Attic24

On the Menu :: Butternut squash risotto

Hello! Monday again, is it just me or are these weeks flying by super-duperley fast? Can't believe it's been almost a fortnight since I posted the making of my frittata  :: wow, you certainly liked that recipe! I had some wonderful emails and comments following that post and I know a few of you tried it out with success. Love that you did that.

So by popular demand, I have set the table and would love you to come into the kitchen with me while  I cook Butternut Squash Risotto for you. Its another great Attic24 family favourite, we have a risotto of some sort or another most weeks. I love that risottos have very limited ingredients (which I usually have in), are easy to make and taste utterly delicious. Its very hard to balls up with a risotto, so long as you season well and try not to under cook or over cook the rice.

Butternut squash is such a  wonderful vegetable, slightly odd looking it has to be said, but oh so flavoursome. I love the colour of it, that surprising shade of orangey yellow inside the pale skin.

Cut the squash in half length ways and scoop out the seeds. Then cut it in half again (across the middle) so that you end up with four chunky pieces. Pare the skin away with a sharp knife and chop the flesh into 2cm dice.

The risotto rice I use is pearly white arborio rice. For our family of four (and the Little People do eat a surprising amount) I use 250g rice which is half a packet.

The only other ingredients are olive oil, a  generous knob of butter, one onion, one clove of garlic, one litre of good stock and some fresh parmesan cheese. And thats it.

Put the chunks of squash onto a baking sheet and drizzle with a good slug (about 2tbs) olive oil and season well with salt and pepper. Toss it all about with your hands so that the squash is nicely coated  with oil. Bake in the top of a hot oven (220C / 425F / Gas 7) for 20-25 mins or so. The squash should be lovely and soft and lightly browned, check on it and toss it around from time to time to make sure it doesn't burn.

While the squash is baking, begin the risotto in a large heavy-based saucepan. Heat 1tbs oil and a large knob of butter , then saute a chopped onion with a crushed garlic clove for about 5 minutes (onion should be golden but not browned).

Add the rice and stir well so the grains get coated in the oil/butter.

Make up 1 litre of stock in a jug with boiling water :: I use a good liquid stock called Touch of Taste by Knorr, it comes in a  bottle and is far superior to the crumbly sort of salty dry stock cubes.  Although this is a vegetarian meal, I usually use chicken stock as I always have this in the fridge, and in my opinion it has a better flavour  than the veggie stock.

You need to add the stock in a bit at a time so that the rice is covered, simmering on a medium heat. I don't tend to stand and stir mine all the time, but you do need to keep an eye on it, topping up with more stock as it gets absorbed. I find for 1 litre of stock, it should take about 25mins or so. The rice wants to end up soft but not mushy, with a very slight bite to it.
When all the stock has gone in and you think it's almost done, add the roasted squash to the pan and cook for about 5 mins more to heat through. Then lastly stir in a generous handful of grated parmesan cheese and season with salt and pepper (careful with the salt cos of the saltiness from the stock).

Serve straight away piled in a delicious dollop with a few parmesan shavings on top and perhaps a green salad or green veg on the side. Tuck in while it's still piping hot, I hope you're gonna love it.

Sunday

Hello lovely people, its not often I get to sneak up to the attic and blog on a Sunday, but this morning I have somehow managed it, and before breakfast too.
I'm in the midst of a lovely family weekend doing ordinary but lovely family things like attending a summer fete (with brass band), a coffee morning, browsing the market, antiques (got some lovely bits, will show you soon), baking, hooking, a car boot and family Sunday lunch still to come.

I need to ask for some help.....a little while ago, one of you lovelies tagged me with a Five Things about Yourself type tag. Now I have raked through my emails and comments and cannot for the life of me find out or remember who on earth it was that sent me this? Was it you?? Could you please drop me a line and remind me, and put me out of my misery, it's been driving me slightly insane this morning trying to remember! Thanks.

Do you like the flowers? I picked them up from the supermarket on Friday, they're called Californian Bluebells. I mixed them with some bright purple carnations for a vase downstairs (another one of my Andrew Lloyd ceramics, love love it), and three stems into a juice bottle on the bathroom windowsill.

I love having fresh flowers around the house, just a few stems breathe life and colour into a room.
ohhhh I just heard my tummy rumble and realise I am so very hungry for breakfast!
See you tomorrow, I've got a Monday on-the-menu recipe for you xx

edited to add :: ahhhhhh I finally found my tagger, it was Ruth. Pheww, so glad I got that sorted, it was making my noodle hurt trying to remember....I'll do the tag a little later in the week xx

Photographs

I've had quite a few compliments about my photography recently, which has made me smile. Smile a lot actually. I certainly don't consider myself a photographer and am not particularly skilled or technical. I definitely belong to the point-and-shoot school of thought. But through Flickrville and Blogland I have learnt how wonderful photos can be, how the every day stuff of life can be elevated somewhat by a decent photo.

The camera I use is a Canon Ixus 65. J researched it all, read reviews and lots of geeky photography forums before we (he) decided which one to get. Its easy to use and I have the measure of it in so far as I know how to get the pictures I want. I was especially amazed when I discovered that the little tulip symbol allowed me to focus on closeup stuff, wow, that was a eureka moment for me last year (I now know this is called macro but I am not one for jargon, it bores me). I never use flash (it distorts the colours too much) and I never use a tripod (I don't have one). I have the shutter speed on auto. Erm....thats about it as far as technical stuff goes!

The camera does have some nifty settings for different lighting conditions :: cloudy, sunny and the especially good indoor setting which adjusts the yellowness of tungsten lightbulbs and corrects it automatically. There is also a fabulous setting I use called V for Vivid which perfectly suits my subject matter. Without this setting on, I find my photos are disappointingly dull and lucklustre, using the V  has a way of bringing things to life and making bright colours true, if that makes sense.

I do love taking pictures for my blog, love focusing on the small things. These pictures I'm showing you today are all random shots from around the house this morning. No styling, no faffing, just point-and-shoot from the living/dining room to the hallway to the bathroom.

Buttons, ceramics, fruit, napkins, clothes, bags, soap. Strong colours like a heartbeat throughout the house. I know it's not everybody's taste, but having colourful things around is essential to my wellbeing. If you've got time, just hop across and glance at my "Home" set on Flickr, isn't it just a riot of colour? Mad isn't it?!

Our house is still a majorly long way from being how I want it as we have done very little since moving in seven months ago. There are big things I really don't like (blue hall carpet, most of the kitchen etc), so for the time being I focus on the small things.

The small, everyday kind of things that I photograph and share with you.

 Its an absolute pleasure, the sharing part, you make it so enjoyable xxx

Back Yard

Hello! So glad you made it, yes awful weather isn't it? Hope you didn't get too wet on your way over?
Up in the rooftops of Attic24 the rain is thundering down this morning, its' very noisy indeed so no doubt about the weather from where I'm sitting, I don't even have to look. I can hear the weather. Hear that it's not very summery at all. But just to clarify, look ::  this is the view from the velux window which looks out over the back. Dismal.

Yes, such a shame. I really did want to show you my little back yard,  I had envisaged my outside table laid with a pretty cloth, tea and cake in the sun. A warm, summery chit-chat about flowers. I really wanted to share my outdoorsy ideas, run them by you.Oh well, we'll manage somehow, best not get too down hearted eh. Ok, lets raid the photo archives....

....This above photo was taken last month whilst I was still flapping and procrastinating and not getting very much done. Its not a terribly good photo I'm afraid, I think the settings on my camera were a bit off and it looks a bit washed out doesn't it? But no matter, you can get the gist of it. You can see my yard is small, I think you could call it compact, or perhaps if you were being very generous you could say it was bijou.
Its in an L shape, the main square of it you can see here is 3m x 3m, with an additional 2mx2m off to the side under the kitchen window.

