Micro veg!

After a blustery day of showers on Friday I found the broad bean plant on the corner had snapped off at ground level. This was a disaster as it had about 10 pods on it.  I picked the very under formed beans and found I had a tablespoon of micro beans!

Waste not, want not. I added a few baby spinach leaves from the tunnel and made a risotto with them! Stirred in the last fish portions from the fish market down by the nearby port and it was a very tasty meal!  Sorry no picture of the risotto it disappeared too fast!

Meanwhile I am on an evening  slug hunt - suddenly the lettuce are full of the little so and so's!

Three river race on the Norfolk Broads

Went out for some free fun today.  We heard about an annual race of traditional sail boats on the Broads and decided to go and watch the fun of the boats shooting under the low stone bridges. I first heard of this many years ago when I first read Arthur Ransom's Coot Club! Apart from paying for car parking it was free to sit on the river bank and enjoy the fun.

We are buying a boat soon, a Drascombe lugger, that has a similar but much smaller rig. But we will not be trying to "shoot" at high speed under the bridges - these people drop the sails and mast about 50 feet from the stone bridges as the prizes go to the fastest round!! 

We wandered across Norfolk there and back via the B roads so we could get to know more of the small towns and villages plus visit the coast on the way home for a lung full of sea air and a paddle!

Beautiful evening and was still 16C at 6.30pm

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Upcycling

I have finished painting an old chair last week and made a thin cushion to sit on it.  I wanted something dark to contrast and choose some old blue plush nylon curtain material.  I machine embroidered the pattern on using cream thread and a design from last month's Sew magazine.

I then used the pattern to decorate a large old metal jug I found abandoned in the stables when we moved in.

My grand daughters brought me a present recently of some clay pots on a tray for herbs - which I can really use as I have some ready to come in and sit on the kitchen window. Their Mum is an excellent car-booter and this present had obviously been picked up in one of their outings. It was unopened but the set of paints had gone off.  I used the same blue "chalk" paint on these and added some of the same design used on the cushion.

All of my upcycling is coming together and I should have a pretty conservatory area soon.  I just need to get some new lino - nothing I do is getting the floor clean looking.

Fledgling

I had just about finished the weeding today when I pulled the bucket out from the store to collect the last bits I found a tiny, tiny fledgling blue tit nestled in the bottom.

Eventually it flew off to the elderflower tree quite happy.

Having finished the weeding I had to find another job and spent an hour washing the windows and the car!

Everything is beginning to grow well in the veg garden and fill out.  I love the allotment art of Chris Cyprus (do have a look at his web site) and I was pleased to see sonme pictures with some bird scaring bottles on sticks which is one thing I do. They rattle and vibrate.  But my veg plot/allotment is never going to be as neat as those in the pictures. Besides the bottles, I have half a dozen sainsbury carrier bags tided to sticks - their bright orange fades after 3 weeks but they make a lovely rustling noise in the wind and seem to be keeping the pigeons and peasants off!!

Hoping for some showers this Friday just to bring a few things on in the garden.

VisitingThetford and Bressingham Gardens

Been away with family in Thetford area enjoying a weekend  break. The forest is lovely,

We saw some lovely deer close up - sorry no photos as my camera is not that good.  I did capture Henry the  (partially) tame heron that hangs about the river bank in the centre of Thetford. Apparently he was hand fed after the river was polluted some time ago and is fed whitebait daily now. A rather nice riverside area if you are ever in the town.

We also went to Bressingham (ignoring the Wyevale garden centre) and headed straight for the steam trains and exhibits.  Where 11 month grandson really enjoyed his first experience of grand parents and steam trains!

Eventually we escaped from grand parenting for a visit to the wonderful perennial gardens. You have to be a certain age to remember Adrian Bloom on gardening programmes in the 1970s!  The gardens were lovely and we must revisit later in the year to see the full glory of the flower beds.

 On the way home we visited a boat dealer and looked at some Drascombe Luggers. A boat we have long coveted. We are trying to decide if we can cash in some retirement funds and have some fun!  All our automatic watering systems worked while we were away and crops had made some progress. The veg garden was a bit dry as there had been no showers and it felt a bit too cool to encourage sweetcorn or courgettes we had planted out to make much progress.  Still I harvested a couple of radishes and a little gem lettuce to supplement the food delivered by Sainsbury's five minutes after we came in the door.  I am really liking this internet grocery shopping as it saved a tiring trip to the supermarket on the way home!

