Attic24

Blogtober 2020 :: Day 10

Helloooo my lovelies, so good to see you in the Attic on day 10 (ten!) of my Blogtober journey. Today has been so, so nice in a very gentle, quietly productive weekendish way. Firstly, I relished not having an alarm waking me up and slept in until almost 8 o'clock which was heaven. During the school week my alarm goes off at 6.30am which is actually OK for me as I am most definitely a morning person. 

I'm really happy with my weekday routine and love getting up early and doing my morning workouts, but that doesn't mean I don't enjoy my weekends off! I love the change of pace at the weekends, and Saturdays and Sundays still hold something of a special feel for me even though I spend every day of the week at home.

Around 9.30 J and I walked into town together to do our rounds of the market and local shops. We visited the cheese stall and the fruit/veg stall on the market, then called into the baker, the butcher and finally a quick whizz into M&S foods for a few weekend treats.

Saturday is generally the only day of the week that I don't always cook from scratch - we bought pizzas for the Little People and J and I had a ready-made meal tonight, a really delicious Thai veggie curry from the M&S "Plant Kitchen" range. Often I do cook for J and I on a Saturday when the LP have pizza, and I choose something that would be harder (and way too expensive) to do for a family of five. It might be steak for example, or pan fried seabass fillets which are a fave. But honestly, I do really appreciate the times when all I need to do is cook up some extra veggies, pull a pizza out the oven and wait for the microwave to ping.

After our shopping we walked home with heavy bags full of fresh produce, stopping off on the way to recuperate over a coffee (ohhhhh, can you see a pattern emerging here? Please don't judge my coffee habit!). I don't need to tell you that it was outRAGEously good haha! I practically inhaled it, well honestly at one point I really did literally inhale it because J was making me laugh so much.

We always buy looooooads of stuff from the fruit and veggie stall, enough to last us almost a whole week. I load up on masses of fruit as all of us eat fruit daily so I fill two huge fruit bowls in the kitchen with apples, pears, satsumas, bananas, and then berries and grapes etc in the fridge. I buy whatever veg looks good as the variety of produce varies from week to week. Today I bought the most beautiful looking red pointy peppers which inspired me to make my "Red Soup". The Little People named it the red soup when I first started making it years ago as it has red peppers, sweet potato, red onion and tomatoes in it, making it the most glorious colour.

I bought a basil plant to use in the soup, and to (hopefully) keep growing on the kitchen windowsill - I wonder who remembers my crochet herb pot which I made forever ago? I still really love that quirky little make.

I had soup on my mind when I came home from the market so decided to make it straight away so that I could enjoy a bowl for a late lunch. Here is the recipe in brief....

Chop up 2 red peppers, half a large sweet potato, two large handfuls of baby plum tomatoes, 2 onions and 2 cloves of garlic. Spread it all out on a baking sheet, drizzle with a little olive oil, then season well. I used this salt which I recently bought after reading an article about the Dorset Sea Salt Company in Country Living Magazine, it adds a real depth of flavour to cooking which I love. Plus, it comes from Chesil Beach which makes it extra special, a little taste of home.

Roast the veg at 200C for about 40 mins, giving it all a toss around at the half way point.

Make up 600ml of vegetable stock and stir in 1 tablespoon of tomato purée.

Mix the roasted veggies in with the hot stock, then whizz it all up in a blender, doing it in batches if necessary.

Last year we bought a new blender and it's one of our most well used kitchen gadgets - we absolutely LOVE it and use it almost every day. The Little People regularly make smoothies (we keep a bag of frozen berries in the freezer at all times), and I use it to make cooking pastes and sauces, pancake batter, and of course soups. It has a powerful motor so doesn't complain at the frozen lumps of fruit and ice cubes, and it whizzes up a very smooth soup in no time at all. I can highly recommend this one if you are looking for a multipurpose blender (find it on Amazon HERE, it's the 1200W one).

So yeah, I put half of the stock/veg mixture in the blender at a time with a large sprig of fresh basil and whizzed it all up.....

Oh. My. Goodness. SO GOOD!!!!!

This red soup has a very rich, satisfying flavour - I grated a little strong cheddar cheese on top and had it with fresh sourdough bread. I think I'll be making weekend soup more regularly from now on as I really, really enjoyed it - do tell me, what is your favourite soup to make?

My lunch was a late one (2pm ish) and afterwards I noticed the weather was bright and I fancied pottering outside for a little while. I had a sudden urge to bring some colour into the front garden, it was honestly a MaJoR compulsion to go do it right there and then. So before I could even question myself, I had pulled on my coat and was racing down the hill to find me some floral colour. Just like that - one minute eating soup and the next minute I absolutely had to go buy plants!! I do wonder at myself sometimes.

