It was lovely to see sunshine and blue skies here on Sunday and we made the most of it by spending some much needed time in the garden.  All of the shrubs seem to have rocketed sky high with the all the water they've been getting, but the vegetable beds are not thriving as they should be.  I admit we were a little late with some of our planting, but we were picking peas, beans and carrots from the garden at this time last year. The peas have not come through at all,the beans look very sorry specimensand the green, feathery carrot tops are only just nudging up slowly from their rain-soaked bed.

Poor borlotti beans, but lovely looking lettuces

A clump of parsley has bolted, but I have to say I rather like the flowers! I will collect the seeds from them when they are ready as this variety has done really well in our garden and survived all through a Yorkshire winter!

The rhubarb has loved all the rain so I was able to cut quite a lot on Sunday to try out Nigella's recipe for rhubarb fool and to make a batch of rhubarb and vanilla jam, which is our absolute favourite rhubarb jam recipe!

Here it is releasing all its lovely juices into the sugar and taking on the flavour of the vanilla pod and seeds.  Old-fashioned I know, but I do love making jam!

I've been blocking some of my granny squares...yes, I am slowly, but surely, making a blanket for home.  An old foam seat cushion covered with a beach towel has made a perfect blocking board for my little 4" squares and, in a sunny bay window,it seems that it makes the perfect cat bed too!

Cheeky cat!

I needn't worry about the lack of peas for the time being...look what the boys brought back from rugby last night:

a huge box of full of peas from our kind farmer friends

 Delicious!

Rebecca

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The real value of handmade

I am always delighted to see what the ladies who come to my weekly crochet classes have been making - if you have ever looked at my Facebook page, you will have seen some of their wonderful work!  One lady, who joined as a complete beginner at the end of January, has just completed this amazing table cloth:

Beautifully crocheted in 4 ply mercerised cotton from an American pattern

35 squares, each taking about 2 hours to make, which means that 

if someone was being paid just the minimum wage to make this table cloth, it would cost more than £425 for the person's time alone, not to mention the materials!

So, when buying handmade, if somebody thinks that things are expensive, I would ask them to stop to think about time. How long did it take to make? Should the maker be paid less than the national minimum wage for his or her time?

This table cloth is not for sale...it will be treasured by the lady that made it and, to her, it is priceless!

Rebecca
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Flea market finds

Today is flea market day, which means that I shall be taking a wander round the stalls at lunchtime.  Last week I found so many lovely things, I could hardly believe it...and all for a grand total of £5.60!

Old books, crochet cottons, vintage buttons & snap fasteners...I'm in heaven! A vintage embroidered table cloth for 25p - it has a huge hole in the middle, but I'm not worried about that as it will be used to make more handbag mirrors or magnets.  An enormous pillow case with a beautiful crocheted edging, also for 25p.  I usually end up paying a lot more for vintage linens like these so you can imagine my delight!

Two pressed glass bowls at 20p each.  There was a lovely pale blue one too, but it was damaged so I shall be on the look out for another one of those - I wonder if there are other colours too...green perhaps?  I found one lonely etched glass (20p) and this has now joined some others of the same design in our glass cabinet ready for when we next "pass the port"! A very grubby coffee cup in a box full of crockery grabbed my attention...I love Portmerion Botanic Garden and thank heavens for dishwashers!

As you will see, there are a lot of flowers amongst my finds:

I love these old books with floral designs on the front - this one is from the pansy series.  I've been crocheting pansies too using one the crochet cottons that I bought for 50p.

So much for so little...I wonder what I will find today?

Rebecca

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£1.50's worth of happiness

I love Sweet Williams

Great British flowers in a crochet covered jar


£1.50's worth of happiness!

Rebecca
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Back to blogging with a hedgehog!

I cannot believe it's been 10 months since my last blog post....where has all that time gone!  Well, I'm back and will try much harder to keep things up to date!

Thought I would share this from last night...

Hedgehog in the garden tucking into bird...tasty!

Back soon...I promise!

Rebecca
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A few of my favourite things...

Rain drops on roses...

whiskers on kittens...

strawberries and knitting!

One of my daughter's friends had seen this gorgeous tea cosy in a magazine and wondered if I could knit one for her. It just so happens that I was drawn to Nicki Trench's book Homemade Gifts a few months ago by this very pattern!

I didn't mean to be away from here for so long, but sometimes life has a habit of getting in the way of things like blogging. It's good to be back!

Rx

Just popping in...

Just popping in..for a bit of grumble:

Today, with husband and son ensconced in front of the television watching the Premiership Rugby Final, I thought I would use the car to pop into town. I didn't want to be long...I just wanted to go to the market to look for buttons, buy some fish for dinner tonight, go to the market deli for olives and spicy nuts, and pop into the wool shop. These places are all in close proximity to one another and I could be done and home in less than an hour...or so I thought!

Town was chaos and all my usual parking places were completely jammed up! I only wanted to pop...it was starting to rain...I was getting fed up and rapidly going off the idea: I went home! It makes me so cross because it is small businesses that have suffered here, not big companies. I'm sure I was not alone today...I wonder how many other people went home or decided to shop elsewhere...somewhere where they could park conveniently, cheaply?

Something needs to be done about parking if town centres are to survive and if small businesses are to prosper because they are the ones that are suffering when people are forced out of town to shopping centres with easy parking. Yes, I could (and I do) use the bus, but I do not have any sort of concessionary pass like so many of the passengers and have to pay full fare, which from the stop closest to my home to town and back costs £4. Sorry, but £4 is a little too expensive for popping!

Hopefully, Mary Portas can give the government the help it has asked for sort out our town centres...parking and bus fares would be a good place to start!

My town is looking to become a city: in my mind it can become whatever it likes, but if you can't park or get there conveniently and cheaply, what's the point?

I'm done...time to pour a glass of wine and rustle up something other than fish for dinner!

Back soon,
Rebecca
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