Hurrah for compost!

Hurrah for compost!

It’s taken three years for the stuff to bloody break-down, so I am rather pleased to be using it at last. The only thing that didn’t break down so well was the egg shells? Not sure why.

Here is my little veggie-patch-to-be. Giving it a rake through before we finally plant.

And here are me and my pixies on our wild garlic forage. Lots of gorgeous dishes have resulted. Yum.

First attempt at needle felting :)

Well I am a bit of a craft biff actually. I can do lots of things, but mostly mediocre, not really excelling at anything. Which is ok by me! 

So wondering what all this needle felting lark was, I decided to have a bash (and wondering why no one has told me how stress-relieving it all is to repeatedly stab a needle into something - Dawn?!).

Some little felty eggs

Some nests for chicks to go in, with initials of Big Pixie's friends for spring gifts.

Chickies in the nest!

My voodoo Winnie The Pooh (sponge substitute is ACE!)

A hair slide each for me and my pixies.

The whole house is reeking of wild garlic that we foraged today, so the next post should hopefully be some of the makings from that. Already eaten a shed-load for tea tonight :)

Back on the ball

After a nice little break, I am back.

After shifting some riff-raff from my life, I feel tons better. Isn’t it funny how some things can affect you when you’re totally unprepared for your own reactions? But ne’mind. Crap has been removed and disposed of J and I shan’t be getting involved with any more undesirable people or situations in the future.

Been incredibly busy with the beautiful pixies and lots of play dates and friends visiting has kept me more than occupied – the weather is helping lots as we can all be the garden more.

My book is FINALLY ready to send off, just need to cajole my good friend Rach to help me with a synopsis…hint hint Rach?! It’s a do-it-now-and-stop-procrastinating situation. And if it all turns to rat shit, then I shall get it bound and copied anyway for my children because they love it!

Crafty things? Well here is my season swap when I was part of the GP forum. I really enjoyed making it – I made one for us last year and have since made one for the children. My recipient really liked it too, which is always good! I got a gorgeous hand-painted pot and crocheted daffodil and egg from Joxy, which the children love immediately placed it on their seasonal hearth.

A lovely friend L gave the pixies a fab little Ikea table and chairs. Her children had done the usual child-happy task of decorating the table with pen and paint, so it will be a project to redecorate it in the coming weeks so hopefully I will remember to picture it! Looking for ideas for wood decoration too, if anyone has any (has to be easy!) to recommend?

The gardening is coming along too and our new veggie plot has been duly raked, pecked and pooped over by the hens, so it should be nicely fertile for a-sowing and a-growing.

Our friends with a smallholding are housing some chilli plants for us, so I hope to maybe pop some more seedlings in there to bring them on.

Lots of herbs this year too. I use an awful lot in medicines so it would be good to increase our stock of them. My favourite is calendula – I use it for everything, and the good old nettle – amazing properties.

And I’m back to making lists again. My memory is shot these days, so I need to have lists of things to do: where I should be at what time, whose house I am due at for HE meets, and another list, to remind me of where the first list is kept J

Looook!

Oooooh look at my new journal!

Pretttttttty, no?

You can’t touch it though. It’s MINE!

I think I have a stationery addiction J

Nearly time for...

A magical and special time for new beginnings.

And some charity shop bargains from this week

Sealed and new - £2.00

A hat, gloves and scarf set for the Big Pixie - £2.00.

Bargains. 

Peeping out of hibernation

Sorting out jars of herbs, ready for teas and medicine.

Some lemon curd I made this morning - organic, of course, and with fresh eggs from our hennies...awesome on a ciabatta fresh from the oven.

See how lemony and yellow?

A bit of a blurry picture but you can still see my birthday mushrooms made by our friend Jimbob who is an amazing chainsaw sculptor.

And a birthday cake from my mammy.

So it looks like my hibernation is nearly over. I have been busy with therapies recently and am thinking of practicing again in the future, maybe combining it with the writing and editing...we'll see. I stopped practicing as a therapist when I was pregnant with the Littlest Pixie as I was so ill and felt my energies were needed to grow baby. Taking on others' emotional needs were too much. I have two small ladies who are our priority and getting through each day happily is a big enough challenge right now!

Have you been in hibernation? Has the clean whiff of Springtime tempted you out of your burrows? I have been coaxed reluctantly :) And the addition of cakey always helps...