Creative writing advetures

So I recently stated following Nadia from cottage notebook on twitter, and as part of New Year she set up a creative writing group of Facebook. The idea is to help creativity, and so using weekly prompts (last week was Nature) try and write everyday. Last week the goal was to try and write 100 words a day. Unfortunately a lot of shit is going on in real life, but I did manage to do some writing on two days.

**

Long, wide path, much like a river bed, winding downhill. Except I’m walking against the current that isn’t there. Leaves cover the floor, knee deep in places, even deeper in the drifts that the wind has blown up at the bend. The ceiling of the forest is mostly bare, the breeze and squirrels making those last few leaves shake on their branches whilst their fallen comrades decorate the floor with their mottled browns and golds, the reminders of another summer gone. The tall, skinny trunks of the sweet chestnut trees stretch as far as the eye can see, giving peace in isolation that’s really on my backdoor step.

**

Early in the morning the howling wind woke me from deep sleep.

Loudly the wind screamed around the corner of the house, whistling down the chimney, battering at the door.

Eleanor was finally here, I heard of her coming on the radio the day before.

Amber warnings in place across the county. Power outages, trains stopped, roads blocked. Cross country chaos.

News filled with weather based stories, keeping all other news at bay.

Our commute to work slower, the walk into the head wind difficult . Thank goodness for woollens.

Reality will slowly return, the world going back to business as usual. Until the next storm rolls in.

Veg beds are go!

I'm sat here on my sofa watching a Bond film feeling a bit achy and a bit hung over (unrelated ) but feeling a bit smug because this weekend I finished my veg beds. April was really busy, people coming over and us going away, so I didn't have a lot of time to spend in the garden. One weekend I managed to build the beds, last weekend I finally got them filled (and boy, I hurt after that). 

And that is a beautifully trimmed hedge, if I do say so myself.

We've got a lot of cats living around us and they are frequent visitors to the garden, and last year the only bed I had was routinely disturbed by they cats and very little has the chance to grow. I knew I needed some cages/nets if my poor little plants were going to survive so that's what I've done. And what a massive pain in the arse it was too. I thought I'd got it sussed, trying to keep the netting tight meant the bamboo canes were contorted in all sorts of directions, and there was so much spare over the top the cages had a roof but there was also a lot of excess. And when I made sure that there was enough netting by pinning it out around the base, when I pulled it up to cover the sides, lo! It didn't meet at the sides :( I think the cages flair slightly so although it all meets at the bottom it can't meet further up. I managed to fix this by only having the netting cover the sides, leaving the top open, if a cat climbs a 2m high net just to shit in the veg patch then I'd be impressed enough to let it happen. One bed still isn't completely sealed, but the sides that wouldn't meet are now closed about half way up which should be deterrent enough.

Might be wonky but working well.

The pop up green house has been looking a bit over run as the plants have got bigger, so against Monty Don's advice I've planted out my various squashes. We're not the most dedicated of viewers, but sometimes on a Friday evening there just isn't much else on. Dear old Monty was saying it was too cold to plant out the courgettes yet, but the veg beds are in a very sheltered area, and the last couple of frosts we've had haven't touched the ground there so I think they'll be ok.

In addition to the courgettes, patty pans and buffy ball squashes, I also planted out the Egyptian Walking Onions which I'm really looking forward to see mature and move about the beds in the future. I got mine from The Real Seed Co, the site says they like to send 4 bulbs to guarantee one germination, but I think I got about six and all of mine germinated, although some are still very small. To save you googling, the EWOs, also known as topsetting onions, look a bit like chives in spring, become more spring oniony towards summer and eventually produce a set of tiny onions at the top of a stem which you can harvest. The bubils can bend the stem with their weight and plant themselves and grow in a slightly different place from the original bunch, hence the walking. Seemed like a bit of fun anyway. Each bed also got a couple of nasturtium plants, for a splash of colour, a bit of pest protection and as a salad crop.

I've also sown some seed tapes I got last year from Suttons for veg that'll be ready later in the year; fennel, celeriac and chiogga beetroot. Seed tapes are designed so that you don't need to thin seedlings as the seeds are impregnated onto what looks like loo roll at the optimum spacing, so really easy to plant out. I didn't have much luck with them last year, but that was mostly because the cats disturbed them, but when I cleared the bed from last year of weeds I found lots of little beetroots and colourful chard that managed to survive.

The green house is looking a bit clearer now, the tomatillos are doing well, but not quite big enough to go out, good thing too as I don't have anywhere for them yet. Melons are still going too, I think the recent cooler weather has slowed them down a bit but I'm positive they'll pick up when the weather does. I've got two types, musk melon and a cantaloupe that is meant to be good for the UK (I've had a few people give me funny looks when I said I was growing melons). 

