Tuesday 27 September 2016

Seals

Hi to new followers!  I am a bit behind this week as we have had visitors. Friends for over 40 years came to spend a long weekend. We had a great time and the weather held up to give us great opportunities to get out and about and take some long walks together.

We went to see the seals at Blakeney Point. You start at Morston Quay, in a muddy car park where it seems to be organised chaos. But it works! You book spaces in advance, check by phone first thing re weather etc and then half and hour before high tide that the boat is going. You find your boat company (about 5 operators) by its colour of T shirts on the crew and boat trim. Ours was orange.  And you board off these wooden structures as far down the creek as the boat will float with 40 people aboard!
A short ride out to the sands where the grey and common seals gather on the warm sands. The grey's got in the clear water and swam out to view the gwarkers!

It was a great trip..

Followed by lunch and an afternoon paddle on the sands at Wells-next the sea, and later supper with another old friend in Hunstanton. And so  home, 16 hours after we left, exhausted!!



Sunday 25 September 2016

Making a petticoat

I had been thinking about making a full length petticoat ( or slip, to use a more modern term) for some time.  One of my cotton dresses just felt uncomfortable without a slip, and my only one had long gone after many years of faithful service. Then I read a sewing blog of someone who had the same problem and had made her own. Inspired to get on with it I had another look through the pattern box and found a simple pattern. 



I then looked in the stash box of fabric given to me and found a thin pink nylon and a silky blue rayon.  Having just made something where I ignored all the rules of sewing on a bias this project was all bias work!  The pattern was cut single layer on the cross grain!
It does you good to try something new and I even mastered the roleau straps technique.  I also learned that a blunt needle int he sewing machine and this kind of fabric do not work. Essential to change to the right needle.
And the rolled bias binding that you attach on the wrong side and roll over the top edges to make a facing down on to the right side.Not a great picture -sorry.

Now its nearly finished (will post a pic later)  I am thinking it is substantial enough to be worn as a nightie and the thinner pink fabric may be a better slip.  I will get back to the stash box for another go at this simple make. Especially when I saw that a simple slip in the shops is at least £14!!  Blimey, since I no longer work in a posh office and go to endless conferences  I only wear a dress 2 or 3 times in the summer these days and I am not paying that for something to sit unworn in a drawer.




Friday 23 September 2016

Frugal projects



A couple of weeks ago I set myself two frugal and thrifty make over projects. One was to make a top from a pretty cotton standard size pillowcase I brought for 50p.
I  could not make it work just cutting a neck in the end as I am a size 14 at least. I used the longer width with a Simplicity pattern which gave me a simple pull over  top down to navel. Not being of the cropped top generation, I used the remaining fabric to join a strip along the bottom to lengthen and the odd bits to make a binding round the neck and armholes. I ignore all the good sewing practices of joining patterns and cutting on bias or even using matching thread  (just used a similar enough colour from the sewing basket).


It worked out fine. I now have thin top for gardening. I found I wore this kind of top with shorts for the majority of this summer as it was cooler than t-shirt knit material.  I need about 4 more so that I have one for every day.  That is one of my winter projects!

My other frugal re-make was to rescue and re paint a chair for my cabin.  Here it is with its coat of bright buttercup gloss.


The paint cost £5 in the local hardware shop and now I remember why we have choosen water based paints in the house. Yuk smell and long drying time. It was a very small tin and I only used a quarter up. So more up cycling projects will have to be found for this paint.

The chair makes a bright statement against the blue paint of the cabin interior.


Thursday 22 September 2016

lawn recovery

Its amazing what  a couple of good days of rain will do to a lawn.  Even last week this lawn was brown and dead.


It gets full sun all day but its real problem is that in 2014 it was a neglected and abandoned menage of 3 feet deep sand.


The thin crust of soil we put on the top does not stop it heating up below and it soon dries out. But it rained all day last Saturday and half a day this weekend and its back green and growing!

I know other east coast bloggers were suffering from the prolonged hot spell - I hope everyone's lawn is greening up again!



Wednesday 21 September 2016

Hungry family of 10 needed!

Our summer crop of pointed cabbage has gone a little mad! This one is 20 inches high and 37 inches round and I can scarcely carry it. The outer leaves and stalk practically filled the wheelbarrow.  It can't fit in the fridge so is lurking in the dark under-stairs cupboard.

Luckily its not closely packed like a white cabbage in the middle even so a slice is more hand enough for a meal for us two.   We have visitors over the weekend - I hope they like cabbage.

What we really need is a large vegetable hungry family of 10 for a week - as there is another one lurking in the brassica bed which is even larger.



Friday 16 September 2016

Getting Cabin sorted out.


Readers of this blog will remember I have been lucky enough to have had a log cabin for sewing etc built in our garden.


Finally all the painting, inside and out, has been done, floor fitted and electrics supplied so I am able to move in finally. All my boxes and bags of "stuff" were collected up from the house and taken out yesterday and as it was raining today I was able to go and play!  Sewing stuff is on one side.
My art stuff is on the other side.

My husband is planning tables and shelves for me later.  He is busy sorting his wood working shed which has just been re wired as well.  The bill will be heavy but we want to enjoy our hobbies for the next few years and spend some time relaxing and being creative.

