This February...

Well, for a short month I seem to have a packed a lot in, including my first visit to our gym - which is good news after a stuttering start to the year - and there’s been glimpses of sun too, which always makes things better.

In the garden the snowdrops which I planted last year started to emerge; a solitary flower to start with and then slowly more flowers arrived. I’m sure over the years the two clumps I have now will spread throughout the border as is their wont - and I can’t wait. My pots of daffodils and tulips are making good progress and hopefully it won’t be too long before they make an appearance.

Wildlife antics to make me smile

A bit of sun, the garden reawakening and it’s easy to really believe that spring is on its way, but I wasn’t the only one enjoying the sun, or our garden. The garden had a visit from a wayward pheasant, and my innate city-dweller will never fail to be amazed at the beauty of wildlife when you see it first-hand - the colours of its feathers in the sunlight were truly jewel like.

Our visitor didn’t seem the smartest though, seemingly bemused by its surroundings it ran along the wall a good few times, sat down for a rest, did a few more lengths of the garden at speed before deciding that up was a good option, and landed on the top of the wall, and straight over the other side!

As predicted last month we’ve been groaning at the contestant’s efforts on The Apprentice - every series I’m amazed that none of them appear to have seen the show before, so appear to have little idea of what’s going on, or what’s required. Which on reflection is not that much different to my garden visitor!

As well as a visit to the theatre in Newark to see Ben Elton - definitely a blast from the past - we’ve been following the tribulations of Drew Pritchard’s Georgian House Restoration though (thankfully) can only imagine having to deal with the highs and heartbreaks that come with such a project. Both the England performance in the Six Nations rugby and Liverpool’s challenge for the Premier League title have kept MOH shouting (quietly) at the TV at times.

London, Liberty and a Club Orange

My exploration this month has mostly been in London with my first solo trip - not a huge adventure really, but somehow its the first time I’ve ventured down on the train on my own. I spent the day at the Garden Press Event and I’ll be sharing some more posts from my day and discoveries over the next few weeks, but it was good to get out and see people from across the gardening sector and all being enthused by what the gardening year ahead has to offer.

Making the most of my day I headed over to Liberty on Regent Street on a mission. Part of that - to secure some Falcon Enamelware failed, but the other part - to acquire some Liberty fabric, was much more successful! It was only two half metres, and on first glance not the most interesting of purchases but the two intricately grey patterned fabrics will take pride of place for my longer-term project to extend my floral fancy quilt.

I love a wander around Liberty, which manages to combine really useful things, the most amazing haberdashery and fabrics (look out for that post next week) and the truly most bizarre things - anyone for a Club Orange handbag?

New machines

There’s been two new machines in my craft room this month; the Sizzix die cutting machine which I promised myself after the Floral Fancy workshop. I’d looked on eBay and was tempted but decided for the small saving and peace of mind to get a new one and to make use of the Hobbycraft online offer. I also had a bit of a result as I browsed looking for similar dies that I’d used to cut out my applique shapes, finding the exact same leaf die and a similar-enough multiple sized flower die - both of these were on sale too, and so they arrived too. I’ve had a quick test and everything’s working as it should, but most of the month has been spent on my other new arrival.

And that is my new sewing machine - I’ve opted for a Bernina in a change to my previous machine, and clearly its much more modern. I’ve a couple of projects under my belt now, and they’ve helped me get comfortable using it - though there’s nothing quite so scary as when an error flashes up on its digital display, and you know you have to fix it yourself. But that’s part of the learning process, and I’m already convinced it’s a great machine. I’ll be sharing more about those ‘try out projects’ which have both already been put to use around the house.

Having a new machine did put my quilting plans back a little, as I didn’t want to muck those up (not that I think I would have, but…), but I have finished my third charity donation quilt, and made my first block for the mystery block of the month and I’m really pleased with both of them. I’ve started the test blocks for February, and they’re challenging me more than I’d like - but I’m getting there, slowly.

So hopefully there’ll be nothing to hold me back, though I’m sure as the month’s get warmer they’ll get busier and that in itself could be a whole other kind of challenge - we’ll see.

Post Comment Love 28 February - 2 March

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.

In comparison to January, February has just flown by hasn’t it - even for a short month. I’m sure glimpses of the sun, which I truly believe, restore hope helps, even just a little bit.

