...bee-friending

There have been lots of bees enjoying the lavender over the past couple of weeks. Not enough to be considered a swarm, but definitely enough for a small flock. It's been reassuring to see them going about their 'buzzness' in spite of the extreme weather we've been experiencing lately...

...although it probably has taken its toll on the bee population. One afternoon I found this little chap lying on the pavement, too exhausted to move, and had to carefully carry him home, where I revived him with some diluted honey solution. To me, he looked a rather young bee - gangly and skinny, like a teenage boy after a growth spurt. (Having been raised on the stories of Beatrix Potter, anthropomorphism comes naturally to me!) I imagined that he had overestimated his pollen-gathering abilities, flown too far from the nest, and run out of fuel for the journey home. It was lovely to see him paddling around in the honey-water, slurping madly with his proboscis, and then suddenly...

...he unfolded his wings, gave a quick buzz, and flew away. It's funny how the tiniest of tiny acts of kindness, can make one feel so happy, but I guess it's just a case of "every little helps".

...mostly making and a bit of mending

• An Extra-Large Extra Pocket Bag - for all the things I need to take with me to the 12 week 'Joint Pain Management Program' I started at the beginning of June. This is a free, twice-weekly exercise class provided by Nuffield Health, designed to un-stiffen and de-creak stiff, creaky joints, which I applied for thinking that it might encourage me to move more and grumble less! So on Monday and Thursday afternoons I catch a bus into the city centre and spend an hour at the gym with a small group of similarly stiff, creaky people pursuing the same Move More/Grumble Less goal. We're now 7 weeks in, and I do seem a little less stiff, creaky and grumbly - as for moving more, hurrying to catch a bus into the city centre and back twice a week has definitely done the trick! 

To begin with I was using my Extra Pocket Bag for the smaller bits and pieces I needed (pen, padlock, membership card, face-mask, keys and phone) plus an additional bag for the Program workbook and a water bottle. This was challenging for my post-retirement, post-lockdown(s) Muddled Hermit Brain because I kept coming home on Thursdays, putting the additional bag down somewhere random, replacing the membership card and padlock with my wallet-with-the-bank-cards (because Thursday night is Shopping Night), and then ending up frantically searching for/swapping everything back again on Monday afternoon before dashing for the bus. After Session 5 (when I ended up at the gym in my comfy slip-on sandals because I'd forgotten to change into trainers amidst all the frantic searching and dashing) I decided to make myself a purpose-built, grab-and-go bag, big enough to store everything in just one place. 

The fully-lined Extra-Large Extra Pocket Bag features an internal pocket for the gym membership card (so it doesn't get lost at the bottom of the bag), a fold over flap with elasticated button loop (for easy access), a cross-body strap (for hands-free maneuverability), and two external pockets (for stowage of face-mask and phone when hopping on and off the bus). It is roomy enough to hold all the bits and pieces, the workbook and the water bottle, as well as a small foldable umbrella in the unlikely event of rain. Apart from a bit of measuring to determine basic pocket dimensions I pretty much made it up as I went along. This was quite taxing for the Muddled Hermit Brain, because the fold-over flap was a new (to me) design feature, and assembling all the layers in the correct order so that there were no raw edges or wrong sides showing when I turned everything the right way round took a lot of pondering and deliberation. At the points where I couldn't quite visualise things in my head, I drew diagrams, and afterwards added these to a written 'recipe' for future reference. Like Scarlett ("I'll never be hungry again") O'Hara, I'll never be custom-built bagless again.

• A new (to us) fence. A couple of weeks ago my younger son, Sam, came over to help with its construction. The old fence has been slowly rotting away for years, and had finally reached the point where my Heath-Robinson "repairs" with garden wire couldn't hold it together any longer. Our new next door neighbour has been renovating and extending his house since the start of the year, and his back garden is full of piles of old building materials that have been stripped out/demolished to make way for the new. Every so often he has a big bonfire to get rid of the wooden bits, which always makes me cringe inside because it's so environmentally unfriendly and wasteful. So when I spotted a load of old floorboards amongst the debris I plucked up courage to ask if I could have them to repair the fence - and because he's actually quite a nice young man when he's not being a raging eco-vandal, he said "Take whatever you like Love!" and even helped us move them over the old fence! 

