Nearly there!

I’ve reached that stage with my current piece of work I’m crocheting where I can finally see the end in sight, I know it will only be a few more days, a week or 2 at most and I will finally be sewing in that last end and snipping off the last thread when I can finally stop all work and say ‘I’ve finished – hurrah’

Oddly though I’m beginning to slow down and take my time, knowing that it will all be over. It’s much like when you’ve been out for a gruelling run, the journey hasn’t been easy and at times you’ve wanted to give up or questioned why you even started and then suddenly you see the finishing point and you know you’re gonna make it, that actually it was quite a ride and you begin to settle down into it and enjoy it at a leisurely pace, thoughts of all the struggles gone in a whisper.

Or when you’re reading an epic novel which took you ages to get into and understand the plot and an age to get to know the characters without having to re-read the last chapter to remind yourself and then suddenly you’ve only a few chapters to go and you realised you’re not ready to leave these people and their lives, that you want to hold on that little while longer and you begin to savour every word, well that’s how I feel right now.

This blanket has really been a while in the making, I think I actually started way back at the start of last year in fact, I can argue that life got a little bit in the way because at one point life really didn’t have much opportunity in it for me to even lift my hook, let alone finish this blanket, but it’s true what they say, time really does fly.

 Here I am, my all consuming baby girl on the brink of turning 2 and fast becoming so independent – her favourite saying right now being ‘I do it!’ to testify to this fact. Increasing my working hours from part time to full time. A house move that I thought would cause me such upheaval and months of unrest is now a distance memory and thankfully an easy transition. And finally my eldest daughter, fast becoming a young lady in front of my eyes took to the relocation, new school and friends so easily and so well that I don’t know why I ever fretted so much like I did – kids really are so very resilient!

So here I am, finally able to slip back to a way of life I enjoy so very much – gardening, reading, days out with the family, crocheting, baking and even a return to Blogland.

And much like finishing a good read or getting to the end of that long run, the excitement is always to find new books, or a new route (with maybe less hills) or beginning to dream of that next project, all good things come to an end, but when one door closes, another one opens.

So I will enjoy getting to the end of my blanket, I will dream of the day when I fold it up and take it with us on our next outing and I will quietly gloat at what I have achieved while we sit and eat our first picnic on it, any takers on who will be the first to spill juice all over it??

Easter Break

The second week of the school Easter Break has been as busy as the first, only this week I also had to fit in going to work for 2 days as well, but the time I wasn't at work was enjoyably spent with my 2 girls.

On Friday we went to Harewood House, it is only a short 10 mile journey from where we live and well worth the visit. It has lovely grounds, an amazing adventure play area for the kids of all ages and places to eat, drink and generally saunter round.  The Bird Garden also had the girls full attention and at 2pm they even fed their resident penguins.

It was so very lovely to just let the girls have their freedom and allow them to run about within sight, enjoying whatever they wanted to do.  They coloured in badges, talked to the birds, ate ice cream and spent sooooo long at the play park that their legs must surely be ready for dropping off

The hours flew by and we had hardly explored all the grounds had to offer and we didn't even visit the house, I figured we could do that another day when the weather was not as nice and it didn't seem fair to drag the girls away from the park to make them walk calmly round the house, they had serious energy to burn!

When we did eventually get home, youngest daughter had fallen asleep in the car and I managed to successfully move her from the car into her bed - result! Then eldest daughter asked if we could use the time to make some biscuits - well, this at least meant I could try out my latest purchase, my biscuit stamp!  

Using a simple plain biscuit recipe:

250g softened butter

140g caster sugar

1 egg yolk

300g plain flour

2 tsp vanilla extract

Daughter No1 quickly mixed together the butter and sugar, added the egg yolk and vanilla extract and finally the flour and I mixed them all together and formed it into a ball.  Taking small portions of the mixture and rolling it in my hand to make a small ball the size of a walnut, I placed the ball onto the baking tray and using the stamp, pushed it down firmly onto the ball of dough till it was half a centimetre thick - easy!

These were then popped into a preheated oven of 180C or 160C for fan assisted ovens and cooked for 12-15 minutes or until slightly golden.

I think these would make a lovely gift popped inside a polythene gift bag and tied with ribbon, but for now they made a great accompaniment to a good strong cup of tea and 5 minutes peace and quiet while daughter No2 continues to nap!

I'm off to find a corner of the garden with my cuppa and biscuit, while the sun is shining and enjoy the last official day of the Easter school break before it's all back to the usual routine next week - boo!!

