Post Comment Love 23-25 October

Welcome to this week’s #PoCoLo - a friendly linky which I co-host with Suzanne, where you can link any post published in the last week. We know you’ll find some great posts to read, and maybe some new-to-you blogs too, so do pop over and visit some of the posts linked and share some of that love.

I’ve had a week off from work this week, and we’ve actually been away - and it’s been bliss. It’s the first time we’ve managed to get away this year, and our cottage in a new-to-us part of Norfolk was fantastic. I’ve plenty of photos from our trip - and from the cottage, but I’m saving those for now. We stayed close to Holt in a small village, and it was great to explore the pretty villages in this area. And the shops in Holt, that’s a long-time favourite of mine. This cushion caught my eye in one of the many homewares shops - there’ll be more to come from our trip here shortly.

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Starting another crochet project

Erm, yes - because I need another project on the go, but there’s no time like the present hey?

Remember those crochet threads I bought in Norfolk as part of a lucky dip of vintage threads, well I’m starting to put them to use. I’d run out of mini-skeins from my multi-coloured yet-to-be-decided item, but I was keen to keep the pattern going in my head. So without really planning to, I found myself starting another crochet project.

But before I tell you more about the new project, here’s the most recent additions to my rainbow squared thing. Thing, because I’m not sure what the squares will turn into yet - but at some point they will have a purpose.

My next box arrived while we were away and so I’ll be picking that up again too. I’m finding this pattern pretty addictive. And while it looks complicated, it’s actually pretty easy to remember. My challenge is coming back to it when the new mini-skeins arrive, and needing to relearn it.

What I needed was something to keep it going through the month, and that’s where the crochet threads come in. It’ll be no surprise that I’ve no plans for the resulting squares, but I’m sure inspiration will strike. Or I hope so anyway.

Not wanting, or needing, to buy anything to keep my brain working and my hands active I realised now was the time to dig out some of those crochet threads. In the end I settled on this neutral colour as there were 3 full reels, one that had been started and a small hand wound ball.

I couldn’t help but smile at the instructions to ‘buy sufficient to complete’ your project. If only they knew, and actually if only I knew. How do you buy sufficient for an unknown project, and how given the number of years since is that possible today? Exactly.

I quickly realised this would be an ideal project to take away with me, and so I needed something to put this in. A plastic bag didn’t really cut it. So when I found this square pouch, which the threads fitted snugly in, I had a project and a pouch to carry it in. The pouch was a present from mum and dad, and one that mum had made. I’m sure she said at the time, you never know when it’ll come in useful - and she was right.

Even the small metal crochet hooks fit into the pouch - it was clearly meant to be!

My garden in July

I bet you weren’t really expecting to see my July post, so soon after June’s - especially in October, but I’m happy to prove you wrong. Just looking through these photos, it feels like only yesterday and I’m struggling to work out where the intervening months have gone - and how we’ve done so little in a single year. But I guess, that’s 2020 for you.

These roses are from our patio, during one of my gardening sessions I got a bit over-enthusiastic and snipped these without realising. Not wanted to compost them while they were in their prime, they were soon indoors in a vase to be enjoyed for a short while.

With veg growing in the garden, I was very much in the habit of checking it every morning before opening my laptop. One morning I got more than I bargained for, and found some of our beans completely upended onto the grass.

The beans look like they had been carefully placed aside and much fun was had with the earth and the pot. I’m blaming the foxes, and hastily shoved everything back into the pot and gave them a drink. They survived a bit, but the didn’t really recover and beans from these plants were few and far between. Never mind, our other pots turned out to be pretty productive, but I didn’t know that at the time.

July is the month that our agapanthus really gets their game on. The flowers breaking out of the paper casing early in the month, and looking a lot more delicate than I think they really are.

There was good weather, and evenings to enjoy in the garden - a cocktail or two helped, as did the barbecues.

There’s always gardening jobs to be done though and it was time to tackle the Chilean potato plant that goes wild early in the season. The ladder was out and the green bin filled pretty quickly. As you can see the neighbours on this side had scaffolding up, it’s been a time for most of our neighbours to have work done - and who can blame them.

I wanted a sunny spot for my chillies, and tried tin cans on the trellis. This was a little too sunny it turned out and I lost one of these as it fried in the sun. The others were hastily moved back to the greenhouse and while they’ve not grown as I’d hoped they would, they are still alive. I’m thinking of potting them up to have in the conservatory, which I think will be marginally better (and warmer) than the greenhouse.

The nasturtiums soaked up the sun and provided flowers in an array of colours from bright yellows to the deepest of reds, and everything in between. I really wasn’t expecting the colours, especially as they need very little attention or care, and in fact prefer poor soil - they’re my kind of plant!

The colour wasn’t far off the orange of the runner beans, and we’ve had a good few dinners courtesy of a pot or two of beans - but not many from the one the foxes interfered with. Our beans are still limping along in October, but they’re due to join the compost heap relatively soon.

Back nearer the conservatory, the agapanthus blooms were starting to stand up straighter and the buds were thinking about opening, but not just yet.

Our squash started to flower and that became a regular spot to visit and encourage each morning. A squash did eventually form, but I won’t spoil the ending just yet.

The peonies which had given so many fluffy flowers the previous month finished, leaving a stubby flower centre left in their place. The rain didn’t help, and despite the sun, there was plenty of that. The snails seemed to enjoy it though.

And it didn’t stop the agapanthus doing their thing.

Another ritual for the month was picking salad for lunch. That in this strangest of years felt like an incredible luxury. And a tasty one too.

We popped up to Norfolk catching up with family for just the second time this year. As usual we left with gifts including this purple oxalis, a favourite of mine and which grows freely in dad’s greenhouse.

The morning garden inspections continued, and so did the beans. On this particular morning so did the rain, so for this picture I was sheltering in the greenhouse waiting for the shower to pass. It didn’t pass as quickly as I hoped, and shortly after snapping this shot I was running back to the house.

We also had visitors indoors, this dragonfly flew in, flew around our downstairs and stressed me out during an online meeting. I lost sight of it, but after a little while found him having a snooze on the curtains. He wasn’t up for moving, so we spent the afternoon in companionable silence tolerating each other. Once his strength was restored, he decided to head off and managed to navigate out as easily as he’d come in. This, it turned out was just the first visit - we had another two visits as the summer continued. Of course, it may not have been the same little fella - and not all of them were quite as well behaved - but this year, one positive is that we’ve seen much more wildlife in our garden (and in our house!)