Weekending

 The verb 'weekending', to weekend, to do - so we did.

visiting... 

Knitter's Paradise  with Youngest and his lovely girl. 

The shop was in an old converted soap mill near Cullingworth - a treasure trove - will certainly return.

tempted...

there was a lot of squishing and holding of hanks of yarn and bundles of wool - 

the temptation was impossible to fight off.

purchasing ....

coming away with delicious rich russets, burgundys and chocolate browns to add to the growing Woodland Ripple blanket and a couple of pieces of woven fabric from the mill - I have plans!

Walking ...

Somewhere new, Manor Heath Garden Park, Halifax. 

Met up with Eldest and his lovely girl, had a picnic lunch and a dog walk. 

Baking...

Scones for Himself - with plant based milk and butter and topped with jam and coconut yoghurt - absolutely delicious. Becoming dairy intolerant post covid has been a bit of a trial but we are getting there.

Remembering...

Being sent a rediscovered photograph of a much loved and much missed little feline monkey.

I still 'see' her in the garden when I am working out there.

Crocheting ...

Adding the new yarns into the mix - the Woodland Ripple is growing - slowly but surely.

So - that was my weekend. Hope you had a good weekend too xxx

small moments in an unsettled world

 

I am very grateful (and extremely lucky) that I work in an environment (pun fully intended) which is healing. There are instants which make me gently hold my breath as I watch or see or notice a small precious moment. This week was no different but I thought that I would share just a few of these gems with you. Like going back to pick up my chilly mug (Jayne) and discover I had plonked it down just moments before in a nest of Erigeron Karvensis (Mexican fleabane) daisies and seeing the combination made my heart sing.

Spotting a very dark ladybird pupae on a richly purple dahlia leaf in the cutting garden, hopefully it will emerge before the frosts so that it will be able to overwinter as an adult. If not, we will carefully put the cut off foliage in one of the sheds so the pupae (there were dozens) can mature in safety.

Sharing my lemon shortbread biscuit with a Robin whilst working in one of the private gardens I maintain.

Ravelling 400gm balls of wool blend into 100gm yarn cakes before starting my next project - my sense of smell is rather random at the moment but I could catch a delicious scent of lanolin when I buried my nose deep into the huge and squishy balls of wool 

This idiot. 

Who drives me both crazy and fills my heart with equal measure - she has not been coming to work regularly recently as she 'looks after' who ever happens to be at home at the moment, so on the odd days that she puts on her 'work clothes', the dog harness, she is beyond excited. Her day is filled with rounding up wheelbarrows, collecting up sticks, herding volunteers and supervising our work - by the time we get home she is ready for her food and a well deserved nap!

And the princess. Pan. Still aloof and occasionally cranky but then who isn't? She has definitely mellowed and decided humans are not that dreadful. She has her favourites (makes that very obvious!) however, she is definitely the hairy heart of our home.

It is little moments like these which keep me grounded. I need to get myself ready for work, another private garden, a moorland wild meadow where Moss can come and play whilst I am there. She will be delighted......!

Thank you every one for your lovely and encouraging comments regarding my attempt at Kaketsugi mending - it is on hold at the moment as I am waiting for a packet of needle threaders to land in the post then I can get on with the final few threads - hardly any left to weave in. Then I will tidy away the remaining threads and hand it back to its owner😊

Enjoy the rest of your week, hope you too find small moments that fill your heart xxxx

Pass me a tissue - no the whole box

I am, as I type this, late to the party nobody actually wants to attend - both Himself and I have been unceremoniously added to the 'time to get covid' guest list.  

All I can say is that I am grateful (very very grateful) that we have been jabbed.  I would not like to have been poorly without the vaccinations - I felt rough enough as it was. 

Now - starting day eight, I am still testing positive and feeling rubbish but can sense I am over the worst and am (finally) heading in the right direction.  I have had 'standard' flu before and in comparison - this was definitely ramped up however in the grand scheme of things - I know I got off lightly.

