Hooks and Needles

I've had a busy week since adopting a 'bites of the elephant' approach to housework and home organisation in general, but I am pleased with how manageable it all feels and with the results! I have a brief window between the girls' lessons and helping T with his workbooks, so my peppermint tea is here and I have taken some photos of my recent projects that have been finished:

This bowl/jug cover is from Nicky Trench's book, Cute and Easy Crochet, and it is a big version of the jam pot cover. I carried on with the rounds rather manically during a particularly harrowing episode of Call the Midwife, and increased when it sort of looked like it should (difficult to recreate I know!). I then threaded beads on to a length of cotton and double-crocheted round, letting a bead drop every 8th stitch. The beads are glass ones made by fellow CCG member Nicky's sister, and are beautiful colours - and suitably weighty.  Over tea and welshcakes yesterday afternoon, Nicky and I discussed various projects and we are veering more towards herbal salves and foraged foods as spring approaches. I have been using the shampoo bars we made a few weeks ago that have olive oil, beeswax, avocado oil and egg yolks in them. I used the rosemary hair rinse that Nicky had made and it has worked brilliantly! I spritzed it on after rinsing and towel-drying my hair and it was an instant detangler, plus my hair feels wonderfully soft.

On the sock front, I finished the February fair isle socks, and also the ones in the sweet pea yarn:

I am really enjoying knitting socks! I've a new pair on the go at the moment which are from quite a complicated pattern but they are looking good and are for a worthy recipient so I don't mind at all, and being only 50 stitches with DK yarn, are knitting up relatively quickly. I've also brought a pair of Nicky's socks back to finish off for her as I do seem to need about 4 things on the go so I can ring the changes. The kidsilk wrap is growing, but I want it really wide and luxurious so I am not rushing that at all.

Due to the rat infestation I have moved all the poultry down to the other end of the garden and decanted the contents of the compost bins/rat hotels in to old plastic sacks. I will leave the bags to stew for the summer in discrete groups as I don't want to encourage the rodent population to take up residence in amongst them. The ducks have taken to waddling out of the garden and dabbling around in the drainage ditch outside my house which is disgusting, and hardly safe (especially with the chap and his Staffies that regularly ride up the road), so they have been shut in their run. It is now on grass though and they have been making little trenches with their beaks around their bucket. Jean is laying eggs too :-)

Anyway, Tristan and his chemistry workbook need some attention before Rosie goes to tea with some friends from the local school. Back soon with more projects to show you!

New Start

I have struggled with February, as I always do, but since chatting to Nicky on Sunday, I'm hoping to have turned a bit of a corner. The house is looking presentable due to my own variation of the FLYLady regime, and I have instilled a few gentle and subtle boundaries that the children have yet to detect but have responded well to!

For her science lesson this morning, I took Rose out for a walk with her I-Spy Trees book, and we managed 115 points which was pretty good as there are obviously only a few broadleaved trees with sufficiently distinctive bark or buds for Rose to be able to identify them at this leafless time of year:

The oak tree helpfully had some of last year's crop of acorns on the ground though so we could tick that one off. Amber has been having a go at The Times spelling bee, until Tristan came along and started showing off. Still, it made a change from them fighting over nothing :-D Rose and I did history this afternoon from Susan Wise-Bauer's magnificent The Story of the World and fortuitously we had cooked rice at lunchtime, which tied in nicely with activities about the Mauryan Empire of India. Tris is working his way through Key Stage 3 Science and GCSE Biology, Physics and Chemistry, and all the children are doing their handwriting practise every day. I spent my 15 minutes decluttering a corner and found a couple of good workbooks that have been missing for ages so that was a result. I just need to find Tristan's missing shoe now.

The friendship cake starter yielded a round of blueberry and apple muffins for breakfast, and the February fairisle socks have been completed! They went a bit wrong but my hand-knitted socks are certainly unique. Unique as in not like anything else, let alone the other sock in the pair. But! - I have made them myself and does it really matter if they aren't the same length? I want to finish the green Kidsilk Haze wrap so I might sit down this evening and do some, although it's Professor Iain Stewart tonight *swoon* with his programme about How to Grow a Planet so I won't be able to crochet in front of that. It's a good series even though as my parents and I often joke: he, like Brian Cox, only seems to find decent examples at spectacular, far-flung, exotic locations. All my seedlings that I pricked out are doing really well on windowsills throughout the house; they love the sunshine even if they are straining a bit towards it.