And this photo was taken on a lovely sunny day a few eeks ago, not long after I spent those backbreaking hours shifting, carrying, potting, sweating, planting. I shifted my blue plant benches around, moved the table, tried to create a pleasant space for eating. It's not easy working in such a confined area, but I love our little space all the same. Its manageable, do-able, even for a lazy arse like myself.

We live in a middle terrace of tall Victorian houses, so we are literally surrounded on all sides by houses. We are extremely overlooked, most especially at the back, and it has taken some getting used to in the seven months that we have lived here. Our last house was a detached modern house on a corner plot, so we had quite a sizeable garden, surrounded on all sides by either tall hedges or fences. Privacy was important there, most people craved it, built boundries up around themselves and isolated themselves in their back gardens. Here it is very different. Folk like to see other folk, like to lean on walls and chat, like to pass by and see what's doing . Kids play in and out of each others yards, up and down the streets, grown-ups take a brew out and chatter, gossip, pass the time of day. Its very friendly and I do like it for the most part, but sometimes I do crave a green view and space.

The photo above was taken yesterday afternoon just after it had stopped raining. See the wall there to the right? I've put some pots and troughs along for now to help the yard feel a bit more enclosed, but I'm hoping my lovely father in law will come with his wood and scary tools and build me a short fence along. Nothing too scary or high, just a dinky little picket fence that I'm thinking would look nice painted a sort of a tasteful  grey-blue. J is Yorkshire born and bred and he tells me it's perceived as "unfriendly" if you fence yourself off. And I tell him I do not like to sit and eat my dinner with half the neighbourhood watching me. As a result, we find ourselves having a mild, on-going disagreement about it. To fence or not to fence? Privacy v Community? Northern ways v Southern ways.

But aside from the privacy issues, I have this idea for plants :: ok, lets see if I can describe my vision to you. Imagine a narrow, L-shaped raised bed built the whole way along the right hand wall and also along the back wall. It would be about 2 ft high, built out of stone or maybe timber, high enough and wide enough so you could perch your bottom on it if you wanted. Imagine the planting this could contain :: ivy, climbing hydrangea, honeysuckle, clematis, ceanothis, passion flowers. It would create a year-round wall of living green. It would be under planted with bulbs and other smaller plants. Annuals could be sneaked in for the summer to add colour. But for climbers to work on the right hand wall, they really need to be able to climb, higher than the present wall allows, don't you agree? Well I shall let you know how the debate goes.

I like a garden to be decorative, don't you? I like to see little decorative bits and pieces in a garden. Pretty pots, mobiles, painted birdhouses, mosaic. That book I showed you the other day has some wonderful, wonderful ideas, it's brimming over with inspiration. I visited Barcelona last Autumn and ooooo the Gaudi mosaics in the Parc Guell are truly amazing :: I would love to try mosaic for my outdoor space, maybe a wall panel or even some big pots? Actually, I've booked to go on a half-day workshop in September which is all about recycling broken crockery and china to make mosaic so I'm going to collect plates this summer from jumble sales, car boots and charity shops with this in mind.What fun!!

This is my geranium and herb bench. I use mint and parsley a lot and love to have these just outside my  back door.

Ahhhhh geraniums, geraniums, you make my heart sing! I think they're one of my favourite flowers, the colour, oh!! YEs, the colour is magnificent. I've put these beauties right outside my back door so that I'm hit with it as soon as I venture out. Bam! Magenta and cerise in your face!

I did have fun planting up my big pots. They are still establishing themselves, and the trailing geraniums have not yet flowered but I think in a month or so they'll look lovely. I've even noticed one brave sweet pea flower has emerged, so am hopeful for a good show there too in a while. Thats if the sun ever decides to shine again.

Well, it has stopped raining now, but everything is still dripping wet outside. Shall we have tea and biscuits inside, I baked some raisin and peanut cookies yesterday and the locust-children didn't eat them all. Still some left for you and me.

