Dangerously Delicious!

Back in August, Mr Marmalade made some Beetroot Wine. After tasting at the prescribed time and deciding it was decidedly "thin", we left it to mature. And forgot about it. Until today's clearout.

Now having a glass while cooking dinner, I am happy to report that we will certainly be making some more for next year!

And now the Year Begins ...

I feel like i've been on a rollercoaster of parties, entertaining, and more parties!! The last one was this weekend - Friday night. Now, I need a month 'in', detoxing and getting on with things at home.

And so I started today with the big Greenhouse tidy! It was sunny and warm - as long as you stood in the sun or the greenhouse - and so perfect for clearning everything down, and getting ready for the new planting season.

So while Mr Marmalade dusted out all the cobwebs ..


I organised my seed filing system ...


And planted my first seeds of the year!!

And just so all my loose ends are all nice and tidy, I'd like to say a huge THANKYOU to all of you for all the lovely comments and good wishes you've left about my birthday. I'd also like apologise for my tardy or absent responses to your lovely emails, and assure you that normal service will now be resumed.

Autumn Colour at the Allotments

Gardening is a many Splendourous Thing

The Holiday weekend in the UK has been very wet indeed. And windy . And not that warm either ... But the rain didn't arrive until Sunday which meant that on Saturday, when it was very sunny, we got as much done outside as possible. First thing, seed planting in the greenhouse. I was greeted outside by this splendour!

Next, a trip to the allotment - more splendour!


Everything doing quite well, beetroots and kohl rabbi (later decimated by a pigeon):



Broad Beans:

Our first BEAN!!


Potatoes

Onions


Further along on a neighbouring allotment were these glorious beauties


Some neigbours are more friendly than others

And after all that gardening, what better to end the day with than a nice bowl of Parsley Soup from the Cranks Bible. All you do is fry 11oz potatoes in butter, add 7oz parsley (destalked weight), top up with stock made from the parsley stalks, a carrot, an onion and 2 cloves of garlic, add some bouillion powder (or a stock cube) to that, salt and pepper to taste. When the pototatoes are cooked through, whizz the soup in a blender, adjust consistency and seasoning, and serve with either extra virgin olive oil, or creme fraiche and some warm crusty bread. Heavenly.

Warming Signs

Brrr... it's the middle of April and still so cold! This time last year, we were basking in sunshine, picknicking in Christchurch Meadow ... no jumpers, no coats ..

Feeding the swans, and geese ..


And the ducks ..

A typical Sunday afternoon in Oxford, the boats were bobbing, the students were rowing, the swans were hissing, the ducks were mating and the sun was shining ....

Not this year, oh no. The pictures above were taken on 9 April 2007.

Today, on 18 April 2008 the sky is grey, the wind is fierce, the air is bitterly cold and the sun has gone on holiday ...


I spent some time wondering who I should write a complaint letter to, and then thinking about getting my thermals out in order to venture into the garden to find some warming signs that spring (ha ha) or even summer (rofl), is really on the way. Well in the end I did neither so my photographic expedition in flip flops and jogging pants was quick and painful but heart warming if not skin warming because luckily, nature never lets me down and here is what I found ....

FIGS!!! Hurrah, I love figs, they are my very favourite, especially when freshly picked. I never buy them, they are just too expensive.

Lily of the Valley ... more and more each year ... Mmmmm..


Winter Jasmin - quite apt


Sunflower shoots !! I'm growing LOTS and LOTS


Runner bean sprouts, just a few in the garden otherwise they take over the world ...

Brasicas - never enough especially after the pigeons, caterpillars, mice, rabbits etc., have had their fill. My crop last year was wiped out entirely by caterpillars. The pigeons were quite naffed off about that too ... grrr...

Sweetcorn, particularly nice raw and goes well with avocado in salads. I missed it when I didn't grow some ...


My first strawberry flower! These are alpine strawberries which I grew from seed last year..

With such a profusion of yellowy and summery things sprouting in my garden, like a perennial sundance, I hope they go some way to encouraging him to put his hat back on and return with Mr Blue Sky. Otherwise I might have to go on holiday too!

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 ...