little april showers

This afternoon the biggest darkest cloud slowly moved over the skies above us looking a little bit like the alien spaceship in Independence Day.

I even put down my cup of tea {never happens} and stared out of the window in an end-of-the-world disaster movie type of way....

the washing on the line {that had been hanging there for a week} almost seemed to sigh here we go again...

the cats began to regret scratching at the back door to go out a few minutes earlier.

and, suddenly remembering that I’d sent the little lady off to nursery without her wellies,

and with barely a flicker of the new boys sleepy baby blonde lashes...

the april showers lashed down, there was even hail and a bit of thunder... 

and I grabbed my camera and headed into the waterlogged garden.

Ooh, I do love a great British downpour, don’t you?

Happy wellie wearing weekend. x

✴ green living

I'm loving the green that surrounds us. Everything is thriving from the fabulous sunshine and although the garden is lacking in colourful blooms {must do better next year...} I'm learning to love the green and the leafy.

Jasmine leaves in a tiny glass bottle and small ribbon-tied bunches of ferns are making my heart sing this week. 

The botanical greeneries and crisp white linen make me think of an Edwardian parlour, I'm not sure why but there it is. 

So gloriously glorious and springy are the green and white hues, a perfectly elegant and cheap way to decorate a room and so very weddingy too! 

There I go again, obsessed with all things weddingy....

All things green....

ferns and jasmine from a shady nook in the garden,

transferware sauce boat from a nearby charity shop and a gift from a thoughtful friend 

{thank you Miss S.}

Burleigh chinese style bowls {x 2} in pale green 'Asiatic Pheasants' pattern, local charity shop £3

home grown and home made pea shoot and walnut pesto, recipe here.

{I used old baby food jars, which are a perfect size for pesto and improvised jampot covers with fairy cake cases!}

More Flea Market Finds here

Also, still time to enter my giveaway I will draw winners next week.

Sorry if you have had trouble commenting, blogger was a bit disturbed last week and I fear I have a lost some comments in the process. Hopefully now normal service is resumed {because wasn't it a pain?!!!}

✴ happy monday {on a tuesday}

Did you have a lovely Easter? Ours was very quiet but delightful nonetheless. 

There was much pottering to be had, a bit of stitching, a fair amount of baking, a grand egg hunt {or two} and an aching excess of weed pulling and seed planting. I am aching...! What a workout!

I planted celeriac, tomato plants, radish, spring onions, cucumber, lettuce {lollo rosso and iceberg} and an abundance of salad leaves.

I harvested {yay!!} a bountiful bouquet of swiss chard that was planted last year and hasn't been tended to, weed controlled or even thought about since last harvested and is still growing strong having survived  winter and deep, deep snow... It was delicious {washed, chopped, sauteed with olive oil, chopped garlic, lemon juice, toasted pine nuts and a knob of butter! Easy as!}. I also took the first cuttings from the pea shoots planted a couple of weeks ago {easy, easy, easy....how to here} and added them to a salad, and I'm eyeing up my flourishing rhubarb and reckoning it maybe time to cut...having waited so patiently and resisted cutting in it's first year {Oh, the torment}.

And the best thing....knowing we get to do it all again next weekend with another 4 day lie in!!! {well, not so with a toddler, but you know what I mean!}.

Happy 3 day week all! x 

✴ happy monday

On a morning wander around the garden with the little lady, watering the new trees recently planted. I noticed that the pear tree seems to have grown significantly already. I was quite pleasantly surprised and started to imagine all sorts of pear based culinary delights I could whip up in the kitchen...I know, waaaay too early to be thinking of a bountiful pear crop! Of course, I may have imagined any sort of growth spurt, I've had so much cough medicine in the last few days I could very well be hallucinating...

No matter, there is so much of spring about the day today, glorious sunshine, blue skies and blossoms fluttering on the breeze. I have onion sets to be planted but that will have to wait until there is more of a perky bounce to my step.

Meanwhile, back on the new desk {yay!} I've taken delivery of several recently ordered supplies. It's always so exciting to open packets of pretty bits of this and that and leads to creative making dreaming and possibilities. I'm just a bit in love with tiny resin flowers, especially these little roses. 

So pretty and kitsch. 

Have a Happy Monday. x

✴ well, i didn't expect that...

...and how pleased am I that I am just a bit behind with planting and sowing this year.

