Mon - July 17, 2006

Garden inspiration 


I love the colours of flowers in my garden and it has occured to me that although I do not paint with watercolours, I paint with plants in my garden. Some to share.... 


I love capturing the colours on film and plan using some of the colour combinations to dye yarn with. That is for the future....Always good to plan ahead. 

Posted at 06:12 PM    

Mon - January 2, 2006

Rosetta lettuce 


Lettuce begin the green feast 

Starting the sowing calendar today with 12 seeds of Rosetta lettuce in small jiffy blocks, on kitchen windowsill, should come up in 7 days and then go out to polytunnel for fresh salads in March. We shall see what goes but lettuce begin..... 

Posted at 02:06 PM    

Sat - December 17, 2005

Jobs in the garden 


Some housekeeping 

Now that I have the lovely bench in the polytunnel I really felt the need to clean out the beds, do a bit of housekeeping and make it look respectable for any visitors. It will be better prepared for the new season after the New Year. 

Posted at 04:02 PM    

Tue - September 27, 2005

Dig, clear, dig 


With the help of my friends 

Its a beautiful day, autumn weather at its best and there are a variety of things that need doing. Could I sit and knit, of course not if the sun shines that hard and DH stands there in wellie boots beckoning me to go in the garden ( apparently I need the sunshine!) I do as it happens feel a lot better when the sun is out. We managed to cut and clear a few things. I have to keep an eye on him that he does no damage to the cable when he is holding electrical equipment and that he does not cut the trees down so much that they will never grow again. Apart from that it is not that energetic to hold a lead and to see a man at work while enjoying the sunshine. We had time together to reflect on the pleasure the garden has given us this summer and I realised that he loves the bare earth and the stone walls as where I love the swathed in colourful flowers and scent. Well there you are we love the garden at different seasons. When the bare earth and stone walls show, I am probably to be found with my back to the garden knitting away, while in summer, he wonders how long it is going to be before he will be able to bring it back to walls and earth. As long as both of us get an equal share of our garden idea, which nature so bountifully appears to abide with. In the winter time, I plan my borders and then plant lots of flowers in hot colours so it provides a carpet of colour just like a noro sweater!
Talking of which I am doing another Lizzie in nature colours, lots of brown and beige, it is different. I am not a brown person but it is pleasant enough.

DAILY QUOTE
 
Truth springs from argument amongst friends 
David Hume 

Posted at 09:29 PM    

Sun - September 4, 2005

Harvest time! 


All coming out now! 

10 days away and the tomatoes were rampant and fragranced the air, cucumbers were hanging like the gardens of babylon, the french and runner beans hanging ready to eat.......some action was needed. I managed to make 6 jars of tomato chutney and when that was done and I was ready for my rest my kind neighbour who knows I have a penchant for plums brought be about 6 lbs of those which were transformed into jam yesterday. Today I have been dealing with 8 lbs of beans of a variety or another so they have been frozen. I think I have caught up with it now and things will be more spaced out. The chickens decided to get back into their routine and are giving us about 5 eggs per day for which I am grateful. Life is abundant with produce, the friendship of others and the generosity of our neighbours. Also received some bunches of lemon verbena. I look forward to the days when cuddled next to the aga, i can reminisce over summer, devouring the lovely things in my larder whilst knitting of course......

DAILY QUOTE
 
We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. 
Winston Churchill 

Posted at 01:46 PM    

Fri - July 15, 2005

Star lily 


Wonderful explosion of colour in the garden 

I have been out there today taking in all the glorious colours the flowers are throwing around and my favourites at the moment are shown below, hope you enjoy them as much as I do. I find colour in nature very inspiring and quite often use photos as a starting point to create garments and use them in my design. Even clashing colours can provide inspiration. I am off exploring a new experience this weekend and will let you know how I got on. In the meantime I leave you with the glorious colour of summer. Check the pictures out on flickr on the right. Should save you time loading the page
 

Posted at 10:06 AM    

Tue - July 12, 2005

Can one fall in love with a fridge 


I ask you, can one? 

Fridge freezer has been mended today, ( yeah, will be so nice to get back to filling it up at eye level height without playing the game of - now if I move that, and that then I should be able to fit that in....oh no, try again!)
I am a creative person and I love colour which I hope you will understand when you see the fridge freezer we bought some years back. I did however not choose this as my first choice, but my DS1, noticed it straight away when walking in the shop. That one Mum. I was not sure about it but after checking the ratings and whether it fitted in with my expectations, we did buy the appliance. We had it stored in the shop for a few weeks because we were moving at the time and whenever we met people socially they would say' love the fridge', not sure how they knew but maybe it was apparent that only one slightly creative and mad person might buy the managers special. Anyway it worked fine for years and then gave up being cold, so we have had it repaired because we just cannot expect to live with a new white model, we actually have fallen in love with our fridge. Strange but true, it is a talking point, it solves all decorating questions as there are plenty of options to change decor and when I go out and buy accessories, it has to fit the colour scheme. Apart from all that it is actually a very practical and fantastically spacious appliance. So my question to you is, is there anyone else out there who loves their fridge! I wonder whether Paul McKenna can help with this?