We pulled out lots of old rusty nails and cut them to the right length, and then I gave them a bit of a clean with a wire brush, and painted them. They had to be painted black because what would have been the undersides were coated in some kind of tar-like substance - maybe for water-proofing purposes originally - but the paint blended/covered this really well. We kept the original fence posts, and re-used some of the old fence boards (cut down to remove the rotten ends) to eke out the rescued floorboards, so the only new timber we had to buy was some 3 metre lengths for the horizontal rails. Sam has been hammering nails into wood since he was two years old, and in recent years has honed his DIY skills to craftsman's level through hands-on involvement in the construction of his Very Own House. He came armed with an impressive array of power-tools, including a rather intimidating nail-gun, and made short work of our 6 metre fence. Even though it's 'just a fence', mostly hidden by the bins and out of sight at the side of the house, I'm ridiculously pleased with it. Thanks to Sam's handiwork it is perfectly level, all the boards are evenly spaced, and it is very sturdy. Best of all it has given a new lease of life to a pile of old floorboards that would otherwise have gone up in smoke!

• A patchwork Wiksten top. I was watching this lovely video on YouTube recently, and really liked the idea of a garment that could be appliquéd and stitched onto over time. Not long after, amidst another wardrobe de-clutter, I came across a couple of pairs of trousers (elasticated waists/ankles, denim-look drapy fabric) that I haven't worn for years, and a couple of pairs of my daughter's cast-off 'Mom' jeans that I'd thought I might wear but never have, despite being a bona fide Mom. I probably could have donated them to a charity shop (and part of me really felt I should, too) but in the end I persuaded myself that it was ok to repurpose them for something else. 'Something else' being a comfy, practical, sleeveless tunic/smock for all-purpose-knocking-about-in.

I started by cutting off all eight legs and opened them up along the seams, then joined them together to make two large patchwork pieces (four sections in each), big enough to cut the front and back of the tunic from. I used the drapy trouser fabric in the top halves, and the heavier jeans fabric in the bottoms, so that the tunic would 'hang' better over the shoulders, but even so, it was still very 'boxy' (as in, gave me fridge-freezer-like proportions). So I made casings from the cotton fabric I'd used for the neck facing/bottom edge binding and recycled some of the wide elastic from the trouser ankles to gather it in a bit at the sides. I added one of the patch pockets (from the back of the trousers) to give myself a double pocket on one side, but decided against using the other. Sometimes 'less is more', especially when you're in quadruple denim territory! The finished garment is not remotely stylish (or even very flattering, if I'm being completely honest), but it ticks every one of my comfy, practical, all-purpose-knocking-about-in boxes, and (when the fancy takes me) it will be fun to appliqué and stitch onto too.  

•  Another Extra Pocket Bag. 'When Life gives you denim, make a bag for a friend'...(but only if that friend admires the denim bag you made for yourself). Literally days after I'd finished the patchwork Wiksten my very dear friend Sue commented on the usefulness of my everyday Extra Pocket Bag while we were out dog-walking together. So naturally I offered to make her one, thinking, "I have just the materials for it too!" - namely the spare patch pocket from the back of the drapy trousers, plus some other leftover pieces I'd kept. Sue happened to be wearing a very pretty blue and fuschia pink top at the time, so I decided to incorporate some fuschia highlights into the design, via the lining and the zip. Then, gaily abandoning the 'less is more' principle, I added a needle-felted/embroidered 'flower' on one side (a little-known allium/dandelion hybrid). It made me very happy to use up these scraps on another project, and Sue loved her little bag too. Result! 

• A new crochet project. I've been literally obsessed with the nasturtiums and sweet peas growing outside my kitchen window this summer. I just can't get enough of the  juxtaposition of pastel pinks/purples with hot orange on a background of green leaves and stems. 
  
  Then I happened across this post on Instagram, which slightly blew my mind - granny squares AND patchwork?! What's not to like?! So when I met my eldest for a coffee just round the corner from a newly-opened yarn shop, and when that yarn shop had some very soft Scheepjes yarn in ALL the right colours, it would have been rude not to buy some and make my own granny square patchwork block... 
  
  

...and once you've completed one block...

...the magic of photo collage allows you to see what a whole lot more will look like. Can't wait! 

