First produce

Just pulled these from the vegetable plot, the very first radishes. These are the only ones from an entire row that survived the over-zealous pigeon thinning! I'm sure they will be delicious added to the salad tonight! I'm very excited to eat my very first home grown produce since 2005!

The majority of the fence got finished off yesterday, we were rained off with a couple of showers so lost a couple of hours. It just needs the side facing the road to be creosoted (next dry day) as the side facing the garden was pre-done before we put the boards up, it's very high to do from a ladder so it was safer to do it before fixing. There a little capping to go on the top as well which MTM will do one evening when it's dry.

Today has been soooooo rainy here, apart from Missy-walking and radish picking, I've stayed indoors. Quite a difference from Saturday. We couldn't keep on having dry bank holidays could we ... this is England, after all!

Tea drinking on the patio ... I wish

You know, some people, if they had a nice seating area like this, they might be tempted to spend August Bank Holiday weekend actually sitting in it. You could read the paper with a nice cup of tea, eat lunch al fresco with some Pimms (or beer depending on which Doran you are). It's a nice spot to watch the sunset whilst eating bar-b-qued foodstuffs. That's a good way to spend a fine Saturday at the end of August.

But no, this is what the Dorans do with Bank Holiday weekends, they put up fences! I was doing the creosoting and holding the other end of various things. MTM was doing the clever fiddly bits with saw, spirit level and a screw gun.

Oh well, at least there was a mug of tea. Drinking it on a building site isn't quite as relaxing. Maybe one day ...

Just taken my Justin bracelet off

Late night at Holmfirth Picturedrom yesterday watching Justin Currie. What a great venue and a brilliant performance. Justin has got such good stagecraft from playing in a larger band, the sound was really good and he has a great connection with the audience.

I've had to cut off my paper bracelet as I'm about to have a shower, I slept in it last night and don't really want to take it off. I am not used to such late nights, we don't go out nearly often enough! It's gone 9am the next day and I've only just got up! Normally we're up and about between 6 and 7am.  It's about an hour and forty minute drive to Holmfirth from our home so we didn't get home til nearly 1am and then it was ages before I got to sleep as I was still so wired from the gig, buzzing with all the songs and hoarse from shouting and singing along.

There are pictures and comments by other members of the audience on The Opposite View group on Facebook. Anyone with an interest in Del Amitri or Justin Currie can join. My phone is definitely of the unsmart variety, all it's good for is phone calls and texts so I'll leave it to them to fill you in on the details!

A fantastic start to the Bank Holiday weekend. We're putting up the fabled fence, weather permitting. The timber arrived yesterday. Whatever you're up to, hope you have a good time!

Garden progresses ... really close to getting that greenhouse!

It finally feels like I'm doing some real gardening instead of just working on the structure of the garden. Vegetable seedlings have been popping up but I noticed they were getting pulled out by the birds (pigeons I think) and so I've had to put some makeshift netting over them and the second lot of seeds are doing much better without the birds over-thinning!

However, there's still a little way to go before the greenhouse can be put up. Last weekend I was sealing two garden walls and then painting them with masonry paint. The colour was supposed to be sea green but looks more turquoise; it's much bluer than I imagined from the shade card but I've decided it can stay as it looks so nice with the brown of the sleepers.

MTM has put up some trellis against the wall. The wall actually goes all the way up to the top of the trellis but I decided not to paint it all, too much ladder work! The top will be covered with climbers I'm going to put in the raised bit under the trellis. 

Once the greenhouse is put up, the raised bed won't have much space around it for maintenance so I shall have an incentive to keep trim! The soil was some that got displaced when MTM built the base and has since got contaminated with chunks of limestone and rubble in it which needs to be picked out (job for me!) Bloody builders! ;-) Luckily the soil is quite good, not too clayey or too sandy. Dig in some compost and it'll be good to go. 

The scabby fence at the top is going to be replaced. Although the retaining wall is really quite high on the garden side, it's only three or four feet tall where it fronts the road and sometimes people peer over which I find disconcerting (and they're usually embarrassed when I spot them!) So that's going to be replaced with something taller. We did discuss putting the greenhouse up before the fence but you just know that a hammer or nail gun will get dropped onto it if we do it that way round so there's still a little time to wait! 

As long as it's up before the first frosts so I can overwinter cuttings, I shall be a happy little gardener! 

Nearly ready for take off

Our Scheepjes Flight of Fancy Crochet-A-Long wraps are nearly ready for flight. Above shows all my motifs prior to joining together along with what's left of the 603 Linen Soft (she just has to get in on ALL the pics!)

The last week and a half evenings have been spent joining them all together, I got finished on that yesterday but have found a couple of oopsies ...

To join the motifs together, there are two rounds of chain, double crochet (UK), slip stitches and picots. As the black circle indicates, I've forgotten one of my picots when joining this motif. I'd joined the rest of that row and nearly all of the following one before I spotted it. Since seeing that one, I've found another as well, that's the trouble with watching TV at the same time as crocheting!

I have figured out a way of fixing this fairly easily (ie without having to remove all the motifs I joined after the one with the error). So I continued on and finished all the joining. That's this evening's task. I'm painting a wall in the garden today so we can get the greenhouse delivered and put up in time for the Autumn.

All that's left to do on our lovely Flight of Fancy wraps is the final border. The pattern will be released on the Scheepjes Spring-to-Summer CAL 2015 group Facebook page later on this week. Then the whole thing will be blocked to open out the joining rounds and then I'll be able to wear it.

Am so looking forward to Wednesday morning!

The Whispering Beadmaker

I'm not talking much today, MTM and I went to see Rival Sons again last night in Sheffield with fellow rock fans Steve and Gary. Brilliant night, support act were the Graveltones, wow, they get a great sound with only two musicians. The guitarist is a one-man orchestra!

Due to shouting and hollering my approval after every track of both acts, I am rather hoarse today and so forgive me for not doing much talking about the concert or these new lampwork beads I'm showing you.

They're very similar to my Glitter on the Highway beads which I made some time ago but this time in a blue colourway using bluestone instead of goldstone. I had to come up with another name and as they're blue which suggests water ... I therefore present to you, Lustre on the Babbling Brook beads available in my Etsy shop now.

Hope everyone is having a lovely weekend!

Steampunks and mushrooms in Cambridge

I've been meaning to get back to Cambridge for a day out for ages. Last time as we whizzed by in the car, I spotted these unusual mushrooms sprouting out of wrought iron railings outside a school on Trumpington Road. This time, I had to stop for some pics; aren't they just amazing?!

The perfect opportunity for this came last Saturday, my sister, Sharon and her partner, Martin were arranging one of their Steampunk events at the Cambridge Museum of Technology.

Steampunks are an eccentric bunch, they like dressing up, have tea duals, drink gin and eat cake ...

They're especially fond of their hats, mustn't forget the hats, they even motorise them and have races ... a strange lot! :-)

The museum is brilliant, great staff and most importantly is dog friendly and so Missy was able to come along with us and on the way back into town, we stumbled upon a pub with river views ...

It would be rude not to stop really! 

Have half of shandy and boat watch.

Must go back soon, Cambridge is lovely, sometimes I miss trading there on Saturdays!