Garden Makeover

Our back garden has been untouched since we got our allotment in May 2006 - so that is six years of neglect.  And it really shows.

The trampoline has completely killed the lawn.  The climbing roses have gone wild with 12 foot demon-stems shooting out through the trees, the honeysuckle has tried to choke a small apple tree and the escapee bunny rabbit has eaten pretty much everything that shows any sign of being green and leafy.

And worst of all the garden has become a dumping ground for various broken down or redundant items like our old tumble dryer, the children's outgrown slide and our cracked roof box as well as multiple chipped, cracked or broken plant pots.  In fact it closely resembled the local demolition yard.

I have taken plenty of "before" photos but I am far too ashamed to show them here.

But finally we have a plan.

The lawn has been destroyed and we either need to completely re-turf it or remove it altogether and we have decided to go with the latter option.

The garden isn't huge, and even with digging up the lawn we will only have a growing area of about 7 metres by 4 but the plan is to have a curving gravel path to the shed/playhouse with two large beds either side that we are going to grow as an ornamental kitchen garden - a mix of flowers and vegetables and fruit.

We have gone back in time by ordering the lovely Geoff Hamilton's old TV series - Cottage Gardens, Paradise Gardens and The Ornamental Kitchen Garden on DVD - programmes that were last shown in the 1990s and were our very first inspiration to garden when we were newly married.  The poor little Lockets are completely fed up with us watching episodes back to back but they are so gentle and charming - and very inspirational.

But the biggest questions is do I give up the allotment?

I have been struggling to keep up with the work up there for the last couple of years - especially when I was unwell.  I had let another lady use part of it last year but she has now left so I have the whole plot to look after and it is huge.

When we first got the allotment the children were much younger and used to love coming up there for the day because a lot of my friends took allotments on the same block so there was a gang of about 9 children happily playing good old fashioned outdoor games for hours on end.

Now, apart from Dot who is quite keen, we have to cajole and occasionally insist that the children come with us and it is rarely worth the effort because they are unhappy there and just want to go home again.

Obviously I could go on my own or with Dot but that excludes the other children and means that I don't get Mr Locket's help too.  And really I need all the help I can get.

When I think about the allotment I feel overwhelmed and burdened because I know that to do it properly I really need to start all over again and really "bottom it" - the paths need clearing, the borders with my neighbours need sorting, the compost heap needs to be cleared of nettles - all before I start to try to dig the beds.

So the answer would be to let it go.

But I am worried that if I do I will regret it.  The waiting list for an allotment is so long that I wouldn't get one back again and certainly not one on the same block as my friends so if I let it go then that's it for good.

But maybe I need to accept that I am not really a passionate gardener. I like gardening and I love growing vegetables but I am definitely a fair-weather-gardener and as we have to drive 2 miles to the allotment I can't easily pop there for 5 minutes in the evening to pick a crop of peas for supper for example and I often end up with unharvested crops that go to seed.  And what I really like doing is sitting in the garden with my knitting or a book!  If we leave the allotment and concentrate on the garden at home I will be able to have somewhere really nice for the whole family to enjoy on a daily, hourly basis without constantly having the guilt of knowing I'm not looking after the allotment OR the garden properly.  Another consideration is the fact that all three children seem to be quite enthusiastic about the garden project and have been out helping us this weekend - something they haven't done for ages.

Sorry, I'm going on - but I am trying to work out what to do.

Part of me wants to just let go of the allotment and breathe a sigh of relief and move on and part of me is terrified of letting go.

What would you do?

Half Term Knitting

Michaela posted the other day about having a Work In Progress Week where she is going to tackle her many different projects over the half term break.

This made me think about my WIP or NLIP (no longer in process) knitting projects and I worked out that I had 3 first socks on the needles

 Filey, Broad Ripple and a newly cast on Monkey,

 2 dormant second socks - Embossed Leaves and Autumn Leaves - one part knitted and one frogged because it got all tangled (and I had only done the ribbing so it was easier to start again)

and four odd socks that have been in the sock basket and in daily wear for the last couple of years (we don't mind odd socks in this family).  A plain DK sock, a circle sock, a 9-5 and a plain 4ply. When I thought about knitting their partners I realised I was actually feeling quite enthusiastic about it!  So much time has passed since I knit the first sock that knitting a second will almost be like tackling a whole new project - the yarn will feel new and interesting and so will the pattern.

So what I should be doing this half term is casting on those second socks and tackling a bit of each project each day rather than pushing ahead with the two newest socks - but I bet you can guess what I'd rather do.

And at the same time I am steadily unravelling this scarf..............

I always loved the wool (a prize from Moogsmum in Michaela's diet raffle a few years ago) but never really liked the finished scarf partly because of the way the colours pooled (although I didn't know that was what it was called at the time) but mostly because of the mistake in the middle and the fact that it didn't "wear" nicely - I prefer longer triangles like hitchhiker or baktus where you can wrap them round your neck.

I think the colours will look much better in a pair of socks, don't you?

P.S I meant to show you my Valentine's messages from Mr Locket because I wanted to keep a record of them as they made me laugh!

Mr Locket clearly knows a bit about recycling too.

And this was the parting message at the very back of the card............

:o)

Is it February already?

Well January went quite quickly which is always good as it is never a really great month.  I'm not all that keen on February either but I do find this time of year much easier now that I have a job to give me structure and keep me occupied.

I don't have much news.................. I've been knitting and have finally finished my "Christmas" socks - which ended up so huge that Mr Locket was the lucky beneficiary.

I've also finished my green hitchhiker scarf and I absolutely love it.  Fred has christened it the "Dinosaur tail scarf".

It is so warm and snuggly and so very difficult to photograph............

these pictures made me smile as they show how totally inept I am with my camera.  But I quite liked them because you could see enough of me to know that it was me but not quite enough for me to start analysing and criticising and objecting to what I saw.  Unfortunately the green scarf doesn't go with my pinky/orange dress but I wasn't prepared to go and have a complete change of clothes in order to photograph the scarf.

I have started another hitchhiker as it is a great telly watching project - totally mindless but interesting enough to want to actually do it.  This time it is in a ball of Regia World College Colour in 6ply.

And I have started a new pair of red socks using the Filey pattern - but unfortunately you can't see the design on the socks (again because of my dodgy camera skills)

The pattern tells you to use lots of stitch markers that probably aren't really necessary but I like having them there as Moogsmum made them for me a couple of years ago :o)


My only other news is that I have discovered a rather surprising new hobby - well it is very surprising to me - and pretty much everyone who knows me too!

Hope you are all well and enjoying the snow (if you have any) or the sun (if you have that instead)!

Lucy x

Knitting and reading

Happy New Year Everyone! I hope 2012 will be fantastic for you all!

I love knitting............. and I love reading.......... but often find myself frustrated when doing one because I want to be doing the other too.  So I had a lovely time in November and December sitting at the kitchen table with my Gentle Art of Domesticity open in front of me while I happily knitted away.  Here was a book that would kindly stay open for me releasing both hands to knit.  But normal books aren't so co-operative.  Then my mum bought my dad a Kindle for his birthday so I tested it for knitting and reading ability and found it to be very user-friendly.  

So with my Christmas bonus from work I bought my own Kindle earlier this month and have been knitting and reading quite contentedly - until I get so absorbed in the book that the knitting falls by the wayside - or find I'm not all that hooked on the book and would rather knit.

So far I have re-read Twilight which was ok - less good than the first time I read it, read The Island (finally!) which I loved and I'm currently reading One Day - which I'm just not getting into as quickly as I thought I would.  In an attempt to educate myself I have also downloaded A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations as I have never actually read any Dickens.  

And so far I have knitted more of my Christmas socks (ok, so they are late), a cover for my Kindle, some mittens for a friend's 50th birthday present (that I forgot to photograph before I gave them her to her on our walk this morning), a mitten for me - that I have frogged and started again because it was too big, and part of a Hitchhiker in dk wool.

I still prefer real books and could never imagine my house ever not looking like this

 (Dot's wall)

(the sitting room "wall" that is actually a bookshelf built into the space between two rooms)

but I do love the multi-tasking made possible by my Kindle.

I have also been playing with paper after finding this fabulous book

Just look at the pages inside:

It has 32 cut out models to make and the paper is really good quality.  I saw it in my local Dunelm Mill for £15 but found it on Amazon for £10 instead and I'm really pleased with it.

I need to invest in a proper cutting knife rather than scissors but had fun last week making a toaster - that actually moves up and down (albeit rather stiffly)

and this tortoise.

If I hurry up and get the washing up* done quickly I should have time to do some more tonight with Fred before I cook the childrens' supper :o)

*whoops! I've just revealed that I still have last night's washing up to do - so why am I blogging??!

Books and Beer

My sock knitting has slowed down lately - for no good reason really - but I have finished one each of my autumn leaves and embossed leaves and I'm looking forward to buying some red sock wool to knit some Christmassy footwear.

I've picked up my Hitchhiker scarf again and I've nearly finished the ball of wool - but the rows are so, so long!

But the good thing about knitting with 4ply sock yarn is that it makes knitting something with chunky really, really quick

 like this hat for Dot for her weekend away with Explorer Scouts to train for her bronze Duke of Edinburgh expedition.  She is VERY excited to be going - I do hope she has a good time and doesn't get too cold and wet.

