On a Roll

Today I made a quick knitting needle roll for my ebay haul needles previously mentioned. It was a bit of a "sew as you go" as despite all good intentions, i didn't look at any tutorials before i cut the fabric, then looked at Jo's crochet needle tutorial for inspiration and guidance, and realised I had started (wrong) so I had to finish with my own "creation". It's very basic but it does the job, and it's pretty too. Infact, it looks as if it should smell nice. It doesn't!

I got to use the first button from the ebay button haul. It's gorgeous and just right for this fabric as it is mother of pearl and has shades of both pink and green running through it in the light.

This fabric reminded me of my summer project. I want to create a cut flower garden. Because I love cut flowers - especially of the smelly variety, and I prefer the "English country garden" type which are ridiculously expensive in the shops - especially for real English and smelly ones.

I watched a programme which for the life of me, I can't remember the name of now, with Sarah Raven, about the demise of the British flower industry. It seems that supermarket demand and mass produced 'standard' flowers from Holland and Africa are so cheap because of the slave like wages that overseas flower workers are paid, that they have forced most of the British producers out of business. Foreign flowers not only depend on this near slave labour to be produced but also on preservatives, pesticides and inorganic fertilizers to ensure maximum standard output for most profit. In addition, there is the air freight to consider. All of these things contribute to our so called carbon footprint. Last summer, I heard wind of a proposed film called "Blood of the Rose" by a filmaker called Henry Singer (apologies to Lisa for commenting with the wrong info on one of her postings), I don't think it was financed in the end, but it was about the rose trade in Kenya and how because of greed, it has turned into a bit of a murder trail. Rose farms in places of outstanding beauty are ruining the landscape, destroying the enviroment and people who have opposed this desicration of the land have been murdered.


I am using this as my starting guide:

Winter to spring: Daffodils
Late spring and summer: Tulips, Agapanthus, Poppies, Lillies, Delphiniums, Sweet Peas, sunflowers
Summer to autumn: Dalias and Roses
Autumn to Winter: Chrysanthemums

Just as home grown vegetables are more vibrant and tasty than anything in a wrapper, so too are flowers grown on our own land, fed by our soil and our rain, and containing (albeit infrequent!) our own sunshine.

A cup of tea and a slice of cake

I have surprised myself, after all that angst yesterday, by baking a cake before 9am this morning! It's a Boiled Date Loaf and is adapted from a recipe in the Australian Women's Weekly book of Cakes. I have adapted it so that it is gluten and dairy free. It can be served warm with custard or ice cream, or cold with spread or just on it's own. I also add nuts when I remember, and other fruit can be substituted instead of or even in addition to the dates. Obviously margerine and soymilk can be butter and cows milk respectivly. Here's the recipie:

185g margerine
250ml soy milk (I use Alpro fresh)
150g brown sugar
145g chopped dried dates (I also chucked in a handful of raisins)
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
300g gluten free flour (I use Doves Farm)
2 eggs beaten lightly

Preheat oven to moderate. Prepare a 1.5lb loaf tin by lining with baking parchment.

Combine margerine, soymilk, sugar, dates and fruit in a large saucepan stirring occassionaly while the mixture comes to a boil. When it has boiled and all the fat melted, remove from the heat and stir into it, the bicarbonate of soda. Stand for 10 minutes. When cooler, stirl in the flour and the beaten eggs, spoon the mixture into the loaf tin, and bake for 40 minutes to an hour until golden brown and a skewer poked into the middle comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

Enjoy!

Once a bad girl, Always a bad girl

(but trying to be good!)

I need a lie down. I have just returned from my son's first parents evening at "big" school. I am suddenly older than any teacher I have ever encountered. This is not the way life is supposed to be. All teachers should be old. I don't like it. I'm sure that some of them are only just out of primary school! It's not right. They all have babysmooth line free faces and there is certainly no sign of any of the fusty musties who taught me at school. But then I was at a school where Latin was still an important subject and teachers were allowed to throw board rubbers with all the strength and accuracy of an England bowler (one of them was). Those were the days when even a smattering of eyeliner, the merest hint of lipgloss and a single coat of clear nailvarnish, barely visible to the naked eye - unless you were a teacher ofcourse, would have you sent home in an instant.

