Thursday 30 March 2017

Compost

Composting is a weird art. It is one of those gardening things that can feel like there will never be a result from carefully collecting green stuff etc up and putting it on, day in and day out.

August 2014 - long grass cut from field and piled up.

2015 - lots of green stuff thrown on top.
2016 - left alone and it was too big to turn.

March 2017 -the same pile of grass is now being dug up and put back on the field as a dressing that is being rotavated in! The compost is  quite solid on the bottom and has taken a big effort to get down to this last quarter of the pile and find that original long grass.


As you can see in late 2015 we had time to build a proper compost box (metre square) next to the old heap.  The stuff in there has been cooking away all of 2016 and we left a doorway to take it out the bottom this time.

End of last year we started a new box at the far end of the field for processing next year.

Composting -  Its a long process!

But as not as long as the heap behind the compost which was turf turned up side down to rot in a beehive shape. That heap is only just maturing and it is darn hard work digging in to it to get at the lovely resulting soil in the middle.

Some days I'd just like to have a mini JCB for these hard gardening tasks!






Tuesday 28 March 2017

Love Productions - still inspiring for now.

Like most fans I was upset by Love Productions and the BBC fall out over the Great British Bake Off. And the fact they are not making another SEWING BEE!!!  Thank goodness in the last few weeks they have shown the Painting Challenge and The Pottery Challenge. I have been inspired to go out and do some more paintings.  I am not very good but I could see from the painting challenge you have to keep trying.  Here is my seascape. 


I have been inspired by this library book a bit too. But not enough as my houses are out of proportion with the rest!  
For some strange reason I am working on a view of Westminster bridge now - I wanted to capture a spring quietness before the horror of the past week.  I like the work of people how can really draw on the Urban sketchers web site and would love to spend time drawing in big cities.

My husband's carpentry work is producing bits of plywood so I am experimenting with painting directly on wood with acrylics and then varnished with some left over boat varnish from the shed.

It costs very little - even the hanging was a couple of fabric strips plaited together and knotted on to some left over screws.
I am thinking of doing some fairy doors for the garden for the grandchildren to find this summer next!

Monday 27 March 2017

Quilt finished

I have completed the quilt.  Thanks partly to the F1 and motorcycling grand prix schedules which has kept the husband enthralled and I have taken myself out to the sewing cabin in protest.



It more than covers the double spare bed and will be good for the King size in the other room. It cost £30 - heirloom wadding, thread, pins and machine needles.   The patchwork is cotton left overs from "the stash" - 80% new fabric and 20% recycled, previously loved, fabrics.  I used an old IKEA duvet cover for the backing but then put a coloured backing on it. The back which comes round to make the border is a polka dot double duvet from the charity shop £3.50.

It is not ultra accurate but I wanted something bright and casual (?).  I might try a patterned quilt one day and work on the accuracy of cutting and matching seams.   At present it is nice to have something so colourful instead of pale walls and white duvet covers! In my older age I think I am going far more towards bright and beautiful thing.  Do your tastes change? I was on the bus the older day with 3 or 4 older women all in beige with grey hair - I immediately wanted to dye my hair bright pink and I was glad I was in my purple coat with turquoise scarf.



Sunday 26 March 2017

Spring is here!

Another dry week here in the far reaches of Norfolk. Although the wind has been blustery and the nights cold things are moving forward at last.
The green house is now full of plants.

It has been a long week of shifting compost from the oldest "heap" to the veg garden and rotovating it. Yesterday we put in a row of broad bean plants, cabbages, sprouts and broccoli plants and sowed some parsnip seeds.  Today (when Grand Prix finally finishes) the task is to get a row of early potatoes in.

Friday night's Gardeners World "tips for the week" said to take off the greenhouse bubble wrap insulation. That same night we had a slight frost - so we will ignore that advice for a week or so here!

I will try to take a photo of the poly tunnel today. It is all prepared and my husband has been upgrading the water system in the hopes of cutting the time taken irrigating this summer.

On the odd wet half day we have had I have escaped to the sewing cabin to quilt - up and down. I tried some fancy design in the middle but it was too big, being a double bed size, to handle so I went for straight(ish) rows.

The walking foot worked well once I had invested in proper quilting thread (40 count). This was expensive in the local shop and puts the overall cost of the quilt up to £30. Main problem was the small opening between needle and machine side and I can see why serious quilters go for the specialist machines.  It was great spending time relaxing with Radio 4 for company - I listened to information on inheritance tax changes, a walk round central London tracing the history of tea importation, a walk in Northumberland with Claire Balding, obituaries of great people who have died recently like Maya Angelou and Colin Dexter, couple of good plays and some episodes from books.  I really must revisit Great Expectations!
 
I was just working up to a "big shop" and planning a new Spring menu when my husband put his head round the door and asked me not to spend more than £50 before the end of the week as he had transferred spare monies into the savings account but had forgotten to allow for a bill.  Savings? Starving here!  Never mind treats and fresh menus it was back to the basics.  I managed to harvest some things from the garden to supplement things most days.



Wednesday 22 March 2017

Solar Grill?


Easier, faster and more delicious, this fuel-free cooker can bake, boil or fry a meal for eight, using only the Sun... day or night

I was reading about an environmental project where soft plastics were melted by villages in the sub India continent to make bricks and those used to make houses! (web site of Doingyourbit)  Wow. I read the details and they mentioned using a "solar grill" designed by a Danish (woman) engineer to make the bricks. I have never heard of such a thing and today when googling the net I read more about this idea.     I want one!