I've rediscovered one of my craft books recently

and I've been really enjoying reading it - far more than I remember when I first got it.  I think I was disappointed at the time that it wasn't a how-to book - but now I am absolutely loving it as a this-is-why book.  And Fred and I made the most delicious rock buns the other day based on her recipe

Do any of you have her knitting book?  I'm thinking of getting it for Christmas and wondered what you thought of it?  I'm not too bothered about the actual patterns and am more interested in "talk" about knitting and why it is such a good thing to do!

Finally, in this rather disjointed post, I have been inspired by Ali to get my act together and make Mr Locket a beer advent calendar which I thought about doing last year but never actually achieved.  We always have far too many advent calendars - I think there are 6 this year - but Mr Locket has never had one of his own so I think he will be pleasantly surprised when he comes home tonight to find this box of delights waiting for him!

Quilting

I don't have anything profound to say today and I don't have any marvellous photos to share but I thought I would let you know that I have finished my fox quilt and it is now hanging on the wall in the kitchen looking deliciously wintery.

Hand quilting the stars on it has inspired me to layer up my long-abandoned zig-zag quilt top that I made with the gorgeous fat quarter bundle of Christmas fabrics that Thimbleanna so kindly gave me when we met up in Edinburgh a few years ago.

This time I'm just following the zig-zags with fairly large and not very even running stitch but I'm enjoying sitting under it in the evenings while I work and I fully intend for it to be finished by Christmas even if it is a few years late!

Lucy xx

Starting to make winter

I've been really enjoying reading Emma's posts about making winter and following her links.
 
I'm not sure how I feel about the winter.  I like the idea of cosy time in front of the fire with my knitting or sewing and obviously Christmas is always something to look forward to, but I don't like the cold, dark evenings and being on a diet puts paid to enjoying lovely wintery comfort foods.

But as my contribution to making winter this week I thought I would show you some of my wintery "doings".

I can't really claim that knitting socks is a winter activity as it is something I seem to be addicted to doing throughout the year - but actually WEARING those hand knit socks is definitely an autumn/winter pleasure.  I finished my second pair of Tadpoles using the gorgeous hand-dyed yarn that Quinn sent me in the new year and I really love them.

I also cast on two pairs of socks last month as part of Socktoberfest - my favourites are my autumn leaves socks made using this pattern.

I have to admit that the gorgeous yarn was initially intended for this beautiful scarf - but I did a few inches and realised that there was no way I was going to actually be able to face knitting a whole scarf - the pattern just wasn't interesting enough.  Then I cast on a different pair of leaf socks and did the first few rows of the pattern before deciding I didn't like it either.  Moogsmum and I have discussed this and I have come to the conclusion that I am an extremely fussy knitter - I have to absolutely LOVE the process of knitting the pattern to be able to do it and if I don't love it it's just not going to happen.

I've also cast on some embossed leaves to sort-of-knit-along with Lesley - except that I have done one pattern repeat and Lesley has nearly finished her first sock!  She is a demon-knitter!!

But back to making winter........... Dot persuaded me back into the sewing room the other weekend after far too long a break from it and one of the projects I resurrected was my fox quilt from Syko's lovely book.  This was a quilt that I started at the beginning of the year when I was still deeply depressed and struggling to get through each day and once I had pieced the front it just lay neglected because I didn't have any bondaweb left for the trees and it was just too much effort to go and get some.

But I love how it looks now and I'm enjoying hand-quilting very naive stars all over it - I have a horrible feeling it is going to pucker as I didn't have much spray baste to fix the layers but so far it seems to be going ok.

I'm a real humbug about Halloween and never really get into the spirit of it and wouldn't have even carved pumpkins this year if a neighbour hadn't donated two pumpkins to me on Monday because her grown up daughters no longer wanted them for their parties.  So one got carved for Fred and put out on the front wall to welcome the trick-or-treaters.

Daisy went to a party straight from school and came back dressed like this - fortunately that's a spare school shirt that doesn't really fit! And Fred got dressed up in Gina's dare-devil outfit to open the door to give out sweets.

 I am quietly promising myself that next year I will get myself organised to take Fred out trick-or-treating too as it is something I have never really done with him and the girls are now old enough to be organising their own activities or not doing anything at all if that's what they want.

And today I used the other pumpkin to make myself some delicious pumpkin and cumin soup for lunch and it was so tasty I ate the lot.

I have been struggling with my diet since our holiday but I've lost 2 stone 5lbs over the last 6-7 months and need to get focussed again to lose the next 3 stone to get to my dream weight.  It's getting harder as the novelty has worn off and the children keep baking gorgeous cakes and biscuits and delicious apple crumbles.  But my Slimming World leader gave me a pile of magazines to hold the other night that weighed 2 stone to remind me that I really didn't want to put it back on  so I won't be comfort eating - much as I'd like to!

Finally I thought I'd show you the beautiful cushion that Dot made for me using a tapestry pattern from the Cath Kidston Stitch book

- she's done it beautifully!