Temperature blanket

Missy is helping me with my temperature blanket. I've unraveled the first ten rows. With changing colour every time the temperature varied by 5 degrees, I was only using two colours and I confess to getting ever so slightly fed up with turquoise repeating as often as it was. 

I decided instead to change colour every 3 degrees, this means I have used three colours already! Much more fun.

I check the temperature for my village on the Met Office site first thing when I get up. Whatever the site says will be the actual temperature at 12.00 noon determines the colour for that day's row. Here's my revised colour scheme.

I have sneak peeked ahead and if tomorrow's temperature stays the same at zero degrees, I will be able to use Plum for the first time! The excitement is palpable. Of course, MTM doesn't understand, he rolls his eyes in disbelief at my jubilation. "Just do a row in Plum if that's what you want". 

 On a temperature blanket, THAT would be cheating!

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! 

I need a new name

The new name is not for me, I know who I am (well, most of the time I do!) It's for these:
This morning I have been taking photographs and updating the Lampwork jewellery page of my website with new jewellery. There are a couple of new crocodile bead earrings and a super double length crocodile bead necklace on that page but the stars of this week's updating is this new jewellery range using beads made from recycled Cava bottles and turquoise. Indeed, I have only just realised that I need a new page in my Recycled section for recycled Cava beads; I don't seem to have ever photographed them before and I usually have a few pairs for sale most weeks. Until I get round to making the new page, I'm just putting them on my Lampwork jewellery page.

All I am calling them at the moment is Cava Turquoise which seems very boring so ... I am having a second competition in two days. To enter, please just post a name for this new jewellery range as a message in the comments section or E-mail me using the contact page on my website. I will choose the new name from my favourites but everyone's name who enters will go into a hat and I will draw out a winner whose prize will be a pair of earrings of their choice from the new range.

If you want to see them in person, do stop by my stall at the Art & Craft Market in Cambridge tomorrow, I'm looking forward to showing them off!

This afternoon I have been to see Jonathan Hobbs, the osteopath who has done such sterling work to unfreeze my neck and cure that persistent headache which plagued me for much of January. It's steadily been getting better day by day and I've only had one dose of painkillers in the last three days; I still get the odd twinge but I feel so much better now and I'm able to think. He's suggested that I don't go back for 4-6 weeks when he'll check me out again to make sure I'm not tightening up. In the meantime, I've got some upper back exercises to do which should help.

Now I'm feeling back to normal, I'm finding that suddenly I've got lots of ideas for updating the display area of my stall which was one of my top priority jobs for this month but I just couldn't seem to get "switched on". Now that I'm feeling myself again, I am looking forward to putting it all into practice. I had hoped to have that done by now but watch this space for more news soon!