Oh, yes it's been lovely to have your company, thanks so much for coming, I do enjoy a good natter with friends. There's nothing nicer than that, rain or shine.

Planting stuff

I do like to pretend I've got green fingers, my Mum has them for sure :: you can't run 2.5 allotments simultaneously and successfully without a definite shade of green at your fingertips. And I like to think I  inherited them. But if I am brutally honest, I think I am too damn lazy and sloppy to be considered a successful gardener. I can plan, dream, read and partake in garden retail therapy like a pro. I have the kit, see :: pink trug, gardening apron, cute tools and a designery watering can from Heals no less. I have the inspiration and the desire to create a beautiful outdoor space in which to eat al fresco surrounded by greenery and colour and beauty. But the harsh truth is that as I am rubbish at doing any thing at all on time, this seriously impedes my gardening efforts. Seeds sit in the packets. Baby plants get pot bound. Things wilt dangerously. But I persevere and am undaunted. I am knowledgable and enthusiastic.

I can walk round a garden centre and name dozens of plants because in my time I have read dozens of gardening books and seed catalogues. I even occasionally watch Gardeners World. I LOVE garden centres, get all giddy with butterflies in my stomach when I walk round, get slightly overwhelmed at the sheer scale of it all, but love it all the same. I am quite good at garden-related shopping, I consider my purchases carefully.

I buy pots, not too many but just the right number for the plants I plan to have. So far so good.

I buy herbs that I know will come in useful for cooking :: parsley, thyme, sage, mint and chives. A few tumbling cherry tomato plants too. I leave the wacky herbs behind, congratulate myself on being restrained.

Bedding plants are a bit harder to resist. Remember I am a colour junkie, and the colours of summer annuals blow me away. I LOve them. A lot. Purple petunias, crimson million-bells and deep blue lobelia. Lush. I move on to hotter colours :: clashing scarlet and magenta geraniums. I can't stop buying them. I visit the market stall for verbena, marguerites and sweet peas. I notice the supermarket is selling bedding plants right alongside the fruit and veg....ohh I need a loaf of bread, I'll sneak another geranium in my basket too.

All these little plantlets keep arriving into my house through April and May. They look promising, they grow fast. June arrives and their little roots are spiralling round and round and round screaming for more space to stretch. I write "plant out plantlets" on my to-do list. They continue to grow and start looking a little sad, yellowy leaves appear. I procrastinate and feel guilty. Then one day in early June I decide today is the day and spend hours and hours planting stuff. I go mad with it, make my back ache and my fingernails black with compost. I heave big pots around, I go through three bags of compost. I begin to create the modest beginnings of quite a delightful little haven in my back yard.

If you are at all interested, please stop by my place tomorrow and I'll show you around. Come for a cup of tea and a bun and we can sit out a while. See you then xx

Seeds

Seed packets manage to seduce me in double quick time. I go to the Co-op for a pint of milk and before I know it I've also bought three packets of seeds. I go to the garden centre for some compost and I'm drawn to the racks of seed packets like a moth to light. I flutter helplessly in front of them all, mesmerised by the colours and the promise of it all. Its a bit like the magazine syndrome. I only have to see a packet of seeds and I immediately go off into a daydream, create my own magazine spread in my mind. I see a beautiful courtyard full of huge pots brimming over with colourful flowers, herbs and edibles, see myself sitting amongst it in the sunshine drinking coffee/tea/pimms depending on the time of day, idly doing a bit of deadheading or harvesting fresh salad leaves for my lunch/dinner.

 

I am such a daydreamer, I have never met anyone so disconnected with reality as myself (with perhaps the exception of my paternal Granny, who was scatty beyond belief). I somehow convince myself every year that by buying the seeds in March/April, I am actually going to end up with a maaarrrrrrrrrvelous garden full of flowers and produce. I forget that the packets of seeds sitting in a pretty blue bowl in my kitchen actually have to be planted and tended to. April and May come and go and the seeds continue to sit prettily in the kitchen. I look at them every day, think how pretty they all look, think to myself I really must get them planted. June arrives and suddenly a bit of mild panic sets in. Several packets of seeds are now no longer viable for summer of '08 as I've not planted them in time. But no matter, they will keep another year.

