birthday

I had a birthday last week which unfortunately I had to spend at a meeting in Birmingham, so I had an official birthday the day before. I had saved a 2 for 1 voucher from Gardener's World magazine so went with my mum to Arundel Castle for the day. Its a pretty spectacular place - I dont know anything about the history because we were cheap-skates and only went into the gardens.

Beautiful wisteria.

And I think this is an apricot.

lacy crochet

I crocheted a small bag to keep my crochet hooks in so I dont lose them. I used some thickish black cotton thread and the pattern is adapted from the hook case in Lacy Crochet - Kyuuto Japanese Crafts. The result is a bit short and also the the hooks fall through the holes. So, not well thought out overall (totally my fault for not bothering to follow the pattern properly and nothing to do with the lovely book). Luckily its exactly the right size and shape to keep my ipod in to stop it getting scratched in my bag. The evenings are light enough now to go the allotment after work for an hour. Still a fair amount to dig over and weed but we have potatoes, onions, broad beans, carrots and parsnips in the ground. Tomorrow I will take some pictures. In the meantime here are some tiny cauliflowers... aren't they sweet!

auricula

Spring is coming, and my Auricula is flowering. I have been looking out for more of these in the garden centres around here but they seem to be quite rare. I love the contrast of colours in the flowers. They look like they are made of wax. I finished a tiny knitted baby-vest in white cotton this weekend. No pictures because I'm pretty sure I have to redo the sleeves even though I sewed it up already. The pattern says decrease over several rows towards the tops of the sleeves. That can't be right can it? I checked the pattern several times but I think I have to redo them anyway or the vest will cut off the baby's blood supply to its arms.

pants

This morning I bent down to tie my shoes and my trousers split. Unfortunately I didn't notice until I was at work. I would have been less embarrassed if I hadn't been wearing bright purple pants. So I have spent the day walking backwards out of rooms and letting people past me on the stairs. The nice young man who sits opposite me drew a smiley face winking and stuck it on the partition. Oh god. This little chap is brightening up the geranium on my dining table. I am trying to resist putting plants outside. Some days are quite warm but then suddenly it gets cold overnight, frosty even down here on the coast. Its probably just about time to start planting seeds under cover though so I might get going on that at the weekend. Broad beans - yum!

harvest lunch

We dug up some spuds today at the allotment. Also picked some courgettes, broad beans and carrots and then cooked them all with a roast chicken for lunch. Blackberry and strawberry crumble cake for pudding. Very yummy. The tablecloth is almost finished. Can't wait to wash it and see what it looks like all lovely and ironed and clean. Em likes sitting on it so its a bit grubby. Its also grubby from me sewing it with sticky chocolate cake fingers! I'm already thinking about the next project. Definitely knitting - I've had enough sewing to last me a while. I have about 10 things queued on Ravelry but I might ignore those and make a cardigan for my friends little girl. Not much time for gardening today, but I did manage to cut the grass. This is my back garden a few weeks ago. Please ignore the piles of rubbish :-)