Post Comment Love 17 - 19 January

Hello there, and welcome back to this week’s #PoCoLo - a relaxed, friendly linky which I co-host with Suzanne, where you can link any blog 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, comment and share some of that love.

Please don’t link up posts which are older as they will be removed from the linky, and if older posts are linked then please don’t feel that it’s necessary to comment on those. If you were here last week it was great to have you along, if you’re new here this week we’re pleased you’ve joined us.

My cold is still lingering, and making itself most unwelcome so it’s been another easy going week here as I aim to get rid of it. The only outings have been the essential sort, such as the dentist checkup booked many months in advance - that was fun trying not to cough, though I think we both escaped unscathed. This weekend I’m off to my very local Quilt Show in Newark, so I really want to be well for that - and to avoid any other germs that will most likely also be present.

My photo this week is one of the pretty frosty ice formations from our skylights - so delicate, and so pretty, but also so very cold! Thankfully though these appear to have subsided for the time being - let’s hope they don’t make a hasty return.

Have a good week!

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My garden in December

As is the way there’s not a lot of activity in my garden this month, but I do have a few photos to share. The month started with a new addition - another rose - this one also from MOH and for no particular reason either. It’s a lovely rose with gloriously pale petals, and really sweet of him, but where to put it!?

I know that it’s longer term home will be against the brick wall - which is already potentially getting quite full what with the Gertrude Jekyll rose and the homegrown peach tree, but for a shorter term solution I was stumped. It has been temporarily lodging in the trellis enclosure, which has hopefully given it some protection from the worst of the winter weather and when I’ve shaken off this cold (and on a fine day) my plan is to get it into a larger pot. I didn’t rush to pot it on as it seemed happy enough in its current pot, and if MOH hadn’t bought it then it would still most likely be in that pot, but it probably needs something more as soon as I can.

It’s going to look great against the old brick wall in years to come isn’t it?

As I was out in the garden finding the best spot for my latest rose I also spotted some early growth on my tulip pots - the pots are squashed from where I squeezed them into some terracotta pots on the patio with probably too many other pots, but it did the job. Given that we have a lot less demand for pots in this garden, at some point the tulips may be designated their own pot - but clearly not for the upcoming flowering season.

The euphorbias which I brought from our old garden continue to do well, and I’m still loathed to let them loose in the flower beds as I’m pretty sure they’ll go rampant - but this photo has reminded me how good they looked with the tulips last year, so I’m thinking they could be future bed (or pot) fellows.

I’d been keeping an eye on the weather - the wind in particular - and our garden furniture cover, which seems way too large for what we need. After a first blow off failure we’d added some webbed straps to keep things tighter and less like a billowing mushroom. Storm Darragh though was also on the way, and that proved a gust too far.

We’d adjusted the straps earlier in the afternoon as I’d noticed they’d slipped a bit, and all seemed well. That was a false alarm, as when I looked again the whole table and chairs had been lifted and dumped onto the grass. We were very lucky that Darragh dumped them that way and not onto the patio, as I’m not sure the ceramic glass top would have survived if that were the case.

Admitting defeat we hastily moved the furniture into the garage, where it has stayed. I say hastily, but I mean as hastily as MOH could, while I continued to hold onto the still billowing mushroom. Goodness only knows what the neighbours must have thought if they spotted us! But it is safe and in one piece, and now is rearranged more compactly in the garage too - MOH is keen to move it out again, but I’m more in the let’s wait camp.

It was more pleasing to see the signs of new life on the small peach tree - while all the leaves have dropped, you can just about see new buds forming on the ends of its branches. I wonder if we’ll manage to harvest more than two fruits this year, who knows?

One sunny afternoon I spied the most hidden of our mahonias and it’s glorious russet leaves - I’m not sure if the colour change is ahead of the other two because of its position, or for any other reason but I know it’s most welcome.

