhubarb this year, tempting though it is, I think it needs to settle (although maybe just one or two sticks...). The peas have succumbed to the slugs, more's the pity. But the rainbow chard is doing well, I've got far too many cabbages for the space available, the sage is nearly as big as me, and there are aphids taking over my orange blossom that will just *have* to be dealt with before they start infesting the things I actually want to eat.

All in all, the garden's a little bit of a handful at the minute!

But I'm pretty adept at ignoring its protestations, of course.

(and as an aside, in case you were wondering, the knitting is continuing, it came away with me at the weekend, and travels backwards and forwards on the train each day I go to work. A few more inches to go on the body, then we start grappling with double pointed needles to make the sleeves...)

a nice rest

Well, this is what we spent most of Friday doing - feet in the water, idly staring up and down the river, and occasionally watching a duck or two. This week seems to have flown past without much to report, although a couple of things have made it as far as the computer but not quite as far as the blog yet... Will endeavour to catch up with myself this week though!

It's all van talk around here at the minute, our poor little post van is on her way out, and we won't be driving her any more after the middle of July. I've been taking more interest in vans than I ever thought possible, let alone healthy. I've still not quite reconciled myself to how a van fits in with a pretty simple and frugal lifestyle. We do live in a major city after all. Quite a large proportion of my income is spent keeping her running, and you could probably argue that we could get away without a vehicle at all. However, we will be replacing her, albeit with a smaller, cheaper, more efficient van, with much lower fuel consumption, that takes up less space, is more reliable, has much less character, and is probably far less fun.

It's pretty fair to surmise that I'm rather sad about losing our van... but I didn't mean to waffle on about that today! I'll do a proper post later in the week when we might know more about the replacement.

skirts and scones

the newest skirt, made from an old sheet

a, erm, slightly half-eaten scone

a little bit of painting

Well, I've not been up to much this week other than working and commuting (and knitting) and phd-ing. But I did manage to squeeze in a cup of tea in a friend's garden yesterday, and a scone (or two) this afternoon. Oh, and a new skirt! Gosh, I'm enjoying making skirts at the minute, although at some point I'll have to branch out into a different style - the last three have been pretty much exactly the same but in different colours...

This one is a bit longer, and a little bit more swirly though, so maybe that counts as different?

Or maybe not.

I've also tried my hand at a bit of painting this week. This is part of the ongoing challenge to make all my presents. I've often made greetings cards in the past, but only recently started painting them.

Now, I have no talent for painting whatsoever, but I do like it. I also don't have any kind of special paint, but I rather enjoy the simplicity of a children's paint box with all the colours laid out for me. So I've been painting away, blobbing colours here and there in a very happy, sloshy kind of way - and then put my cards in the post without taking pictures of them! So this photo of the paper I was trying the colours out on will have to do, and you'll have to take my word for it that the finished cards were a little bit more artistic...

Right, off to put on my new swirly skirt for an evening of songs and dancing, followed by a weekend of festivals and birthdays. What are you up to this weekend?

LETS

Yesterday I spent a fair bit of the day at a small festival, promoting our local LETS (Local Exchange and Trading System) scheme. I do love the idea of LETS, although I must confess to not taking advantage of it as much as I should do.

If you're new to the idea, it basically works like this. Each local group has a name for its local currency. Ours is called 'stones', and I think the general idea is that a stone is roughly the equivalent of £1. Other groups have far more festive names for their currency. So, I come and do some work in your garden for an hour, you write a 'cheque' from your account to mine for, say, 6 stones. I can then spend those 6 stones on goods or services from you, or someone else. So I might pay someone to walk my dog, or give me a massage, for example.

The point is that, like money, the bartering doesn't have to be directly between two people - I don't have to exchange my eggs for your knitted jumper, for example. However, unlike with money, the stones stay in the local economy, and people offer all kinds of things they might not ordinarily be able to charge real money for. There's a fair bit of debate within the system overall around how much people should charge for their services - there's some schemes where everyone charges a fixed rate for their time, say 5 stones an hour. Our scheme doesn't do that, and people price their time according to what they believe their skills are worth, like with real money. This means people who have spent more time building up specific skills, teaching music, for example, generally charge a higher stones rate than those offering general help in the garden. Obviously, it also means that, like in life in general, those without specific skills earn less for their time. The debate goes on.

At the minute, members in our scheme offer everything from plant care to ironing, art tuition to flower essence consultations, event management to hair cutting. The diversity of people in the scheme is impressive.

Some people make far better use of the scheme than I do. I tend to be pretty self reliant, and so struggle with the idea of getting someone in to help me decorate, for example, or do the garden. However, I'm on a bit of a mission to do more trading in the coming months, and, leafing through the directory of offers, I'm edging towards a regular spot of massage, which is something I would never pay for in real life.

Actually, I just noticed that a woman I met recently from the guild of spinners and weavers is offering tuition in spindle spinning... Might be time to give her a call?

knitting

Saturday morning at the Women's Institute cafe

knitting in the garden

I'm going through a bit of a knitting phase at the moment. It started when a friend gave me £30 of vouchers for this lovely wool shop for my 30th birthday. I decided I'd like a new cardigan, then spent ages in there trying to choose wool, then even more ages trying to find a pattern to knit, and then lots of trips to the shop being told I needed to know things like tension, and needle size, and length of wool needed, not just the number of balls.

