Season’s Greetings

Coming to the end of my first year 'back in the loop', so to speak, my Christmas projects are nearly complete and ready for wrapping.  It's a great feeling, having produced gifts that are appropriate, useful, fun!  And they've kept my hands busy during the past few months, reducing my nibble intake - chocolate and cotton don't mix... These cloths have proved a diversion, a way to relax while still doing something, and a great excuse for searching the net for ideas, patterns and expertise.  I've learned a good few things on the way:…Read more …

A Nose between Two Thorns

Ahh, deadheading roses, cutting back Japanese anemones, typing up heavy-headed hydrangeas, all in the dappled sun of a late October afternoon. That’s my type of gardening.  For my DH, gardening is decimating hedges, hacking off overhanging branches, then, knee-deep in the wreckage, shredding every last frond and branch, and covering freshly-weeded flowerbeds with the resulting fallout. This is hardcore to my genteel dabbling, Wickes’ builders grippa  gloves to my floral Cath Kidstons. DH’s gardening usually turns into a two-man job, and sometimes I’m in the mood. Swapping my CK’s for some Wickes’ specials,…Read more …

Les Vendanges

Each year we watch our grapes grow from hard little green pellets to plump translucent beads of juicy flesh, but...just before we get round to picking them, boof, they've gone.  Whether eaten by birds, destroyed by extreme weather or pinched by the neighbours, we've never experienced a good 'vendanges'.  One year we did pick a couple of trays of grapes, juiced them and enjoyed a couple of bottles of 'jus de la vigne', but after a couple of barren years, we didn't have high expectations. However, a late-September visit to France, combined with…Read more …

A Theme for the Day

The day in question being my mum's birthday.  She'd watched me produce cloth after cloth, and so a gift for her birthday had to be a personalised bundle of her own - one traditional style (plain white with coloured edging), a handbag pattern (my mum loves bags) and a cookie jar (she makes a mean bread pudding).  Given with the hilarious novel 'What Would Mary Berry Do?' (by Claire Sandy), they made the perfect present.    Read more …

A French Connection

The French drink coffee and the English drink tea - we all know that - and some French friends of ours (neither of whom drink coffee ) love our obsession with tea, so what to give them as a gift was a no-brainer...Read more …

Cycling Dos and Don’ts

DO take your map – the confidence in your route after a quick glance at the map will be dashed within minutes when facing an unexpected crossroads at the bottom of a steep hill. DON’T leave your bicycle pump on your rack – you will not notice it when it falls off at the top of that steep hill... DITTO your gloves... DO take as many photos as you like, of the scenery, of those interesting signs, flowers, rocks, watering cans, roofs, and from every possible angle, close up, from a distance... DON’T…Read more …

Who Dares Knits

So knitting is a granny sport, is it?  On jury service recently I took in my ongoing project - flowers for a Mothers' Day card – to make use of the time between sessions , and felt pretty daft when my scissors were confiscated after they showed up on the security X-ray.  Doh. But who needs scissors? I knitted on with my (bone) 5.5mm knitting sticks and foolishly queried at lunchtime why my needles were OK if my scissors weren’t?  They, too, were seized.  At the end of the day, and after some…Read more …

Book Gaffe Resolved by Plant Purchase

Local charity - The Fircroft Trust - held their annual Spring Fair on Saturday 10th May.  After heading for the plant stall, I was diverted by some very interesting books, particularly a well-thumbed paperback by Honoré de Balzac, Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and a couple of thrillers I fancied.  A bargain at 75p each, I tried to pay, soon to realise that the book stall was in the next room - these were from the centre's bookshelves... A straightforward transaction at the plant stall - home-grown tomato and cucumber plants and some container plants,…Read more …

Falling with Style

The weekend had been warm and sunny, and with the promise of spring came the feeling that anything was possible, even cycling up the 1<5 hill home from work. So. On my first trip of the season I was pleased I managed to ride even just half way up the hill.  After walking the rest I remounted – but  my legs were a blur as I pedalled nowhere, thanks to my chain coming off.   With a road clear of traffic, I coolly put down one leg, but lost my balance.  I was relieved…Read more …

Bittersweet

What do you give the man who has everything?  Top of his birthday list is always 'lemon meringue pie' and, along with several other of his female friends, I've usually obliged.  Over the years, irregular get togethers meant  inventive application, and Royal Mail has served us well with an LMP DIY kit, a box of meringues, a lemon (in a jiffy bag, of course), and a ransom note.  But with my renewed 'zest' for knitting, I hope I 'pipped' the rest to the post with this year's offering.Read more …
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