I can't say I enjoyed school today any more than I did back then despite the fact that the teachers seem curiously more friendly, more enthusiastic, and more approachable than those I knew in my day. My teachers were a mixed bunch from so ancient that we thought he was probably pickled, to one whom we called "the green dwarf" - green hair, green clothes, green tights, RED lipstick. I'm not joking! She was scary. Another, plump and smirking Mr History, once took great delight in calling in the numbered text books at the end of one term. "Come in number 69" he shouted at me with a wry grin (no it wasn't THAT type of school!). Well I was far more interested in my social life and boys, than any lesson which would constrict my imagination - English and art were the only things I excelled in, even won awards at - and i was a girl whose parents constantly despaired at the ever repeated mantra on my school reports "could do better". My retort then, as it would be now, "would do better if the teachers were more interesting".


Now I'm sure i'm not the only 30 something who feels like a teenager trapped inside an adults body but today I suddenly felt a bit silly at parents evening. I realised that my attire, a t-shirt depicting a "Devililette" clad in latex catsuit and posing sexily on a dice, was not entirely appropriate for the occasion, and in my imagination, feeling weak from the kryptonite of the endless polished linoleum smell of school corridors and the still threatning air disapproval minled with the sound of Pink Floyd's Brick in the Wall - "no dark sarcasm in the classroom" was obviously my favourite line at the time - I buttoned up my cardigan quickly so that only the horns of the devilette were showing. I then realised, that i had been sitting on my fingernails throughout each interview, not because my scarlet painted nails are discracefully chipped, but because I remembered being commanded by my insane and probably quite unhinged physics teacher, nicknamed "ferral", who liked to spend entire lessons teaching us how to open a folder quietly, and who in our previously all boys school (refer to aforementioned "interest in boys" statement!), despised the influx of girls (all jezebels as far as he was concered) to "take your fingernails to see the headmaster". An instruction which I used to find endlessly amusing and so did it all the more just to wind him up. The thought of 10 fingernails trotting along by themselves to reveal their "sins" to the head of school ...


My son is now doing his RP homework very studiously (unlike me), and I am helping him, resisting with every fibre in my body, the urge to take the pen and write it for him. The task is to write "10 commandments for the environment". He is doing pretty well, bless him, and in addition to his "thou shalt not burn plastic" I would add "thou shalt not buy water in plastic bottles, imported from third world countries where the people are dying from cholera", in addition to his "though shalt not waste food" i would add "thou shalt not shop in tesco who get £7.00 from every £10 spent in this country today and who encorage the most obsene consumerism", and in addition to his "though shalt not eat meat" I would add "though shalt not grow genetically modified crops because they destroy native crops and indigenous wildlife species and that includes oil seed rape however nicely you want to package it".

Call me rebellious, call me passionate, angry, wild, extreme, mad, bad or just "too much" - none of these labels are strangers to me. I was expelled from school when I was 15 years old for all of these things and more. I think if I was at school now, I might still be expelled, for the same reasons, but in quite a different context.

I've been shopping!

I got a tin of "vintage" buttons from ebay ....

Some of them are quite interesting

These are my favourites

I visited a bead shop which has been where it is forever. It sold beads, and other vintage items from old leather riding boots, to knickerbockers, smocks, peacock feathers, pink wigs, schoolmasters canes, and bowler hats. I discovered a whole shelf full of such vintage ribbons that they are wrapped in brown paper. I'm going back for some of those. I was shocked to find this time, that due to rent increases and property developing plans forcing small business away with their lust for space and greed for money, that the beads have been replaced by sweeties - "The sweets have saved us" said the shopkeeper sadly, "we just have to pretend that they're beads"...... Well, this is Oxford, we have lots of students here, they like sugar. But much to my delight, despite feelings of sadness for threatned demise of this dusty little curiosity shop, there was a "bargain tank", £4.00 a scoop! This is some of my haul ...

I went to Oxfam and found these great books. I've wanted to do stained glass forever. This is my resolution to try. The Heirloom embroidery book contains all sorts of hints, tips and techniques, and the Craft book was only recently donated and so contains not only a wealth of information on a variety of skills, silversmithing, beading and knitting included, but also has a surfable list of "suppliers" in the back.

More ebay, this time knitting needles. I am absolutely determined to learn knitting again, despite grim and shadowy memories of a dark and musty convent schoolroom with a strict teacher called Mrs Long who made us to knit scarves and hated being called "Mrs Short" ...

