Hello!
Well, it has been a while since I last blogged. I didn’t realise
it had been so long though! Time sure
does fly when you’re busy.
I’ve been all sorts of everywhere in the last few weeks. A weekend
away to Nottingham with David, a long weekend away to the Lake District with a
group of friends from university, and of course I have been up to the
allotments.
Allotment News:
Plot 4 is now full and looking good – just need to keep on
top of bindweed pulling. It was Momma Pats birthday so David and Momma &
Poppa B got Momma P a new bench for her plot. It just appeared as if by magic!
Plot 31 is finally, finally!, taking shape. It is actually
becoming the plot I first envisioned, all those years ago when I first took it
on (2009!). Building up the beds with wood and filling with compost is proving
to be a very expensive and time consuming way to do things – this weekend alone
I have spent £90 on peat free compost – but hopefully it will pay off in the
future. The ground simply isn’t great for planting things directly into it, so
raised beds are the way to go.
Momma P used my new shears to clip the grass and nettles
back – we had forgotten just how wide the plot actually is – so now I am
planning more beds to fill in the gaps and use up some of the space. I am
gradually trying to reduce the amount of grass on the plot, a) so that Momma
doesn’t have to keep mowing it, and b) to get rid of the couch grass. I don’t
want to be entirely rid of the grass though as it supports a lot of wildlife and helps
drainage.
Creative Hobby News:
Whilst I was away in the Lakes, Anna, Rowena and I had a
Sunday morning craft session and I decided I wanted to start painting. I
mentioned this to David when I got home, and then a few days later he gifted me
a watercolour set and a notepad to start painting in! He is definitely a
keeper. I always want to be amazingly
brilliant at everything the first time I try it, so I am starting slow and
small and just faffing with paints to get used to them, to decide what I want
to try and to learn how to doodle in paint. So far I have done this:
…Which is guess isn’t a bad start! I am going to experiment
more with perspective and layering – starting with things in less detail at the
back and building up detail in the foreground.
Job News:
I had the busiest day of my new job so far, with 40
volunteers coming to a session led by me. It was easily the most stressful two
weeks building up to it, but it all went ok and we got absolutely loads of work
done. By the end of this week I will have had about 85 volunteers out with me
at two sites. I am still really enjoying it; I get a lot of freedom to do
things, and this week we are going to tick off a few big creative projects and
start planning the next lot.
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| My new buddy Jess the Farm Cat |
Lake District News:
It was beautiful. B-e-a-u-tiful. The weather forecast was
awful but actually turned out so good that we all got sunburn on the first day!
We found some exceptional fossilised plant remains which are now in my
collection at home, and had a couple of nice scenic walks. I have never been to
the Lakes before, but I want to come back with David and properly explore. The
house we stayed in is a 9-bed AirBnB – link here if you want to see it.
Life News:
Momma P cut my hair in the back garden. A bit spur of the
moment, but it has needed cutting for a few months but I keep conveniently
forgetting to book an appointment. I had planned to cut 2 inches off but
actually removed about 5 or 6.
I am still trying very hard to not be on social media at the
weekends but it doesn’t seem to be working. I don’t use it much during the work
day, unless I am using it for work, but the weekends is when I tend to share
allotment things on Twitter, or bee house updates (see below):
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| Boy bee |
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| A ruby-tailed wasp. Parasitic on mason bees. |
Crochet News:
I am still working away on both my Battenberg Blanket, and
the Temperature Blanket. I haven’t had much desire to do crochet lately. I took
my squares with me to the Lakes and made 8 more and I am still noting down the
temperature at 4pm each day. I just tend to save it all for a mass crochet
session instead of little and often.
I shall post another blog shortly with Lake District Fun
Times in it, with pics of the fossils!
