Colourful goodness

Just a quick pop in to say I'm not popping in much these days... 16 days to go, and counting...

But that's not very interesting, so I'm going to talk about a fab, marvellous blog that someone put me on to the other day - Attic 24 Such colourful, fabulous, crochet-y goodness! I can't stop looking at it ! (although I have to, writing to do and all that).

Anyway, all that colour has inspired me to colourfulness myself. Not to crochet, because there just isn't time for creating and messing around at the minute, as important as that is. But to colour.

I've been whipping my camera out at every opportunity over the last few days, and here's the colourful result.

Cakes at a tiny harvest festival:

Looking up out of the kitchen window:

Light on the grass in the park:

The gorgeous old green bucket Peter brought home last week, sitting on my gorgeous blue garden bench, and newly planted with garlic, rocket, and rainbow chard:

Acer leaves, cut, er, months ago when they were red, and slowly turning golden orange on the living room windowsill (I'm pretending they're still there because of the colour):

One of many piles of red books in the living room:

Red cushions in the sunshine on the floor of the living room (can you see a theme?):

A bowl of red cheeriness, also on the living room windowsill:

I enjoyed that! :)

Well, back to it..

Some pictures of autumn...

Autumn equinox

'For now, light and dark hang perilously poised, each balancing the other. After tomorrow, the shadows begin to cluster ever thicker about the dark scale, taking us with it down to the dark boreal night, the winter solstice. It is the dramatic behaviour of light and darkness that is perennially fascinating in the north.'

(George Mackay Brown, 'Under Brinkie's Brae')

According to my diary, today is the first day of autumn. It's always been my favourite season, when we used to play games as small children, I was always the autumn fairy :) There's a nip in the air, the sun's lower in the sky, the nights are drawing in. There's so much colour.

The garden's starting to die down a little, or at least there's not the riotous growth of a few weeks ago. The rocket on the windowsill is going strong (and needs repotting, I'll add that to the list). It'll have to stay inside over the winter I think - I timed it so badly, but the seeds I sowed outside didn't germinate, and I so much wanted to grow rocket, and then the hardware shop was selling seeds half price and I couldn't resist... So we might be eating indoor-windowsill-rocket for a few months yet.

We haven't exactly had a bounteous harvest from our tiny garden, I've been concentrating too much on writing to put as much time as I'd like into weeding and sowing and watering. But I picked a bit of perpetual spinach for tea, and some fennel and basil (which is inside) for flavour. And very nice it was too :)

No ideas for the wedding gift yet...

A walk, and a bit of a tidy up

A good clear out of the linen cupboard, and a hoover down the back of the bed... (might see if I can get a photo without the twisted bead curtain once it gets light tomorrow). The bed is a mezzanine floor, what used to be the floor of a room. I love it that the bed is all that's up there, looking out onto the skylight. Mind you, I did have to strike a rather dashing and dangerous pose to get this photo...

And a nice walk in the park round the corner...

Last week wasn't all bad, although I'm spending far too much time screen-staring, and not enough sewing... And this week there's going to be a lot of work. More writing, of course. And my boss at my part time job will be getting married next weekend! So I'm doing a fair few hours helping her out this week running about, picking things up, dropping things off...

I was thinking about trawling the charity shops for a new outfit for the wedding, but I'm just not sure I'll have time this week, so I might just have to do with what I've got. I reckon the polka dot skirt I made wouldn't be too bad, with some rather fab red velvet shoes. Might mean a teeny, tiny bit of sewing though, just a small draw string bag to hold a few things... :)

I haven't decided if they'll be getting a present yet. They've asked for money towards their honeymoon and holidays next year, but it does feel rather peculiar to be donating money to my own boss, so I don't think that will happen. And I'm doing well with my hand made presents pledge this year, so I don't really want to break it just for this. However, they've been living together for 12 years, so don't really need anything new. Maybe I'll think of a small thing to make, or perhaps just make a nice card. Any suggestions for something small, and fairly easy to make in this hectic week??

A little bit of gardening and sewing

Well, it's about time for a couple of garden pictures, I think. This was meant to be a gardening blog, after all! I spotted these tomatoes on the way back from (another!) run this morning... The plant's toppled over though, so I'll have to get out there and tie it up soon. 