Included in the bargain pack of 33 pairs of needles, 2 crochet hooks, 1 stitch keeper, a circular needle and a needle guage, was this delightful thing, it counts rows AND measures! The price of £10.00 for the lot, was worth it, just for this:

And on my travels, I went to a little fabric shop in the next village, and found that unlike the posh shop in town, or the other shop where everyone who's anyone goes, this shop, which doesn't hold alot of fabric at all, stocks Amy Butler and Heather Bailey amongst others! Wow. However, I think these fat quarters might be my only concession to pink, pastel and all things nice. I do love them, but I'm feeling like I need a lie down already...

Special food for special diets

There are recipies all over the internet for anything which takes your fancy, and i'm sure all you crafty people out there, have libraries full of juicily delicious cookbooks - it's the rules for crafty creative people. So here, I will only post recipies that will do for people with so called "special diets" that is to say, wheat free, gluten free, yeast free, meat free etc., No that doesnt equal boiled rice and lettuce, it just means, no meat, no yeast, no wheat, no gluten, perhaps not even any heat ... so here goes with the first.

Black Bean Chilli:

Soak one cup beans in water for 1 hour, then pressure cook in 2 or 3 times their volume of water for 20 mins (or until cooked). If you don't have a pressure cooker, soak the beans over night, and cook them for an hour and a half with the rest of the ingredients plus extra water.

Sweat one onion in olive oil, and when translucent, add 2 crushed cloves garlic, keeping the heat down so that it doesnt' burn. After swirling that around for a minute or two, add 4 chopped tomatoes, 2 tsp ground coriander, 1 tsp ground cumin, 1/2 tsp chilli powder, 2 tsp stock powder (I use Marigold vegan bouillion), and the black beans with enough black bean cooking liquid to cover. Simmer until everything is nicely cooked and the liquid has reduced to a thick sauce. Add tamari (salty) and fresh lime juice to taste.

Avocado Guacamole

To one chopped (or mashed) avocado, add 1 tbs lime or lemon juice and 1 tbs chopped coriander. Mix together until combined in a texture to your liking.

Tomato Salsa

To 2 chopped fresh tomatoes add one chopped chilli (or to taste), half a finely chopped red onion (or to taste), one tbsp lemon juice and 2 tbs fresh chopped coriander.

Wheat free tortilla's / tortillia chips - you can buy these or make them with or without wheat flour. It is easier with, but not impossible without. Whichever way, it is easiest if you roll them out between 2 layers of cling film.

Combine 1 cup plain flour with 1.5 cup maizemeal, 1 cup warm water, 1 tsp salt and a tbs olive or sunflower oil. Mix into a soft dough. Knead until smooth and then divide into golf ball size portions. Roll out each portion into a circle shape (between the 2 layers of cling film), i find this easiest if I use a thin rolling pin, and turn the dough with each roll but if you cant get a nice round shape then roll it out as best as you can then use a plate to cut round ... Dry fry each round in a dry frying pan on both sides, until the edges begin to curl slightly. Stack the cooked tortillias on a plate covered with a clean tea towel. They will soften as they sit and can be eaten as tortillias. If you want tortillia chips, then divide these rounds into triangles and deep fry until golden brown then drain on scrunched up kitchen towel. Serve immediately.

This recipie, without the sour cream (as pictured) and without the wheat flour which is optional, is therefore, vegan and gluten free. Otherwise, it is vegetarian.

Material Girl

This is Madge. She is a Lady Valet Dressform, who arrived at my front door, a bit like Mary Poppins, on my last but one birthday. That's in the month of January, and as it was cold outside, I invited her in, and she's been living here ever since. After trying to guess of all sorts of exotic names for her, she settled with Madge. She doesn't pay any rent, but I don't mind as she's good company on days when I'm sewing in the house on my own. One day, she may help with the bills. I've had lots of fun with her, and as you can see, like her famous namesake, she does have a thing about wearing underwear on the outside. This was my idea but I do try to keep her modesty covered most of the time, even if only for an ebay photoshoot. You see, after a few dressesworth of bad fitting boob disasters I suddenly realised that although I may well have adjusted her to the right size according to my own dimensions, that it was the proportion of the fitting that wasn't right - although I have a small frame, I am a little top heavy. In the world of couture, which I am fascinated by, those who can afford such luxury have their very own personal dressform made for them, in the fashion house (or houses) of their choice. Made from horsehair and calico this form stays on the shelves of the atelier (workroom) for as long as their live "partner" is a customer of said establishment, and is adjusted as she or he adds or sheds weight, implants etc., However, unlike Madonna et al., most of us probably wouldn't want to spend £11,000+ on a pair of custom made jersey trousers by Jean Paul Gaultier even if we could afford it, preferring to express our own creativity, and make our own unique creations. Adjustable dress forms are very handy for such a purpose but they don't duplicate your shape exactly, so I took a leaf out of the Couture book and decided to "adapt" Madge to my shape in the easiest way possible. I therefore measured myself UNDER the boobs, adjusted madge acordingly, dressed her in one of my bras (I can't say old as i'm newly refitted by the wonderful Bravissimo method - by M&S standards I have a concave chest!!) and stuffed it with socks until she measured the same as me exactly, and Voila! She is now my body double and I can see just why, some of the patterns I was working with, were not working for me. It's all to do with the "bust point" apparently.

