Camping

 Hello folks.

We had a fab time camping.

We stayed at a campsite near Ludlow in Shropshire, a pleasant hour or so drive from home.  Our view from the tent was over into the Welsh Borders. 

The town of Ludlow itself is medieval with lots of half timbered buildings.  

I love how the top left of this building is on a wonk. 

Turn down a side street and it all goes Georgian, good enough for a film set.  Stupidly, I didn't take a picture myself of this street.

There is a castle right in the middle of the town.

The weather was changeable, somedays hot and sunny and some really cold, luckily we only had rain at night.  We had a fire pit to toast marshmallows and keep us warm.

It wasn't all cold however, we were treated to this beautiful sunset 

and as it was the Summer Solstice, I was able to sew some hexies on my current project ~ English Paper Piecing patchwork ~ at 10pm.  I had a little helper too.  Baby Needles loved her first camping trip.

We visited Blists Hill, a working Victorian Town in the nearby Ironbridge Gorge.  The shops are run by staff in Victorian Costume and pre-covid you can change modern day money into Victorian money and buy sugar mice, bread etc but not right now.

I love the old posters and signs, Matron Milly's female mixture, lol, non-shrinking woollen underwear and of course, I found one for Jones Sewing Machines.

We stopped to watch George the heavy horse being tacked up ready to pull a cart, he was a real gentle giant.

Miss Clicky and Baby Needles went to see George when his tack was on.

Baby Needles striding along with her mum.

As we'd had a full day we drove up to IronBridge just to have a look at the bridge, in the middle of this pic.

Of course, on a campsite you can wander around in your pjs and nobody cares; me and Baby Needles enjoying a morning book.

The heavens opened as we packed the tent so we just bundled it into the car and now it's drying in the garage at home.  What a great week.

Bye for now...........Clicky Needles.

Starting to Flower

 Hello folks!

Well the weather has certainly picked up from my last post.  The newspapers are screaming 'Heatwave!' and summer seems to have arrived at last.

You won't be surprised that I have been busy working on my cutting patch.

We covered the second half of the no dig bed with cardboard and had another load of manure delivered. 

I soon had it spread and used spare wood from our woodpile to make paths spaced at a metre apart.

I've been busy planting

The Ranunculus are starting to flower; this is the first time I have grown them

and I gave the first bunch of them to my neighbour.

I've also been foraging around the back garden and came out with this posy.

The alliums have been beautiful; there are lots around our small patio.

I love the way that they have come up through this Angelica Gigas.

The raised bed next to the patio is also looking good.  I am definitely a purple/pink sorta girl when it comes to flowers.

In other news Baby Needles was 2 last week!  I have no idea where that time has gone.  She is growing up fast, her favourite word is NO!  I am still looking after her for 1 day a week whilst her mum is at work, such lovely times.  

Next week we are camping with Baby Needles and her mum and dad, the first time she will be sleeping in a tent.  I wonder how that will go?

I'm planning a new sewing project to take ~ if I get any quiet time ~ as if I don't have enough projects on the go.  Master Clicky is in charge of my seedlings whilst we're away, I wonder how that will go?

That's me for now, I'm planning what to take camping, everything and the kitchen sink.

Have fun............................Clicky Needles.

 

Waiting and Making

Hello there folks!  

How are you doing?  I wish I could say that I had been outside planting all my seedlings and watching and waiting for flowers to open.  It has been another wet, cold week ~ right now I am sitting in front of the wood burner ~ and to be honest my seedlings really aren't interested in growing and getting bigger, consequently they are still tucked up in my zippy greenhouse

 

or just on the kitchen floor.

They are having to jostle position with the furniture from our Chicagoan apartment which finally arrived yesterday.  It was packed away in February and was delayed by The Evergreen which was stuck in The Suez Canal, not that our container was going that way but all the ships were in the wrong place.  We have filled a room with everything.  Mr Clicky excitedly unpacked things, I was less enthusiastic, although it was nice to be reunited with my fabric and crafty bits.

 

 

We are now trying to fit the furniture into our house.  

On the making front I have several new projects on the go.

I started this Hearts embroidery a while ago.  I bought the printed fabric from Etsy (whilst buying a Christmas present, couldn't resist) I'm not using the suggested colours but all different colours from my thread box. 

The biggest hearts are only a centimetre across, so the small ones really are tiny.

I am also joining in with Claire from the Hello! Hooray Blog and her stitch a week project over on Instagram.

