Now Wearing Purple

A LITTLE BAG OF LOVELINESS Can you tell what it is yet?   Of course you can.  Yet another picture, I can't help myself. The asparagus farm is only three miles away - you can watch them cutting it as you choose your bunch from the shop.  You can choose the size you want too, thin, medium or large.  We chose medium - you get about 24 spears, which I feel is pretty good for £2.50 a bunch. I've reached an age where I have most of the things I want. I don't want presents for Christmas and Birthdays......this is what I want, asparagus or any other precious seasonal treat to taste and treasure.  Sadly, my birthday falls on Christmas Eve, so not  many fresh seasonal treasures to be had.  Asparagus, however, is the one food I look forward most to eating after a long winter. Strawberries would be next on my list, but I'll have to wait a while on that one.  I know you can buy both all year round, but they're just not as ...

PEONIES AND RAINBOWS This beautiful tree peony blooms every year and just as it comes into it's own, wind and rain come to destroy it.  It's a big blousy specimen with such beautiful, papery blooms, but only for a couple of days, not long enough. I sometimes wonder about taking it out and replacing it with something that provides colour for a longer period, but I haven't got the heart to do it. Later in the day whilst walking the dogs, there was the briefest of showers, then this. Rainbows never seem to look as vibrant in photographs sadly.  This one was a doozy!  It quite made my day actually...like I've said before, small things give me such pleasure. On the way back from our walk we stopped off at the allotment and planted our onion sets and harvested the last of the leeks and parsnips.  I'm tiring of winter veg a bit now,  roll on all the luscious salad veggies. To use up my veg surplus, I  made a mixed vegetable curry for ...

CHEERS! I wanted to do this post Monday morning, but all these pics were on Mr's phone and he had it at work with him. We've actually started on the allotment, a little late, but given the appalling weather, we had to wait for the plot to dry up a bit. We spent Sunday afternoon planting our first crop, potatoes, about 100 in all.  Mr has made the acquaintance of a farmer that grows spuds on an industrial scale and took some advice that hopefully will increase our yield this year, namely planting them a lot closer together.  We shall see. I sat on a an upturned tub of chicken poo pellets,  teasing soil from the roots of weeds and grass clumps that Mr kindly dug up for me.  I managed to clear quite a good area without aggravating my back.  Our soil is lovely and healthy with plenty of earthworms, I think the term for this kind of soil is 'friable'..... I know actual gardening terms now! There was a gathering number of jackdaws,  strutting abou...

A LITTLE MAKE OVER Two little pictures transformed and updated. I fell out of love with these little images years ago, but left them in situ.  I then needed the space they occupied for a paper cut that our girl did as a present - she's very good with a scalpel. Rather than ditch them or give them to charity, I had an idea. We have various tins of half used chalk paint at our unit that were purchased when our girl started up-cycling furniture many moons ago, so I put some of it to good use. Took the pictures apart, cleaning the glass both sides. The frames were given a quick rub with Scotch Brite. I then gave them  two coats of chalk paint, allowing to dry thoroughly between coats. Then the edges had a little rub with Scotch Brite for a distressed look.   You can just see some of the original gilt showing through which is just what I wanted. They then had quick application of  wax. I found some images online that I...

I ripped off my socks and put my Birkenstock's on this Saturday and it was fabulous. We put some blankets and cushions on our old wooden garden bench and drank wine in the sunshine, it was blissful. What made it extra special was the arrival of our girl and her partner, for her birthday.  Her birthday was on the 12th and she has close friends with birthdays on the 13th, 14th and 15th of April.  On Friday they all got together for a night away in Bristol and had a great time.  We got to spend Saturday together and on Sunday went for a delicious carvery where my 'no carbs' went out of the window.  They had the most amazing Yorkshire puddings and I couldn't resist - yes I have the breaking strain of a Kitkat! There are lots of buds appearing on our fruit trees, with the quince tree above looking it's best ever - we're hoping for our first fruit from it this year. Just look at the colour of that sky.  Not a cloud in sight. This ornamental quince is one of...

HIGH AS A KITE Well, what an eventful Easter I had! Nah, not quite, as sadly on Good Friday I became incapacitated by a trapped nerve in my spine.  I'm now only on diazepam, which is a muscle relaxant, as the opiods really made me feel high and nauseous so I stopped taking them a few days ago.  I'd rather put up with the pain to be honest. The doctor said I had to sit on a straight backed dining chair for at least a month....no comfy sofas for me butI have a straight backed rocking chair which is perfect as I can rock my way out of it.... rock on! As you can see, I have a nice comfy cushion for the small of my back, which I put together.  Remember this  crochet circle ?  I'd found another completed one in my craft cupboard, totally forgotten about and the cushion pad that I'd bought aeons ago. I had in mind matching cushions with different floral backings, but just crocheting the circles together was something I could do at the moment.  Mr, bless hi...