This pattern is from a Vogue dress pattern which I had cut out according to my size. Although the bust size is 34" - which is what I measure, the top and bodice were wrong - the bodice does not lie flat underneath the bust which it should do. I spent weeks and months pondering this, couldn't understand it at all because the measurements AROUND were accurate and the dress fitted Madge perfectly. However, as you will see, when properly "dressed", the problem on Madge is all too apparent ........


Here are some other creations which have been modelled by Madge, making my sewing life infinitely easier.

A rockabilly dress ...


A corset and bustle ...

The Day Today

Well what an interesting day it has been today. In the news we have heard nothing of Britney's battle with sanity or Amy's anguish with love because today was not a "no news day" here in the UK. Well OK, despite the Spice Girls, grabbing some attention by saying that they would sing at Nelson Mandela's 90th in South Africa, even though they haven't actually been invited, and also even though they have cancelled 4 shows due to "family commitments" (didn't they, like the rest of us, remember to book a nanny and buy the school uniforms before they planned a multi-million pound world tour?) - some audiences are more important than others I guess - there has been alot of serious stuff in the news today. On this side of the world, our capitalist government has decided, much to the confusion of many and the joy of some, to nationalise a bank in trouble, and on the other side of the world, to the joy of many and the confusion of some, one of the last communist governments, has lost it's leader of 49 years, Fidel Castro, ensuring that every radio station, every newspage, every political comentator, every journalist, DJ and taxi driver has plenty to cojutate, consternate and procrastinate about for at least another week, or until they book their next holiday.

However, none of this is as exciting as MY news today! No! It's not that I have climbed 20 places in the crafty blog charts since this time yesterday, although that is exciting enough! Oh no. My news of the day is that, along with the coming of spring, my chickens have laid eggs! Yes it seems that they have decided to come out of retirement after all! Here are the mama's in question, they are called Flossie and Floozie. There was a third, Fanny, but unfortunately, she passed away last spring. I am planning some companions for the two F's because there is nothing, I tell you nothing, which can take you back to the childhood excitement of christmas, birthdays and easter all rolled into one, faster than finding a fresh egg in your coop. And each time is just as exciting as the previous. The wonder of it just never seems to wear off!

To celebrate this treasure of nature, my Skaterboy (age 12, going on 18) decided to take up his ancestral mantle and bake some cakes. However, unlike his cullinary forebears' full fat French and fancy creations, these cakes, as light and fluffy as they are, do not contain dairy or wheat. So they are gluten free and almost vegan - depending on your view of what a vegan is. I personally know a number of vegans who will eat home produced eggs from happy hens.


My inspiration to keep these lovely ladies came from an essay called "Lily's Chickens" which I read a few years ago and which comes from a book called "Small Wonder" by Barbara Kingsolver. You can read that very entertaining, and thought provoking essay here. In the same vein, and in support of my darling feathered girls and all of their kin, I urge everyone to support the current Chicken Out Campaign led by Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall. I personally don't eat meat, but one of the things which annoys me intensely about the food market - specifically the supermarkets which I have made a resolution to avoid from now on - is the unfair way in which food is priced, creating as elitist an attitude to food labels as there is towards clothes labels. Think of this ... a cheap broiler chicken can be bought for as little as £2.00 at Tesco. A free range chicken is anywhere between £5-10, usually around £8.00. It's not a question of telling people to eat less meat - they simply will not as long as there are cheap options which they can afford - but if the supermarket raised the price of the broiler chicken, in order to subsidise the price of the free range chicken, would more people but the free range chicken as a matter of concience over affordability? And then would the horrific practice of keeping battery chickens stop? Or in the name of capitalism and greed, will the people who can change this imbalance, continue to turn a blind eye?