Twenty five minutes later and I was home again with five little pots tucked in my bag. They cost £1 each from the supermarket - two ivies, two cyclamen and a winter cherry, aren't they cheery?

↑↑ This was the place I had in mind for them - this little old wall basket sits to the right of our lower cellar door at the front of the house and it's been making me feel a bit sad just lately. It still has the old stalks in it from last year's deceased geraniums and every time I caught sight of it I would feel bad about it's neglected state. 

Time to make amends!

↑↑ This little pile of green gorgeousness made me so happy because it is Home Grown!! There is a patch of grass beneath our old wooden bench in the front garden that has become more moss than grass, so I was gently able to lift some of it up to use in my wall basket, to stop the earth tumbling out of the gaps. You know how much I adore moss (like I love it very, very much) and so to have my very own growing mossy stuff is like a dream come true. 

And this is how it looks after my £5 investment, plus a little bit of time and minimal effort really. There is still a bit of a gap at the front so I think I might look for some pretty violas to go there as I do love those cute little things. 

Whilst I was searching for floral colour in Morrisons I found this ready-planted terracotta pot for only £4, so that came home to number 24 too, to sit on my front step.

I love the little splash of colour that greets me now as I climb the nine steps to my front door. Note to self - do not forget to water the new growing things. Must. Not. Forget. 

After all the gardening activity, everything came to a sudden halt inside my brain, and I needed to sit down and re-group for a bit. I think I just got over excited being all domesticated, what with making (and eating) soup from scratch and gardening all crammed in together...well, I needed a small frothy coffee and a little bit of gentle yarny stitching to quiet myself. 

I finished off the second half of the gusset decreases on the second sock (I'm knitting two socks together), so that was a good job done. Now I've got the pleasure of whizzing down those easy foot rows and before long I hope to find myself at the toes. J will be pleased I think, he's wearing the other two pairs I made him every day on repeat.

Just as I was cooking dinner retrieving food from the oven and microwave, J shouted to me to come and look out of the window. We'd had a sudden heavy rain shower and the most beautiful double rainbow was arcing over the rooftops right in front of our house. It was so beautiful, a real uplifting sight for sure.

I hope your day has been wonderfully weekendish, do tell me a little of what you've been up to, I'd love to hear......

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May End

Last week it was half term and I tell you we were all so ready for a change of pace and a break from routine. I'm sure it's the same in every household with school age children, that deep-down need for some respite from the clock watching and the nagging that comes with trying to get the offspring ready for the day and out the door on time.

On top of the usual school stuff we're in the midst of GCSE exams with The Teen, so the slight ease up last week was especially welcome for him, and for me too. I'm trying really hard to trust in his very laid back approach, trying my level best not to keep questioning his commitment or the amount of time he's spent revising. 

All will be well, I'm sure. 

So last week was all about laid back relaxation, which I'm happy to say that we all rather excel at here. However for me personally, I would have dearly loved a trip to the coast in amongst all the laid-backness, I'm feeling a strong emotional pull to be beside the sea at the moment. But when I put the idea forward to the family I was met with a complete lack of interest or understanding. I even offered to down-grade my expectations to a day trip to the West coast instead of an overnight stay on my favourite East coast, but nobody wanted to go and I have to be honest, it broke my heart a little. My Little People are growing up so fast, and most of the time I absolutely love to see their independent and strong spirits thriving. But every so often, oh I do so long to have them little again, when trips to the seaside would be met with such joy and enthusiasm.

Once I got over my disappointment and realised that we wouldn't be going anywhere at all, I settled down into our home space and made the most of the warm sunny days. We did some more to Little B's bedroom which is still an ongoing thing, and we had a bit of a clear out of rubbish in the cellar and the back yard which was very therapeutic. We bought bags of compost and I refilled all my back yard pots before planting them up with some colourful annuals. We worked at the allotment, cutting back overgrown pathways, weeding the main growing beds and preparing to plant out various little pots of veggies and herbs that we've collected from kinds friends and the garden centre. I saw an idea on Pinterest for creating a trellis for sweet peas out of bamboo canes and twine, and that's going to be my next project. I've already got the seedlings waiting patiently to put down their roots into deeper soil - gosh my to-do list really is humongous. 

As well as all the Doing, there was plenty of idling for us all and I guess that's the whole point of these short one week holidays at home. To rest, recharge, and to seek out the little things that make us deep-down happy. I spent lots of time in my back yard, either crocheting or reading, or sometimes (especially first thing in the morning) just sipping coffee and listening to the birds.  My reading was all about drinking in the May and June magazine issues which I had been saving especially for this week of down-time. These are my most favourite issues of the whole year (well this it my favourite time of year in general) and they did not disappoint. Such a lot of visual happiness in those pages, all light, fresh, summery colours to inspire and bring on the happy vibes. Just lovely in a dreamy, slightly unreal kind of a way.