Hmm - seems I've got a bit to learn then.

Anyway, I finally settled on a pattern for my cardigan - tea leaves - after seeing it here. Pretty straightforward, I thought - and then realised it's knit on circular needles. Aha, another thing to learn.

Being impatient, and not given to following instructions, I started it on straight needles. I even managed to knit a few rows of 360 stitches (!) on straight needles (although I was too scared to put it down in case all the stitches fell off, so had to sit for 2 hours to knit those rows - hmm).

Finally, an old friend who will be taking me to my new knitting club took pity on me, and very kindly gave me two sets of circular needles. So now I'm all set, and things are progressing nicely.

The wool is Stylecraft pure luxury merino in 'kingfisher' (which this photo doesn't do justice to), and it's ever so lovely to knit with. I've never bought new yarn before, so it really is a luxury!

Anyway, this cardigan and the consequent flurry of knitting, combined with the discovery that you can order and reserve things online at my local library, has sparked a general knitting enthusiasm, and each Saturday I treat myself to a new knitting book from the library. Last week it was Love to Knit by Bronwyn Lowenthal, which has some, erm, slightly quirky items of clothing in, and a rather fetching laced up corset cushion. This week is Greetings from Knit Cafe by Suzan Mischer, which I am already very taken with - particularly the stripey knitted bikini you can see in the top photo (and which I will not be wearing!). Next week's selection will depend on whether what I've ordered turns up - I'll keep you posted.

So, while I actually didn't manage to get to knitting club on my first day at my new job this week, I am managing to turn the 2 hours on the train each day into exclusive knitting time. And next week I'll be spending 10 hours on trains! I reckon this cardi will be ready by July at the rate I'm going...

What are you knitting at the minute? I'd love to see!

polka dot cakes

Just how much am I smiling at these little polka dot cakes?

Oh, so very much.

a mini adventure

Today I had my first meeting at my new job. I start properly next Tuesday, so this was just to meet the other people, arrange my working days, and get a few forms signed.

the picnic area outside my new office - I'm looking forward to eating lunch here

I had a lovely morning. The other research I'll be sharing an office with is great, very cheery and chatty, and we got on well. What a relief! The whole department stops for tea and biscuits at 11.15 every day - a sign of a civilised workplace in my opinion ;) And next week, they've arranged to have cakes in honour of my arrival!

And I'll be able to go to the knitting club on Tuesday lunchtimes. Yes, that's right, my new job has a knitting club.

I am going to have to get used to getting up pretty early though, as I'll have to leave the house before 7, which I am just not used to doing. But it is beautiful at that time in the morning, so I'm going to try to be positive about it, and daydream myself awake on the train.

cycling is rather more popular than in Sheffield!

It's at times like these when I'm ever so grateful for my folding bike. It's the green one at the front of that photo above, the one that looks like its wheel is all bent. It's a Brompton, and I've had it for about ten years I think. It was expensive, and I seem to remember saving, and asking for money for Christmas to put towards it. I'm glad I did. Brompton are a really interesting company, and their website is well worth a bit of a wander round.

Apparently, 'the Brompton owner is free and independent - she chooses where to go and when and how.' Well, that's me alright (!), and this morning, I 'chose' to go to work :) Which now involves cycling to the station, folding up my bike, jumping on the train (without booking 3 days in advance or arguing with train staff), jumping off 45 minutes later, folding my bike up (it takes 9 seconds, I timed it), and cycling 3 miles to my new office. Not a bad commute. I reckon folding bikes should be issued as standard to everyone.

Anyway, enough raving about my lovely bike, and my fab new job. I'm also quite excited about getting to know a new city, even more so when I spotted this family of geese pottering about in this little area of greenery in the city centre.

Geese? Trains? Folding bikes? Knitting? Tea and biscuits and cake? I think I'm going to enjoy this new job!

simple living at the weekend

our ingenious Mary Poppins style shade

We've been outside a lot this week, the weather's been gorgeous, and it's a shame not to take advantage when it could quite easily be cold and rainy tomorrow. This is my friend's garden, which I love - it's tiny, much smaller than ours, but it's so lush and welcoming, mirrors and old brick walls peeping out from behind the plants, all cosy and inviting. Can you see the shading system we rigged up today? This photo's been making me laugh all afternoon.

tea on the lawn

Saturday morning was our regular trip to the Women's Institute country market. This is a small market and cafe that runs in a scout hut for 3 hours each Saturday morning, filled with local and home made produce, cakes, jams, home grown plants, and all kinds of crafts, and it's just round the corner from our house. We're there most weeks, meeting friends and enjoying a small home made something.

Saturday morning at the country market

This Saturday's visit brought with it the prospect of a new adventure. You see, there was a notice up saying they're looking for new producers. And I kind of got chatting to the woman who was selling the cakes...