Bagging the Blogspot

Yikes! I have landed on the list of UK Craft Bloggers at number 485!! Now I know what it feels like to be Victoria Beckham with a new song - wondering if it's going to go up or down the charts, or just fade away due to lack of interest! Ofcourse, I don't know what it is like to be Victoria Beckham as far as her lifestyle goes, but I do know i'd rather be poor and happy with my lovely sewing machine, in my lovely garden room on a sunny day, than rich beyond my wildest dreams and forever pursued by a permanent wall of photographers... Imagine never being able to nip to the shop for a loaf of bread wearing nothing but scruffs and mascara? A nightmare if I ever thought of one (or looked like one for that matter). So, fingers crossed that I get some traffic and crawl up the blogging charts, perhaps even one day, to the dizzy heights of the top 40!

So here is the place, at the back of my house, where I spend my sewing and blogging days.



After a busy Valentines weekend - I DO celebrate it, but in a very non-commercial way - it's just fun after all, I haven't made anything of note in the last few days - not even a cake, and am just about to embark on a bulk order for tarot bags. So I thought I'd post some pics of my pre-blog bags.

This is my gardening bag. It's made from an old coat which I bought in a rare "hippy moment" years ago, but it was always too big for me - they didn't have my size - and so after a few years of trying but failing dismaly to look good in it (moments which I'm sure are very sparse in the life of aforementioned Posh Spice), and loathe to throw it away or donate it to charity because it was sooooo pretty and velvety I made this bag! I needed something to carry bits and bobs to the Allotment - gardening gloves, plant labels, pens, phone, water, reference book, sketch pad, paints etc., (not all at the same time, I hasten to add - it's not that big!). I sewed a lining with pockets into the inside, and added a few little pockets on the side gussets, and some beads which you cant see in this picture. Infact, the coat was big enough for 2 or 3 bags, this is just the first one! I found the front pockets and a portion of the back the other day much to my delight, when I was clearing out a cubboard.


This is a purse which I made for my friend at Christmas. Despite being in her late 30's, she still has a delightful childlike passion for all things Disney and the purse frame, called "mini" was just begging to be dressed up like Mini Mouse! I learned how to use purse frames from Lisa Lam's fantastic tutorials on U-Handblog (thank you!).


These are bags which I made for my Sister in-laws from a job lot of remnant velvet which I found in a shop years ago. It was cheap as chips, and i've still yet to find better velvet anywhere. I think it's silk velvet! The linings are all recycled bits of fabric, from clothes and underwear (washed of course!) and the inspiration for the style came from ... yes you guessed it... U-handbag again - cheeky wristlet tutorial, but i customised it to fit with the materials and fittings that I already had in stock.





This bag, which was ridiculously easy to make, is also courtesy of U-handblog, and was for my mother-in-law who loves all things oriental - well she spends enough time in those parts, so it's hardly surprising. Do you recognise the fabric?


This is my day to day handbag. I love leopard print and corsets, and I wanted this bag to have an underweary feel about it (don't ask me why, it was an odd moment!), without looking like a pair of knickers, or the pride and joy of Bet Lynch (i'm not sure I succeeded with that one)! The body is made from a velvety material called velboa and the gusset is made from corset coutil and there is a closure made from lace.


Here is a corset I made from the same fabrics


Now that you have seen the place where I spend my days, and considering that I'm still suffering from the after effects of weekend revelry, here is the place where I shall be mostly spending the rest of the evening ...

Hearts and Thorns

Inspired by Valentines day, and also requiring several cards for various reasons, as previously discussed, I discovered the addictive art of cutting tiny hearts out of tiny fabric scraps and then glueing them onto card, and adding other delicious bits and pieces such as beads, sequins and glass painting outline paste. Thus, I have a healthy stock of cards (which are now nearly all spoken for!) ...

I cut out so many hearts that I had to find a box to put them all in! I sent Mr. to the shop to find an appropriate vessel. He came back with this tiny tin, not only appropriate to its contents, but also to the day ..

And ever inspired by all things romantic and arty at this time of year, I made a birthday present for my dear friend BrainStorm who paints passionate pictures, writes novels, pantomimes and children's books, and other wonderful things including his new blog. It's one of my Moleskine book covers adapted from my original tutorial.