Because, after picnics in the garden yesterday, digging out summer jackets from beneath the mound of winter woolies, and searching {in vain} for misplaced {read: moved by toddler} sunglasses, you just wouldn't expect to see frost the next morning...oh no, you wouldn't. You would probably find that just a wee bit surprising....yes indeedy....it's March for goodness sakes!!!

Although I have to admit to being just a bit in awe of the beauty of it all.

Sparkling sugar dusted leaves, twinkling in the sunlight and the fresh {oh so fresh...Bbrrrr....!} frosty air.

Of course it'll all be melted soon enough, and good thing too, as quite frankly, we were promised spring, so, off you go frost, see you at the end of the year...!

✴ happy monday

Oh! What joy, to be able to get out into the garden. The feeling of spring is finally upon us and the bitterly cold freeze has at last turned to an amiable chill, and lets face it, as stalwarts to the cold and the rain as we are, here in blighty, a little chill isn't going to put us off getting outdoors after a long miserable winter.

I have now the task of fixing up the garden, which remains in a bit of a hapless state. The vegetable plots need weeding and soil turning ready for some onion, garlic and shallot plantings.

I have new things to plant too. Trees and plants of the edible kind.

So far, me and the little one have planted an apple tree {cox's orange pippin} and a pear tree {conference} and a little quince bush is waiting for me to decide on the perfect place to plant it. I have a big list of other lovelies I'd like to plant but more on that later.

What's going on in your little plot/ acreage/ windowsill? 

Happy monday. x

✴ apples and plums

Last year when I was making a beautiful silver tiara for a lovely bride and then cufflinks for her groom, I gathered lots of different leaves for imprinting into pmc. I practiced with a fair few different varieties to see which ones worked the best and looked the prettiest in all their silver glory. 

My favourites were the young baby leaves from the plum tree. I just recently found a little stash of these 'practice' leaves and so turned one of the better ones into a long necklace, with a faceted amethyst bead and a creamy pearl. 

Today was surprisingly sunny and pleasant {although still bitterly cold, Bbbrrr....} and me and the little one managed to sneak into the garden for the afternoon. We had blustery spring fun on the swings and the slide and I even managed to do a spot of gardening {much needed and long overdue tidying and soil turning} ready for new planting. Whenever I do any garden work I am usually joined by a small chattering assistant {...What you doing,Mummy?}...and two excitable and frisky cats. 

Together we worked as a team {me doing all the hard manual labour...} and we planted the first of the new fruit trees I have planned for the garden. An apple tree. I've wanted an apple tree for so long I don't know if I can cope with the three or more years of waiting for an apple to grow!!

I suppose I'll just have to make do with plums until then.

She looks like a sugar in a plum.... plum, plum...

My Creative Space over at Kootoyoo

✴ frozen dinners

We have just about finished eating the homegrown produce from last year that I squirreled away in the freezer. It's so great to be eating runner beans in January that were harvested last August! 

This year I managed to successfully freeze courgettes, runner beans, turnips and blackberries {picked abundantly from nearby woodland walks}. The small and pretty purple skinned turnips harvested in October were a delight as 'tatties and neeps' for a new years dinner. 

I blanched most things before freezing and more information on that can be found here. 

The blackberries I just washed then laid them out onto trays to open freeze in the freezer before then popping them into freezer bags. Open freezing them first helps avoid them sticking together in the bag.

Berries freeze brilliantly. I often buy raspberries when on offer in the supermarket and freeze the excess. They work very well in muffin, cake and pancake batters, just add them to the mix while still frozen and bake as as usual. I have one last bag of blackberries in the freezer which I think will make a lovely sunday crumble to shut out the cold and miserable rain that seems to be darkening our days at the moment. Bbbrrrr......

✴ wintry tones :: golden brown

{vintage finds::dewy mornings::mince pies with the mamas::baking gingerbread::sleeping pusscats::

displaying treasures::nightlight hooking::richmond park::dead leaf bundles}

This post should probably be called silence is golden because after a traumatic tearaway toddler  afternoon, the little lady of the house finally relented to a long overdue nap...phew...

I'm packing for a little Cornish getaway. I'm hoping that todays bright blue sky and golden afternoon colours continue into next week. I'm imagining blustery beach combing days, afternoon teas and cosy, toasty evenings spent curled up hooking by a log burner...bliss.