Although I had hoped for some days out last week, in the end we didn't venture further than where we could walk. We walked in the woods, walked to the farm shop and we spent quite a lot of time at the park. 

One evening I took Little B with me on one of my regular buttercup appreciation walks, and on the way there he'd asked me how many buttercups there were in the meadow. I told him to guess how many he thought, to which he answered "maybe around two hundred?" His face was a picture when he saw the true scale of the meadow, it really is breathtaking and his wide astonished eyes reflected it perfectly.

I love the light at this time of year, most especially at the end of the day. I love that a walk in the park at 8pm feels so special when the sun is low and golden and night time still feels a long way off.

Last week I picked my crochet banner back up, and after a few weeks break from it I know straight away what I needed to do for the border. During the school holidays we try and keep our Creative Coopers group going on a Friday morning at the cafe, and I think I appreciate those happy hours even more during the holidays than I do during term time. It's just a fabulous way to round up the week and I dearly love spending time with my creative friends and any visitors who happen to drop in to join us. 

Once I'd finished the 6 border rounds it was time to stitch on the letters. This didn't go smoothly, in fact, it was probably the hardest part of the whole project and took for EVER to complete. My fingers protested at all that stitching (I used back stitch around the outer edge of each letter, so it was very labour intensive), but I stuck with it and am so so happy with the outcome. I'm crocheting an additional piece all along the top now so that I can insert a piece of wooden dowel for hanging purposes, but I promise to show you very soon when it's all done.

So that was the end of May, and although I'm a little sorry that my most favourite month is over for another year, it's been absolutely spectacular. I've never known a month to have so much continuous sunshine and so little rain and I've loved every minute of it. I've loved the abundant greenery and the flowers (how can you not love a month that contains blossom, bluebells, wild garlic, cow parsley and buttercups?!) and most of all I've loved the length of these warm golden days.

Here's hoping that June is just as lovely all round!

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Head Above Water

Walking home after the school run this morning, the shopping bag on my shoulder suddenly felt hugely heavy and I realised I was struggling. So I sat myself down on a nearby bench to rest a while in the dappled shade of a large tree. Breeeeeaaaaathe. Inhale, exhale. Stop rushing, just sit still and catch my breath for a moment.  

I looked up and realised with a start that the trees are now full of green leaf, so when precisely did that happen then? I've obviously not been looking properly around me recently, and that realisation gave me a bit of a jolt. It seems that in the bustle of daily routine I've forgotten the importance of slowing down and being mindful of my surroundings. It's all been rush, rush, rush. Tut tut Lucy, that will never do!

I've had family staying with me for the past week, my Dad and Lady B journeyed up by train in order to celebrate my Dad turning 70. Before they arrived I spent two whole days like a mad woman, racing around sprucing up my back yard, tidying and cleaning the house. It was shocking how bad things had gotten around the house, how messy and yup, how dirty. Cobwebs everywhere, piles of stuff everywhere, oh so much stuff. And dust. Piles of stuff and dust. Cripes. But hey ho, I did my best and after two days of slightly manic clearing and panic-cleaning it came together as passable.

As an extra surprise for my Dad, my brother also journeyed up from Kent, so we had quite a jolly family time of it here last week. We took them to Bolton Abbey to take in the bluebells.....

....and had a trip out to Brimham Rocks too. I have to say it was most odd to be at the rocks without the Little People, to be able to stroll around without a permanent knot of anxiety caused by scrambling, climbing, jumping children. Lovely, but odd! The drive there and back was spectacular for my visiting family, the first time my brother had been to the Yorkshire Dales. I saw it through their eyes and felt so blessed to live in such a beautiful area.

Back to normal this week, I waved goodbye to them yesterday morning, running along the platform grinning at the train which caused some elderly ladies to wave and laugh through the train window at me. I've noticed that people keep asking me if I'm OK and I wonder if I wear a look of permanent tiredness on my face? I am desperately trying to keep my head above water as work, home and family responsibilities pile up and up around my ears. It's end of year exam time for Little Lady right now, with all the associated strains, and The Teen is also needing some close parenting as he pushes at the boundaries. The Little People grow and change so fast, don't they? So so so fast.

Ahhh my beloved planner, it is pretty much keeping me grounded during these full and hectic days. I am convinced that pages lined with washi tape and filled with stickers are the way to a harmonious life. I must just try harder to actually look in the pages and act on my lists though. I am hopelessly forgetful at the moment, still a bit below par it would seem.

