Unbought Delicacies: Spring is on her way............

Monday 19 January 2009

Spring is on her way............

The days are lightening perceptibly now; I don't need to shut up the hens and feed the goats until about 5pm now, it's really heartening! Still a bit of winter to go, and the weather people forecast a really cold blast in February, but I'll deal with that when it happens.

In the meantime, these little beauties are out on the kitchen windowsill

SACK THE GARDENER!!!

I haven't really got a gardener LOL. MrL has taken it upon himself, with my approval, of course, to do some "cutting back" in the front garden. I'll admit there was a bit of pruning and tidying to do, but I quite like it a bit wild and woolly............... In his enthusiasm he has removed my viburnum shrub - the one with the snowball flowers on, and yesterday he dug up a rare rose that *HE* paid 18.00 for on a special order at a specialist rose nursery for me ( should have seen his face when I told him that bit!!) Sadly, the viburnums eems to have been burned or whatever, so I need to get another one and replant in exactly the same place - I could see it from the kitchen window and it had just found it feet and was starting to flower well. I managed to wrest the green rose from the wheel barrow, bit mangled, but with a flower attached - not bad for through the winter. I can't remember its Latin name offhand, but the flower is green tinged with red and I think it's pretty in an exhuberent, eccentric sort of way, although probably not everyone's idea of a rose, ot to everyone's taste! It comes from China originally, but Cranborne Manor were kind enough to order one in for me, and I then had an excuse to visit their rather lovely garden centre, didn't I?

http://www.cranborne.co.uk/

It's on my to do list for this morning to pot it up and murture it back to health, and again, replant it.

On a good note, he has cleared and dug over parts of the borders under the kitchen window, so I can get the very last of the bulbs in that are hanging around still.

This is the rose

1 comment:

thesnailgarden said...: Oh dear, your husband sounds just like mine! My OH is banned from touching our garden, except under strict supervision. He is allowed up the allotment and last year I left him in control of the potatoes. The result ... he killed them off! I still can't understand how! Hope your rose survives. I planted a snowball bush in my garden, 2 years ago, but sadly it didn't flower last year.

Best wishes, Pj x; 19 January 2009 at 10:31

I have found such joy

I have found such joy in simple things;
A plain, clean room, a nut-brown loaf of bread,
A cup of milk, a kettle as it sings,
The shelter of a roof above my head,
And in a leaf-laced square along the floor,
Where yellow sunlight glimmers through the door.
I have found such joy in things that fill
My quiet days: a curtain's blowing grace,
A potted plant upon my window sill,
A rose, fresh-cut and placed within a vase;
A table cleared, a lamp beside a chair,
And books I long have loved beside me there.
Oh, I have found such joys I wish I might
Tell every woman who goes seeking far
For some elusive, feverish delight,
That very close to home the great joys are:
The elemental things- old as the race,
Yet never, through the ages, commonplace.

~ Grace Noll Crowell

Ideas for handmade gifts

Small knitteds - gloves, scarves, hot water bottle covers, hats, tea cosies, phone covers, little toys,,cushion covers, bags. Some of these can be felted/fulled for extra interest.
Edibles - chutneys and jams, pickles, nice teas in a vintage/retro tin, sweeties, toffees, mustard, home made wine and liqueurs, home dried fruits, ketchups.
For the home - trimmed tea towels, handknitted dishcloths, quilted wallhangings, small samplers, restored picture frames, pot pourri, lavender bags, covered coathangers, little scented bags for hanging on handles, framed photos of family,etc you've taken yourself, pincushion,needle book, scissor keeper, book of promises (eg babysitting, 1 hour's housework, the ironing, etc)
Bathtime - homemade soap, bath oils, bath salts, knitted washcloths, herbal bags for the bath, hand sewn toilet bags, trimmed hand towels, homemade lotions and potions packed in pretty jars and bottles.
For the garden - home saved seed in handmade decorated packets; homemade handcream, exfoliating soap, wheat bag for those digger's aches and pains!

Handmade books, personalised printed notepaper and envelopes.
Hamper of bits and bobs from the above lists, packed in a pretty lined basket.

I'll add some more as and when I think of them; These can be used all year round and easily tailored to the recipient - everyone loves a homemade gift. :)

Inspiring thoughts.............

I saw a man, an old Cilician, who occupied an acre or two of land that no one wanted.
A patch not worth the ploughing, unrewarding for flocks, unfit for vineyards;
he, however, by planting here and there among the scrub cabbages or white lilies and verbena and flimsy poppies, fancied himself a king in wealth, and coming home late in the evening, loaded his board with unbought delicacies.
Virgil

I had no theories to prove. I merely wanted to try living by my own hands, independently as far as possible from a system of division of labour in which the participant loses most of the pleasure of making and growing things for himself. I wanted to bring in my own fuel and smell its sweet smell as it burned in the hearth I had made. I wanted to grow my own food, or forage after it. In short I wanted to do as much as I could for myself, because I had already realised from partial experience the inexpressible joy of doing so.

Harlan Hubbard, Shantyboat: A River Way of Life

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Monday 19 January 2009

Spring is on her way............

1 comment: