Not all rain...

 It feels as though it has been raining almost every day for weeks. Bits of my garden are so consistently wet I have stopped fighting it and made a wildlife pond! But looking back through the last couple of months photos, there have been a smattering of nicer days and blue skies. 

A surprise large pond tucked behind an old community hospital, so peaceful...

This was mid April when the fresh green growth was just getting going on the trees, giving them a splash of lime against the blue sky...

The plants in the garden are going crazy and the borders that looked as though they were underplanted suddenly look a bit overcrowded! I do this every year! I've allowed the forget me knots to take over a bit but I do love their frothy blue in every gap.

On the odd day when it has been dry enough and warm enough for a coffee in the garden, I love to look at it from a different perspective, through the alliums about to dazzle with their purple globes of stars...

And I am constantly amazed by natures ability to just 'inhabit' - this pond was wet mud 2 months ago. A bit of pond liner, a few old stones from around the garden, a wood pile behind a nearby shrub and a few bargain pond plants which are just getting going...and the frogs have already moved in! They sun themselves on the branch I left in the pond, or on the marginal plants or just chill out in the water, just hanging there. I have spotted five at once :-) and it has made me stop fretting about blanket weed as they don't seem unduly bothered and I think it will just sort itself out eventually.

I don't think it is possible to overestimate the positive impact this small outdoor space on my doorstep has on me. It is chaotic, full of plants that run riot, flop and smother their neighbours - definitely a work in progress in terms of the continuity of colour and form the garden design gurus tell you about - but it is undeniably a little community of living things that just get on with it, whatever I do or the weather does. And sometimes it just makes me stop to watch and listen and breathe...

S x

As winter recedes...I hope!

I am really not very good at the winter! I have always hated being cold and I now realise that I don't do well when the days are short and the light is limited. So as January and February inch past, I am relishing the glimpses of winter sunshine and the signs of new life reliably returning to the garden and hedgerows.

For various reasons, I haven't managed many photos for the last month but the snowdrops appearing in drifts have lifted my soul. On the woodland walk to the local garden nursery...

I enjoyed my first coffee and cake in the garden of the year with just a little weak sunshine brightening the sleepy flower beds...

And from my place under the pergola, last years teasel heads with this years plum blossom buds, ready to burst into frothy pale pink (forgive the lousy focus and the dodgy fence backdrop!)...

I must take some more photos of the things coming up - feels like Spring is just around the corner...

S x

so much yarn...

In my effort to fill my time by using up all those unused balls of wool and leftover bits and pieces, and with a complete inability to focus on anything for long, I am flitting from one project to another!

Some years ago, I bought some yarn online, thinking it would be chunky yarn for a squishy blanket. 

Only when it arrived, it seems the 'tiny' bit means that its actually not much different to an aran weight and wasn't what I had in mind for a chunky blanket at all. Plus it has a chenille like finish and is 100% polyester and although it is very soft I'm not mad keen on the feel of it. I have tried several times to knit something or crochet something and I have unravelled it each time, so it has sat in my wool store staring at me each time I go to make something!

Then in my pattern scrolling a few days ago, I came across a pattern on you tube called "Very easy to make baby blanket crochet knitting pattern for beginners" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JncCpTYG9y0&list=UULFcEnqXHB3a8A4oMeyW_HyYw&index=76 - it uses a thicker yarn but I figured it was worth playing with and a day later...

I had made a squishy infinity scarf! Which is the first thing I've made with this yarn I haven't wanted to pull out! Only I still had another full ball...

So I made a mitten, which I kind of made up on the fly... and although it looks a slightly odd shape, it fits my hand! Which maybe means my hands are an odd shape! Better on...

Only, rather stupidly, I didn't write down what I was doing, so now I have to try and figure it out to make the other one to match 😂. Good job they are just for me!

The colours are a bit rubbish because the light has been so awful - maybe I'll take a better one outside when I have a pair!

S x

sculptures in the park...

Got taken out today for a slow walk in the sunshine. Love the sculpture trail against the winter planting and light.

It was cold though! And we were ready for a warm up in the cafe afterwards!

S x
 

playing with patterns...

Too much time on my hands! Or maybe I should just see it as an opportunity. Relatively stuck - unable to drive and limited to short walks if it looks dry enough to brave with the crutches - has given me endless scrolling time! There are so many crochet patterns out there! So given I have lots of bits of sock wool to play with, thought I'd do a few little squares in different patterns and see what I like. Still not decided what I'll do with them yet! Maybe a sample blanket or cushion - depends how many I get out of the bits I suppose and what they look like together in the end.

So far...

...moss stitch, a kind of compromised shell stitch made into a square, a two row pattern I found (no idea if it has a name), a kind of bubble stitch, a sc/htr alternate pattern, and a crochet mitred square. Of course they are all a bit of the skew and I haven't sewn ends in yet but I'm having fun playing!

Only then I got side tracked, because I really like the feel (and ease to be honest, loving a bit of mindless crochet at the moment!) of moss stitch, so tried combining one of the sock yarns with a left over sport weight in cream...

Oh I liked this - I did it on a size 5 hook so it made up into quite a dense fabric - for a blanket I think I'd go up a hook size to give a better drape but I think this might be heading for a cushion cover. Only, as always when I try to use up my stash, now I need some more cream to make a back for it!! Unless I can think of a way of combining other leftovers.

And similarly...

I thought I had another half ball of the jade but no! So now I have half a cushion cover, destined for my bedroom which is heading for a remake with this colour as accent colour, waiting for me to decide what to do for a back. Maybe I'll raid the charity shops for a sweater to repurpose or some unwanted yarn from elsewhere - I am determined not to buy new!

I finished my latest pair of socks...

These pics show the colour better as there was a bit more decent natural light. Usually I bother to unwind the yarn to make sure the socks properly match but I just couldn't be bothered this time so I have slightly random stripes! I don't care so figured what does it matter - if I was giving them to someone else I'd have made the effort.

And in between all the hooky stuff, it has finally been bright enough and dry enough to swap my endless laps of the living room for a short, slow very cold walk round the park at the end of my road. So lovely to feel a little winter sunshine and see some blue sky.

S x

Playing with yarn...

The weather has been so cold and wet that attempting a walk on crutches outdoors seems unwise, so in between wearing a track in my carpet doing laps of the living room, I have been trying to fill the time with crafty stuff. I am trying not to buy more yarn just yet, as I have a fair bit left from other projects or random  purchases, so I have made a couple of pairs of socks and am playing with a two-tone crochet pattern...

I don't usually go for just two colours but am quite enjoying the rhythm of this double/half treble pattern, which carries the colour not in use across as you crochet which seems to have two effects - it is making a nice squishy fabric and no ends to sew in - yay! I think this is heading to be a cushion but haven't quite decided yet.

Never one for just one thing on the go at a time (I get bored very quickly!), I have almost finished another pair of socks...

I love knitted socks - they last better and are warmer than any I have ever bought - but I have ended up with lots of left over bits...

...so I have been trying to decide what to do with them all. I could do more socks and mix and match but I'm a bit done with knitting for a bit I think, so have been playing with crochet ideas. Its much finer than I usually crochet with so it may try my patience but for now I'm going to make a few little squares and see how I feel.

I'm quite liking this little off centre square - can't quite decide how they will look together but will see how it looks when I've made a few!

Work in progress!

S x

Little things...

I find something quite fascinating and pleasing about shadows. I always have, not sure why, but remember as a child chasing my shadow along the pavement and being shown how to make shadow puppets on the wall. I think it's a bit like finding pictures in fires or clouds, something slightly abstract about the shapes and transience of the image. 

Today is bitterly cold and I'm not sure I will get outdoors - I can't move fast enough to keep warm at the moment and don't think I can face it on my own - but it is intermittently quite bright and I am enjoying the patterns playing across my wall as the sun moves across the front window. Also beats looking at the dust that shows up in the sunlight!

I'm also enjoying the houseplants, which are so much happier in this house than the last two places I've lived, presumably because the house gets so much more natural light, where before I had north facing windows and constantly needed a light on. Not just the plants that have benefited from that! I had one sickly looking spider plant for about 8 years, which has now spawned multiple offspring and thrived in this house.

I'll take that as a thing to feel positive about.

S x