Crafting and Gardening

Well O has managed to return to work, light duties and short hours at the moment, tiring but seems to be coping. I was worrying that it was too soon, after major surgery and every time he has come in from work I have quizzed him on how it was, how he feels and the same next morning. Luckily he knows it's because I care and worry about him not because I don't trust his ability to do the best for him. He has got a bit fed up with recovering, especially as he is normally very active but the advantage is he has been home a lot more and has been teaching L to play some new board games, mainly guess who and junior monopoly. It is lovely to see all 3 sat round a table playing together and rather impressed with how quickly L has picked up the rules of the more complicated games.

As the weather has warmed up, thought it was about time I finished knitting a cardi I started last year, I put it away at the beginning of December to concentrate on Christmas crafts, then started knitting a blanket, which I am still working on. I've enjoyed knitting this pattern but really dislike picking up all the stitches for the button borders, really do like the patterns where you knit it all in one go.

Now I have been working through my fabric stash but when a friend said she had some fabric for me that she had sorted out, I couldn't say no! One of the fabrics was beautiful floral cotton, so far I have made L a sun hat, some cropped trousers and have cut out some short sleeved pyjamas in it. There is some left, not sure how much, probably enough to make some doll clothes.

The weather has been a lot warmer the last few days, we've had a couple of days of rain but the rest have been sunny. We have enjoyed more than one trip to the park and been planting more seeds, the cucumbers that we planted last week are doing well, these are the ones for the greenhouse. The outdoor variety are still to show any signs of life, the same as the tomatoes, hopefully soon they will poke their little heads up above the soil. We've been up the allotment and cleared the old strawberry patch, they have produced some lovely strawberries over the past few years but the last year they were struggling and have past their best, so time to dig them up, dig some new compost in, ready for some fresh new plants. We have mixture of new plants ready, some we have bought, some from the runners I planted up last year and some we are growing from seed, though at the moment these are tiny little plants, that have only just produced their first true leaves. It will be interesting to see how they all do and if there is a difference in the amount of fruit each plants produce.

I am still reading and thoroughly enjoying Braiding the Sweetgrass by Robin Kimmerer, I have come across a couple of you tube talks by her, she talks a lot about the honourable harvest in her books but it was great to hear an actually talk about the same subject. The book is very thought provoking, if you have an interest in nature, ecology and the knowledge and believes of the indigenous people, then it is very worth a read. I have discovered she has written one other book called Gathering Moss, it will definitely be one that I will try and get a copy of when I have read this one and a couple of others of the pile I have by bed.

Linking up with Frontier Dreams and Small Things