Green Fingers

There is still another week left of the Easter holidays.  Hopefully this week will be a little more relaxed, last week we were away in Cumbria at Centre Parcs, the weather was sunny and warm and we packed a lot in.  

It was nice to see on our return that the seedlings were shooting up fast, the French beans had only just popped their heads out of the compost when we left and now they are a good 6 inches high.

The tomatoes and courgettes are also doing really well and this week I have been potting them onto larger pots, still resisting the urge to plant out in the garden until all chance of frost has passed

The salad leaves have been busy and will soon be ready to use.  I have also sown more trays of these leaves so I can produce a continuos supply for as long as I can.

 The strawberry plants are beginning to show signs of producing their first tiny fruits, just need to remember to get some netting rigged up before the birds notice too!

The 3 potato sacks that I have are all producing lots of lovely growth and I will have to start earthing them up soon. 

My husband surprised my this week by buying me a plastic greenhouse, it was as cheap as chips but it means I can move my assortment of trays and pots from the numerous windowsills.  For the last week I have been hardening off these seedlings outside during the day and now feel they can tolerate a night in the greenhouse if frost isn't forecasted. 

They all look like they are coping well. 

Back soon xx

Spring is Springing

I just can’t believe it, I’ve been away from this blog for near on 13 months. At the time I hadn’t given it any thought that I would be taking time away, just other things happened that meant I simply didn’t get the time! A young baby, returning to work and full time hours and moving house twice all took its toll on giving myself the time and luxury of writing posts, let alone actually doing anything worthy of posting about.

I have been fortunate enough though to at least find time to do a few projects, crochet wise, and I always find time to bake, my kids would perish if their diet didn’t include plenty of cupcakes, I’m sure the hubby would divorce me if I stopped baking!!

This time of year though is when I really feel myself getting excited, I love spring, with that sense of anticipation of what is to come. Already we have seen a couple of warm days, with temperatures high enough to get out in the garden and even cut the grass.

Since moving to West Yorkshire from Lincolnshire, my only regret about the move has been the loss of my allotment. If I’m honest, I was fortunate to be offered a new plot near where I live now, but at the time, my second daughter was still so very young and the plot needed a lot of work, the 2 factors combined meant that I didn’t have the time or energy to commit to it and sadly I declined the offer.

But every cloud has a silver lining and as much as the thought of moving house again so soon after moving previously filled me with dread, the upheaval and effort has all been worth it because this house has a lovely big, south facing garden – I feel so lucky. I have never had such a big garden, well not since when I was a kid. Not only can we fit in the obligatory trampoline and also a small playhouse, but I also can think about starting to grow a bit of fruit and veg.

Nothing will ever be on the scale of when we owned our own plot, but in hindsight, we did produce enough stuff to supply an army – well, in our case, most of the street (not that the neighbours complained, I mean I wouldn’t if I opened my door to a punnet of strawberries, some raspberries, freshly dug potatoes, carrots and beetroots and a handful of mixed herbs) We simply grew so much food that I couldn’t bear to see it wasted but also couldn’t actually manage to handle it all, even if a lot of it went in to making chutney’s, jams and pickles, there was just an endless supply – oh the courgettes!!!!!

So I figure, a kitchen garden will be more manageable and so I have turned every available windowsill into an impromptu propagator and set about sowing some seedlings. Container growing will be the main stay of my kitchen garden with a small vegetable plot to the side of the house. I have also found small pockets in the flower beds that can easily fit in a few rows of strawberry plants and even a globe artichoke. A sad empty gap outside the back door will soon be my herb garden, just big enough to have a small selection of herbs, just in handy reach of when I’m cooking up a storm in the kitchen!

Already I have noticed the bonus of growing my own veggies at home, the kids get to carrying on playing in the garden while I’m preparing seed trays or watering seedlings.

So far on my list of seeds or plants I’m growing are:

Tomatoes / potatoes / rhubarb / globe artichoke / strawberries / peppers / courgettes (yellow & green varieties) / dwarf French beans / mixed salad leaves

In addition I also want to grow carrots / beetroot / raspberries / sweetcorn / cucumbers & shallots. I got some Kale and Chard free with a magazine I bought recently so I’ll give that a crack as well.

The garden also hosts a whopping great big apple tree, cookers, not eaters, but still a great addition to the garden.

So, I hope I will be showing my face around here more often, I am still enjoying crocheting as much as always, bonus there is, in the evening when I can’t be in the garden, I can be slumped out in front of the tv, crocheting instead.

Have a great Easter xx