I've got lots going on in my back yard right now, lots of seedlings and little plantlets growing away like billy-o. Strawberries, chillies, cucumbers, tomatoes, broad beans, french beans, sugar snap peas. Cosmos, nasturtium, marigolds, zinnias. So much growth, so much potential!

My sweet peas desperately need planting out now too, I've been babysitting these seedlings since they arrived in the post back in March. Out in the day, back in at night. Out, in, out, in. They are looking strong and healthy and I am excited for the flowers to come.

So all these seedlings and plantlets, and a book about allotment gardening. Oh ho ho ho, yes indeedy my friends!!!! After eight patient years on the waiting list, we finally made it onto a small half plot. Lots of work to do mind you, it's a weeny bit daunting at this stage. More soon, I have lots of pictures to show you!!

I'm knitting in the early mornings, these are the stripy socks that I'm making for my Mum {the yarn is Opal Viridian Schafpate, colour Thelma} 

In my crochet bag I've got left overs from the re-make of my Granny Stripe blanket (which I must remember to show you, do remind me?!)

I'm using these scraps to make a small string of Summer Bunting for the caravan, and I'm really enjoying it. This is an easy project which I can bring out at knit and natter mornings when more nattering than crochet happens and my hook pretty much works by itself without needing my brain to engage. 

I've also got a new stash-buster blanket in the planning stages........

..........I have this vision in my Creative Mind, I can see it very clearly. The idea has been itching away and demanding attention, so I finally gave in and planned it all out. Scratched that creative itch (which felt so good). I've got in mind a simple colour-block blanket to use up all the odds and ends of yarn left over from recent blanket makes. I'm going to start it on Friday as I've got a train journey and a special weekend away with friends.

My days are full up, and I don't always feel like I cope very well, bobbing around on the wide surface of my life, keeping afloat as best as I can. I could do with a rest, a respite from the daily bobbing. I'll just keep my head above water and hope for the best eh........

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Slow Spring

Ahhh look, the first signs of Spring have arrived here in Atticland, what a joy to behold!

In the eight years that I've lived in this picturesque part of the world, I've learnt that March does not mean Spring for us, however much we might wish for it. Most years we get snowflakes thrown at us during this month (the first March we lived here, it snowed on Easter Sunday! We built a 5ft snowman!)

These snowy scenes arrived without warning during the first week of the month, giving us two days of the white stuff which quickly melted away down here in town....

....but stayed for days like a dusting of powdery sugar on the surrounding hills. And so this is the view from my Attic window in early March, definitely more than a hint of winter remaining. I really must try not to wish the days away, Spring will come in it's own sweet time. Mid April if we're lucky. So I quietly say Roll on April, I will be so, so, so ready for a taste of Spring by then.

Despite the chilly temperatures and snow dusted landscapes, we've had a fabulous and very welcome dose of sunshine here just lately.

Early last week J had a day off work so we headed out into the Yorkshire Dales to stroll across the hilltops. It was wonderful to be out and about, my first Proper Walk since the start of the year. I was so relieved to discover that my legs were back in action again, yippeeeeee for some energy in my muscles, if felt great! I confess I was very, very tired afterwards, but I was so glad that I felt strong enough to take on a five mile walk. Progress indeed.

We've been doing this short circular walk for about twenty years, J and I, often alone, sometimes with the Little People in tow. The combination of high hills, wide open grassland, pretty woodland and gorgeous riverside make this a real favourite jaunt at all times of the year - in Spring the woodland floor will be filled with bluebells here.

Even the short walk along the road is a pleasure,  I got a little bit excited over this glorious expanse of mossy wall. Like you do.

J and I have always loved this bit where large flat limestone rocks spread right down to the water's edge and we've had countless picnics and coffee stops on this sun warmed slab over the years. We saw a kingfisher flit past here last week, a quick flash of brilliant blue and then gone. Funnily enough the first thing that sprang to mind was sock yarn! I need to get out more.

The slow spring start has some definite advantages if you are of yarny persuasion, and during the past few weeks I've enjoyed a very welcome amount of sofa time ensconced with my Cupcake blanket. It's really coming on, only twelve more stripes to go (squeee!). I've also designed and sampled a new edging pattern for this blanket which I'm super happy with, can't wait to get onto the edge of the Edge with this Spring beauty.

