Garden

It's good to bee kind

A few days ago I went to pick some chive flowers to put on our dining table when I noticed they were covered with bees. When I looked around, little else was flowering so I decided not to trim anything and leave them be. If I find bugs in the

Craft

DIY painted terracotta pot

I've been reading Gifts From the Garden by Debora Robertson which has inspired me to look at how plants can be given as gifts. So this year for Father's Day I gave my Dad a plant. Nothing floral or girly. A chilli plant - practical, edible

Knitting & crochet

Seeking a Friend crochet blanket

I've been at it again - scouting out wooly goodies in films. I saw this unusual crochet shawl/blanket in the film Seeking a Friend for the End of the World. I really like how mismatched it is - with granny rounds, flower blocks, over sized flowers and

Recipes

Recipe: Wild garlic pesto

Whilst on our yurt holiday a couple of weeks ago we found something fantastic. Carpets of wild garlic. It was growing along country lanes and in damp woodland next to rivers and streams. We could smell it before we saw it and with the help of our foraging book Food

Places

Yurt holiday at Adhurst

Last week we went on a yurt holiday at Adhurst Farm in the South Downs National Park (West Sussex/East Hampshire border) for some time away from everything. Our yurt - Chestnut We stayed in Chestnut, a 16ft yurt nestled amongst the trees in the woods with a view of

Life

How to Draw Trees book

I stumbled across a fantastic book in Farnham's Phyllis Tuckwell charity shop last week. It's called How to Draw Trees by Frederick J Garner and covers how to draw shrubs, trees and landscapes. "Trees have distinctive forms and shapes just as are found in humans

Knitting & crochet

Crazy Zauberball Knitted Socks

I was walking home from town and I passed a mossy brick wall and I thought to myself, 'that colour reminds me of the Crazy Zauberball wool I bought...for the socks I never blogged about'. These poor socks had been laying in my sock draw since the

Sourdough starter

My experiences of cultivating and maintaing a sourdough starter a baking sourdough bread.

Places

Things to do in Zürich

Last September we spent 5 days in Zürich, Switzerland. Most of my holiday photos were taken on a film camera so I've been a bit slow at digitising them. I finally got around to scanning them today and it reminded me of the lovely places we visited during

Garden

Busy bird feeder day

We woke up to snow this morning so our window feeder has been really busy. I managed to snap a few nice photos of the birds. Normally they eat and leave within a few seconds, but the bird below sat on the feeder for a few minutes. It seemed quite

Knitting & crochet

Knitted blanket on Call the Midwife

In Sunday’s episode of Call the Midwife (series 2, episode 8), the midwives and nuns were making a wool blanket.

Knitting & crochet

Knitted owl jumper

This knitted owl jumper is my latest side project. I’m immensely proud of it because I’ve wanted to knit a jumper for a long time.