 

I get busy with the seeds that I can plant now in June. Aren't seeds an absolute marvel of nature? It never, ever fails to amaze me that these little unpromising bits if stuff will manage to know what to do and grow into plantlets. Produce flowers. They delight me, really they do.

I have my Little Buddy to help me. We plant yellow beans and purple beans, little fingers pushing the seeds down into the soil.

Nasturtiums and sunflowers next, grow, little seeds grow.
We go and check our seeds every morning, look hopefully for signs of growth. Water them and talk sweetly to them. Sing to them even. Grow little seeds, grow.

We have dreadful weather, wind and rain and cold, not summery at all. We continue to water, talk, sing and look. Then one morning when we are out in the yard in our pyjamas doing our early morning rounds, we spot little green shoots pushing through the soil. Little Lady (and Mummy) start clapping and jumping up and down. We are thrilled, honestly thrilled.

 

 There's nothing more promising than a little green seedling is there?

Little Lady and Me

Little Lady and me are friends. Buddies. Sometimes we argue, yes. Sometimes she can be stubborn and I can be bossy and voices are raised, but mostly we get along beautifully.

She likes to decide what she is wearing each day, and in fact a lot of our stubborn/bossy scenarios are related to the clothes she wants to wear/refuses to wear. She often chooses inappropriately for the weather and /or situation (insisting on walking the school run in a bikini, for example). She often changes outfits three or more times a day, leaving discarded clothes all over the house. The above outfit is one of my faves and I love it when she chooses to wear it.

Little Lady has a thing about shoes, and it started when she was small. When she was one year old I recall an incident when she stole a shoe from Debenhams and we only discovered it much later on when I spotted her sitting innocently in her pushchair chewing away on the stiletto heel (she was teething bless her)

So it's no surprise then that shoes feature heavily in day to day role playing around here. Little Lady has her own sizable selection of shoes, but Mummy's shoes are always fascinating.

(LL, pleading) "Mummy, can I try on your new white sandals? Pleeeeease?"
(Me, resigned) "Ok then, but go careful"
(LL, thrilled) "Oh Thanks Mummy, you're the best Mummy ever and I definitely wouldn't want to take you back to the shop and swap you for another Mummy."
(Me, amused/relieved) "Oh good, I'm glad to hear it! Incidentally, which shop do you go to when you want to swap Mummies over?
(LL, matter-of-fact) "Marks and Spencer"

Sometime later and my sandals are ditched in favour of purple high heeled Barbie shoes. I think she is frequently disappointed that I don't wear high heels to be honest.

She asks me to sit on the front step with her, for no apparent reason other than to look at our feet together. We pass the time of day, then she asks if we could have tea please. Outdoors, sitting on the front step.
Tea for two on the front step then, a mid afternoon rest after the business of shoes. Perhaps an oaty star too please Mummy?

I do love accommodating my Little People when the requests are as simple as this. I love being invited to share time doing uncomplicated things.  I try and trap the memories as I am so aware of how fleeting they are.
She starts school in September, this little buddy of mine. Six wonderful years of coffee mornings, baby groups, toddler groups and pre-school activities and friendships, and  they are coming to an end. I feel mixed emotions :: a combination of optimism and loss, a feeling of liberation combined with an undercurrent of panic and sadness. Mind you, I've got the summer holidays to get through first, I'll probably be hugely relieved to see September on my calendar by then. Probably, but not necessarily. 

Gifts of pleasure

Here is a little bit of my back yard, actually, its a lot of my backyard because in truth there is not a whole lot more to it. The space is small, teeny even, but I like to think that it has potential to be something special. Like I said yesterday, I have lots of plans for this little space, and I'm hoping to share some of it with you next week because next week at Attic24 I've decided it's going to be an outdoorsy sort of week. Regardless of the weather, although I'm hoping it's gonna play ball.