I've packed all the unfinished projects, I wonder how many will still be unfinished on our return...?

Have a wonderful wintry weekend. Wrap up warm. x

✴ mon petit potager

This summer, my little kitchen garden has done me proud.

To this novice gardener the bounty of fresh vegetables humbly produced using the wing and a prayer, 'just bung it in and see' approach to creating a vegetable plot {for the very first time} has been triumphant, nay a small miracle.

I wouldn't say we can give up the supermarket and live gluttonously from the land...um, no...definitely not. But it has certainly been a while since I had to buy salad leaf, courgettes and other bits of veg.

Disappointing :: Strawberries, Carrots, Garlic, Spinach {first sowings}, Blueberries, Rhubarb {because I couldn't touch it in the first year of sowing!}

Harvested :: Onions, Shallots, Baby Beets, Gooseberries, Whitecurrants, Radishes, Swiss Chard, Rocket, Mizuna, Cos Lettuce, Mini Cucumbers, Greengages, Tomatoes, Pea Shoots

Picking :: Courgettes, Runner Beans, Spinach {second sowings}, Peppers, Chilli Peppers

Growing :: Turnips, Spring Cabbage

It's a learning process. Some things will flourish, while others will fail. 

It's not all down to following the directions on a packet of seeds....wildlife and weather can play a big part in determining a successful crop. At first I was a bit upset that the majority of my carrots were eventually ruined by carrot fly infestation, but then in a 'les miserables' sort of way I pulled myself together and thought..."next year, I'll build better barricades..."

If you only grow one thing, grow...

Pea Shoots!

Here's how;

Go to the supermarket and buy a pack of dried peas {I used Batchelors 'Bigga'}

Fill a pot with compost.

Scatter a good handful of dried peas over the compost.

Press down each pea into the soil.

Water and wait...

About 2 - 3 weeks later..

Cut pea shoots and eat...

in salads, risotto, pesto......etc....

Watch the shoots grow again and cut and eat again.....!

Thanks to The Edible Garden for introducing me to the easy peasy {!} way to grow these little lovelies {and sooo pricey in the shops don't you know!}

A selection of peafect recipes here...

Bon Appeatit!

✴ my creative space

Now that the baba has discovered her legs my time is mainly spent on trying to control the mayhem that often ensues...

Such daily pursuits as; falling in/out of the toy box, climbing over the furniture, chasing fearful cats, pulling the books off the shelves, throwing rice cakes/blueberries/peas into random corners of the house/ironing basket/my pocket, and graffiti style crayoning.

This all requires careful monitoring ignoring and controlling tea supping....

It's futile to try and control a determined toddler who has new legs, and shoes.

Consequently my list of unfinished projects is deficient of triumphant ticks and so I have decided to focus on things I can actually achieve, which has led to picking the wildflowers in the garden.

Bluebells, forget-me-nots and ...er... crushed daisy heads...(thankyou Ella...).

Aren't they pretty though? And so delightfully fragrant. I love that there is at least one tidy, beautiful and, perhaps a little stylish space, on this unreachable mantlepiece, that helps me stay positive and focus on the creative.

My creative space at Kootoyoo.

✴ weekend gardener

lovage, fennel, chives, black peppermint and catnip 

spinach, lettuce, rocket and runner beans awaiting planting

hello garlic!

gooseberry bush blossoms - hopefully enough for jam this year

 and taking it easy!

As weekend gardener I found myself taking a leisurely relaxing approach to getting jobs done in the garden.

In other words, I didn't really get my hands dirty but there was much wandering, admiring and patting of one's back over small accomplishment so far ( in that things do appear to actually be growing, yay! ) and of course much tea supping.

There is still so much to do though. For example, is it possible to over chit (careful..!) seed potatoes?? As mine have been merrily chitting ( again..!) away in the kitchen for a few weeks now....Hhhmmm....

What's happening in your garden?

✴ my creative space

My poor bride-to-be is stuck in L.A thanks to an erupting volcano so had to miss our first headdress fitting on monday.

Which has meant extra time for titivating!

In the meantime, someone much closer to home commissioned me to make them a headdress...

It's years since I've made a daisy chain. What memories of childhood!

If anyone is interested, a daisy chain circlet for a fairytale princess of 15 months takes approximately 14 daisies and 10 minutes make.....And about 20 seconds to rip apart and strew across the garden!