Funnily enough (I must be feeling a little more human if I can see the 'funny side') the cat has rather liked the sick bay vibe we have had recently - lots of bed time, duvets at every opportunity, dozing all day and just the minimum disruption to a cat's daily sleep pattern. However, a certain all action hero🐾, despite being such a good girl and so so patient, is about to pop!  I am almost dreading my first day back to work as Moss will surely explode and round up everything and everyone until we are all dizzy and then for good measure I am pretty sure she will do it again just to make sure she got it right the first time. But until then she lies on her bed as if she has melted and oozed off on to the carpet, tongue hanging out and eyes half closed - a coiled spring ready for action.... (you will just have to use your imagination....)

Strangely - time has both stood still and completely disappeared. I can't really recall what happened to last week yet there has been moments when I have sat and watched the clouds move, birds fly, listened to the wind in the trees, watched autumnal leaves fall and felt time stop. 

Yesterday Himself encouraged me to sit outside in the garden (swaddled in a duvet) to get some fresh air, although he was also struck down - he seemed to recover quicker although I feel he was initially hit harder.  Whereas I seem to be 'drifting' and I am well and truly fed up with it. So, today, dressed, with a mug of tea (about the only thing I've lived on this last week) I am kick starting the 'feeling more human' momentum by blogging.

All photos are from our holiday - which seems a life time ago.

gentle moments

There is something rather touching, rather precious, when you wander into the garden and the cat runs down (ok ok waddles*) with us as we walk together through the burgeoning foliage to the summerhouse.

The door creaks and needs quite a hefty hoik to open but when it does - warm air floods out and the air fills with the scent of a warm wooden building mingling with a hint of incense.

We all have our 'own' seats, Himself and I flumpf down on the settee - a gift from a neighbour - it is squidgy and soft and very comfortable. The cat choses one of her (many) favourite sunny spots and proceeds to melt herself in the welcome sunlight .......... and the dog throws herself on the floor and proceeds to wiggle under the table.  No we don't know why either.

The summerhouse had initially been bought to be my art studio and it was for three years, then the angst of being an self (un)employed artist got too much and I rejoined the workforce - not for white or blue collar but green collar! (yes it is a term) 

The summerhouse was reduced to a storage of reminders of a disappointed dream until I had a major clear-out - sold as much of the artwork as I could, donated what was wanted, threw the rest away. 

It is now a lovely place where we sit out/in the garden, as I have planted right up to the windows and if you sit quietly enough, birds land an arm's reach away to forage without noticing. The cat loves that, she sits and cackles with her whiskers rattling away. Fortunately she is unable to tear herself off the seat and usually gives the birds a good telling off then flops back to continue the serious activity of sunbathing.

Mean while the dog continues to disappear under the table....toes twitching as she dreams dog dreams.

Sometimes (but lets be honest) not that often - the summerhouse can be rather too warm, so doors are thrown open wide and the rattan blinds lowered to filter the sunlight - that appears to be an invite to bumblebees to rumble in, and they do, requiring gentle herding to get them back out so they don't constantly bump and buzz their heads on the glass as they try to take a short cut to the flowers.

And, usually clutching mugs of tea and a couple of dog and cat treats, we spend happy and gentle moments emersed in the garden - I love it.

Ruminating

The last few days, well weeks really, have just merged into each other - not sure where one ends and the next begins. Thank goodness I take photos on my cellphone otherwise there are some days I can't even remember!

I worked the Saturday - I do remember that as because as much as I like my job - it absolutely riles me working alternate weekends. Fortunately this one coincided with the bank holiday so I did have two days off with Himself but most of it was spent just recovering from the previous week. 

Time at home was filled with gentle and simple joys - like having Pan choose to sit next to me whilst I was working on the laptop. As she gets older, she is becoming less crotchety and feral, so to be able to stroke a relaxed cat and be rewarded with a rusty chirrup and whispy purr - is wonderful.

I picked the first bunch of flowers from the garden for 2022. I have already started picking posies for sale at work and they just fly off the shelf but at home in my shady and damp garden, these woodlandly flowers - honesty, sweet cicely and lilac - in my hawthorn jug, make me smile.

I am not that fond of bulbs, finding that once they have finished and returned back to the soil, I tend to accidently dig them up when I am gardening. This year I have more bulbs that I have ever had - ever - and have planted them either in tubs and pots or beneath a perennial plant so that I (hopefully) reduce the chances of unearthing them - fingers crossed.