(picture from a UK supplier web site, not promoting them and there are others available in the world).

Pity they are still fairly expensive, large, and don't work as well in UK - but can you just imagine if someone improved this thinking and gave us fuel free cooking!!!

Our frugal community would all be customers!


Saturday 18 March 2017

Digging

Not much time for blogging this last week or so. We have had no rain for 6 days so we hurried to complete the veg bed digging as the soil was dry and crumbly.
The joy of the last few spade/fork fulls!  This bed is 90 feet by 25 feet and, apart from the row of spring cabbage on the right and a row of leeks, has been dug over inch by inch. We had a lot of couch grass last year as well as docks and wanted to get on top of this early this year. Each spade full was examined and roots removed. 8 wheelbarrow loads went up the garden to be burnt when the roots have dried out a bit.

All the grass has been cut but as you can see from the fence in the background we still have some jobs to do!  Family are threatening to visit over Easter so we must get on.

We have taken time out when exhaustion was getting too much and joints were aching.

This is my granddaughters little chair. It came home with us after our last visit to be repaired. she had practised using her dad's drill to take out a screw so often it needed to be plugged and re-drilled. When Granddad had finished I made a little padded cushion to go over the back from various scrap material.
 Front has a No17 embroidered  on the door it to celebrate their recent move to a new house.
The back has a yellow cat on the right as she is cat-mad.

I practised my quilting on this ready to start on my patchwork quilt. Rain is due this weekend so I may make a start on that it is all pinned up and ready to go through the machine.

My husband has completed the shelves for my sewing cabin. The warmer weather meant he could glue up the boards to make some of the shelves.  He also has a new band-saw, so was keen to get the shelf unit out of the workshop and play with his new toy!  He promises more shelves later.


After all that gardening effort I must make an effort to do some cooking - meals this week have been very simple and make-shift.  I don't seem to have much in the cupboards either so I think a bit of meal planning is overdue.


Monday 13 March 2017

Wildlife

Looked out the front window and there was a blackbird with a beak full of dried grass from under the privet hedge.

Smiling, went out the back door to find the moss off the flat roof conservatory had been thrown over the edge and littered the path and step with lumps. Thanks to the birds (hedge sparrows) gathering moss for their nests. Great.

Not smiling any more. Went to the Poly tunnel to check on the watering of the seed trays put out there to harden off to find mice had nipped off 7 of the broad bean shoots and dug up and eaten the seeds.

There was a lot of muttering about wild life as the husband returned the seed trays to the safety of the greenhouse benches and swept the moss off the back door mat.



Sunday 12 March 2017

Busy week

Finally 3 dry and warm days in a row.  We started with some garden improvements.

A raised bed in our grass area by the house. We don't call in a lawn as it is not great quality! Underneath is the remains of a sand menage (horse area) we inherited. We did not really give the covering earth enough depth and it dries out in the height of summer. We are gradually installing the raised beds to break up the expanse.
Some of the soil is coming from the installation of edging along the path to my sewing cabin.  The rest is from our spare soil heap from turf removed from the veg bed creation two years ago - it is lovely crumbly soil now.


As the conditions have improved we have moved out the back and started digging over and cultivating for the summer crops. By this afternoon it was just about right and docks and plantians were easily removed.  After several hours we staggered back for a restful evening.  On the way I could not resist pulling the first half dozen sticks of rhubarb for tea.


Rain is expected tomorrow and we are taking the day off from gardening!

Wednesday 8 March 2017

British sugar

We live in an area of huge sugar beet production so it was with great annoyance that I heard the news that Tesco is not going to stock British granulated sugar.

Tesco has sparked outrage by pulling British sugar from its shelves - despite one of its biggest stores being right next to the factory that makes it.The supermarket giant is now importing stock from as far as 5,000 miles away in countries such as Belize rather than using bags made from British beet. (Peterborough News)

Silver Spoon sugar, produced with British sugar beet, was rolled out nationally in 1972.

The Bury St Edmunds packaging complex is the company’s largest packing site, featuring the most modern packaging plant in Europe, responsible for producing 70% of Silver Spoon’s 1kg packs of granulated sugar.
Every year, 2,000,000 tonnes of sugar beet are produced by 1,000 UK growers – with the average distance just 28 miles from the factory.  (East Anglian  Daily Times)

I have been reluctant to use this supermarket for years due to their supply strategies and business (non) ethics. 
So sorry, Tes-Co, no matter how many coupons and offers you make I will not willingly be a customer of yours.

Monday 6 March 2017

Frustrating spring




There are signs of spring. A few blossoms here and there - odd daff, hellebores, primroses, crocus, viburnum bodnantense, cherry tree and a few good sunny half days  - then it rains again!!!

Stock of veg seedlings building up in the greenhouse  but the veg bed itself is too wet to dig over and prepare.  We are tackling odd jobs in the flower beds to get ourselves "match ready" for an upturn in soil temperatures and a dry spell.

I have been working hard to progress my patchwork quilt.  I have read on many blogs that often people put these projects aside.  I can understand that it is a very repetitive process but I have sewn it all up now, fitted the walking foot to the sewing machine, pre-washed the wadding and am nearly ready to layer it all up!  I had intended to do spiral quilting but having read more I an thinking of sticking to a side to side pattern. It will be easier I think.

Another sign of spring = first thing this morning I saw a hare lopping around the field opposite!

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