...garden joy

I don't consider myself a 'proper' gardener. My garden is very small, untidy, overgrown and...well, just plain wild in places. I don't have the knowledge/know-how or (more importantly) physical strength to try and tame it (small though it is), so Mother Nature and I just muddle along together, and sometimes the ivy, dandelions and brambles make way for me, and sometimes they grow unchallenged for a while. I feel very protective of this little patch of land though, and whilst it may appear unkempt to my tree-felling, slab-laying, artificial-grass-loving neighbours, it's beautiful to me. At the moment there is literally nothing that makes me happier than my morning and evening rounds with the watering can, tending to my 'crops' - nibbling on delicious, crunchy mange-tout peas and gathering little handfuls of raspberries to eat with yoghurt and honey. The slugs and snails (a.k.a. The Enemy) seem to have been ever so slightly deterred by the eggshells I've been spreading around my strawberry plants - so I'm currently harvesting at least two strawberries for every one they hollow out with their thousands of microscopic teeth*. Hooray! The blueberry bushes I planted last year have started to produce fruit, and my blackberry patch is covered in flowers, but the big success story of the year is lettuce. Four different varieties in heavily fortified containers, with 'moats' and copper tape to keep The Enemy at bay - I reckon I might be self-sufficient in lettuce all summer! 

*It's true, they do have teeth, I saw it on Q.I.!

The tables outside the kitchen window are where some of the most intensive growing action takes place. The planters on top are a lot easier to tend to (less bending), and a little easier to patrol - it was my (sadly mistaken) belief that very few of The Enemy would be willing to make the climb to get to them. Turns out it's actually the most determined/elite specimens that ascend to the summit, and they don't just pose for a photo and head back down once they do. I'm trying to abide by a 'live and let live' policy with The Enemy, but it's hard to show mercy when they munch through entire crops of seedlings in the space of just one night...so if they're captured on the table top they get lobbed as far away as I can muster - usually into the ivy on top of the garage*. Currently growing in this area are mange-tout peas, chives, sage, lettuce and tomato seedlings, some sweet peas, a rogue foxglove and a wonderfully flamboyant nasturtium plant, which is spreading like wildfire.  

*Yes, I know this is ultimately a futile gesture, as (a) they have a 20 metre radius homing instinct, and (b) I throw like a girl. It just makes me feel better to think that I've ruined their day.

The nasturtium and an accidental poppy that appeared in one of the blueberry pots have been the floral highlights of my summer so far. I really can't decide which I love more. Nasturtiums make me incredibly nostalgic because my Mum always had them growing in the garden, wherever we were living, but this is a particularly magnificent poppy, standing around three feet tall and simply covered in buds. I can never seem to grow poppies on purpose, so I make sure to really appreciate them when they arrive by chance. I think this one may have been 'planted' by a bird, as it's directly below one of my bird-feeders. 

Speaking of birds, this is 'Girlie', a very tame female blackbird who comes and calls for meal worms every morning, sitting on the fence, or the extension roof, saying "Bip! Bip! Bip!" until I  give her her breakfast. She is quite unperturbed by me moving around nearby, watering the pots or having a cup of tea on the bench. This gives her a decided advantage over the other birds (mostly sparrows at the moment) who watch impatiently from the hedge until I go inside or move further away.

When I looked more closely at the photo below, of the windowsill birds and the nasturtium flowers, I realised that it also captured Girlie sitting on the fence, and the little red dot of the accidental poppy in the distance. Simple pleasures - garden joy!

...postcards from Alnmouth

We booked four nights away in a cottage in Alnmouth earlier this year, before my Dad's heart attack happened, and were due to depart just two days after he came out of hospital. At one point I was thinking of cancelling our plans, but as luck would have it, my sister had the same week off work, and was keen to come for a visit - she lives 200 miles away, so can't just pop round the corner for a cuppa like I can. She suggested that she could stay at our house while we were away, meaning we could have a reasonably worry-free break, knowing she was there to help/support and generally keep an eye on things. It was the perfect solution!

So we headed North, past the Angel at Gateshead...  

...arriving at Alnmouth in the late afternoon, where we quickly unloaded the car and headed for the beach. Alnmouth perches on the side of the estuary where the River Aln meets the sea, and the river runs across the beach for some distance, almost dividing it in two when the tide is out. There are signs warning against paddling or bathing in the river as it is too fast-flowing - so if (like me) you enjoy the feeling of bare feet on sand and the invigorating sensation of chilly North Sea waves lapping at your toes, you have to walk along the beach for a while to get it!

The following morning we set off up the beach again, following a 4.7 mile circular route from the Andrew's Walks website. I was fascinated by the weathered wooden groynes halfway along the beach, which had been sculpted and coloured by sand and salt-water over time.

There were some wonderfully menacing dark clouds overhead, and the heavens opened just after we turned off the beach, so we sheltered under some trees until the rain blew over...

