Ridgeway Cottage anyhow

So far I believe this to be my favourite gardening week this year. The sun is warm, the skies are blue, the swifts have returned and there are daily highlights of The Chelsea Flower Show on every day. It has taken two years from collected seed to flower for my lychnis plants. For the longest time I wondered what these deep magenta flowers were on the end of tall silver stems. Now the front and back garden as well as the allotment are about to be filled them. I also grew these from seed the same year but this is their second time flowering. I found an old packet of Baby Blue Eyes in the spring and threw them in a bare patch. The forget-me-nots are hanging on in there, just And the old fashioned pinks are in bud. They also took a couple of years to get started, but I think this will be their year to shine. In the dappled shade of the corkscrew hazel, the wild strawberries are in flower so it is probably almost time to invite Nana to stay. Charlie and Nana do like their berries from...

As the days of early 2017 slip past, spring is creeping into my world. Hello buds and shoots and re-emerging plants. It's time to create a new allotment dish with all the edibles busting into life. Allotment Crumble Ingredients Leeks Spring greens Nettles Cheese sauce 25g butter 25g flour 1/2 pint milk Some cheese The crumble topping Flour Butter Seeds Oats Choose some baby leeks, chop them and cook Add some spring greens, nettles and whatever else you've got that's green and edible. Add the cheese sauce and top off with crumble. Then wonder around outside in the sun whilst it cooks dreaming of all the wonderful things to come ... Sunflowers and mangetout Lovage Purple sprouting broccoli Forget-me-nots Rhubarb And delphiniums

It was in Wovember 2015 when I discovered that woad was a plant that could easily be easily be grown in the garden and   used to dye textiles. Not only was it a natural dye, but it was blue in colour, a beautiful blue. We all love an internet journey, those timewasters where you get sidetracked here, click on the link there, and boom there is an explosion of ideas. From learning about the joys of British wool from the Wovember web site, I investigated local yarns and discovered Southdown Yarns . I wanted to know the whole story and I was curious about hand dying. I wanted to know how the stuff worked and someone was there to tell me. Let's internet-hop over to Jenny Dean . It wasn't enough for me to just read the articles, I wanted the book . It was the start, owning the information and words to help me to obtain my new crazy dream; gardening and sewing a handmade homemade ethical garment. People who don't garden might not know that the winter is spent planning next s...

Handmade stuff is more than just bits and bobs you throw together because you can or maybe it's cool or cheaper or more ethical. These Frankenadvent socks are a wearable diary, the fabric of my life with each stitch attached to the memory of a moment.

The kids have now got Where's Wally chocolate advent calendars so it's time to get out my incomplete Frankenadvent socks. I started my Frankenadvent socks last December and then got overwhelmed by the whole preparation for Christmas extravaganza. Basically they are a mish mash of random yarns and crazy patterns. I have absolutely no idea where I left off last year so I have gone for a simple rib in the same grey as sock number one. I don't believe there are any Franken advent socks police and therefore don't envisage any problems other than perhaps not being able to finish them again. Well here we go work in progress/ unfinished project/ Christmas advent tradition. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

So after my epic mum fail of not purchasing chocolate filled advent calendars before they sold out, I had to do something to make up for it in some way. The light is beautiful in December. The sun sets into a milky yellow horizon as the first star shines brilliantly. At the beginning of December, each year, we head off into the city centre to see the lights. It's a bit of a tradition now, the spotting of the lights and the Jesus Sets. We never miss this one. This year the donkey appears to be having a quick nibble of the baby's tootsies. It's always a bonus to get some coffee and gingerbread. Charlie reckons he can always manage chips so I imagine having got them once on our annual advent jaunt, next year it will be an expectation. Finally the Jesus set outside Canterbury Cathedral. With its life sized characters of ethnically appropriate colouring and a basket of baby chicks under the manger, the children, who have seen this every year of the...

For some people today is just Friday. There are others however who have been hijacked by consumerism, the shiny, sparkling promise of happiness through the purchase of crap they don't need destined for next year's landfill, trapped in the endless hunt for a bargain. And then there's another group of Friday 25th November 2016 people, those celebrating Buy Nothing Day and that's the gang I'm in. But how about the saving money, the kick starting the Christmas shopping and the greedy over consumption of Black Friday, I hear you ask. Well don't worry friends, I'm not tragically behind in the preparations for the crazy season, I have completed a handmade homemade Christmas gift for my nephew. He's too young yet to have his own opinion about what makes a decent gift so I can quite easily pass off anything as acceptable as long as it has an aeroplane on it. Of course I did actually spent most of yesterday and today working on the little placemat so altho...