Another prize!

On one of my previous blogs (16 April) I wrote about entering a simplicity competition to make a blouse.
 Today I received a prize of a new dress pattern just for entering!

Now I am tempted by yet more sewing to be done!

Upcycling - a bit of fun for the garden

When we moved in here I found one of those metal cat garden ornaments with a nodding head tossed under some bushes. Sweet but not remarkable.

Then I saw some in the garden centre spray painted orange and turquoise and costing nearly £30! That was a challenge to any frugal/thrifty minded person! And not a chance of spending on car spray paint!

The "chalk" like paint I have been using in the conservatory said it was OK for metal as well as wood so I had a go. After a couple of coats I went to the shed and found an old pot of glossy brown and decorated the cat with spots! There was some hobby paints nearby left by the grand daughters and only the orange was any good - hence the scary eyes.  It now lurks in the bushes looking very smart.

We have enjoyed the Chelsea Flower show coverage (definitely no daft cats there!) and have picked up some ideas.  My husband wants to have a wicker woven enclosed seating area (but we have to find a cheaper source than the local garden centre for wicker as we noticed the prices recently were quite high).  We both fancied the idea of a water feature.  We liked the water dribbling down the fishing wire and forming a curtain in a wooden frame. Did you see it?  We discussed how and have worked out how to do it - using recycled wood, some spare watering tubing, fishing line and a darning needle to push the line through the tube!  We would power it using a solar watering kit and some tubs as a reservoir.  Now we have one of these kits we are "well impressed" with what they can do,
Will put this on our possible project list!

I was inspired by the lupin display - I want a bed just of these!

Oh gosh - it has just started hailing. What strange weather we are having.

Sneezing

Laid low for a few days with another bout of allergies. Sneezing and, well you don't want to know!

Not much to record.

Rapid planting of last of small plants in veg garden in eager anticipation of a few damp days this week to bed them in.

Out fruit trees planted in November are blossoming well. Loads of plums on the Avalon, gooseberries and blackcurrants are looking bountiful  and the Bramleys' are in beautiful bloom.

Spending day indoors to sniff and snuffle.  But I am not going to complain as our neighbours faces are grey and drawn as they lurch from one cancer crises to the next. Poor dears.

Lovely gifts

I am not sure which I am most happy with!
Neighbour gave me free reign of his rhubarb in exchange for a courgette plant!

They were great big stems and I only took half a dozen.I was waiting for a delivery so spent half an hour today lightly stewing this,

Popped three containers  into the freezer as the big dish at the back will last a couple of days. It was not stringy at all, considering how big the plants are!

My other gift was my prize from the readers letters page on Sew magazine. Some lovely squares of craft/quilting material.

Day out

Been feeling really tired lately so we decided the only way to truly relax was to actually go out! As we have only been here since July we have lots of new places to explore. This week it was my husband's choice to explore the Denver Sluice complex.

This is where several waterways are controlled by sluice gates which protect Ely and Cambridge.
Some boating takes place from here down to Ely.

We had a chat with a nice retired couple putting their Mirror dingy into the rowing/sailing club park.  It was too windy but they were looking forward to a summer of messing about in boats. We are still debating what kind of boat we want and where to keep it and the information they shared was very helpful.
Nice lunch in the waterside pub (Jenyms Inn). Camembert with warm cranberry for me, and whiting for my husband.
We came home via two garden centres where we were looking for a Sorbus tree and a lilac bush. And we still forgot to get the new ball of garden string!

Has anyone noticed how lovely the verges are at the moment?  So lovely with the cow parsley in bloom.

Renovating a wooden chair

Inspired by fellow Blogger over on Textile Treasury who had  painted up some of her wooden stools, I set to work on a paint splatted wooden chair that lives in the conservatory and is used as a spare for large family gatherings.

All the round legs and spindle back were a pain but I persevered with light coats from every angle till all the brown varnish disappeared.  I was given the blue/grey paint by my son (did not suit the colour scheme at their house). It is Wickes wood/metal paint that has a "modern matte" finish - "chalk" paint and as it is water based quite pleasant to use..

I am now designing a cushion to fit the seat using a pattern from my May edition of Sew magazine.  You put it on tracing paper and then machine through.  Interesting technique - good job there was an interesting programme (Secret Castles)  on when I went to pull all the bits of tissue out of the stitches as it took some time!

