A Christmas hamper, my way.

A couple of weeks ago I headed over to the Homesense at Merton for a bit of a challenge, which was to put together a hamper of my own. And it's not as easy as you'd think. But before that I haven't been over to Merton for quite a while - I used to go that way most weeks to play netball, so it was great to see how much had changed over that way. And like in Greenwich, a brand new Homesense store is a good addition.

On arrival the team gave me a wicker hamper, which comes complete with a cellophane wrapper, a golden bow and filling to make it look oh so professional. My job was to find items to go inside it, and I wanted to give it a Christmassy theme.

As you'll know Homesense is packed with many, many fabulous items, so what did I choose?

I was pleased to spot these glasses, they're a cross between a champagne glass and cocktail glass and will come in handy this Christmas as we realised, after a quick glass count-up, we realised that we didn't have six of any of our everyday glasses (don't laugh about the everyday glasses - that really is a thing).  We're planning a Christmas cocktail for Christmas eve and so these will be just the thing for that.

The sparkly beaded coasters will also come in handy, and I'm sure we'll be using these throughout the year - at just a fiver, I thought these were a bargain.  I wanted to include some Christmassy items, so the next items were:

• a small panettone, in a gorgeous tin
• some Willie's cacao chocolate, a favourite of mine
• a pack of four Christmas spreaders 
• a Christmas scented candle
• some tea towels to take care of those glasses
• and finally, some LED star lights for some added sparkle.

The star lights are great, and I think they can be used year-round. I'll admit though, even though they're not golden stars, I couldn't help but feel like I was looking for stars on I'm a Celebrity... but thankfully without the critters!

The spreaders look fun and I'm sure will be useful, both on our breakfast table and later for the soft cheeses on the cheeseboard.  I've a feeling that they'll be so useful that I'll want to use them year round too. I know MOH isn't seeing the value of them yet, but give it time and I'm sure he'll be convinced, and in which case I'll need to head back there during the year and find some less Christmassy ones!

The candle is understated but hints at Christmas smells and no doubt will help set a soothing atmosphere when things get a bit fraught, as the preparations in the final weekend get underway. For me that's usually when I realise just how many vegetables need prepping, I forget each time that I cook for more than the two of us, how many more are required. It usually works out fine...

And there's usually panettone too. This year just a mini one and I may well have been swayed by the pretty tin too, I've a feeling it will make its way into my craft room at some point in January.  About January 2nd I predict...

So if you're still looking for Christmas presents and are stuck then maybe putting together your own personalised hamper could be just the thing, what do you think?

This is a collaborative post but all views and opinions are my own.  

In my garden: What a difference a day makes

With worsening weather forecast and expecting to have little free time on Sunday, there was only one thing for it and that was to briefly get out into the garden on Saturday in an attempt to get it as winter-ready as we could, in about thirty minutes flat.  Our main priority was covering the pizza oven and the logs, as with frosts and worse on the way we didn't want to risk it cracking, and well damp logs are no good to anyone are they?

The tarpaulin's arrived a couple of weeks ago and the two smaller ones, measuring 2m x 3m were earmarked for the back garden. To give the pizza oven some added protection and old fleecy throw that we used on an old sofa was repurposed as a middle layer in the tarpaulin sandwich. Tied on and weighted down with bricks, our work was almost complete.

The log store was artfully draped with a folded tarpaulin and secured with random bricks, blocks and slabs. In fact these are less random than they would be before the skip, when MOH encouraged me to throw the very random assortment of garden weights into it. But of course, he was the first one to say, have we got any stones to weigh this down...  I did, oh so well, not to say we did have, before the skip...

I think he's starting to realise the benefits of having some garden detritus!  So with our tarpaulins secured much more quickly than we expected, as I was out in the garden then I thought I'd have a poke around.

I moved the trugs into an already full greenhouse - and even from this picture I think it's clear I'm a fan of colour, don't you?!

I told you it was full, didn't I?

I spotted some chillies though and clambered through to harvest them. Definitely worth it, but will these be the last of the year?