Oh...I've just heard from the girls that it's the Brit Awards tonight so I might be able to crochet in front of the tv after all! I'll save Prof Stewart for iPlayer in bed ;-)

More Thoughts on Bees

It's the last day of half term and we spent some time in the garden, and we did some gentle homeschool. I also spent a bit of time organising my beehives. Here are some pictures:



The amaryllis has flowered

I made up a medicinal pot of feverfew and chamomile

I planted baby cacti in a 50:50 mix of molehill
and coarse sand

I have given this National hive a brood and a super, and have
put the deeper brood frames in the super so the bees have a
lot more uninterrupted space to make comb

There is another 3-4" below the bottom bar of the brood frame

I have taken out (or not bothered putting in) the strips of foundation. Foundation is hexagonally-stamped beeswax that the bees then extend out to make honeycomb. However it has been manufactured to have a slightly wider diameter than the bees would naturally build, and this has led people to suggest that it has allowed the varroa mite more room to wriggle around and get attached to the bee. Hence advocates of natural beekeeping try to let bees build their own comb if possible. It also allows the bees to produce drone comb, as the foundation is worker bee size.

A National is still not an ideal environment for bees - in the wild they would occupy a space that would fit in to a man-made beehive, but they don't cope well with corners. They build a round nest in a cylindrical tree, so us providing them with rectangular frames in a square box means the corners get cold and unpoliced as the bees really don't understand that they are there. In the winter they can end up dying of starvation even if there are full frames of honey at the edges of the hive. Bees are incredibly sophisticated insects and highly programmed but this does not equate to being able to think! The lack of hollow trees has been detrimental to our wild bee population in the same way as it has to our owls and other tree-nesting birds, and I feel this should be the emphasis for beekeeping in the future: providing them with a safe place to live rather than purely honey production.

I have given the bees some of last year's honey comb to feed on, but as you can see,
it has granulated and the bees are finding it hard work and leaving the sugar crystals behind.
I have provided them with extra water so they can dilute it; it granulates
due to cold or because of the chemical makeup of the nectar it came from.

This lady is enjoying tucking in to a comb of liquid honey

Lined up at the bee bar

It has been lovely to spend some time in the garden and be around the hens, bees and plants. 

Bees and Geology

Tristan has returned from his father's and has disappeared with the laptop so no piccies I'm afraid. All I have on my camera anyway is a photo of my lovely Wiggly Wigglers Valentine's Day posy which has all British-grown flowers, and comes with a Quattro Stagioni jar for future use and a bar of Divine chocolate :-)

I went up to London yesterday to the Geological Society at Burlington House, Piccadilly, to listen to one of the Shell London Lectures, on the geological record of previous global warming events, particularly the one 55 million years ago. It was really interesting and the main message was that it's all very well having scientists saying in their peer-reviewed journals about climate change but it needs to become part of the world population's consciousness, and that carbon capture and storage (CCS) is the only way to deal with carbon dioxide emissions until low-carbon alternatives become mainstream. I was disappointed to learn that top geology totty, Professor Iain Stewart, was at the earlier presentation, but never mind :-(

I missed the earlier lecture as I was meeting beekeeping friend John to discuss apicentric tactics for the coming year. It was great: we sat in the Waterstone's cafe talking and talking for 4 hours so the pecan tart and 2 pots of tea were very welcome.

Today was another day sans enfants, so Charles and I took the opportunity to go for a pub lunch at a child-unfriendly venue - I think it's called The Star but we know it as The Dreary Placemats due to the extraordinarily naff pen and ink drawings of a nondescript cottage on said placemats. I also had to get my boot catch fixed as it's been stuck since the snow, and it turns out the lock wasn't frozen. I popped in to the garage expecting to have to book it in and pay money I don't have to get it sorted out, but it was only a fuse, so for the princely sum of 42p I can now get a bale of hay in the car for the bunnies, who are recovering well from their neutering op.

The rest of the day was spent watching iPlayer and discussing which pollinator plants would be best and working out what we think about biodynamic gardening. Lovely :-)

Looking Forward to Spring

The snow is hopefully on its way out, as we have high pressure bringing us some Atlantic weather rather than dragging in cold continental air, so the forecast is for temperatures up above freezing. It means rain too, but hey, can't have everything! I got to work in the garden over the weekend as the chaotic mix of privet, winter jasmine and bramble was looking dreadful outside my front door, so it had to go:

I didn't take a 'before' photo as it was a it of a spur of the moment decision but take it from me, it was a mess. So, I now have some space to plant some new plants, and given the proximity of the beehive, I'll focus on pollinator plants, although really I feel if you're going to plant plants at all, they may as well be pollinator ones. I bought some Cobaea scandens seeds from Sarah Raven which can romp away to 6 metres, so I will sow some of those in trays this afternoon and see if they germinate. I've not been particularly impressed with Ms Raven's seeds so I'll see how they do. She produces a very attractive catalogue though!