I am trying to get a white pattern on strong blue fabric and will carry on embellishing the lines to make it stand out. Then I will make a backing and ties to keep it in place on the seat.

Won't be so many arguments about who gets the spare dining room chair next family meal - they will all want the pretty one!

Beans!

At last some signs of crops to come.

We planted the broad beans in the autumn and spent all the winter and early spring watching them being blown flat by gale force winds.  Now we have some baby beans!

My husband has been beavering away on the automatic water system. If you have ever thought of doing this allow a lot of time! From the hose connection there is a 4 mm pipe that has sub pipes you put to each pot or small area and from another joint there is a seep hose to the main bed,  On the tap there is a timer.  It all needs to be balanced and checked which means I get to trudge back and forth turning on and off the tap. I make use of each journey to gather rubbish or pull a weed!

Complete change of the weather, sewing and a magazine mention

After the long dry spell it was great to get some rain. Could have done without the wind though. The white Montana Clematis that had just covered the garage roof and was about to flower was ripped up and rolled up like a duvet!  The blackbirds had been nesting in the sides and their nests are now 3 feet under the growth. Hope they are all right, the birds are still around looking for worms in the lawn and stealing bits of my aubrieta for nest material.

I had just rebuilt my scarecrow and it went out for a road test in 50 mph winds!

In preparation for the damp coming we had spent the last good afternoon (Sun) putting in some more pea seeds, swede and parsnips and planted, with great hope, the first french and runner bean plants, sweetcorn and some lettuce!  If it is mild these will give us some early crops, if not, we have some back ups on the way. The wind abated today and had a look earlier today and they had all survived the weather but the pigeons had been at the french beans - scarecrow was taken off his chimney pot and put on guard on the veg plot! Our neighbour showed us the 4 rows of his peas the pigeons had been at - or rather he showed us the empty space. They had all gone!

While it was raining I took some time out to do so re-organizing of my sewing room and finishing up some sewing projects. I found a baby's sun hat that needed a lining.

Made a sewing "pyramid"  (a storage box for a basic sewing kit) from instructions in a May Martin book (Great British Sewing Bee).

I quite liked this furnishing fabric ( a scrap given to me) which I matched with some purple material from my scrap box.  All the other bits like the string, beads and paper fasteners were all just hanging around in various storage boxes.
I then made another string of bunting. I used a different pattern this time that was a sharper triangle (from www.smalldreamfactory.com) and some material from my recent trip to the sewing show in London.  The pattern is cheeky monkeys and will be for my lovely grandson who is growing rapidly and improving his crawling techniques ( we get to see lots of his development via his Dad's facebook video clips).

 When I got back from voting and was just as I was going for a sit down with a cup of coffee today my Sew Magazine turned up and on the readers letter page was my contribution and photo.  That was a nice surprise.

Preparing for a long hot summer and watering

Here in Norfolk we have already had a long dry sunny spell of weather which means as the fruit and veg have been planted up and starting to develop they have taken up a lot of the day with a hose and then there is the worry of wanting to go off for the day ......
Our very kind and techie son sent as a lovely watering kit this week.

This is solar powered and works with a water butt so will be very eco!

We dug around the sheds and found some of the previous watering kits from our last two houses (probably fitted up such systems 3 times in our various moves!) and got out all the hose pipes and connectors .

The battery powered timer still had power after a year in storage!

We started to plan in all out and after some more work and £20 on extras we should be able to automatically water the entire 60 ft of poly tunnel, greenhouse and 4 hanging baskets and various patio pots. That will save a lot of time and mean we are free to wander off to the seaside!

Meanwhile I have been trying out making bunting. You see so much bunting  around.  It is a very time consuming and takes quite a lot of material. No wonder it is priced quite highly in the shops!  Now I get the techniques I might make some in prettier materials.  This was just some left over terracotta curtain material hanging around from eldest son's first house and some appliqued shapes from some material from my mother's house clearance. I do like to make use of this stuff!  It is cheering up my conservatory - I ran a paint brush over the wooden frames quickly so it is a bit brighter for this summer but it really needs to be demolished or completely renovated.

Retireewannabe (http://frugalinessex.blogspot.co.uk/) asked on her blog what were plans for the bank holiday weekend - mine was to make something for Handmade Monday on Lucy Blossom Crafts blog ( http://www.lucyblossomcrafts.co.uk/handmade-monday.html ).  I have one of May Martin's book and there is a nice sewing box which I was planning to make as a gift. Hope I can find the time!