Elsewhere in the garden there was some true winter colour, and I spotted our first hellebores, shy as they are.

The primroses, although a bit nibbled, continue to flower. I'm expecting them to be flowering a while yet and it's great to spot their cheery colours as you walk down the garden.

Heading back to the house I spotted a lone fuschia in one of the larger bushes it's been climbing up, it's only a small flower, but it really stood out.

The fatsia is looking as glorious as ever, at this time of year, and I think it's providing a good food source for the birds in the garden.

There's still plenty of leaves to collect, and one of our concrete hares has an almost slightly guilty look, don't you think?

I thought it'd be useful to check out my favourite corner, and I think it'll be fun to collect a series of photos with me standing in the same place.  Mostly these photos have been in flip flops, but not today. Socks and wellies all the way, and I didn't even know what was coming the following day, at that point.

And yes, the very next day we woke up to a dusting of snow, or quite a lot for London - and there was no way I was going outside for a similar shot, so you'll just have to use your imagination for that one!

But, what a difference a day makes, hey?

Imagine if there were no trees, wouldn't that be strange?

Trees are things I think we take for granted, but just imagine for a moment if there were no trees, I think it really would be strange.  Take Greenwich Park for instance, somewhere you know I walk almost daily, without trees it would look very different indeed. I'm sure it'd still be pretty, but it wouldn't be quite the same.

I'll not deny that at times it would make gardening our back garden simpler, but we'd lose the height and privacy they bring. And I'm not even going to touch on how they can reduce our carbon footprint, although I'm convinced they can.

I've 'followed' a couple of trees and shared those with you here too, remember the Pawlownia Tomentosa or foxglove tree - I should pop along and visit it soon really, and more recently the tree that captured my interest on my daily walk through Greenwich Park.  Yes, I think it's safe to say that I think we take trees for granted, and it would be very odd indeed without trees.

Photo by Chris Lawton on Unsplash

The future of trees

If like me, you believe trees are good for us - and the planet - then the good news is there's something you can do about it.  Maybe you'll plant your own tree, or maybe your part is simply by taking care of the ones we have already.

Last week was National Tree Week, and I'll admit I only discovered this fairly late on and it got me thinking. Does everyone know how to plant or prune a tree? I suspect not, I know the basics, but when we moved the small apple tree on the plot, there was a lot of hoping that we'd got it right. 

The advice on the Landmark Trading blog on how to plant trees says to plant in the autumn or winter, prepare the ground well and aim not to damage the root ball. The good news is that the small apple tree was a plucky little thing and has since gone on to produce a bumper crop of apples, so we must have done enough things right.

The only thing we could have done better is weeded it better, but we were so concerned about ensuring its survival and not damaging it as we moved it about four metres from where it was planted. So that means grass grows around its base - and for a tree that's smaller in height than me, that's not such a good look. I've since realised that what would help is a weed guard for trees and of course pegs to keep it in place.

Now let's talk pegs for a minute, and surprisingly I've a bit to say about these. This year in pursuit of our circles, or more precisely weed-free slate beds, we've tried the metal U shaped pegs and the plastic ground pegs, which look more vicious than they really are.  While the metal pegs look more attractive, I've found the plastic dart shaped ones much more effective, for the simple reason that the plastic head covers the hole that you make hammering it into the ground.  Simple, hey? And now I'd opt for these for everywhere I'm not expecting to need to remove the pegs.

And if you already have trees, then learning to prune them is also a good thing to know.  Smaller trees are relatively easy to prune yourself with the right equipment, we prune our own pear tree and the forsythia, but we know our limitations.  Mostly our trees are pruned to reduce their height, and to allow sunlight into our narrow garden, and if I can't do it off our tallest stepladder then it's time to get someone in. That may sound an unnecessary expense, but I'd much rather pay a professional to look after our trees, than to pay one to have it removed should it become diseased.

The key thing to know is when, and generally that will be after its flowered. Too early and you'll have no flowers, or fruits the following year, and that seems like a waste of a season to me. 

So can you imagine a world without trees?  No, me neither...

* This is a collaborative post but all views remain my own.