When Nicky and I made lavender bags a few weeks ago, we used the dried seedheads from my Mum's plant, and there were lots of tiny seeds at the bottom of the storage jar. I popped these in to some compost and I was pleasantly surprised to see some tiny green shoots this morning:

I have been reading my book about biodynamic gardening, and it's certainly intriguing. I've a chart that gives times for sowing and tending different groups of plants (flower, root, leaf and fruit) and I am going to try and stick to it. I quite like having restrictions actually so if nothing else it will prevent me feeling overwhelmed by the needs of the garden! A lot of people garden according to the lunar cycles as it affects groundwater in the same way as the tides, but biodynamic is another step on from that. It's easy to scoff but I think there is so much about the planet and its workings that we don't understand, I'm happy to give things a go, especially as so many aspects of our relationship with the soil and plants and the natural environment as a whole is out of alignment. So, this afternoon is a time to focus on flowers. Maybe some cosmic influences will enhance the germination rate of the highly-marketed seeds I was seduced in to buying! I'll let you know...

My granny squares have been transformed in to a cover for my wicker basket:

I am really really pleased with it :-) I would have loved a big blanket but realistically, the rush of enthusiasm had slowed to a trickle, and at least with this I will use it all the time (plus I have lots of lovely blankets already). I have a few squares left over, so I am thinking of making a wool-insulated bottle jacket, but that's still gliding around in my head at the moment, waiting to become a proper idea that I can work with. I did a picot edging and the picture doesn't show it, but I have buttons at the handles, so it can be taken off, to possibly make an impromtu picnic cloth? I find wicker baskets so handy as I often carry boxes of eggs and food and drinks, as well as knitting, so they would get squashed up in a bag. It's a shame Glyndebourne is too highbrow a venue for the likes of me; reckon it would go down a treat.

It's half term so I made bagels and muffins. I was given a friendship cake starter, but having given a portion out to two of my friends, I couldn't think of who else would want it so I'm keeping it for myself! I know that is really not the point of it at all but I figure people would rather I took them a batch of cakes. The recipe suggests an addition of apple and cinnamon to the batter, but this morning I put in some grated carrots and a cup of walnuts instead to ring the changes. They are delicious.

The girls are playing with their fairy theatre and singing along to their favourite songs, as well as practising for Oliver! as part of their Stagecoach performance. T is in bed reading his Bernard Cornwell for a third time, and luckily I was so late getting breakfast I'm hoping it will sort of count as lunch too so I can be relieved of that duty!

A Sock, a Shawl and some Houseplants

The snow still hasn't melted and frankly I'm rather bored of it now, especially as I've been walking up the footpath/Olympic luge run twice a day which now has slippery muddy patches as well as the slippery icy patches. I've had to separate the hens again as despite giving them an enormous run (the large ark, extension run plus small ark), Henry kept picking on the chicks, and I find it so disconcerting to hear them squawking. So, the chicks and Ida now have the small ark and the extra run, and the 4 older chickens have the big ark. I can't let them out for long as there's not much to do in the garden with the snow on the ground, so they end up on the verge outside, or - their favourite place - across the road in to the garden where my white call ducks met their fate :-/...honestly. So, I have decided to take the opportunity to keep them shut in for most of the day and give them their Flubenvet-spiked mash so they actually eat it, otherwise I can't get any wormer down them. The ducks have a herbal pellet which is added to their food on a monthly basis but I can't rely on the hens sharing the food out quite so equably as Mr and Mrs Duck. Anyway, they all seem ok and there are enough hens in each coop to keep each other warm when they roost.

I've suffered a bit of pain in my wrist from all my knitting! Oops. So, I've not done so much recently, although I've done the first bit of colour work on the second fairisle sock:

I am also crocheting a cobweb scarf/wrap in the green Kidsilk Haze yarn - I made a shawl for my mum and couldn't resist making one for me! It's a bit of a trawl and rather a boring stitch but it looks good and is lovely and springy:

I've also decided on a project for my Sissinghurst granny squares, but I've a bit more to do on that before I can take a proper picture:

I spent some time in the garden yesterday as I'd had the foresight to bring my sack of compost in overnight to defrost it. I had lots of spiderplant babies in dishes of water, and they now have roots. I've potted them up in to Nutella jars and tins with grit and sand at the bottom for drainage. I love golden syrup tins too so the ivy went in there:

I have a new book about biodynamic gardening so I'm going to try and get my head around that this weekend! I sowed sweet peas in large yogurt pots and pricked out some Cosmos seedlings, as well as some lupins from an old seed packet, which I now realise are the rather boring yellow ones but not all of them germinated. I'm longing for some sunshine and spring warmth. I always get so desperate to have plants I always sow everything far too early so it gets all leggy or damps off, but I can't resist. I have about 20 hollyhocks in the coldframe which are looking brilliant, and I have sweet peas in there too, and at least when the snow has gone I should have some crocuses and snowdrops to enjoy :-)

Work Work Work...