Now, before I go getting all overexcited, I should make it clear that I have absolutely no idea whether I'm capable of making anything that anyone else would want to buy. Heck, I don't even know whether I'm capable of making anything that would pass being inspected for quality by those women - they're seriously good.

(I should also point out that, much as I love baking, and much as I love eating what I bake, there tends to be a devil-may-care attitude towards both recipes and cleanliness in my kitchen that I wouldn't want inspected by anyone obsessed with hygiene, so I wouldn't be making cakes or anything food related...)

But I must confess to being just a teensy bit excited at the prospect, however unlikely, that I might be able to sell something I've made there.

What got me asking questions this morning though was thinking about diversity and resilience. I'm a great believer in diversity, in gardening as well as in life. Diversity in the garden means resilience to disease, and I reckon diversity in skills and work means resilience to the vagaries of the economy and job market.

I'm a great believer in the virtues of a patchwork lifestyle, and I've been practicing at mine for several years now. For the past three years, for example, I've been working on my PhD full time, working two days a week as a personal assistant to a disabled woman, working a few hours a week taking notes in lectures for students with hearing impairments, teaching undergraduates, and working on voluntary projects for our local Transitions group and the Permaculture Association. And that's on top of growing food in the garden, improving my sewing, making presents, and having a go at making my own clothes.

Not all of these things bring me an income, but they all bring experience and add skills, and they weave together like a patchwork quilt to make my life as full and as interesting as it is. And the value of doing lots of different things, a vital one of which is budgeting and spending less, is resilience.

I'm starting my new job next week, and even though it's only two days a week, it's rather different to anything I've done before, and I think it's going to take up a fair bit of my mental energy for a while. And, of course, there's still that pesky PhD to be getting on with, so I'm not going to be taking up my knitting needles to fill the stalls any time soon.

But I don't think it does any harm to be on the look out for new ways of doing things sometimes, being open to suggestion, and thinking about taking risks. It might well be that you can figure out how a skill you have might be a way of earning a little part of your income, even if it's only enough to pay for tea and cakes on a Saturday morning...

housekeeping

Do bear with me, I'm changing things around in here a little, I fancied a bit of a s--t--r--e--t--c--h.

And, as usual, my imagination is way ahead of my technical skills.

So I think we'll have to live with a little imperfection for the time being, it's just too sunny to be messing around on the internet today!

early evening pottering

courgette, twisted willow and lady's mantle waiting to be planted

the first pea pod!

remains of a robin's egg shell found under the hedge

lettuce, miraculously untouched by snails

buttercups under the bird table

There's been a full scale, three storey song writing session in our house today. Guitars, keyboards, wires, headphones, paper and pens have been scattered over the kitchen, the bedroom, and the attic as Peter and two friends attempted a marathon creative effort.

I took refuge in the office for most of the day, of course, and then at tea time, I took refuge in the garden.

I thought I wouldn't be out there long, as they were nearly finished, and I didn't think there was much to do. But as one hour stretched to two, and I still couldn't wend my way through the instruments to the kitchen table, I found there's an awful lot that can be done in the garden on a sunny May evening.

I planted out a couple of courgette plants, a small twisted willow, and some lady's mantle that I'd bought from the wildlife garden open day last weekend - not realising that lady's mantle is what's already growing all over the garden path. Hmm, a bit of brushing up on my identification skills is needed I think!

I watered the sweet peas, and the lettuces I planted out last week, which are (so far) still intact, and even growing. I found the first pea pod, and it was so difficult not to pluck it right off the plant and eat it. I cut some lilac flowers, and some flowers from the brussel sprout plant that's gone to seed, but that looks so spectacular I can't bear to cut it down.

I carefully and a little sadly moved the dead baby blackbird that had fallen from its nest onto the top of the compost bin, being both thankful and excited that we have a nest in our garden, even if all the birds didn't survive.

I did a fair bit of clearing of the grasses and unidentifiable things that are growing under the bird table. Not all of them, mind you, as I do like a bit of haphazard overabundance in a garden, so a bit of everything got left to grow.

And I listened. To Stephen Fry's reading of Harry Potter in one ear, to the sounds of two different songs being created and drifting from two different windows in the house, and to the blackbird singing on top of the telegraph pole.

Not a bad evening's work I reckon!

weekending

Another full weekend, involving lots of doing and a fair amount of being.

:: I made a new skirt, because an adventurous weekend is always better with a new skirt

:: and then me and my new skirt went off to a wildlife garden open day at a local school

:: then we packed ourselves into the van (along with the new skirt, of course), and headed up to the Lake District to watch a friend run her first marathon. We also met up with some other friends, all known through the internet, and some met in real life for the first time! I managed to take almost no scenery photographs at all, just some of ducks...

... a rather large and very tasty bath bun (spot the new skirt!)...

... and our feet (yep, there's the skirt again!)

There was also the small matter of a 22 mile bike ride to Doncaster, and watching two marvellous live musical performances at a lovely community arts venue.

And today? Today is the first day I should have been at my old job, but I'm not, if you see what I mean :) So I'm very much enjoying it.

And doing lots of PhD work, of course.