My big disappointment of the day was that I nearly finished my new corset, but ... IT DIDN'T FIT!! Boo hoo ... Not only do I now have nothing to wear on Saturday night, but I have such sore fingers from a day of hand stitching the necessary stabilising tack stitches required before sewing the boning channels. I'm not really sure what went wrong- perhaps the cup size (?), but suffice to say, that if I lace it as tight as I like to (as designed), I end up with 6 boobs which shouldn't happen despite the most ardent of male fantasy! Ebay, here it comes (for somebody with B not D cups)...

For Valentines day, Mr. took a surprise day off . He had intended to take me to see Sweeny Todd, but unfortunately the cinemas change their viewing times on Thursday's so the expected midday viewing had been moved to 3pm which made it impossible considering school. How much disappointment can a girl take?! We decided to visit a nearby cotswold village for lunch instead, and despite all the odds, tucked away and up a staircase, I managed to find a specialist needlework shop selling a book which made me very excited indeed! One of my resolutions this year is to learn how to knit, but I've been a bit confused and confuddled about which book to buy. This one speaks my language and unexpectedly, it has made up for my corset consternation because it inspired me again, and made me laugh. There is even a blog to read! Hurrah!

Indigo Blue

Today I have mostly been making cards .. and presents, but I cant show most of them until later in the week. In the meantime, it is a friend's daughters birthday on 15th. Indigo is the child's name and she will be one. So I made her an indigo one ....! I expect with a name like Indigo, she will be an actress or a pop star when she grows up. She is certainly one of the most delightful babies I have ever encountered ... so much so that she makes me feel quite broody! I had such alot of fun cutting out little tiny hearts from tiny scraps of fabric (which came from my bag marked "tiny scraps of fabric") that I cut rather too many ... lucky I had more than one card to make! Now I need a special box to store them all in!

Spring in my Steps

There's nothing quite like the satisfied feeling of muscle worn exhaustion which comes at the end of a good days work in the garden on a crisp and sunny pre-spring day. This weekend the weather has been glorious - warm in the sunshine, chilly in the shade, icy early morning puddles, and a dusting of frost on the rooftops. There are buds heralding the coming of spring on every branch and twig, shoots peeping through the mud everywhere, the very first flushes of tender fresh lime green hawthorn leaves and even a sprinkling of confetti-like blossom daintily peppering the gardens and hedgerows. Soon those hedgerows will be thickly ablaze with the fat white and fluffy blackthorn blossoms which precede the more delicate but no less glorious beauty of the barely pink hawthorn flowers. Everywhere we look, the earth beneath our feet is infused with the stirrings of new life - if you stand still for long enough you will feel it's energy humming through you. This and the growing light fills each second with promise and potential and so after the dark days and cold nights of midwinter, it is easy to find inspiration by the shovel-full. This time of year was known to the ancients of Britain, our ancestors of blood and of the land, as Imbolc, a word in their language meaning "ewes milk". It acknowledges the quickening bellies of the ewes, the fact their lambs will soon be born and spring will be well and truly, irriversably here. If we can see nature reflected in our own lives, this is a time of new horizons, inspiration and growth, ideas formed at the winter solstice and taking shape now, yet vulnerable still - this abundance of growth could so easily fail should a harsh frost get in the way.

And so with this amazing weather, work in the allotment has at last commenced with gusto along with a declaration of war on the unnaturally swollen rodent population who have moved in (and bred) following floods last summer and again this winter - we are only a small bunny hop away from the Thames which keeps bursting it's banks just where we are. There were enough mice as it was last year to finish off my entire crop of beetroot - laughing at me as they sated their appetites right under my nose while I weeded the neighboring beds oblivious to their theiving ways .. I would find freshly gnawed roots there and then, glistening wounds bleeding purple juice into the soil! And so taking into account the increased density and variety of rodent habitation, I reckon, along with my fellow allotmenterios, that there will be nothing left for us if action is not taken swiftly! We started by moving the half rotton shed, patching it up with recylced odds and ends, and displacing a small mouse city in the process. We moved some planks (more houses destroyed), dug over some beds (still more) and disposed of a whole load of rubbish, including the equivalent of a hollywood mansion (an old trainer which had been converted into a very des res indeed). We could well have had the rodent population of Tokyo within our 10 rods of space, but hopefully many of them will have moved on to newer, greener pastures, or even back to the river bank for now. I hate to put poison down but our entire village is suffering from a rat epidemic and so I think I will have no choice in the end, unless we find a Pied Piper! We'll see how it goes. In the meantime, I am thinking of some nice ways to brighten up the shed with paint, and i want to build a firepit too.