The before. More space in here now I've emptied two trays.

I've managed to fight through my achy head to plant some container potatoes and garlic this afternoon, so now I'm happy. Nearly everything I wanted to do this weekend I have done, I didn't sow any more tomatoes (I've had really low germination from the last batch I put in), but it might still be a bit early for them, and waiting another week won't hurt if I don't get out one evening.

Progress report.

Lots of things have been happening in my garden and not all of it is happening without my in put. That awful mint green fence has been painted over with a more sensible brown colour. I'd foolishly hoped that if I painted over the reddish panels they'd also end up roughly the same colour in the end, but no such luck (and I've still got one of them unpainted because the Forsythia is in front of it) but brown and red-brown look a hell of a lot better than green and burgundy. At some point I might have to give the shed a going over but I don't mind that being green as much as I did the fence, mint green just doesn't feel like a proper fence colour. 

After! Looks like a real fence now.

The Before. I know you've seen this picture already.

The seeds I planted a few weeks a go have started coming through. The melons have all germinated which is very exciting, and I'm already thinking about melon based drinks/desserts for the summer. If they do all grow and fruit I may have weirdest glut of all the growers I know! Courgettes are a little a head of everything else and practically bursting from their pots (plan for this afternoon is to pot them on) which is good because I thought they'd dried out and died the other day.

Tiny leaves!

As you can see not everything has shown tiny leaves yet, but I'm feeling hopeful that it's only been a few weeks and they're just going at their own pace. I think I remember the Inca berries (Physalis) taking quite a while the last time I grew them . On the other side, I picked up some Sweetcorn seeds last weekend and they're starting to appear already.

The flower bed I'm planning is pootling along, now the fence is painted I can think about this a bit more. I've had a delivery of dirt for this bed and the veg beds (that I still need to put together) so once I've put down some plastic to stop the dirt running off into next doors garden and rotting the fence it's just lots of heavy work carrying mud about. The apple tree I discovered hiding is responding really well to being free and has produced loads of blossoms, minus the two clumps I accidentally knocked off trying to paint the fence behind it.

Just a teenage dirtbag.

Lots of small steps, helped by the light evenings and the lovely weather. I've had to open the greenhouse top flap today because I was worried about it getting too warm, and put out my first load of washing on the line this year. Next weekend I have two sets of parents up for Easter Sunday and I'm hoping if the weather is nice that the garden will be in a state to sit out in – best get cracking!

The seasons, they are a turnin'.

It’s been pretty undeniable that spring has been coming, and as daffodils are now about, they trumpet it’s arrival like tiny yellow heralds. During the week I spent a lot of one particularly sunny day at work thinking how much better it would be if I could just be at home, hanging out washing and enjoying the actual nice weather by being in the garden rather than waiting for whatever dubious weather was being forecast for the weekend at the time. 

A few weekends a go I managed to make a start on the border in the back garden, a full wheelie bin and a whole heap of scratches later and I’d cleared about half of it, and discovered two rose bushes (one had a tag still attached so I know what to expect) and some daffodils ready to flower. I’ve also had a man in to drastically cut back the giant buddleia that have been over shadowing the entire garden (and the bloody things keep popping up all over the place).  

Yeah, that fence needs repainting.

A couple of weeks later, and importantly a green bin collection later, and I’ve managed to finish clearing the massive tangle of bramble and honeysuckle that was growing. Another surprise rosebush was hiding underneath, and even better, an apple tree! Not the biggest tree, but hopefully if I can keep the climbers under control it’ll have a bit more room to grow and produce more than the single apple that I found rotting underneath it.

An actual apple tree was completely covered in honeysuckle and brambles.

Next step is to buy some border edging and a giant bag of topsoil, and I’ll be a happy bunny. The lawn needs a mow and some holes need seeding as it has gone a bit bare where it didn’t get a lot of sun light, but it’s all feeling manageable again, which it didn’t during the week.

For Christmas I got the Otter Farm “The New Kitchen Garden” book, and although I’d had a look through at the different plants I hadn’t read the introduction. Mark Diacono, the author, talks about making your garden work for you, to grow things that actually get you excited, that you want to eat, and only require the time you have spare to give them. I’d been feeling a bit down before I read it, but afterwards I felt better about the garden. I’ve decided to grow some weird and wonderfuls this year, I may still grow carrots (although rainbow ones, obviously) and peas, but I don’t need to grow these as they also come from shops, and I'm not aiming for self sufficiency . Odd squashes, tomatillos, and unusual herbs don’t come from the shops how ever, and they’ll have a space in the veg beds. Also going a bit out there and trying melons. Not really what you expect to find in the fens, and maybe they won’t work, but then what if they do… ?

