Finally, we have a picture in our living room

It's been quite a while now since we finished the decorating in our living room. We knew the wall above the sofa needed some artwork but I was struggling to find something that i) matched the new decor and colours, ii) didn't offend either of us and iii) was in our price range. It's quite a big space too, and I wanted a single picture there as having a series of pictures that we'd struggle not quite manage to hang level would have done my head in. I'm a detail person remember.  

Finding something that we both liked, or rather that neither of us found that offensive and something that wasn't totally detached from us was hard though. I've looked at numerous art sites and in many picture galleries and shops, never finding The One.  

In the end I didn't find it at all. MOH did. I think in desperation to get something on the plain wall he'd also started to do research. And what d'you know, John Lewis came up trumps. 

So after thinking about it for a while we ordered it. It arrived and I unpacked it:

The next job was to hang it. And that was more complicated than it should have been. I was surprised that the picture didn't come with wire or a cord to hang it from, but no matter we had some wire somewhere...

The wire was found, but it wasn't sturdy enough for the picture - who knew they came with weight limits? Heavier duty wire was sourced and bought, and a video on how to secure the wire was watched and followed. Holes were drilled and screws screwed in. It was time to hang the picture...

What? What just snapped? Oh that'll be the heavy duty wire... Thankfully it snapped while we were wrestling it onto the screws, and while we still had hold of the picture. Phew. It seems the heavy duty wire wasn't up for the job.  

A week later and I've now bought some cord instead of the wire. It's attached and looks a lot more solid and reliable. So we tried again. And this time we had success. The picture is on the wall, and it's stayed there. Phew.  

The verdict

• I think it looks OK, I don't find it offensive but nor do I think it's overly personal for a living room and I'll quite happily look at this everyday. 

• It reminds me of a trip to York we took a few years back; of the lanes with The Minster in the distance  

• It reminds MOH of somewhere but he's not sure where. Which is better than I expected, I thought he'd say it's just splodgy lines... Although personally I just think he's glad to have got a picture on the wall!

Updated: June 2015

We've had the picture on the wall for about two months now and I'm really happy with it - it looks as if it's always been there.  The added bonus is when I'm in the open-plan kitchen it acts like a mirror and I can get a glimpse of what's going on outside, which is no bad thing!

Recycling food waste

Well you may think I'm odd but recycling food waste is something I feel strongly about. We've composted vegetable peelings for as long as I can remember, and when our local council introduced a green bin I was all for that too.  Not only does it take all of the food waste we can't compost, such as bread, bones and fat (once it's cooled down) it helps us shift the garden waste we don't have room for in our two compost bins.   Remember the fun (!?) and how much compost we got from the first one, yes the one that looked like a Dalek... well the second one's due for emptying soon, so we'll be enjoying some more mucky fun in the next few weeks!

Anyway, I digress a little. Recycling food waste is something we can all do and it's not as bad, smelly or gross as you think. I promise. Last year the people at Recycle Now asked on Twitter for tips on how to recycle food waste, so off I tweeted about my under counter food bins which I was determined to incorporate in our new kitchen.

So when Recycle Now got in touch and asked if I'd be willing to go on film and talk about recycling food waste, I did. There's nothing like putting your money where your mouth is, is there?  You can watch my video, filmed in my kitchen last December showing how I recycle food waste here:

Do you recycle food waste and have other tips to share? And if you don't yet recycle your food waste, are you reconsidering that decision?

In my greenhouse...

In the past week or so I've managed to spend a fair amount of time pottering around in my greenhouse. I'm later than usual getting things sown, but in some ways I don't think that's such a bad thing with our north facing garden. So today I'm going to share what's growing, and in some cases what I'm hoping will start to grow very soon.

So let's start with my sweet peas. Over the winter I'd been collecting toilet roll and kitchen roll tubes to use as plant pots, as sweet peas like long roots and they're not keen on them being disturbed. Dad had given me a carrier bag of sweet pea pods and it's these that I planted in these tubes. My everlasting sweet peas sort themselves out, which is partly why we get on so well! But it wasn't long before these annuals were springing up, it's so exciting when things start to grow, isn't it?

I've also managed to keep a relative of that ginormous geranium of my dad's alive over winter, although I'm not sure it'll grow quite as big for me.

So onto some beans. As well as hoarding all those seeds it seems I've also got a thing for those small little brown pots that disintegrate when you plant them out, so I've resolved to use those too. These have got some Purple Teepee dwarf beans in, there's not much sign of life yet, but I'm still hopeful.

And talking of seeds, look how many there are in this packet! No wonder I've got loads - these are Pomodoro, a cherry tomato. 

I've sown some of these, some Gardeners Delight, the last of my favourite Tigerella and some Golden Sunrise too. I've also sown some Pink Brandywine tomatoes but I'm not sure if they'll germinate or not and a couple of cucumbers too.

So far the Pomodoro are going well and I don't think the Gardeners Delight are far behind. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the Tigerellas as I think they were potentially on the edge of expiring. There's nothing yet from the Golden Sunrise, and they're relatively new seeds so perhaps they naturally take a bit longer.

I've also acquired some tomatoes from my FIL, I'm not sure what type these are so I've used my ready prepared Lucky Dip labels. However careful I am with my tomatoes, at some point I always forget which is which and until they fruit often there's little way of knowing.  If all the seeds I've sown germinate (and survive!) I could be on for a record breaking tomato farm this year.  I know I'm supposed to discard the weaker seedlings, but I struggle to do this when they've made such an effort to grow! 

You'll also remember I had quite a few packets of herbs too, so I've sown my first batch of herbs too. I'd not grown Thyme from seed before so threw some of that into a couple of pots and that was the first to come through.

The Sweet Basil is now coming along, as is the Summer Savory and the Dill, but strangely the Lemon Basil hasn't done anything yet.

I've also been sowing some flowers too with zinnia's, geraniums and scabiosas, so I'm definitely making headway on all those seed packets I discovered at the start of the year!  I'm not sure how they'll grow, or where I'll put them, or even what they'll look like! But I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. There's no sign of life yet from the zinnia's, but the other two are, which is a relief as I don't think I could cope with a whole seed tray of defunct seeds.

I've been more impressed with my Schizanthus, which I received from Catherine from Growing Family as part of Annie's seed swap. I was worried about my Angel Wings as the packet said they liked to stay at a temperature of between 15 and 18 degrees, well a plastic seed tray lid seems to have helped and they are going great guns. I'm keen to see how they continue to grow...

In the vegetable beds the rhubarb is already doing well and I've sown some broad beans, some other beans, which I don't remember the name of but according to the packet think they're Italian - they were a new purchase from the garden centre as I couldn't resist them! There's also some lettuce, land cress, spinach and coriander but as yet nothing - it really does go to show how a greenhouse helps.

There's nothing I like more at this time of year than pottering around in my greenhouse, and of course a cup of tea makes it even better! What have you got growing?