The cold weather is also perfect for those of us who love cafés, and really there is nothing nicer than coming in out of the cold to settle down with a cup of something hot, delicious and frothy. On Sunday I went out into town with Little Lady, I needed to pick up a few bits from the shops that I'd forgotten in the week, but really it was an excuse for us to jaunt out together for an hour and sneak a quick café stop into the late morning. I tell you, that girl did not stop talking, even as she was spooning cream into her mouth from her loaded hot chocolate she was nattering on and on, it was a delight! Tales of friends, school, guinea pigs, manicure tips (I'm trying to grow my nails, she is my nail guru), ideas and plans and dreams and random thoughts came tumbling forth. Sweet girl of mine.

I have loved welcoming back my little patch of front garden crocus this week, the abundant sunshine  makes them open their petals right out (I feel like that too when the sun shines). The sight of them at the weekend inspired me to do a little bit of planting in my very small front garden....

I bought some cheap bulbs from the supermarket (two trays for £3, bargain), so I was able just to do a bit of digging and weeding with a small trowel and plop the shooting bulbs straight into the earth ready to grow and flower. I bought a tray of narcissus Minnow (little pale yellow narcissus) and some Muscari (grape hyacinths)...oh pale yellow and purply blue, I think it's going to look very sweet. I am so excited for them to  bloom, this is the first gardening I've done in an absolute age, and it feels fabulous to have an element of sweet floral anticipation back in my life.

I also planted out some tete a tete narcissus that had been blooming away in a corner of my backyard. These are the small pots of flowers that I have growing on my mantel indoors each year - I used to throw them away when they'd finished flowering, but then I realised that if I simply put the pots in a sheltered spot in my back yard they might possibly shoot and flower again the following year. What do you know, it actually happened! So into the soil they went this year, and I hope very much that they'll reappear again next Spring.

There is a bare patch of earth in the above photo, well it looks bare, but I sowed some seeds there.....

....I planted some Pot Marigolds in that small patch,  one of my most favourite summer flowers. I was going to put some nasturtiums in too, but read the seed packet and realised it's a little too early for them, so they'll go in once the bulbs have finished flowering. I haven't felt inspired to garden for a few years (my back yard had one of it's regular "fallow" years in 2015), but this year, I am keen, keen as mustard! Watch this space........

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Floral Delight

Autumn here this year is proving to be right up my street, and I am seriously loving these mellow, sunshiny days that still have a very slight tinge of summer to them. I bought myself some new socks yesterday, but much of the time I am still going sock-less, which really makes me feel oddly carefree and still very vaguely summerish. And yet it's November, and I can still manage to wear my red mary janes with no sockage! Happy days.

My back yard pots are beginning their sleepy descent towards hibernation now, but I just had to show you what my alive-not-dead clematis is up to......look! Look, look!! The buds are popping open one after another and I have a whole load of beautiful blooms to gaze at as I trundle in and out of the back door. I am so, so happy about the unexpected rising from the dead of this brave plant! I attempted to identify the flower this morning, and I think possibly it might be this one : Madame Julia Correvon. What do you think? Any knowledgable clematis lovers out there who can confirm? Anyhow, it really doesn't matter what her name is, but I just love that she is flowering at long last.

As I mentioned, the rest of the pots are looking green but sleepy. We've had some very cold nights just recently and now that we're in November I know that Jack Frost will be paying a visit very soon.

It means that gathering a small posy of flowers for the table is even more special than usual, as it may well be the last for this year.

I can never get enough of these intense bold colours, I really love them a lot. The reds, oranges, pinks and purples with a splash of yellow thrown in just sings Summer to me.

I've been thinking today about all the little back yard posies I've shared on my blog over the years, and how they always make me so happy.

Having a small jug or jar of homegrown blooms on the table really is one of life's true pleasures.

And yes, as you can see we're smack bang in the middle of a rekindled Hama bead obsession here at number 24. In her search on the www for cute little Kawaii designs to translate into Hama bead form, Little Lady has this very day discovered Pinterest. She has been genuinely thrilled to suddenly find all this amazing inspiration at her finger tips, and I know exactly how she feels. And I can also see a whole load of cute plastic animals and foodstuffs in my immediate future, awaiting my assistance at the ironing board. I've already melted a pencil (with personality), a cupcake and a pony. Could be worse I suppose, it beats ironing shirts.

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The Here and Now

Popping by to share some little snippets from the past week as I've been attempting to slow myself down and appreciate the here and now amidst the changing seasons. The gentle light, the glowing colours, the drift of leaves as they descend from the trees, the very feel of Autumn in the air. It's soft and mellow for the most part, and as I walk from school to town to home I find I'm beginning to enjoy the onset of Autumn. I'm even wearing woolly socks today which feels rather blissful actually after many months of bare feet, and they are bright scarlet (my socks not my bare feet).