My weaving has sat ignored for a couple of weeks while I wait for my fingers to feel 'human' again (I knocked them against a wooden raised bed hard enough to think that I had broken them) so a few rows in the evenings felt rather cathartic -  I need to get back to doing more, I rather enjoy the escapism it brings.

Recently I stumbled across a new blog/IG account and one of the posts had a super simple (shortbread-esque) recipe for biscuits and by Monday evening I felt ready to do some baking and quickly made up a batch of pigs, rounds and oak leaf shapes. As usual Himself scoffed a fair few, leaving just enough for his lunch box today! The only evidence is this solitary photo of the dough ... they were very short, very yummy and certainly a do it again - if you want to try them yourself the recipe is here at Five in the Nest  Jane mentions that they cook quickly and they do, I peaked at them and they were still pale so decided to leave them for a moment or two longer, turned away to finish washing up and when I took them out - one or two (ok may be more like four or five) were a little darker than they should have been however they were still demolished with a mug of tea.

 Now it is Tuesday, I am about to set off for work and it is threatening rain - I am not sure to be relieved or annoyed! The gardens need watering but it is not enough to be give a good soaking or for me to call off working.

Hope the rest of your week goes gently - I am aware I have another hectic one waiting for me so I am bracing myself - so I better get myself to the launch pad (via the kettle of course!)

Sounds, sights and scents of Saturday

The rustle of heavy paws across the duvet accompanying a rapid tractor-strength purr. The quiet background chatter of the radio presenter cheerfully announcing the next generic track by another cloned singer desperate to be heard.

The murmurings of low conversation, an occasional scrape of a wooden chair against the floor, the clink of teaspoons stirring, slurping of hot chocolate followed by sounds of satisfaction. The heady scent of coffee and chocolate filling the air. Then the busy street filled noises of a rural market town as we return to the car.

The splash of a river bound dog hurling herself into the chilly water, the clink of selecting pebbles to skim. The audible gasp of minor triumph as we lark along the edge. The chinkle of pottery, glass and metal in my coat pocket as I walk. Not all worth keeping, litter will be dropped off in a bin.

A piercing whistle as we are observed by a robin - just an arm's reach away. Eldest's cellphone making electronic sounds as he takes the bird's photograph.

A sharp fragrance of fresh air, a tinge of bitter green and leaf mould circulating as we walk along the narrow path between a wild tanglement of hedge and old bulging stone wall.

Flashes of hope for spring with the tiniest leaf buds appearing on the hawthorn.

The crunch-thud of boots alongside the mill pond known as Sagar's Lake, coots craaking, mallards peeping and quacking. 

The sight of the woodburner crackling away warming us after our walk as we nurse mugs of tea and eat shortbread pigs.

The turn of a page of a recently charity shopped book, the distinctive scent of second hand novels. A strange and intriguing little story - odd yet enjoyable.

A whistling snore from an afternoon-nap-taking cat - who on gentle stroking - grunts a dozy meow followed by a brief attempted purr. 

Twitching paws and eyelid movements confirm a dreaming dog as she sleeps in front of the woodburner. Her tongue has escaped and occasionally curls and flaps as it dries to a crisp as she sleeps.

Saturday - you were wonderful xxx

PS and now (Monday)? well the constant metallic pitter of rain on the window, the wittering on the radio in the background, the sigh of a bored dog, the clack of the keys on my laptop and the curl of the fresh scent of tea.

💙🐾☔☕☔🐾💙

Thank Full for those small stories

Being thankful for the small stories of my day.

🧡💚🧡💚

The precious moment when the cat decides that she could share a corner of the bed,

then falls asleep so soundly  I can hear her gently snore.😸

Keeping the house warm as the woodburner crackles away using up waste wood from a broken fence.

The scent of a candle as it fills the air with a warm fragrance of cinnamon and ginger.

Having time to play with the loom.

Eating cheese and mushroom toasties.

Arranging a gift of yellow roses into a glass jug.

Baking a marmalade fruit cake and a tray of Silverdale gingerbread brownies for my man.

Thankful for being warm and dry and inside.☔💨

Small stories making up a large part of my day.

🧡💚🧡💚

Thank you to the lovely Vix (from Vintage Vixen) for the link to the photo-collage site xx