But I'm showing you this picture now because I want you to see my booooootiful new Greengate bunting strung up there. If you've been popping in here a while, you know how I feel about Greengate. I adore it, unconditionally. It makes me sooo happy, yes it really does it for me. Its absurd, but true. And this bunting really captures the essence of Greengate stuff, its so pretty, colourful, happy, carefree and charming :: in short it's all the things I like to think my life might be.

There's a story behind this bunting.This is a story about me and Sally. About how we "met" in Flickrville. About the way in which I came across her photographs one day and thought for a brief moment that I was looking at my own pictures. It was the strangest feeling, to realise there is someone out there in the world who sees things, collects things and photographs things in the same way as I do. I spotted my mug, yes my mug, in her kitchen. We have the same identical old tartan picnic blanket. She has a Greenagate jug which I very badly want for myself. She shares photos of her coffee, a plate of buns, bits of rooms, her lunch, a bunch of roses in much the same way that I share my life with you all. She is just not as wordy or long-winded as me. But its extraordinary the way in which we have connected. I always love to look in each week and see her life unfold in images and the briefest of descriptions, its always a lovely visit.

Then one day I popped in and she had posted this image. Ohhhh Greengate, Greengate, I was so instantly in love with this bunting it made my heart squeeze when I saw it, I know, I am so sad, I have no idea why the Greengate designs affect me so? But oddly they do. So I asked from whence the bunting came, only to be told it was from a shop local to her :: so about 350miles away from me then, not a hope in hell of popping there for a shopping trip one morning.

But Sally being the kind of person she is, immediately sent me a message and offered to go bunting-hunting for me next time she visited the shop and mail it to me. Oh I nearly wept with gratitude! How kind! How thoughtful! Yes Please, if its not too much trouble?!

And after much excited exchanging of messages over at Flickrville, a package arrived a short while later containing not only the beloved bunting, but also these wonderful Cath Kidston napkins which perfectly match my table runner look. Delighted, thrilled, pleased beyond words I was.

I had agreed to pay Sally for the bunting of course, but also wanted to make a little something to send by way of a thank you. I really wanted to express how much her kindness had meant to me, and something handmade was the bestest way I could find to do that. So I played around with some fabric, ribbon and  buttons and stitched Little Birdie. I had a lot of fun doing it, I had forgotten how much I like sewing, I have been so preoccupied with crochet this past year.

So Little Birdie is now happily living at Sally's house, and I am happily sitting under my bunting. Gifts of pleasure and smiles all round. Its a happy life we lead in Blogland and Flickrville.

p.s. Sally doesn't (yet) have a blog but you can see her beautiful images over here xxx

Tag, PIF, Candy and Swapsies

Ah the language of Blogland, I am not yet fluent, but I am learning the lingo fast. Yes, I finally know what PIF means, although I'm not letting on how long it actually took me to work it out.
There's a bunch of things been attaching themselves to me around here lately and I am mighty pleased about it all and wanted to share. So in no particular order, lets start talking Bloguese...

First off, the Tag.
Passed on to me a little while ago by Brenda at Butlers Abroad, it's the book tag, and these are the rules ::
1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people, and acknowledge who tagged you.

The book that I'm browsing through at the moment is called "Decorating Your Garden" by Tessa Evelegh. I remember I bought it about 10 years ago BC (Before Children) in the days when J and I would often spend Saturdays in town, browsing leisurely through bookshops before going to our favourite pub for a bowl of soup and rather a large quantity of fine ale before staggering homewards in the early eve. Oh what a distant memory that is! People who say that having children doesn't necessarily mean you have to change your lifestyle are lying, let me tell you. Much as I adore my family life right now, I do occasionally hanker for the old times.
Anyhow, this book is lovely, it's a large hardback and cost me £20 at a time when money was in short supply, so it was a huge indulgence then. It has lots of pictures, hence the above photo of page 123. No sentences, just beautiful mosaic. I've never attempted mosaic but have several books about it, and would love to try my hand at it and make something decorative for my small back yard. I have BIG aspirations for my little outdoor space, I'll show you more of that next week.