...the second half of the walk took us inland, with views of the River Aln meandering through the fields and glorious blue skies overhead. We did get very wet at the end of the walk, when (having discarded a few layers in the sunshine) we were caught in a torrential downpour of rain and hail only minutes from the door of the cottage, but that just made a lazy afternoon snuggled up indoors seem all the more rewarding.

The next day we crossed over the Aln and walked along the coastal footpath to the beach on the other side of the estuary, with lovely views of Alnmouth behind us.The track we took through the sand dunes was beautiful, literally carpeted with buttercups, daisies, pink stork's-bill and blue speedwell flowers. I've been listening to Anne of Green Gables on Audible when I can't get to sleep at night, and couldn't help wondering what fanciful name she would have given it - 'The Path of Tiny Blossoms', perhaps?!

The beach was completely deserted - like Robinson Crusoe, ours were the only footprints in the sand. We walked south, facing into a very brisk wind, until the sand scouring our faces got too gritty to bear, then took refuge in the dunes to eat our sandwiches and gaze out to sea for a while. Sheer heaven.

We retraced our steps along the Path of Tiny Blossoms and back over the river, taking a slightly different route 'home' along the side of the estuary and then up through the village for another well-earned afternoon snooze on the settee!

On our last full day we took the bus into Alnwick in the morning, had a mooch around the shops and market stalls, called in at the famous Barter Books shop, and shared an enormous slab of chocolate brownie with a couple of cappuccinos at a little cafe on Narrowgate. In the afternoon we walked off the brownie (or at least some of it) during a final stroll along the beach, pausing to take even more photos of the beautiful wooden groynes.

Before setting off for home on the last day it would have been crazy not to take a short (17 miles) detour up the coast to my very favourite St Aidan's beach at Seahouses - I love it so much that it made me cry with happiness to be there, as wildly over the top as that probably sounds! There is just something wonderful about the spaciousness of it, the blueness of the sky, the wide, pale, reflective beach. Often I become mesmerised by patterns in the sand or seeing what the tide has left behind, but on this morning the wind was erasing our footsteps as we walked, and the beach had been swept clean of all but a few scraps of seaweed and the occasional pebble or shell.

The wind was blowing dry sand across the beach in hypnotic rippling patterns like water - incredibly beautiful to watch. Here is a brief snippet of video:

I'm including this final photo because it functions as an optical illusion puzzle (for me, anyway). The circular shapes are lugworm holes - perfect concave circles sunk into the sand - but my brain keeps 'reading' them as convex (nipple-like!) shapes protruding from the sand. I really struggle to see them as holes, even though I know that's what they are - and even when I briefly succeed in seeing a hole they seem to switch to nipples before my very eyes! Most peculiar...or is it just me?!

...when May went West

May started quite well.

[Although not for the XXSCat Dog,

who had all her floofy fur cut off,

and had to curl herself up in a little tight ball,

with all four paws tucked in,

to stay warm]...

...I finished the crazy psychedelic painting for the special 'Thank You' card...

...plugged away at my #100grannies100days squares...

...made a cupboard for the mouse house,

to ease my nerves,

whilst overhead, on the flat roof,

a couple of agile workmen

tore up the old roof and laid down a new one,

finally making us watertight again...

...the woods filled with bright green leaves,

purple Honesty, 

Bluebells,

and Queen Anne's Lace...

...inspiring a fresh 'batch' of daily squares...

...and then everything changed in a heart-beat,

when my Dad came in from the sunny garden, 

looking grey, 

breathless,

with pain in his chest, 

spreading down his arms.

My Mum phoned me,

and I said "Phone an ambulance!", 

then hurried round to wait with them.

Two nice young paramedics arrived,

quicker than predicted,

checked him over, 

and took him straight to hospital.

Bloody Covid.

He had to wait alone for twelve hours,

sitting by himself, 

in a cubicle in A&E,

until a bed became available 

in the acute cardiology ward.

Almost miraculously we brought him home

just three nights later,

with only minor damage to his heart,

and a list of medications as long as his arm.

We are all a bit shaken up, 

our hearts bruised but thankfully not broken,

and all so very glad

that my lovely Dad

is still with us.

...grannies galore

My 100 Day Project (#100grannies100days) is doing nothing to curb my crochet enthusiasm. During days 26-50 I worked on a series of spring-coloured squares that I thought could potentially be made into a baby blanket (if the right baby comes along)...