Things in the back yard are slowly winding down, although I've just discovered that the clematis I had long thought was a gonna has suddenly sprung into belated action and is covered in several promising looking buds! I'm guessing it must be an Autumn flowering variety then, no wonder it was looking so dead during the summer. I cannot wait for the buds to open as I haven't a clue what the flowers will look like (I had even forgotten I had planted it), happy days. I'm absolutely delighted that my pots have done so well this year and that each week I've been able to pick a small posy to bring inside for the table. It makes me incredibly happy to do this simple thing, and has inspired me to try and plant even more lovely things in my back yard next year. We have a small squash sitting on the table at the moment, just because I saw it in the supermarket and loved it's shape and colours. Little B's pumpkin is currently the size of a smallish tomato so I don't think we need worry about the word "mammoth" just yet. He remains pleased as punch with it's progress though, which is just ace.

Right, I need to dash out soon and collect the aforementioned pumpkin-child from school. Thanks as ever for popping by and sharing my humble comings and goings. I'm working on some Yarndale write-ups this week and it's proving to be an emotional experience....wow, those mandalas! Just Wow.

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Out the Back

Often when I walk up or down my back street and catch sight of the flowers on top of my wall, it literally makes my heart leap with happiness. I swear it's a physical thing, a jolt of pure pleasure that flutters my heart then lands softly in the pit of my stomach.

My pots of cheap and cheerful summer annuals are really looking great I have to say. I've had those plastic green planters for many years, since before Little Man was born (so more than 12 years) and they have just about held it together this year although are broken and badly cracked in places. I've decided that next year it'll be time to replace them with some more big terracotta pots to go with the five already there. Those are old too, but still going good, they look better as they age.

I pottered about out the back here today, hanging out all the freshly washed shirts to dry, then deadheading my flowers and sweeping up a bit.

These straggly marigolds are still flowering well, their hardiness really surprises me and makes me happy. Those of you who've been visiting for a while may remember me planting the seeds into an old metal colander (two years ago), they just seem to survive and keep going year after year.

I re-potted Little B's pumpkin vine today too, I've been meaning to do it for weeks. I didn't have any spare pots so I've planted it straight into a full bag of compost (with drainage holes spiked all around the base) which I hope will do the trick. We love watching this vine grow and Little B is so proud of it. I don't expect it'll produce any pumpkins (we were too late planting it I think), but really that's beside the point. Watching the growth of those huge leaves is enough of a pleasure.

Just recently I confess I've been suffering from a little bit of Garden Envy. You know how it is when you kind of wish that you had something more out the back? Something bigger, greener, more room, better views, that kind of thing. We've been visiting friends and relatives lately who have houses with proper gardens, sitting out amidst their greenery and taking in their pleasant open vistas, admiring their carefully tended lawns, flower beds, trees and shrubs. Wishing just a little bit that we had a vegetable plot, some decking, a lawn, a summer house, a view.

And then I come home and reconnect with my teeny back yard and fall in love with it all over again, with the ease of it (just a watering can and a little bit of deadheading), and the cosy simplicity of it. I must keep remembering how lucky I am to have this modest back yard (we once lived in a second floor flat with no outside space at all), and to appreciate all the pleasure that it gives us.

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♥...more little snippets from the Attic...♥

Geranium Love

Five Daily Happies

Autumn Colour

Monday Moments

Gardening Activity

Today I introduced Little B to the idea of planting seeds. We had this great conversation on the way to nursery about how things grow from seeds and he told me all the things he would love to grow in our back yard. Watermelons were top of his list (they are his favourite fruit) followed by Elder flowers, then bananas. Oh dear. I felt really bad telling him no, nope, er-noooo to his three most favourite requests and seeing his enthusiasm dwindle in front of my eyes. But when he hit upon pumpkins as his fourth choice, well that was just brilliant. YES! Yes yes yes, let's see if we can grow a pumpkin! So on our way home from nursery we stopped at the shops and purchased a packet of Mammoth Pumpkin seeds. Slightly worried about the Mammoth word, but we will cross that particular bridge if and when we come to it.

He couldn't wait to get started, oh such excitement!

I gave him a flower pot, then he went to fetch his old plastic spade. I said he could use his hands for the compost but he was insistent that he do some proper shoveling with his spade, so I stood aside and let him do it His Way. We used an old plastic spoon as a dibber, and very soon three hopeful pumpkin seeds had been planted and carefully watered in.

We found a lolly stick and I told him the letters so that he could write his own label.

It was super sweet, a real delicious part of an otherwise ordinary, fairly mundane Monday. The whole experience reminded me of a very similar time with Little Lady six years ago, and also reminded me that I still have many of the very same seed packets lurking in the cellar!

