Doctor Sue

I bought this cactus at a garden centre along with some other casualty cases needing some TLC for £1 each from the bargain bench a couple of weeks ago. Some of its leaves were half eaten by slugs, it had silvery trails all over it, it was in really dry compost and altogether looking very sorry for itself. It already had some flower buds on it, presumably the stress of the lack of love made it think "quick, reproduce by making some seeds, I'm gonna die soon".

I got the compost wet again by soaking it in a bucket, gave it a feed and then repotted it into a larger pot, cleaned up the leaves and this is how it repaid me!

My dad used to grow them when I was a child, we used to call them Christmas Cactuses because that's when they used to flower. I haven't told the plant it's a bit late, don't want to hurt it's feelings whilst looking so splendid!

Some other plants needing my triage skills were these three fuchsias photographed on the day I got them, also dry and looking sorry for themselves.

At only £1 each, I snapped them up and gave them similar treatment, they've put on new growth and are looking very grateful already. I'll do a photograph of them when they're back to full health.

Don't you just love a bargain?!

At it again

I have been buying yarn again; very naughty of me.

We had to go into Oakham to do some banking so I called in at The Wool Zone again this afternoon. Julie who owns the shop confirmed Drops still had its sale on so I bought two 50g balls of Drops Delight (top right in the pic). 

I've just finished crocheting another lacey summer weight scarf, this time a shallow triangle with hanging flowers. I made it at first in two ply hand dyed lace.

I've also done a grey one in the Drops Delight I bought on Yarn Shop Day (which is blocking as I type), the yarn weight is around 4-ply so it's given it a chunkier feel, more for Autumn. I want to do an all over colourful one and as well so that's what my latest purchase will be turned into.

I think really the pattern could be adapted to any weight of yarn providing a suitable hook size is used. I'm in the process of writing it all up along with the tutorial, I'll put it on Ravelry very soon.

The other yarn is Drops Alpaca, I already have some of this in my stash, I'm going to make a small blanket for Missy out of that. When I was bead making this morning, she joined me in the studio, it was raining all morning so we didn't put her cushion out on the balcony as I normally would, I have a piece of fleece for her as it was a bit cool too, it would be much nicer for her to have a handmade blanket.

Whatever you're planning for the weekend, I hope it's a good one!

Spring into Summer - Flight of Fancy

My real name is 603, I have been in my new home for several days with a bunch of my friends with other numbers. My new owner is very affectionate, She keeps squeezing, kissing and stroking me, she tells me I am her very favourite but she can't decide on a new name for me, sometimes she calls me "magenta" and other times I'm "winey purple". I was told by my previous owner I would be made into a Peacock and my new owner tells me we will have adventures and go to wonderful places together. 

This is what me and my friends are destined for, I don't know why, but we can't get going until 10 June 2015.  I wish she'd get a move on, I'm fed up being stuck in this bag and if that scarf pin pokes me any more, I might just run away!

Scheepjes Spring-into-Summer CAL 2015 Facebook Group

#scheepjeswol #scheepjesCAL2015

Getting my Unfinished Objects completed

I'm busy getting my UFOs completed so I'll have time to do the CAL next month.

Here's a less colourful version of the spiral blanket on the back of the sofa, I've turned the circular spirals into hexagons this time. I don't know why I was so bothered about the border .... you can't see it!

Last weekend and next weekend

This tidy pile of materials arrived on our driveway on Friday morning.

We live on a bit of a thoroughfare through the village so they couldn't stay there, worried they might go walkies so the weekend's priority was getting them shifted round the back. I'm still on my "nothing too strenuous" orders so Geoff did most of it on his own but those big 9x3 "sleepers" were a bit too bulky for him on his own. Slow and steady it wasn't too tiring for me to grab one end and MTM on the other, we got them round without any retinal incidence.

Those will be used to form two more terraces for growing vegetables underneath the block retaining wall which is where the greenhouse is going. After the terraces are formed .... that's the bank holiday weekend's job ... there will be a delivery of topsoil directly onto the greenhouse base, over the top like the limestone last Autumn, that can then be shovelled into the new beds and then .... then .... we can put up the greenhouse. 

So, after a bit of a lay off over winter to allow finances to recover and the weather to improve, we're back to work on renovating the house and garden. Hoping for good bank holiday weather!