...then during days 51-62 I worked on a series of 12 squares inspired by Kandinsky's 'Squares with Concentric Circles' (which he almost certainly painted with granny squares in mind). I enjoyed this bit of the project so much I could hardly bear to limit myself to just one square a day! Each square consisted of four rings of colour within a square border. Sticking to three rings of treble crochet and one ring of half treble crochet per square allowed me to vary the thickness of the bands of colour, and I added embroidered (chain stitch) rings when four colours weren't enough... 

...I had so much fun trying to replicate the different squares. I couldn't match Kandinsky's original colours all that accurately because I was just using up yarn I already had, and I  wasn't a massive fan of those clashing reds and yellows either...

...but I absolutely love the finished set. Again, not sure what to use them for - a cushion cover, perhaps, or a bag - I'm sure an idea will present itself eventually.

Next came a new pattern trial (the 'Compass') and a series of six squares in more soothing 'clematis' colours for days 63-68. I joined these into a strip as I went, thinking they'd make a groovy headband/ear-warmer (it's still quite chilly in April when the sun's not out). However, after a style consultation with my husband and daughter, it was decided that I haven't yet achieved the level of eccentricity required to pull this look off, so I will probably just make a few more and turn the headband into a cowl instead. One should always know one's limits!

Day 69 was a one-off square - the 'African Flower with 8 Petals' - which went a bit wonky because I got the tension of the longer spike stitches too tight...

...and days 70-71 have seen the trial of another new pattern - the 'Sunburst Granny Square' - which I tracked down a tutorial for here. I was thinking that I might finish up the 100 days making a scarf using all my favourite blues and purples, but the puff stitches in Round 2 of this square have driven me absolutely insane, so I might need to keep looking for the perfect pattern - maybe this one  or this one or this one. 

When I'm not working on my daily square, or combing the internet searching for the next pattern to try, I'm reluctantly creeping towards the end of the Rose Cottage blanket I've been making for my daughter. I'm half way round the final row of the border edging, and I'm eking it out for as long as I can - I'll be lost without its lap-warming companionship in the evenings, not to mention my daughter's companionship when she moves into Rose Cottage - possibly at some point in June if the stars (and solicitors) align in her favour...

...and when I've completely exhausted my daily round of crochet-related activities, I've also been working on a couple of card commissions. I've just completed a 'Leaving' card for a cycle-loving, Everton-supporting colleague at my old workplace (slightly edited here to remove some personal details)...

...and I'm midway through another design for a special 'Thankyou' card...  

...which is just at the awkward 'is this going to work or do I need to scrap it and start again' stage. One thing's for sure - I've got granny squares on the brain! Just look at those concentric circles of colour. This design might not make a good card, but it would certainly make a lovely crocheted blanket!

...Marching on

• I continued with my 100 Day Project, one square at a time, channeling poppies and primulas, daisies and forget-me-nots...

...then adding in some stripey squares for contrast. I'm still not sure what to do with them - make a baby blanket perhaps? I'm currently on Day 47 and thinking about a change of direction at Day 50, so maybe I'll wait 'til the project is finished and then decide!

• We returned to a walk we first did in early April last year, which runs between the canal and the river for approximately 3 miles. It's a mixture of industrial landscape (with its own incidental beauty)...

...and more natural scenery. The goat willows were just starting to come into flower, bright silver buds swelling into almost irridescent yellow-green honeycomb shoots before bursting into blossom where the sun shone brightest.

• We always buy pots of live flowers for my mother and mother-in-law on Mother's Day, so that they can enjoy them for longer, planted out in the garden. These stunners were our choice this year - my husband chose a big pot of the purple-and-white ones for his Mum, and I went with two smaller pots of the pink-and-white and plain purple ones for mine. The photos really don't do justice to the rich, vibrant colours of these flowers - they were eye-poppingly gorgeous!

• Our central heating boiler broke down towards the end of the month, and it took over a week to be repaired. The first half of the week we were blessed with mild Spring weather - blue skies and sunshine - but we had sleet, snow and freezing cold winds to contend with for the last few days, and it was pretty miserable indoors and out. The XXSCat dog chose one of those final Wintery days to have a comprehensive roll in fox poo at the park, and had to endure the indignity of an improvised bucket bath in the back garden. To be honest, she was lucky I didn't just throw her in the lake!

• I bought some cheap and cheerful seeds and propagator trays from the Central Aisle of Joy at Aldi, and I am so excited to see them growing - some of them almost visibly - every day. The photo below is the current vista over my miniature fields. Lettuce in the foreground, then spinach, beetroot and carrots. I'm very inexperienced with growing vegetables/salad, so this may be as good as my farming adventure gets, but a girl can dream...