The roses are putting forth a bit of last minute enthusiasm in the front garden...

And the cabbages are, well, soldiering on, despite being eaten mostly to death by some little beasties. We do occasionally get small leaves if we get out there quick enough... 

And as a little break from writing last night, a friend came over for some sewing and a nice chat. As it happened, it turned into crochet, cake, chocolate and strawberries. And very nice it was too :) 

Squeezing it in

Well, I'm bored of posting pictures of computers and laptops and piles of books and paper. That's what I look at all day every day (or that's what it feels like!), so I'm going with a few pictures of nice things for a while, and forgetting about the work, although obviously there's still a lot of that going on! 

So here's what I'm appreciating this week: 

Sunshine streaming into a (relatively tidy!) living room...

And, as ever, a gorgeous early morning walk over the hills... 

Sometimes I just can't believe how gorgeous this place is that we live in... 

Yesterday involved a good, old fashioned bit of spontaneity, which always rejuvenates me. Peter had his first gig with the Angel Brothers, who he's playing with for a few gigs this autumn. I couldn't go, it was in another town, Peter took the van, and left early afternoon, with me left at home working. 

At first, I was appreciating the solitude and peace and quiet :) I got a fair bit of work done, and planned an evening of more work, a bit of tidying up, and dozing off in front of a nice film. Then, as the afternoon wore on I started thinking about how nice it would have been to be there, and (and this does show just how mad I was going temporarily) whether it would be feasible to cycle there (the answer? It's 25 very hilly, dangerous miles over the moors, and it was on the verge of going dark, so no.)

Just as I was starting to get annoyed, a friend rang up to see if I wanted a pint. Somehow (must have been my lucky night) I managed to persuade him to drive us both to the gig! So a quick pasta tea, into some glad rags, and a drive over to a most marvellously excellent pub, The Globe for a fabulous evening of music and dancing and gorgeous friendly loveliness. 

The evening ended in the garden, with music and singing, and a very cold couple of hours kip in the back of the van. It's not all glamourous... 

Working and relaxing day 10

Working - the view over the library computer... 

And relaxing - with a new pair of shoes... ;) 

Working and relaxing days 8 and 9

working, the view from the attic... 

and relaxing, with a lunchtime walk over the fields... 

Working and relaxing day 4,5,6,7...

Well, so much for keeping up with this every day... but I have still taken a few photos, so here goes...

... working, in the university library...

... and in the attic...

... and relaxing... 

... watering the community garden (I'll write about this one day!)...

... dancing in fabulous shoes (have you ever tried taking a photo of your own foot??)...

... eating lunch outside the university... 

... and being Rock Star Girlfriend at a beautiful little theatre... 

Not much in the way of gardening, and certainly not sewing, but the idea of these few weeks was to focus on work and relaxing. I know sewing and gardening is relaxing, but I'm really focusing on taking away the 'must do' things... 

Working and relaxing day 3

... working... 

... and relaxing... 

Working and relaxing day 2

... working... 

... relaxing... 

Working and relaxing day 1

... working...

... and relaxing...

The end is nigh...

Most of my time is spent writing these days. I should consider myself lucky! I do consider myself lucky. Although it does feel a bit much at the minute. I've got three weeks of PhD left. Three weeks. After five years (or four, or six, depending on what you count), three weeks seems like nothing. 

And so I'm abandoning pretty much everything else to get it done. I'm trying not to think about the sunshine I'm missing while I'm staring at the computer screen... but this is all temporary... 

And I have managed to sneak a little bit of fun in the last week:

... picking blackberries

... and making a few pies

... harvesting the broad beans (yep, this is the entire broad bean harvest from our garden)

Anyway, I thought a little mini blog project might help me keep sane over the next three weeks. I've taken (stolen?? call it a tribute...) the idea from Heather's morning and night series, but since what I need to be doing at the minute is working and relaxing, that's what I'll call it. 

Each day (or as close as I can manage), I"ll post a working picture and a relaxing picture. Just to keep me on track, and make sure that I'm doing both :) So here we go:

... working - in the university library

... relaxing, with garlicky goodies from a friend for watering her plants - including this cucumber

So, let's see how it goes, shall we?