Some stitches are quick and easy, others not so much, as you can see I have not yet completed the long and short stitch!

I'm also working on an Ehrman tapestry, designed by Kaffe Fasset called unsurprisingly, Cauliflower.  My Mum started this but hasn't stitched it for a while so she passed it onto me.  There are very subtle colour variations in this, so lots of light is needed, luckily for me, Mum has already completed the cauliflower head and I have been working on the leaves.

I have also cast on another Rallar-Genser Jumper, this time for my Dad.  He has chosen a lovely olive for the main colour and I'm using the left over colours from Mr Clicky's jumper for the yolk.  

The yolk of Mr Clicky's jumper.

I have completed one sleeve and started another.  It's in Jamieson and Smith's 2 ply jumper weight again, and I'm really enjoying it.

Right, I think that's me for now, the weather forecasters are promising it will stop raining on Thursday.  Let's hope so!  

Bye for now.............Clicky Needles.

Remembering Teresa

 

It was with great sadness that I read that Teresa Kasner has died after a short illness.  She started her blog about the same time as me and was an amazing woman whose zest for life was infectious.  She loved the Columbia River Gorge in Oregon where she lived, worked to make it a better place and was rightly proud of her achievements. 

Her pictures of The Gorge made me want to see it for myself and in March 2020 me and Mr Clicky managed to do just that.   Teresa and Dayle took us to their farm and of a tour of the area, showed us the Vista House that she was Director of and helped restore, to the marina where they kept their yacht, and of course, to Multnomah Falls where she was a passionate volunteer in the visitors centre.  She was angry and devastated by the wild fires there in 2017 which burnt       50 000 acres of forest that were started by teenagers letting fireworks off.

She touched many people worldwide, always commenting on every blog post she subscribed to with kind words and locally through her volunteering work.  My heart goes out to Dayle and their family.

Having met her I can tell you she had a cheeky grin, a smile, a wicked sense of humour and was just the loviest person.  

Goodbye Teresa my friend, I will miss you.  CN xx

My Cutting Patch

 Hello Folks!

You may remember that I am developing a small piece of land along our driveway into a flower cutting patch.  I've been itching to get at it and now Mr Clicky is home for good, it's all systems go.

The space is roughly 14m by 2m and had been planted with shrubs which had got unruly and overgrown and a clematis montana which was growing over the top.

At the far end there is a cherry tree and a hawthorn which are staying put.

At the near end were some very overgrown cornus (dogwood.)

This end also has a drop of 1/2 metre from the driveway to a path.

I started clearing in February in sub-zero temperatures, I was joined by this robin who sat on the stump of the clematis, so I stopped and had a chat with him.

I chopped everything up as small as I could to fit more into our council green bins.

Even with the bins being collected every fortnight I had to book a trip to the tip to take the larger roots and branches; one of the shrubs needed a chainsaw to cut the stump.

With most of the vegetation gone, I tackled the drop to the path.

I wanted this area to be one level so I can use it more productively, so I needed to raise it up.

I made a u shaped raised bed with pine sleepers, screwed to uprights which I cemented into the ground.

I lined the back with heavy duty plastic to prolong the life of the sleepers.

With the bed made I needed to top up the level of the 'soil'.  In the background of this picture you can see a pile of stone and soil from my neighbour's extension.  I scrabbled through it and got rid of the stones and barrowed it across the road.  This took me 2 days.

The postie steps next to the bed needed a bit of attention so I sorted that too.

Back to the cutting patch now.  I decided to go 'no dig' rather than try to remove a tangled mass of shrub roots.  No dig is attributed Charles Dowding.  In essence you cover your ground with a layer of cardboard to smother any weeds and layer with well rotted manure, garden compost, compost or top soil.  You then plant straight into the mixture you have made, rather than disturbing the microbes, worms and beneficial insects within your soil.

A few weeks ago we covered half of the patch with cardboard.

I found some well rotted manure from a local stables and we spread it all over.

Mr Clicky helped me attach two wooden frames to our wall, these are for sweet peas.  

We drilled holes through the frame at 10cm intervals and I threaded them with twine for the sweet peas to climb up.

Next job was to use old scaffold boards and bits of wood from our pile to make pathways so I can get to my flowers to pick them.  I then topped up the manure with and good layer of peat free compost.

I've even planted some plants!

I have another load of manure coming next week so I need to repeat the process with the other half of the plot.  

I am also growing loads of seeds to fill it.  More on that another day.

That's me for now......Clicky Needles