Christmas 6

 

Good morning everyone. Well, that last 24 hours went quickly! 

Today, the much-loved robin is taking centre stage.

The robin is one of our native British birds and is often seen in gardens, especially if a gardener has been working and turning over soil to reveal tasty worms and other bug treats. They are friendly little birds but are fiercely territorial regarding their nesting and feeding sites.

According to the Woodland Trust, robins appear so often on Christmas cards due to postmen in the Victorian period who wore red jackets and, therefore, had the nickname 'robins'. 

Truth or legend, it is a nice thought. 

Here is my little robin, again based on another of Jean Greenhowe's patterns.

I used different yarn from my stash, which makes him look like a rather well-fed little bird, but he makes me smile. 

Happy Wednesday to you all.

See you tomorrow x

Still Working on Autumn

Hello, and thank you for your visit here.

Although the festive season is rapidly approaching, I am trying hard not to be pulled into the activities before December begins. Some people are much more organised than I am, but it will likely be Dec 1st when I get started. I have a few things that I can show and share with you then. In the meantime, I still feel the beauty of Autumn days and added this sweet hedgehog to my little display. It is a lovely pattern that I finished in a few days.

On Friday, it was a beautiful, dry, and sunny morning, and I was eager to get outside in the garden. There is always plenty to do out there, and I spent a very pleasant hour or two in the front garden, weeding, pruning, and generally tidying up. By lunchtime, my back was beginning to complain, so reluctantly, I called it a day. Unfortunately, I can't always do as much in one go as I used to, but that's life. 

The soil was very wet after some heavy rainfall, so I cut back some undergrowth to reveal bare ground, which will help dry the soil out. There is still plenty more to do in the garden, but that can wait for another day. 

While I was outside, I noticed that there were still some lovely colours in the front garden. The Mahonia has been an absolute delight for many years and seems to shrug off the extremes of all weathers and the major pruning it gets fairly regularly from me. When it becomes too tall and ungainly, it gets cut to about 18"/45cm, and within a few weeks, it grows strongly again. This morning, I also spotted the bees enjoying the blooms and nectar. 

On the other side of the garden this pretty Hebe has been flowering with pretty lilac blooms. It too has been treated to the same pruning treatment as the Mahonia in the past. It is planted in a raised bed so the drainage is pretty good there. 

Another favourite plant at this time of year is the Callicarpa bodinieri (Beauty Bush). It is still a young plant but has survived this year's weather well. It has a long season of interest, with pretty tiny pink flowers and bronze purple young leaves in Summer and these wonderful purple berries in Autumn, which last well into Winter.

Incredibly, these plants are still flowering and fruiting their hearts out in mid-November, but I am thrilled that they are doing so.

As I look ahead to the coming week, the weather forecast is mostly dry days, which means I can get outside for a while. I also have some crafting to work on when daylight starts to fade. 

Whatever your plans are this week, enjoy x 

Finishing A Few Small Jobs

Hello and welcome back to our small corner.

What is the definition of a small project, and how long before it becomes a long-haul project? 

Is it a large project or one that you have had to work on for far too long?

Such are the daft questions I had floating around my head this week.

D is a novice knitter and she finished this Autumn scarf earlier in the year. It is lovely with a thread of twinkle running through it but we both thought something was still missing. 

I said I would make a few flowers and leaves to finish it off, and then... it just stayed in a bag for several months. 

So...

This week, I have been on a 'finishing-off projects' mission. I crocheted three Autumn coloured flowers and a couple of leaves, and now the scarf looks like this. D and I are both delighted with the results.

Repairs to D's favourite slippers were next on my 'to-finish' list. The slippers have a pair of furry bobbles that had fallen off some months ago, and now, after putting off the task for far too long, D is modelling her favourite footwear.

This cross-stitch is another little project that I completed this week: all it needed was to have a backing on the reverse.

Finally, I revamped the fastening on this cushion to deal with my procrastination on specific projects. I was never entirely happy with how the cushion turned out, but I placed it on the 'I will deal with it later' pile.

That was 12 months ago, and I have been staring at it literally and metaphorically across the lounge.

And here it is after I added a few buttons. It was an easy thing to do, but it has made such a difference!!

As you can see, it has been quite a productive week and I am very pleased with everything I have been able to accomplish. Whatever your plans are for this week, I hope you have a good one.

B x

Greenhouse, Rhubarb and a Pumpkin

Hello, and thank you for joining me again this week. 

Over the Summer, there was one significant change to our back garden. My old greenhouse was a lovely place to grow and nurture seedlings and other plants for over thirty years, but we decided to replace it with a new and more suitable model. Although I felt sad when we dismantled the old greenhouse, my sadness was short-lived. We put an advert on a local free-to-collect website, and within an hour, someone wanted to give the old greenhouse a new home, which made me very happy. 

My Old Greenhouse

And so, may I now present our new greenhouse.

My New Greenhouse

My new greenhouse is something that I can enjoy all year round. It is larger than the old one and has some fitted shelves that are just the right height for me to use comfortably. The sliding double doors make manoeuvring a wheelbarrow of compost easier, and the larger opening roof vents allow better air circulation.

The building is big enough to put in a chair and a table, so I can potter even when it is raining and cold outside and enjoy a nice warm cup of coffee and a biscuit. Wonderful!

My hubby and son put the structure together and made it all work, so a huge thank you to both of them! :-)

While there is not much growing in there yet, I have some lettuce and a few herbs that have germinated in the last week. It will be good to get plenty of use in the greenhouse over the Winter.

Now, I know that all the gardening books and many gardeners say we should stop picking rhubarb at the end of the summer, but I have been doing a little rule-breaking this week. I left this rhubarb bed for weeks, and the leaves and crop of stems have just grown. As the branches had not deteriorated, I picked a few of the largest to freeze and a few more to stew for a pudding. There are still lots of stems and leaves that will now die down and feed the plants for next year. It just seemed a shame to waste such a large and good crop.

The stems I used for that pudding were delicious, so I am glad I broke the traditional rules.

Continuing with an Autumn garden theme, I found a lovely free pattern on Ravelry for a knitted pumpkin. It only took a weekend to make, and it would be easy to make a smaller or larger version using different yarn weights and needle sizes. I loved the vine and leaves, which reminds me of a Cinderella pumpkin.

I intend to make more of these and some other Autumn-themed decorations to build up a display to enjoy each year.

As it looks like a warm and dry week ahead, I shall spend more time outside and wish you all a good week wherever you are.

B x