Taking a closer look around the garden it was good to see the cream hellebore preparing to flower - this was one of the plants that came with the garden, and it’s another one that I’m really happy about. I potted the dark maroon hellebore that we brought with us further along from this one, and hadn’t seen much sign of it, which was ok as they really come into their own in the early months of the year. Looking for that now though, it was good to see a couple of new burgundy stems shooting up through the bark (and weeds!), so it seems happy enough with its new home.

So there’s actually more going on in my garden than I thought, though clearly not as much as the summer months. Next month if I’m lucky I’m hoping to see the snowdrops we planted, and hopefully followed not that long after with flowers on the wallflower planted at the same time. I’m sure there’ll be more too, so I look forward to you joining me again for that update.

Shelves in the pantry

I dubbed 2024 the year of the shelves, and while we didn’t get to all the shelves I’d hoped we would there were still plenty of shelves (and don’t worry more to come for MOH this year!). We were off to a good start with the really useful shelves in the bathroom cupboard, which I’d broached with MOH after a significant period of swear-free DIY tasks following the more troublesome to put together open shelving in the pantry and utility room.

True to my word the next shelving project was also in the pantry, though I didn’t expect it to be many months later until we started this - but hey ho, that’s what happened. It’s taken me a few more months to share it here, but while these shelves might be small, they are mighty!

They have completed the storage in this area and it’s so much better to see things on a shelf rather than a basket on the floor. Even MOH agrees, as he could never find any of our herbs and spices before - and didn’t help matters by putting them back into random spots, which made cooking “fun”.

But anyway, they are up - and are in use - and everything is still in the same place, (I hesitated to write that as i) I didn’t want to tempt fate and ii) I don’t want MOH to see it as some kind of challenge. Hmmn) and it’s the perfect use for a not very big, but potentially useful space behind the door.

I was pleased that the Proof of Concept passed muster…

Though I admit in my mind’s eye I had something a little more permanent and sturdy in mind…

I needn’t have worried, that was also a test, apparently, and after that the shelves flew up.

You might be wondering if the part-SMOL box is significant - it is. That was the very practical ‘spacer’ ensuring that the shelves (all bar the bottom one) were the same distance apart. It’s advantage was it was freestanding, thus freeing up MOH’s hands and avoiding the need for me to be there holding it, no doubt in the wrong place.

Don’t they look great?

What you can’t see here though is the detail on the front edge. Clearly growing back into his shelf game MOH routed the edges so they matched the edges on the open shelving which are (as you look) on the right of these. A small touch, but one that really elevates them, or I think so, he’s a clever wood worker isn’t he?

Then it was over to me to load them up - actually a more daunting task than you’d think.

I’ve grouped similar types of spices together, for example on the bottom shelf there’s all the spicier spices - which as luck would have it all turned out to be in similar coloured jars. The ‘shop’ tin on that shelf is just the right size for some stock cubes, and the one two shelves above is home to our home grown, home dried bay leaves - much prettier than an old take away box!

The top shelf, which I can reach without steps - another requirement! - holds those which are used less often. And while there’s spaces I think I’ve got all that I need and even threw out a few more jars in the process. But if there’s a new addition, then there’s plenty of space for that too.

The pantry isn’t the biggest space - but it’s plenty big enough - so it’s hard to get all of the new shelves in one shot. The final, and larger spaced shelf, has more stock cubes and more basics like salt and pepper refills. If needed, it can also hold bottles (as we know from the Proof of Concept) but I can’t see that we’ll need it for that anytime soon.

Living in the space (the house, not the pantry) really did help shape how we shelved this space. My first instinct was to have shelves top to bottom and be in shelf heaven. But I rethought that after hosting our first Christmas here in 2023 and adding some extra and much needed space with the fold-up table, previously my sewing machine table. It was so useful that since it moved here it’s never left, even though I’ve only used it a couple of times since.

And it’s found itself the perfect home, hasn’t it?