Not much now, but will soon be brimming with more small black trays.

I also received at Christmas what the box describes as a “pop up cloche” but when I set it up this morning it’s a mini green house (I knew it was 1mx1m when I asked for it, but the size is still surprising). And now it’s got a handful of seed trays in it, a few herbs and veg that I had seeds for from last year, and flowers I never even opened as I did nothing with the garden last year. My plan to have a D&D garden may not be realised, I have some Black Knights and Goblins but other than Snap dragons I’m running out of suitably named plants, but I will have plenty of flowers for the butterflies now I’ve put a serious dent in the buddleias.

Yellow!

 

New year, old me

New year, when there are loads of articles about how to make a shiny new you for the next 12 months. But I don't want a shiny new me, I want the old me back. This time last year I was in hospital, after a serious belly ache and a trip to A&E I was eventually diagnosed with appendicitis. "You'll be out tomorrow, we do these all the time" the surgical consult said. Little did she know that the offending vestigial organ was totally gross and going to perforate. This ended up with a nearly week long hospital stay, two weeks signed off sick at home and a year I feel didn't go to plan. We'd bought a house autumn 2015 and I was looking forward to finally have a garden where stuff didn't just blow away, that could actually be sat in, and where plants might survive. The problem with appendicitis is that to get it out you have to go through a lot of muscle which is also in a really difficult place to heal, so although I tried to do garden stuff, it was very tiring and/or painful.

So for a whole year I didn't eat anything I'd grown (except a couple of berries from the blackberry hedge I never got around to cutting back). My poor garden was more or less ignored, after having cleared loads of weeds I didn’t have the energy to keep on top of it. Luckily I’d put black sheeting down on the worst part, but bindweed finds away.  I didn’t brew anything, had no fruit bobbing around in jars of alcohol, bake, or even looked after my little house plants that well.

These are the saddest chillis.

This was really brought home to me when I was cleaning the kitchen after Christmas. I'd brought some flour to make mince pies with (but never got around to it) so was going to put it in the storage container when I discovered some of my flours had flour mites in them! I had to bin four different flours. I’d been thinking about making a summer berry wine using frozen fruits after finding them in the shop, luckily I checked what brewing stuff I had before starting because all my yeasts, nutrients and other stuff was out of date. It took a really long time to find my hydrometer as well before start because it was still in a random box in the shed. For over a year.

Lots of tiny yeast farts.

 So that's why this year I want to go back to the me before. The brewer, the baker, yes, even the candlestick maker. I know I need to be better at getting off my arse and actually do things. I’ve got a self imposed knitting ban for the weekends, it’s so easy to sit and knit and do nothing else, so now it’s an evening only activity. I’m hoping that’ll allow me to do some of the hobbies I’ve put to one side. Already I’ve tried to do more this year, I did start my wine eventually, and started growing some mushrooms a friend gave me for Christmas. I even got one of my spindles out again which felt good (but trying to spin and watch a tv show that has subtitles really doesn’t work).

Mushroom. Mushroom.

And I’m hoping to keep up with this again, share progress on the garden and other projects.

Lots of little bits.

Recently, and for some time in the future, I've been making things for mostly small people. Now this has been quite fun, planning things for people not yet here (not mine, this is not my way of announcing anything) and trying to make something a bit more unique and special than something just bought off the shelf.

For the baby my friend is expecting I've made a baby bag. It's kind of become a bit of a thing for me to make these; this will be the third. When I made the first one nearly three years ago whenever I explained what I was making people were always like "a bag you put a baby in?" But I believe recently they've become more popular as it's like a sleeping bag so babies can't kick it off and get cold. I've also found that self striping sock yarn is really good for these too, the first one I made was plain, but this latest one is very bright. The twisted rib cuff is really effective too, maybe it's lost a bit in the multi colours, but its very simple to do and looks a bit like cabling.

Fancy twisted rib.

For my birthday in July my husband bought be a book of crochet animals, I'd been a fan of the menagerie since I saw them at an NEC event and they had a very cute bunny called Emma (and as Coke can testify, giving things names is a very good marketing tool). I had bought a PDF with some of the animals, but the book has more patterns and better instructions for the different fur stitches. They're such lovely toys I had no problems making one for my friend's little boy's first birthday. The wool I used was free from a friend clearing out her stash when she moved; it's grey flecked with green and pink which gives it a much more lifelike quality. I made an elephant because out of the more basic patterns (I'm not as confident with crochet as I am knitting, and I really like the book is set out in levels of difficulty) it seemed to have a lot of character. Since the intended received it and I put some pictures on instagram a cousin has expressed an interest in receiving one for the baby he and his wife are expecting.

