Small treats for a Saturday

You  really don't have to spend a lot of money to treat yourself if you look around and keep your eyes open :)  My spare money gets spent on wool/fabric, the garden and books mainly - things that give me a lot of pleasure, and long lasting pleasure at that. There is a little roadside plant stall in a nearby village I frequent quite a lot - she has very good cottage garden pants - nothing fancy schmancy, but well grown and excellent prices. I came away with 10 foxgloves, an alchemilla mollis ( can't have enough of that, one of the prettiest things when adorned with fresh raindrops, never tire of it), a campanula and two ragged robins; further west I came across a new-to-me stall, run by a  florist - lots of pretty bunches artistically arranged, and a ew nice perennials too. I bought a good sized heuchera  'Caramel' - with peachy tawny leaves. Funnily enough, I wasn't keen the first time I spotted this when it became available a ew years back, but I loved the colour today, so it came home with me for £2. The first lot of plants were £10, so for the total of £12, a well-filled box of plants that will give me hours of pleasure and lots of babies , and rejuvenate the patch outside the kitchen window so I can look at them all while I wash up  :) We drove home via Thorncombe Wood (where Thomas Hardy's cottage is), and I sat for a good quarter hour listening to truly beautiful birdsong and looking at the last of the bluebells Made a detour up and over Bulbarrow to smell the wild garlic, and stopped on the top for a while; my house is just to the left of the yellow rape in the fields there; on a very clear day, with a telescope or binoculars, you can actually see it! The view is right out and over the Blackmore Vale and I never tire of it, whatever the weather To round off the day nicely, my new-to-me book was waiting for me  when I got home; I'm really looking forward to starting this , and have a feeling it won't be put down until the very last word is read :)

Thought for a late Friday evening

Been a bit of a week for me - lots of  'stuff' going on -  environment, justice, peace, lots of reading to do, noddingof head, shaking of head vehemently, throwing up hands in despair, wanting to shake a couple of people very hard to get some sense into them - you know the sort of week lol. And there's another one soon..............!!

De-stash

Don't panic lol - not me!!  My friend is having a de-stash and is offering some lovely fibre, take a look: http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/toggleknits/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=25&_trksid=p3686 Thanks :)

Completely appalled by this

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2142121/School-meal-shockers-Croquettes-ice-lolly-cucumber--lunch-pupils-captured-girl-9.html Can't find any words; had me in tears that our children are being fed this sort of rubbish, You go Martha...............  x

I'm so glad I'm not a plant snob..............

lol - or I may have missed out on this beauty This cost me the grand sum of £1 in Morrisons supermarkt the other night. Isn't it perfectly lovely?  It has a label saying it's an auricula, but that's as far as it goes. As I say, I'm no plant snob, and I don't buy my plants because of their name or associations/supposed associations. I'll buy some having been inspired by something/someone/a book - yes, but I won't go on and on and wax more than lyrical with overblown nonsense about them -  'Oh yes, My Madame Hermione Grainger is just romping away over the sunporch you know, and the underplanting of  sage Hugh Fearnley Oliver is just divine, don't you know!!' There are no name labels in my garden apart from some nice copper labels ( acquired from the tip, no less lol) on the specimen trees with a thought for those who may come behind me. Big lol at the plant snobs from me. I buy plants because I like them. ps - I got two very pretty clematis at £1.79 each and two pure white delphiniums for £3 as well ; a couple of weeks ago I got two dicentras for £1.50 each too - always worth a rootle around in the supermarkets for them. Their trees are very good too, I 've had several over the years - silver birch for £2, apples for £5. Sometimes, there are more plants than food in the trolley, but I see it as food for the soul................... just waiting for the rain to stop now. I am re-doing the area outside the kitchen, so want to get all my new plants in there, so I have a packed and colourful bed to look at while I'm washing up. Simple pleasures - you can;t put a name tag on them, can you?

Baking on a Tuesday

Dyeing with onion skins

- will produce something like this:  I'm not sure what it's destined for yet, but I'm very pleased with the colour, a lovely, even shade of gold. This afternoon   nettles!!   lol

Harebell project

Well, here goes, I'm taking the plunge, at long last, into pattern writing (as in knitting pattern); these two skeins are inspired by harebells, so am going to write up and test out a scarf pattern I think. The colours in these are just lovely; the wool is 70%  organic pure wool and 30% alpaca, soft as anything.

Land art

Richard Shilling's land art - have a look at this!  Stunning work; I love the wee stained glasses from leaves and twigs. Very inspiring :)

http://richardshilling.co.uk/index.html