DAILY QUOTE
 
Love the animals, love the plants, love everything. If you love everything, you will perceive the divine mystery in things. Once you perceive it, you will begin to comprehend it better every day. And you will come at last to love the whole world with an all-embracing love. 
Fyodor Dostoyevski 

Posted at 11:48 AM    

A gift of broad beans 


What does one do with those 

There is a wonderful eccentric genteel lady who has taken a shine to me. She lives in a rambling old mansion of a house, has 2 dogs ( they get walked by others), a gardener and low and behold she has taken a shine to me ever since I gave 2 stray cats a home. Its a very strange exchange from the beginning, I came away with 2 kittens, 2 bags of catfood and all that for a dozen eggs. Since then there have been regular gifts of raspberries and offer of apples, and the last one, a bag of broad beans. She asked my small son, did he like them, and he pulled a sort of non committal face; the one where you remember you need to look at your Mum to give the right answer that might not be an embarrassement. Anyway, we are left with 2 lbs of broad beans. Having had a bit of an issue with receiving in my life, I explore the lovely way things arrive in my life, in that moment and I just say thank you , whilst figuring out what I can do with the gifts at a later stage. Not sure whether I visualised broad beans in my meditations lately or whether the universe really believes that there is something in broad beans that is necessary in my life today. I have scoured a few recipe books to find out what delightful concoction I can make today.......it is really not a soup day but that should not stop me. Not sure how much is in the bag but after shelling that should become apparent.

Am off to cook that soup! 

Posted at 11:31 AM    

Sun - July 10, 2005

Potatoes etc 


harvest time in the polytunnel 

I guess it is sad when you get excited about potatoes dug from the garden. Especially if then you have to take a picture of them. They needed to come out as i need the space for French beans part 2.

Note to self - must get out more and meet real people!

 

Posted at 08:25 PM    

Mon - June 20, 2005

Sweet peas and little birds 


Blown over by the colours 


There you have it, the sweat peas are overflowing.Every day I am out there cutting some for the house or to give away and ...by night time they are back again. Must be magical bush.
I am never sure how they all fit in there but yesterday they were beginning to look a bit cramped in the nest. This is the first batch of swallows, they come every year to have babies and we look in awe when the parents get them out for flying lessons. You can literally hear them twittering....go on you can do it. I must get out more I reckon!
 

Posted at 07:16 PM    

Sun - June 19, 2005

Heatwave 


Hooray, the sun is here at last 

Not that I can manage to sit in the sun, I venture into shady places. My grandmother used to say out before 10 and after 2 otherwise you will get burnt. Fair skinned people cannot manage the sun ( well I cannot anyhow). The squashes in the polytunnel are looking great, giant leaves which float upwards and the smell of the yellow flowers is lovely. Green beans and potatoes grace our table and I just love the taste of these veg that we grow, so different from what you get in the shops. Worth doing. Sweetpeas are out and grace the teepee in the front garden. All the sowing and planting seems to reap rewards at the moment...sitting in the shade knitting and reading seems to be the perfect thing to do.

DAILY QUOTE

Gardening is the art that uses flowers and plants as paint, and the soil and sky as canvas.

Elizabeth Murray 

Posted at 10:22 AM    

Sun - June 12, 2005

Feeling blessed - plus changes ahead for blog 


Little IT Consultant at home is planning to make a website for berry cottage 

It has been a rather wonderful weekend. The weather has been gorgeous and the village we live nearby was having an open garden festival. Over 2 days we had the chance to indulge in being thoroughly nosy in other people's gardens, to ask questions about garden plants varieties and to congratulate people on not having a single weed in their garden. There were plenty of refreshments too and meeting many of the lovely older characters that live in our community. Many are in their eigthties and have lived here since they retired and their gardens show how much love they have lavished on their garden and the plants they have planted in them. I truly feel blessed to be part of a lovely community where people do enjoy their life well into their eighties and nineties.

Little It consultant is hoping to create a website for berry cottage so if you experience difficulty accessing the blog over the next few days...bear with us.

DAILY QUOTE

"What Inspires You?"

“It is never about how good your voice is; it is only about feeling the urge to sing, and then having the courage to do it with the voice you are given.”

-- Katie in ‘True to Form’ by Elizabeth Berg
 

Posted at 08:51 PM    

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