Home at last

I've been away nearly all week...I am really glad to finally be home!   Nothing to report today though...... 3 days in the office and 2 nights in a hotel with my lovely Kindle for company means no pictures, no crafting and no lottie  :(.

I have been looking forward to spending time at the Lottie this weekend, but the weather has been so very awful this week I am doubtful I will be able to get much done as I anticipate it will be a mud bath,  I do have some offers of help this weekend though  - so fingers and toes crossed for a few productive Lottie hours this weekend and a bit of time out in the fresh air.

Time to begin this year's sowing at last! - Mr Milly has been collecting the free newspapers for me and my Paper Potter is going to be put to good use over the next couple of days

http://lieandloveofthemillys.blogspot.com/search/label/Paper%20Potter.    

This years seeds have been catalogued - how organised that sounds!  Really it is just my month by month list of what to sow and when to plant!

That feels like a plan for the weekend;- make some pots, plant some seeds,  clear some window sills - the pots have to go somewhere (best not mention that bit to Mr Milly!) and clear some more of the Lottie.

I hope you have a good weekend!

Alison x

Little Helpers

A difficult day yesterday and today as always life moves on.

To lighten my day yesterday I had two willing little helpers at the Lottie,  My oldest and littlest nephews came for a visit at the Lottie and it was fun to do 'little jobs' with little people.   We dug over the flower bed and pulled up the weeds,  a little tutorial to begin with on weeds and flowers just so that the right things were pulled up.  That bed was soon tidied,  I had some tulip and allium bulbs which should really have been planted by December,  I had forgotten about them and figured better late than never!  I used my dibber to make holes in the bed and left the boys to randomly plant the bulbs.

Next onto the onion bed - I have been meaning to weed this bed for ages and a perfect job to do with the littlies - the little one did get bored after a while and spent ages playing with the water pump, not the best day really to be playing with water - the ice on the top was about and inch thick,  but he managed to have a great time!  My oldest nephew helped pull up the weeds,  he did advise though that some planks of wood between the onions might be a good idea - it would stop the weeds and we wouldn't have to walk on the ground - how did this 9 year old get so sensible and how come I'm listening to his advice!!    It was great fun having the boys around and lovely to have some help - this week I am going to look out for some boy size gardening gloves for them to keep in the Lottie shed for the next time they visit.

Mr Milly and I finished the wire frame for the raspberries and that was about it for the day.   I forgot the camera yesterday so no Lottie pics today.

Finally I have finished the Cathedral window cushion - I am really really pleased with it and have now decided that it would be good to make some more to match my living room - just need to find the right fabric and I can make a start on them.   I really hope the recipient of this cushion will be pleased with it!

Cathedral Window Cushion

A day to remember

It is 10 years today since my dad passed away.   Today my thoughts are of my lovely, kind, caring and funny dad and the very many happy times we all spent as a family.  My brother and I were very lucky as we had parents who were devoted to us and each other and the result of this is that we grew up in a secure loving home full of happy childhood memories.

I love this song,  it reminds me of my dad - take a minute or two to have a listen.

For my dad - Mervyn Jenkins 1936 -2002.  

Love and miss you always x x Alison

All Fixed

Mr Milly and the Portuguese Housekeeper came to the Lottie with me today,  this is the first proper visit to the Lottie this year.    Mr Milly went armed with nails and hammers and he has fixed the shed door - a little touch up with paint required and then it will be as good as new.

Near as good as new.

The Portuguese Housekeeper (she isn't really our housekeeper - it is just a teasing name we have for her! She house sits for us  and looks after the animals when we are away - she is also Portuguese,  hence the nick name!)  she helped me weed and cleared the soon-to-be flower bed.  

The bed which housed the Brussels sprouts was finished - I'm not sure what I did wrong with the Brussels this year as they looked so promising and then came to nothing - has been cleared today.   I dug the bed over and with the help of the Portuguese Housekeeper we cleared it and then planted the raspberry canes.   We did laugh a lot today,  mostly as my expense....  I am rubbish with a hammer and the stakes for the raspberry canes were tough to hammer into the ground,  I am not sure what I was doing with my face - possibly it was the lovely blue colour as I hold by breath when hammering,  but both Mr Milly and The Portuguese Housekeeper sat and laughed at me for ages....  it did get too much for The Portuguese Housekeeper in the end and she took over!

The New Raspberry bed - I know they look like dead twigs,
but trust me they are raspberry canes

We finished the day by tidying the shed and a few other little tidy ups around the plot.

Nice tidy shed

Anyway today it felt like some progress was made and has given me the push I needed to start getting the Lottie ready for the growing season this year.   And what a beautiful day it was today,  yes it was very cold,  but the air was clear,  the birds were chirping and there was a lovely bright winter sun,  a perfect day for being out in the open and  really welcome at the end of a long week stuck in the house. Fingers crossed it is the same tomorrow as I'm champing at the bit to get back to the Lottie and tackle a few more jobs!

Mr Milly and The Portuguese Housekeeper surveying their handiwork!

A little helper

Firstly, thank you for the emails and comments I have had following the break in at the lottie - I have really appreciated your thoughts and humour too!

