Sunday morning and a catch up



Another grey and wet day in Suffolk, we're very tired of them and longing for some sun and warmth so we can make a start on our much neglected allotment. Instead I have made myself a pot of proper coffee and poured some into my new mug given to me for Mother's Day..

isn't it gorgeous?

So, first a knitting catch up. I have frogged these socks, my first effort at socks and I was getting 'ladders' between the needles which was annoying, so have started again on four needles and it is coming along better, though why that should be I have no idea!

I made a cardigan for a baby a while back and his Mum requested a purple hat and mitts so have been busy with those. I made two hats in the end as I wasn't sure of his size but the smaller fits fine so he has another one ready to grow into!

aren't they sweet?


Then we come to getting ready for the growing season on our allotment. We are not the best allotmenteers but we enjoy it very much and love harvesting our own crops.

As we are both working full time, its very hard to get to the allotment every day, so we have developed a system whereby we start pretty much all our seeds off at home and then when they are established we transplant them in the allotment. We have a very small garden and no room for a greenhouse or (my dearest wish) a polytunnel so we use a basic greenhouse which costs about £20 and is really just a metal frame with shelves and a plastic cover. These don't stand up to the weather especially well so every couple of years we need a new one A couple of weeks ago I bought a new one and put it together..

 

 

As you see its really quite small but you'd be suprised what we can pack into it! The first things that get sown every spring are broad beans which I adore, picked when they are quite small and the skins are still tender they are completely delicious - yum.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I got these two trays with pots from Aldi for something silly like £1.99 each! they are great and do the job perfectly.

 



 

 

 

 

 

I have also taken the precaution of starting some of the shallots off in pots just in case the bad weather continues and we can't clear the ground in time. There are still some left in the box to go out on the allotment but they are sprouting and I shall have to do something with them soon.

 

So thats me all caught up  - what are you doing today?





Mother's Day

A tad late I know and no pics either, so maybe not a very interesting blog to read.... I have three children, two are very good with cards and presents and remembering important dates, the third one finds anything like that very difficult, its not meanness, I think its just total lack of interest and also perhaps not fully understanding that birthdays and Father's/Mother's Days do feel important to people, although his own birthdays etc are important to him so I think perhaps I'm being too generous, not wanting to believe one of my children is just lazy and selfish!

Anyway the other two were brilliant and I was given a beautiful Emma Bridgewater mug, some lovely orange blossom scented tealights and the Great British Bake Off book - such great presents.

We were meant to go visit my mother and take a card and some gifts, but on Saturday evening on the way home from work along flooded roads - boy have we had rain and snow in quantity - I drove into a deep flood too fast and although the car carried on and got me home, it was clearly very unhappy so we didn't want to risk an outing until we had the engine checked out. I had to have a new coil pack (no idea what that is) and the car is working properly again which is good news.

On the knitting front, I have frogged the socks and started again, I have started a scarf with some of the 2ply baby alpaca and am knitting myself a cardigan in Aran. Will post pics soon x