Ours has been a week with a brief overnight family visit, and everything that entails - which included a fair bit of cleaning, as that’s the other thing about the sun - it can really show you up can’t it?! There’s been plenty of errands to run parcels around too, as the sales of my Vinted items have started to pick up again, not that I’m complaining at all - it’s good to see these off to new homes.

And in a shocking development, I’ve finally made it back into our gym for a workout - though it did need a quick tidy and things being put back in their place after a month or so with MOH being the sole user - I’d opted to do my pilates and yoga sessions in the warmth of the house (and will continue to do so for a while yet!)

Have a good week

GORGEOUS FLOWERS ON DISPLAY OUTSIDE LIBERTY

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The Chef's Table by Adam Frost

* I was invited to the press preview of Gardeners’ World Live and provided with a pair of tickets to visit the show, therefore all my posts will be marked as 'Ad’ though as usual my views and opinions are very much my own.

This is absolutely my kind of garden, and I’ve realised while writing this post that it brought about the same excitement as when we visited Hunte’s Garden in Barbados - which is an odd comparison I know, but bear with me. This garden is full of herbs, flowers and vegetables rather than the tropical plants in Barbados, but it is jam packed full of them just the same. The dense planting really appeals to me, as does growing herbs, veggies and flowers together - though I guess that’s really not that new an idea, but Adam Frost’s garden does it particularly well.

Adam’s Show Garden is overflowing with edibles growing in a naturalised setting, and provides plenty of ideas for how you can integrate edibles into your own garden. The outdoor cooking-dining area is rustic, perhaps a bit too rustic for my tastes, but I’m pretty sure that I’ll be using this garden as inspiration for my own in the years to come.

The kitchen was put to good use at the show though as Adam welcomed chefs such as James Martin, Michel Roux, Glynn Purnell and Si King into the garden and kitchen at various times over the course of the show. We didn’t catch any of these - James Martin was up on the day we were at the show, but I did have quite a random encounter with Adam himself.

The press invitation is to view the gardens before they open to the public, and takes place the afternoon beforehand and ends with the presentation of the awards - so it’s a fab thing to be invited too. We’d seen a lot of the gardens, and I’d even managed to photograph many of them and so we made our way into the marquee having a look around that, enjoying the peace and quiet which is completely different to show days, when moving around the marquee can be more of a shuffle.

Adam walked past us, still very much in garden prep mode - I’m sure there’s much more than you think to making a show garden look this good, and so not wanting to be an annoying member of the public, as we crossed I just said hello. Being the type of guy he is - very down to earth - he stopped said hello and how are you doing. Fine thanks, and we were past each other, nothing more required. Though, well I’d quite like him to come and design my garden at some point!

He is I’ve decided, from this encounter and from his TV appearances and the chat he did at the awards presentation, a very nice man indeed. I almost said a very nice guy (and he is) but stopped myself as that sounds very Trumpian, and that’s the last thing I want to be, or to ordain someone with!

The show garden had a welcoming rustic feel at its entrance, but as you moved through the garden there was also an orchard and the illusion of water - which I think from a hazy memory is the cream path intersecting the beds in the photo above. I’ll admit that water, or even the illusion of water in a garden isn’t something I’m fussed with in a garden - I know it’d be relaxing, that is until whatever the water feature was needed cleaning, so it’s a no from me.

What was unusual - and gives food for thought in my own garden is the changing paths - there’s the gravel edged with bricks and a wooden boardwalk, both of which have very different textures and textures are so important aren’t they?

I also liked the small groups of pots at points in the path - and I’m sure these pots of succulents influenced me to buy my own succulents the very next day, and which I’ve added to since then too.

The combination of rosemary, geranium and mints - as well as my favourite astrantia - was a heady mix, though I’m not sure I’d plant mint in a border like this - it spreads and spreads, and turns up everywhere. My mint will be staying firmly in a pot I’m afraid.

I had to include this shot, looking down on the thyme, rosemary and santolini with the sun on them - I can almost smell them from here. These are all plants I will have in my garden, the santolini is currently the only one I’m missing though.

Growing vegetables among other plants and making them look good is a skill, and a skill I want to have. The vegetables here - cavolo nero (above) and yellow chard and kale (below) again have texture and bring a colour to the space too.

I was all for heading back to the picnic dining table to see what was cooking, but alas I wasn’t quite brave enough to sit down - and stage a sit in, plus we had a hotel to get to!

* With thanks to Gardeners’ World for inviting me to Gardeners’ World Live, it was just as good as I expected! I’ll be sharing more from my visit to the show - I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.