I fetched them outside and we had a good look through the packets, opening them up so that I could show Little B how different all the seeds look. He was so full of excitement and begged for us to do some more, so I thought, what the heck, what have we got to lose? These seeds are old and I've got no idea whether they will actually work or not, but hey ho, we will give it a whirl.

We planted yellow and purple beans, cosmos (for Mummy) and two varieties of sunflower. Now I really must remember to water them (!)

It's coming together out here now, slowly but surely, although I would still love some bigger greener stuff. I keep visualising some huge pots filled with big lush green things, but those ideas will just have to wait a while.

For now, I'm really happy with my little pots filled with cheap n cheerful annuals, and somewhere cosy to sit a while when the sun is shining. Now then, here is a question for you.........

........shall I paint that wall????????????

It's in a dreadful state of disrepair and falling to bits, really it needs completely re-rendering and my idea is to eventually have a narrow raised bed built against it (using stone to match the house) for some permanent planting. But I'm toying with the idea of a quick fix for this summer and slapping on some paint.

Maybe white, or maybe a soft blue??

Or shall I just leave it be?

x

♥...more little snippets from the Attic...♥

Geranium Love

October 2012

Autumn Inspiration

Yarndale 2013 :: The Yarn Bombing

Geranium Love

I can't tell you how happy I am this year pottering about in my little  4m x 4m back yard, prettifying it for the summer. It really is the tiniest of spaces but it feels cosy and manageable and gives me just enough outdoor space to play in without any tremendous responsibility. It is somewhere that I can sit with a morning coffee, crochet a little, chat with friends, play with Little B, grow flowers, sip a chilled drink on a sunny weekend afternoon with J and hang my laundry out to dry. And really, that is absolutely all I require from an outside space. Open greenery and a view would be lovely but at this busy time in my life, truthfully I am glad that I'm not burdened with hours of garden labour. Small and easy suits us just fine.

So I've got this collection of old pots which have been cleared of weeds and dead things, waiting to be planted up with summer colour. It's exciting! For various reasons I'm without a car so I can't indulge in any major garden retail therapy at a nursery or garden centre. Instead I am trickling in a few pots at a time when I can manage/remember, picking them up from the market or with the supermarket shop and carrying them carefully home with the groceries.

This year, I am mainly filling my pots with cheap and cheerful geraniums. I love these humble flowers very much, love that they don't mind a bit of drought, and that the substantial local mollusk population don't seem to like nibbling them either. In short, they are resilient and that suits my rather slap dash approach to gardening.

But most of all I love the colour of geraniums. I absolutely adore the bright and bold shots of red and pink dancing above all that greenery, it just makes my heart sing a happy song!

When I bought these plants, the flower buds were very tightly closed and so I only have a vague idea of what colour they will turn out to be. The plants all had labels so I was able to leave the white ones behind, picking out the reds and pinks, but I am still waiting for them to bloom....

...ooooooh, I am really looking forward to seeing this one open fully, I think I may swoon a little at that delicious red/pink petal combo!

Back in the Springtime before geraniums were really on my mind at all, I happened to catch sight of a pretty geranium mosaic on Facebook, made my the talented Felicty of Just Mosaics. There is a whole bouquet of mosaic flowers that you can choose from on Felicity's website, and you may remember that I already have a vase of tulips here in the Attic. That's her beautiful studio up above there look, where she creates her mosaic pieces, isn't it lovely?

Well, I loved the original red geraniums design that first caught my eye, but decided to write to Felicity and ask if she might possibly make me my very own picture which had both red and pink flowers in it. I also asked if I could maybe have my sky background just a little bluer please, if at all possible, and sorry to be so demanding, please, thank you! Bless Felicity, she is the kindest and most accommodating person, and she assured me that I could indeed have flowers in two colours, and a nice blue summer sky.

An extra-special thing that Felicity also did was to email me little progress updates as she was making my picture. Such fun! I watched each day as the flowers bloomed (in red and pink!), and then as the stems and leaves grew. I saw the terracotta pot arrive, and then the most gorgeous blue sky surrounding it all. And then, oh, what the heck??!! I got to see a mucky mess!! I think Felicity really got a bit of a kick out of sending me that particular progress report, naughty thing! But then finally, the finished picture was there on my screen and I was absolutely thrilled. It was just as I had imagined it in my mind.

The real deal is very much more beautiful than the screen images, I have to say. The colours are beautifully vibrant in real life, and of course it is all glossy and shiny and bounces light around the place which adds to the colour intensity of the tiles.

I can tell you (cos I just this minute counted) that there are seventy six individual pieces in this mosaic. I just love thinking about things like that, like wondering how many thousands of stitches are in my crochet blankets. I love handmade things very, very much. The talent, the time and the love that goes into designing and making handmade things is incredibly inspiring and a little bit mind boggling.