For light relief this week from working hard I have been  watching one of those channels with old repeats and have found "Down to Earth" again and wanted to see if it as "durable"  TV as I remembered. as it has good actors, I adored the Faith Aldiss books so i will only watch the first few series - after that it just got silly and was nothing like her life after she left the Devon small holding.

We are preparing for visits and getting away in October - some exciting plans in hand!

Thursday 15 September 2016

Foggy and freebie

Welcome from a dense but COOL fog!  No pictures - can't see your hand in front of your face here!

The postman found his way here and brought a freebie. I saw this in a sewing magazine or link somewhere and filled in my address. Firm advertising their sewing needles.  Very generous freebie - but counter productive as it will be about 5 years now till I need to order some!


Lots of news in a few days - the electricity has been fitted to my log cabin and I am busy setting it up for my hobbies space for the winter!   Lots of projects in mind.

Meanwhile with rain forecast we are clearing bits of veg beds so that the soil can soak it all up at last.


Sunday 11 September 2016

Carrot crop and carrot cake

My husband has grown the best carrots he has ever tried this year. The first few rows got flea beetle and failed but the next two have matured beautifully and are great.  To celebrate I made my first carrot cake ever. using the Mary Berry recipe on BBC Good Food site. It is also the first time I have used vegetable oil method.  



It was very nice, a bit rich perhaps for every day cake and definitely too rich for 8 pm on a Wednesday night when we have a treat and watch Bake Off!  I did not really like the icing glaze.  I must learn how to do the butter icing you get in most cafes.

I see GB Bake off is doing batter this week - can't think of anything to make beyond pancakes or toad in the hole so I will probably stick to a Victoria sponge this week!



Chilli Jam and hot flashes

Not bee posting or reading much lately as I have been suffering in the hot moist weather. First there is the post menopause hot flashes which gives me a high internal temperature for a few minutes and the body reacts by profusely sweating, Given the heat and humidity lately it was all I needed! Then there was the invasion of mosquitoes that covered me in swelling bites. The itching got worse as I got hotter!  All summer tagettes and lavender plants everywhere kept biting things at bay but the plants seem to have lost potency in September.

Thank goodness for a whole day of rain (19mm recorded in garden) and we woke to a 7 am temperature of 9.5C - frankly lovely!

In the middle of the week I did manage to make a small pan of chilli jam. I used the BBC good food recipe and it actually set well. It is put aside, as the medical advice is to avoid spicy foods while the hot flashes last, I may make another batch as we have red chilies, red peppers and lots of red tomatoes to hand and there is some red wine vinegar and brown sugar left in the cupboard.  One day soon it will be cold and I will appreciate a hot flash and taste!


Gardening seems to be mostly clearing out crops that have run there course and thinking about next year.  We are thinking more about variety, and steady progressive crops and avoiding flushes of things we can't use up quickly enough.I hate throwing good food on the compost.

Our excess crops have gone to neighbours and visitors. The deep freeze is full to busting and we have enough jams for a year. Some excess we have tried to sell.  We have made £40 from sales at the garden gate so we have covered seed costs this year just about. (We lost £4 worth of goods to people who took runner beans and tomatoes and did not leave the money). 

Thank goodness the cycling tours of Spain and Britain are finished and we can find some new TV to watch.  We enjoyed seeing the scenery (especially parts of UK we know well from past lives and visits) but it has taken up a lot of time to follow the races!



Thursday 1 September 2016

Visiting a lighthouse that is not a lighthouse

We kept away from all the holiday traffic this bank holiday weekend and went across various back roads to reach the mouth of the to the River Nene.  We knew this was the other end, from King's Lynn, on the Peter Scott Wash walk and we knew from a previous visit to the opposite bank that there were a pair of lighthouses. 

We found out from various "interpretation boards" that Peter Scott spent 6 years living at this East Lighthouse (Sutton Bridge) prior to the 2nd World War and did a lot of his famous paintings.  He started his wildfowl sanctuary in the marshes around the house.  As you can see it no longer is by the sea or in marsh land!

From the house, there is this large field with sea bank with trees, and then another one with the most recent sea bank and then marshes! No wonder he had to up sticks and start at Slimbridge instead!

It was a lovely afternoon and we saw several small boats come in and out of the river going to the wind farm just off shore.  Apparently the two "lighthouses" were only lit in the past if it was a late high tide and a ship needed to see where the channel was. Sutton Bridge (and Wisbech beyond) is only accessible on the high tides.

A lovely walk to the end of the sea bank and there were plenty of people about enjoying the last of the summer day. No money spent, free parking and we took our own tea and cake!

We were reminded of another summer's day in 2004 when we visited Slimbridge one late afternoon and took this photo.

No flamingoes spotted on the Norfolk/Lincolnshire coast - but it has been hot enough!

My latest garden triumph - a yellow pepper!  Have grown green/red before but this is the first time done yellow ones!  Will not blog pictures of the misshaped and blotchy others - but don't worry I still love the weird ones and used them up anyway!


Stupid


Dear Mr P of Lincolnshire

If you are going to dump your rubbish in remote car parks in beauty spots at least have the brains to take your name off the delivery box for a very specific and traceable buy from the local B&Q!


Yes, we have reported you and taken dated photos of the mess that occupied to parking spaces and spoiled an otherwise enjoyable parking/picnic spot for everyone else!!

Yours

Annoyed.