On a positive note - I am now feeling motivated to get to the lottie and start sorting it out ready for the spring,  both Mr Milly and the Portuguese Housekeeper have pledged time this week end to come with me and make a start - I expect the work will be down to me,  but the company will be extremely welcome.

I have had another offer of help today - from my oldest nephew,  he is 9 and often when he visits I will show him the recent photos I have taken and we talk about them.   He spotted the fox in the tree in a nano second!  Today we were discussing the lottie and  I duly showed him the pictures of the damaged door,  we discussed in detail what might of happened, he studied the broken door with great interest.  He has assured me he has some wood from his old bed that will help to fix the lottie door.  He asked his mum what he was doing at the weekend as he wanted to come and help me.   We talked about some of the other jobs that need doing,   planting the raspberries and building their frame,  pulling up the Brussel sprouts and clearing that bed,  a general little tidy up where the recent high winds have blown things around and whilst there is no new growth I would really like to cut down some more of the brambles at the back of the plot.   Now my nephew weigh all this up,  he established that he has some gardening gloves - and wanted to know how prickly the brambles were!

Anyway I have a lovely little list of jobs that he could do he was happy with that.    I'm not sure if he will make it to the lottie this weekend and as he was leaving I told that it would be great to see him this weekend,  but if he can't make it, then not to worry as there will be lots more weekends!  He did seem quite happy with this as he kissed me goodbye today.

Tonight I am sitting with some seed catalogues and trusty Google trying to decide what goodies I am going to attempt to grow this year.   Already there are things to be done - now is the time to be chitting seed potatoes ready for planting.   Which ones to choose - there are zillions of the things on offer and it is confusing and before even choosing  the type a decision to be made on which sort of crop - did you have any idea that the crop list was this long??????

Extra Earlies

Earlies

Second Earlies

Main crop

Late Crop

Pen and paper to the ready, trying to work out the whole thing out - how complicated for the humble little potato!

How annoying

This morning I had a phone call from the John the site manager of the allotments  - what was the phone call for?  My little lottie shed had been broken into!  

I had to wait until my lunch break today to go and see for myself what had happened.  To my relief nothing had been taken - but isn't that odd?  There isn't anything of any value in there as we did know of previous break-ins at the site and dire warnings from the other plot holders made sure nothing valuable was left there.  Having said that everything in my shed is valuable to me and it is mine!  I was most worried about my lawn mower (a second hand one) and my spade and fork - I did pay a reasonable sum for these (about £20 each so not a fortune),  BUT that is not the point - it would be annoying and inconvenient and costly to have to replace them and THEY ARE MINE!

It does look as if it was completely mindless, pointless vandalism and nothing else.  The door is damaged and the lock is broken,  my freebie freecycle clock is smashed and most strange of all - MY chairs were out of the shed, on the patio area as if someone had been sitting on them (Goldilocks - whose been sitting in my chair, springs to mind),  my scarecrow too had been taken out of the shed and thrown on the floor.  So it looks like some small minded person or people unknown have broken my shed to take the chairs out to sit on!  How very very stupid is that!    At least nothing is gone and some repair work will be required at the weekend.  Just keeping my fingers crossed that we don't have any rain between now and Saturday as the shed is definately not water tight at the moment.

Broken shed door

What a strange thing to do

Smashed clock on the patio

Considering it is the winter and the plot is seriously unloved at the moment and even with the broken door - No 95 is still looking neat and tidy - that does make me feel a little better!

Patchwork

Patchwork is something I have never really tried - I think I might have dabbled in the past but I don't think I had the patience for it.

My patience has improved a little (I'm not sure Mr Milly would agree though!),  I have had a go at paper piecing.   The result a lovely vintage looking project bag for me.   This has taken ages to complete,  in fact I think I started just after Christmas.   The bag is made up of 60 hexagons,  each one is cut around its own paper template and then tacked to the paper to hold its shape,  the hexagons are then hand stitched and once all are in place the whole thing is ironed and then the papers unpicked and removed.   It was quite fascinating putting it together and I have enjoyed sitting with the work on my lap doing some hand sewing.   The bag has been lined in a matching fabric and now I have a lovely big useable bag to keep my current project (or 2 or 3!) in.

My New project Bag

60 Hexagons later and matching lining

Paper template - one for each Hexagon

Fabric and Paper tacked together

The 3 steps for a single hexagon

So moving on from the paper piecing I've had a go at Cathedral windows.  This also is hand stitched and will become a cushion cover.   This first attempt is going to be a gift - It is a work in progress at the moment and I have learnt a lot from this.  The backing is 100% cotton fabric which is folded and ironed a couple of times before the inserts are folded and hand sewn in place.   This fabric is thick and my goodness it has really hurt my poor little chubbie fingers!  Plasters to the ready yet again and I have now had to buy a thimble too!  When I do another one of these and I expect there will be a few more, I will be more careful which fabric I choose to try and save my fingers!

A couple of pics of the work in progress.

First lot of windows sewn in,  one pinned and still to be sewn

The final windows in positioned and ready for attaching.

Mr Milly is thinking this will make a great quilt,  I am thinking this would take years to complete and would probably cost more in plasters than fabric :)