I've hung my mosaic geraniums in my kitchen, above my kitchen sink. Sorry I can't show you them in situ but my kitchen is rather small, dark and dreary and it's very hard to take pictures in there. I tried, but they all turned out fuzzy and pretty rubbish. You'll just have to imagine it, and know that it makes me smile many, many times each day.

Now tell me.....what are your favourite summer flowers for growing in pots?? I'm going to visit the plant stall at the market tomorrow and wonder what would look terrrifc with oodles of geraniums. Marguerites? Petunias? Marigolds? Go on, throw some floral ideas at me!

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ps if you like to bob about on Facebook, do go say hello to Felicity {Just Mosaics}, her page is a riot of colourful creativity ♥

 

♥...more little snippets from the Attic...♥

2012 :: Year End Review :: flowers

Open Studio :: June 2013

Summer Days

Oh I just love these glorious summer days so, so much, the long hours of daylight and the sunny warmth makes me feel very happy indeed.

I went up to the Attic for a short while earlier and drank in the lush green and blue of our summer landscape, marvelling at the fact that this was 8pm and all was still bright and golden. I love the feeling of Summer, the sweet emotion of it all.

I love coming downstairs in the early morning to find the sunlight streaming in through our front east-facing bay window. I love wearing my light cotton jammies covered in printed roses. I sit at the table and drink my frothy coffee and savour the still of the house with only one small child up and about, mentally preparing myself for the busy day that lies ahead.

This morning we were up early, Little B and I, greeting the day just after 6am. It meant that I found time for some early morning ripples, which pleased me enormously. I had thought last week that I was almost at the end of my coastal blanket, but after measuring it (then mercilessly stretching it and re-measuring it), I've come to the conclusion that it's just not quite long enough. I was disappointed for about a nano-second, then immediately thought yippeeeeee, cos truthfully I hadn't been ready to face The Edge just yet.

I have summer flowers on my table, a scruffy little posy plucked from the front garden with a few stems of alchemilla, some campanula, a few daisies and one single, beautiful rose. Much as I do every year, I wish very much that I had more roses to go at, more blooms to bring indoors. I should really see to that, how hard can it be to purchase and plant roses? Anyone?

I continue to balance and juggle my days, and it is getting easier. I am forcing myself to be more disciplined, more organised, making better use of my hours. This past week I have been working on a Christmas project for Simply Crochet magazine, which has felt a weeny bit bonkers in mid June I have to say. I've been continuing to work my way through a daily dose of mandalas (over 700 now, from 43 countries!), and I am now into my third week of working in schools on our Woolly Bike Project. I've taken some pictures as I've been working with the children, I'll share them with you in a day or two. It's getting easier, I am less fraught and more organised and the children have been absolutely wonderful.

I've been slowly buying plants to fill my back yard pots, bargain buys from the supermarket for very little money. Lots of geraniums have come home with my shopping this year (they were on offer at £1.33 each!), lavender and herbs too. I'd like some daisy type flowers and possibly some nasturtiums, but really I would be happy with just geraniums to gaze at. I do need to plant them now, rather than just looking at them and thinking about planting them. These big pots will go up on top of the wall when they are planted so that they get more sunshine, but I would love to have more greenery at ground level actually. Maybe some big pots of foliage might be good to stand against the wall?

When I cleared the yard a few weeks ago, I made space at the far end to put a couple of chairs. There used to be some old potting benches here, laden with lots of old flowerpots and miscellaneous rubbish, but after six years it finally dawned on me (talk about slow) that this is actually the sunniest spot in the whole back yard and should really be used for sitting in, not storing rubbish in. I'm hoping to get a bench here at some point, but for now, some old chairs and my much loved patchwork blanket do the job nicely. It's a lovely place to sit with an afternoon cuppa, face turned up to the sunshine and the gentle sounds of the neighbourhood in my ears.

I don't have much time for sitting outside at the moment actually,  but Little B and I do pootle out here most days. Mostly it is me hanging out laundry, or bringing in the laundry, with Little B looking for signs of wildlife. He was thrilled to discover this empty moth pupa yesterday, I just love his excitement over new discoveries and the way his face looks when he is absorbing so much new information about the world around us. He is soooo ready for school in September.

I am taking great pleasure in my little homely routines, the domestic tick-tock of my Mothering days feel so good at the moment when I stop to really see it and appreciate it and not just let it all rattle by in the blink of an eye.

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♥...more little snippets from the Attic...♥

A Jar of Summer

Juggling Act

Mandala Wheels for Yarndale

2012 :: Year End Review :: flowers