Really pleased with the tail.

 And so, I've had a quick break to make something for me. A year ago I was planning to make a hat and bought some lovely llama wool. I decided that the wool was too variegated in colour for the hat and chose something else, but this wool was going to be something beautiful. Luckily my wool shop keeps it in stock so I was able to get a second ball. On Ravelry I have a whole list of things I'd love to make, and this particular pattern had been in that list for a while, since I saw Michaela Strachen wearing something similar on autumn watch last year, and decided this would be the perfect pairing. Casting on is fairly straightforward, but it took me three goes to join all the stitches without it being twisted and becoming like a Möbius strip, and every time I had to start again I was putting on more and more stitches, until the final time I had 300 and managed to get it joined without twisting (I know, I could just have undone some but then I didn't think it would have been as loopy as I wanted it).

The pattern is a really simple but effective repeat, using yarn overs to create the eyelets. Because I had two balls of wool I alternated which one I used over every couple of rows so that any colour changes between them would be evened out, but I possibly didn't need to as the changes in each ball over the whole round were amazing. Due to casting on a few more stitches than originally called for I did run out of wool a bit earlier, cutting a repeat short and eventually having to sub in a dark, not so lovely, yarn for the final bit of finishing off, but I don't think its noticeable.

Trying not to make duckface.

The binding off row is quite a bit tighter than the other rows, but I think this gives it structure and holds it all together; if it was as loose as the rest it might just be a bit much. As it is I can still wrap it around my head three times if I want to, but I'll probably just do it twice most of the time (trying to get the third wrap off my head was difficult, trying to find the last loop and it kept getting stuck on my ear stud). I really enjoyed this project, it was quite quick and easy to do watching the TV and I think it might make a really good present for my mum if I find the right wool. Also, I think doing it in something lighter, like a cotton, might make a really good spring/summer scarf (I'm going to end up with a selection of these, I can see it now).

...A Woolly jumper!

OK, bit of a gap between posts, but it took longer to finish the jumper than expected and then it's all been a bit busy. But it is finally done!

Not your run of the mill jumper.

In my last post I mentioned that I needed to check the sizing because I might not have made the right one, well, turns out I was making a size too small. First lesson kids: always measure yourself before picking a size to make. Real rookie mistake. But how to fix this? My idea was just to make two panels and sew them in under the arms, but after talking to someone at work, they suggested picking the stitches up one edge then working the same number of rows as stitches I was missing. This then meant I only had to sew one seam per side rather than two. And it worked. Really well in fact. The change in stitch direction also makes it look deliberate rather then just trying to cover up the mistake.

It was meant to look like this...honest.

Rookie mistake number two was not double checking which sides I was sewing when putting it together so I managed to sew one side up with the right side of one piece and wrong side of the other both on the same side *slaps forehead* Putting the arms in was really simple too, just a case of picking up stitches, the correct number for the size I should have been making with the added panel I put in, and knitting. I was worried when I was doing it the sleeves may have been a bit long (being short sleeves sometimes are a bit long), but they've come out as great little cap sleeves, more or less.

Teeny-tiny sleeves.

Once the two front pieces and back were attached, and arms put in, I could work on the hood. Really straightforward, just knitting straight rows to make what seems like a massive 80s collar before it's seamed across the top. When I reached the point that the pattern said to seam it just didn't seem big enough... so I did a few more rows. I now have a giant hood. It definitely covers my head, which I think is the basic purpose of a hood, even if it does restrict my vision a bit.

Last step was just the ribbed button band that runs all the way from the bottom of one side, around the hood and down the otherside. Took a bit of fiddling about, I didn't want to buy a massive cable I wasn't likely to use again, and although Knit Pro (the make of needles I use) make a small part to connect two shorter cables, neither of my local yarn shops stock it. So it was a case of knitting along one then unscrewing the needles, putting ends on, attaching the needles to another wire and then starting along that cable. I had a bit of trouble picking up the 150-odd stitches I had to in order to do this, I kept over and under picking, but a friend's mum told me when she has to pick up a lot of stitches, she divides it into manageable chunks and works out how many she needs in each block. Shame I'd already moved on when she told me about this.

It's macro time!

The button holes were simple bind-off/cast-on type, but I think I need to work on them, or pick a different cast-on because they're a little loose. The buttons were a bit of a find in the local everything shop, I wanted wooden ones, and these have purple that is a really good match for my wool.

Just so happy to have finished it.

And voila, one jumper. I've worn it a couple of times, its really handy to have in the car, if it looks a bit grey and miserable before work I can wear it in and it squishes small enough to get in my bag if the weather picks up.