Daisy chain to Kootoyoo for more creative spaces...

✴ ranunculus

Ranunculus is such an ugly word for such a beautiful flower, don't you think?

But kind of fitting to the ugly spiky bulbs from which they grow. 

My ranunculus bulbs have been soaking for 24 hours ready to plant out in my little mound of soil by the plum tree.

I really hope they grow well because I think ranunculus may just well be my favourite flower.

{ My bridal bouquet by Joanna Carter Flowers :: In vase at Martha Stewart ::

Napkin decoration at Instyle Weddings :: Botanical print at RHS ::

A Riot of Ranunculus at Flickr :: }

✴ my creative space

It's all about the B's in my space this week.

:: Bridal :: Botanical :: Beads :: Bracelets :: Baby :: Bulbs :: Birds :: Bibs :: Bias Binding :: & Blogging! ::

 After my last post I'm now sketching designs for a bridal headdress.

I'm enjoying letting my imagination go and finding inspiration in the RHS books Flora and Orchids, love, love, love those old botanical paintings.

I found a little time to sort through and finish some beaded bracelets made a while back which were boxed away with all things jewellery making when the baba was born....

....finished the binding on the bibs from last week and began some decorative birdy stitching....

.....and during a bumper baba nap this afternoon and with an unexpected brightness to a grey day I did some brisk bulb planting.

{ By the by, I thought an image of some budding blossoms a more beautiful pic than of a mound of black soil with bulbs buried below! }

Byeee.

For more creative spaces boogaloo over to kootoyoo.

✴ spring is bursting out all over...

Image here 

Oh the day is glorious. The sun is shining and bathing us in a warm welcome glow. The sky is so blue the sailor may even get a new hat let alone a pair of trousers and the garden is green and bursting with new life. Yes friends, Spring is here!

Alas, so too is chicken pox.

The little one is oh so poorly with the pox. Poor thing, poor thing.

I'm taking comfort in the many comments of 'best to get it out of the way' etc, etc.

So it's Calpol, Calamine, Cbeebies and Confinement for us.

Oh, and Chocolate.

Ponderings of the perfect pudding to delight and amaze the postponed dinner party guests.

Hhmm... Chocolate pudding and spring flower plant pots. Love it!

Recipe at Martha Stewart.

✴ the good life

This is the 'before' photo of my vegetable patches. Please don't get excited into thinking that there may be a glorious 'after' shot....This photo was taken yesterday!

These have been a 'work in progress' for well over a year now...Oh dear.

When the baba was very small, well, much smaller than she is now, I would bundle her in blankets and wheel her out in the pram and she would happily fall asleep leaving me with a wonderful hour to do some weeding and tidying. But it was far too much work for just the odd bit of weeding with stolen hours and predictable nap times and so the weeds grew back, much faster than I could pull them out. It got to the point where it just seemed easier to leave it and wait for the deathly hand of winter to take it's toll.

And so this is where we are now. Spring is, well, here! At last. The sun is shining, everything's greener and buds are blooming. It's time to get back to it. 

The 'after' shot may be a while off yet but I'm determined to turn into a proper little Barbara Good by the end the year (but maybe without the flared dungarees!).

I'll be getting lots of help from the RHS 

And this book 

I'm inspired by Daylesford Organics 

And garlic grown here 

Organic seeds from here and here 

I would love to make these spoon plant labels from Melbourne Epicure 

And my own garden gloves from a pattern by Heather Ross 

Or this tool apron pattern here 

A nicer way to bag up that garden waste from Hen and Hammock 

And a lovely way to gather and store my homegrown veg

Phew... This gardening lark is really exhausting....Cuppa tea?

✴ five minutes peace...

Haven't played along with my place and yours in a few weeks because of this that and the other...The theme queen this week, Pilgrim , has chosen five minutes peace;

where do you retreat to for that sanity-regaining break? i am interested in what or where in your home your sanctuary is.

Hhmmm......Five minutes peace.......

Five

minutes

peace...

What's that??!!!!

I suppose on a good baba napping day I like to escape to the garden, weather permitting and have a few moments of peace and fresh air with a cup of hot tea....And maybe a chocolate digestive...Or two...And dream about the vegetable patches that are a long time in the making but forever in the dreaming...