I am going to tag 3 people for this one ::

• Clairey @ Blogging for Brenda
• Fi @ Marmelade Rose
• Simone @ Linden Grove

Second up is the PIF (Pay it Forward) ahhh see I do know, I do know!!
I was really, really chuffed when I found out I was picked recently for a PIF gift from the wonderful Kim at Ragged Roses. I haven't yet received said PIF-gift, but like the rules say, it has 365 days in which to arrive.  Kim, purlease don't make me wait that long, you have no idea how excited I can get at such prospects. Really, I get jump-up-and-down excited.

Third up is the Blog Candy.
Now this hasn't arrived yet either, but hopefully will be coming to me from the lovely Claire at Serendipity Loves New York. Now I understand this to be a lovely gift of some sorts, being given to me purely for being the first person to leave a comment when invited. Me me me, I was First oh yeah, gimme candy, see me jumping up and down!!!!

Fourth up (you still with me?), the Swap.
I decided to be brave and join in my first ever swap, organised by Rachael Rabbit. If you fancy joining in (go on, go on!),  go take a look and sign up by Friday 20th June. I think it's going to be fun and I'm looking forward to dusting off my sewing stuff and getting creative again. Yes, I'm not bad at sewing and once upon a time I did used to make stuff and sell it for a living, another dim distant memory BC. I'll show you my work sometime, remind me won't you?

oh well done for sticking with me today, and I hope you like the images from the book. As you can see above, right now I am blogging with a mug of hot lemsip, yes I have a truly snotty cold. A stinker. Obviously an excellent weekend away with old friends involving mojito cocktails and only three hours sleep has left me with a delapidated immune system. Only myself to blame.
Sniff, slurp, see you tomorrow xx

Thankful

A little corner of my home to show you :: I love this little plant, its' been on my table for about three months now, since sometime in March around the start of my blog and look, it's still managing to pop these delightful flower stems up. They really are lovely, such simple flowers and so undemanding of attention (I remember every now and again to give them some water from the jug at mealtimes), yet so uplifting. They remind me daily to be thankful for the little things in life that give such pleasure.

Dear, dear blog-readers, I am feeling a little emotional today. In the best possible way you understand. Not wailing and feeling unbalanced, but feeling exceptionally blessed and thankful for all the good things in my life right now. But I am not feeling especially wordy today :: sometimes I could write this blog with words tumbling out and not know when to stop, yet other times I find it hard to get the expression right. And this seems to be one of the hard times somehow.

I have so damn much to say and show you, I have posts and photos in draft all stacked up waiting to be finished and put out for you to share. Pictures of my new fire, my attic studio, my textile work, my gardening efforts. Yes, I had wanted today to show you some of my gardening efforts, the seeds I planted with Little Lady, the big pots of flowers beginning to bloom, my little back yard. But it will save for another day. Today I am giving thanks.

Let me show you these :: simple gifts from friends that mean so very very much. This small bunch of home-grown salad leaves that I ate for my lunch, given to me this morning by my friend K who grew them on her allotment and knew I would love them.

And these pots of home-grown seedlings (cornflowers and cosmos) given to me by Lovely C and already growing away nicely in my front garden, flower buds emerging.

I am so thankful for it all. I figure that I am  probably an ok person if I am liked enough to be given salad and plants unconditionally by new found friends. And  I am so thankful to be getting to know YOU, my lovely blog-readers who are sending me such lovely comments and emails, I am nearly blubbing with gratitude for it all. Aren't I just so damn lucky, jeez, I am fit to burst.

So to you all who stop by here each day, to those of you who comment (greatly appreciated) and those of you who are still unknown to me but are reading this, I am simply trying to say

x  x  x    t  h  a  n  k    y  o  u    x  x  x

More normal stuff tomorrow (and the next day, and the next...)
See you then xx