Due to the snow, we have achieved very little today, unlike a usual Monday which is a hive of activity (!). Well, there were duckles paddling around:

And then there was a sled run to make in the field. I told the children to construct it down the footpath so that our rather draconian landlord wouldn't tell them off for trespassing. I realised afterwards that once it's all frozen solid in the sub-zero temperatures overnight, it's going to be great fun when I try to walk the dog up there tomorrow :-/ but they were being remarkably co-operative with each other so I left them to it:

It was a beautiful day though so I did venture out, and needless to say got roped in to having a go :-)

Transformation

The forecasters were right! We have had snow! The hens weren't sure:

The dog loves it though - he's the tiny dot between the two trees in this photo:

So as the children are with their father this weekend, I've got myself a big blanket, the February socks, the sweet pea socks, my half-finished crocheted wrap, 3 books which require concentration and the box set of Life on Mars which we watched 4 episodes of last night. Oh, and a really big tub of chocolate digestives...think I'm all set ;-)

And Breathe.....

Brrrr it has been really cold but beautiful here in Sussex, and despite hovering around freezing all day, it's been too dry to snow which I must confess to being rather relieved about. I walked Scruff this morning and saw a flock of lapwing in the field, and then the small herd of about 15 fallow deer sitting in the sun by the hedge in the next field. I know they are sufficiently common to be regarded as a pest, but there is something elegant and ethereal about deer, and in this little herd there is a pure white one who is rather stunning among its brown counterparts.

I cycled with the girls up to near the village hall yesterday afternoon to pick the last of the crab apples, and got many a strange look from the parents collecting their children from the local primary school. It wasn't a tremendous haul but we picked enough for a saucepanful and I now have another few jars of crabapple jelly. It also gave me a chance to try out my new bike basket that my parents got me for Christmas:

My lovely Scruff

Yesterday evening the children went to their father's for the night as they had a family event to go to today, so I had a much-needed break. The weekends that they spend with him have reduced down to 24 hours and I find I am just getting in to the swing of having some time and space when they come back, and bless them, they are understandably grouchy with all the changes and contrasts so rarely is it a particularly joyful reunion. So to have an extra bit of time is a real treat especially as Charles took the day off too.

We decided on a packed out program of a morning of doing nothing, then a pub lunch, followed by some more nothing. My nothing consisted of some crochet, sewing and giving extra food and bedding to the bunnies, guineas, ducks and chickens, and Charles' revolved around reading the paper and listening to the cricket on the radio, interspersed with the tastiest sausage and mash at the Three Cups. It has been bliss, even though I had to unravel my crochet 3 times and have come to the conclusion that my sewing machine definitely needs a service. The children are back tonight before going off to their dad's again tomorrow afternoon (the girls have Stagecoach in the morning) but I am hoping to retain some of my adult perspective and not get sucked in too much, with a view to seamlessly carrying on the weekend, and resting my poor addled and worrisome brain!

February...

...is upon us and Nicky and I have cast on the socks for this month's challenge:

They are a going to be a fairisle design and are knitting up quickly, always good! I've also been sorting out my beehives as a result of the beekeeping event I went to, and have removed all the beeswax from the frames and melted it down. I'm hoping to be able to use some of it for home-made lotions this summer. I had some strips of foundation which I rolled around wicks, although I also dunked my wicking in the molten wax to make it longer lasting.

I bought Amber some new wellingtons as she only has a pair of canvas shoes that she bought in the sale at Primark for £5 so I didn't really regard them as sufficiently robust footwear for our part of the country. She's in adult sizes so the Barbour wellies weren't cheap but the Dunlop ones are so uncomfortable, and I figured she can wash her new ones and wear them with jeans; Glastonbury chic.

The chicks are becoming very tame which is lovely:

This is Hazel, who became Wilbur for a bit but is now back to being Hazel. She/he isn't a cockerel...or at least Henry doesn't seem to think so :-/ The chicks are in with the older hens now to keep them warm when roosting, although Pippa found a new place to lay an egg - the house attached to the rabbits' outside run, although they weren't in it at the time. Never a dull moment when collecting eggs.

Unfortunately I lost my white call ducks to an unfortunate incident involving a neighbour's dog (it wasn't really the dog's fault), so I am very sad about that. I still have the mallards though, who don't seem to mind the sub zero temperatures and icebergs in their tub:

Snow is forecast for the weekend which I am going to use as an excuse to stay in bed. I can't ever recall being warm or having any greenery in the garden at this time of year; it all seems a distant memory and I keep getting emails about seeds and sweet pea plug plants...it makes me long for summer. My crocuses are poking up in the lawn and borders and I always wish I'd planted more - I could do with having great swathes of them, and so could my bees!