Muddy strawberries and little pots of lovely

My small attempt to bring a little bit of summer to my soggy neck of the woods...

...and proof that, despite all the rain, some things are managing to survive in my allotment:

(ha ha - look - it's actually sunny in this photo.  That was in the bright spell we had from 4.00 - 4.15 a week ago yesterday.)

I love these little jugs of flowers that are gently shedding their petals all over my house, they cheer me up a bit when all I really want to do is hide my head under a duvet and sob 'where, oh where is the sun???'

Strawberries help a bit too, especially when they're served with a vast mound of cream with icing sugar and vanilla.  These babies, however, were presented with a side serving of mud, courtesy of small, who mistook the trug for a bucket and helpfully emptied a trowelful of earth into it:

They actually tasted amazing once I'd thoroughly washed them and cut the wildlife out of them.

And here's a peek at something else that's been making me smile when I see it:

...it's not middle's drunken-looking teddy (ah, he does love that bear - aka 'smelly ted' - he's lost almost all his stuffing, has more repairs round his bottom than actual fabric, and stinks like something you might find if you were to have a rummage around at the bottom of a wheelie bin, but he's as much a member of the family as middle himself).  

Can you see what's just behind the much-repaired bear's bum?  Eeeeeeee - it's an in-use all star blanket!!! More on that when we get our next five-minute sunny slot so I can take some photos. x

PS - Just to say that I'm sorry I've been so rubbish at commenting on blogs lately - I can't leave comments from my phone (which is how I read a lot of blogs), trying to comment from mr n's ipad makes me want to weep with frustration, and the laptop usually has a small boy attached to it.  I do read all your lovely blogs and I am constantly inspired by what I see and read, so thank you x

Flowers and stars

Well, spring has well and truly been springing all over the place round these parts, as you can see from the lovely little daffodils tenaciously clinging to life in my front garden (as previously mentioned, this is just about the only place in the vicinity of my house that is safe from uber-violent footballing activity, although I have noticed recently that the two hooligans have taken to playing the odd game/wrestling match on the front grass - an unwelcome and soon-to-be-quelled occurrence).  I have especially noticed the recent springy-activity on the 'A' road back from my local John Lewis - this is a well-trodden route for me and is therefore a barometer of the changing seasons - if it all looks a bit misty green, as it does at the moment, it's definitely spring (if it's white, it's probably winter and if it's wet and grey it's almost any time of the year.)
In a pleasing coincidence of life imitating art (or, in this case, nature) the floral theme has been continued on the domestic-front too - my 'baby' has had a birthday party, though not an actual birthday, confusingly.  Unbelievably, she will be two in a couple of weeks, but as we'll be in Turkey (our first, ever foreign holiday as a family - all five of us are counting down the sleeps til we'll be on a plane) on her actual birthday, and as my mum is visiting us for a few days, we thought we'd have a little tea party for her royal highness this week.  I was lax and forgot to take a pictures of the cake,which was pink with Smarties on - I surprised myself with how girly I made it, but she loved it.  I did, however, take some photos of more cake-related goings-on that took place recently:

A large bowl of icing and a very muddy elbow - it would appear that some things are worth coming in from playing football for.

 Looking at this photo I notice two things: 1) I'm a stingy sprinkler - this is something I will be rectifying asap; 2) just look at the size of the blob of icing middle has put on his cupcake (top right of the picture)...

I may have neglected to take any cakey photos, but I have taken some of her big present from me and Mr N, which I secretly feel I may have bought as much for me as for her:

It's floral.  It's got stripes.  It's got gingham.  It's a wigwam.  I think I might move into it.

And can you see the little porcelain tea sets set up inside?  One of them is a Cath K one that my mum got her for her bday, and the other is mine from when I was a similar age to my baby girl.  I even have the original box still (deep down I know that very soon I am going to be heart broken when one of my oafish boys breaks the box/smashes a cup.  Maybe I should hide it away again for another thirty-five years, just to be on the safe side.)  I can't explain the thrill of excitement I got, laying all this out with my girl because I know how much fun I had doing this and I can't believe I get to do it all again with her.  (Let's face it, I still do it for real - a stripy tablecloth, a nice bit of cake and my Pip crockery - nothing's changed!)

This is my set - it's vintage dahling.

 And this is me taking a photo at the exact moment middle decided it would be a good idea to jump on my back and cling to me, koala-style.

 And this is the Cath K set.  Just look at teddy bear in the background - he must be a boy - look at the way he's sitting...

And finally, after getting as far as I can for the moment with my granny ripple blanket:

here is my latest wip:

It's my all star blanket, which I have just started making for middle after a tough process of negotiation over the Rico Creative Cotton colour chart - him: 'I want that one (orange), that one (red), that one (black), that one (grey) and that one (green)'.  Me: 'hmmmmm.....' x

Granny's garden of flowery loveliness part deux

I forgot to mention that I went completely overboard taking photos of my granny's garden when I was in Dorset over the summer.  I thought that if I just sneaked these in, you might not notice or mind too much...(which reminds me of my Blogger-related woes, which I will return to later).

I wanted to bury my nose permanently in this honeysuckle, but it wasn't open properly and there were rather a lot of bees about.

I do love acers *sigh* especially when their leaves change to those amazing pinks and reds and oranges that acers do so well.  They're not quite up there with beeches in my mental 'tree top trumps game', but they're definitely top ten.

And here's a wiggly willow (I'm now going off on a mental tangent imagining the amazing yarn shop I will one day own.  This yarn shop slash haberdashery will be called 'Wiggly Willow' and I will spend all day reading inspirational blogs, stroking balls of yarn and drinking cups of tea from old, mismatched cups.  Gotta have a dream.)

My grandad made this bench from a fallen over tree.  He was a lovely man and I miss him a lot.  One day a few years ago, shortly after my grandad's death, I was in the kitchen and overheard big n talking to someone in the dining room next door.  I walked in and asked him who he was talking to as there was noone else in the room.  He replied that he was telling great-grandad about what he'd done that day as he thought he'd be interested.  I firmly believe that my other grandad (who died the month before I was born) has watched over me as I live my life; and I wonder whether big n has the same thing with this grandad (who died while I was pregnant with middle n).  You never know, do you?

And just because I ended my last installment of granny's garden with a picture of a ladybird's bottom, I'm going to end today with a picture of a lovely furry bee.  Byeeee x

PS - ha - nearly forgot to mention my Blogger issues: my posts don't seem to be updating in other people's blogrolls (or if they do, they take several hours to do it) does anyone have any idea why this might be?  I'm at a complete loss.

Bits and bobs

I just love the colours of this drink/straw/glass/tablecloth combo.

Blogging really has opened my eyes to the fact that there are actually other people out there who look at everyday things like this and feel a little thrill of inspiration too.  It's great to know I'm not alone!  Poor big nut - he really wanted his banana milkshake and I cruelly said he had to wait while I took a photo - will he be scarred for life?
The past few days have seen a fair amount of rain in my neck of the woods and really, it just looks as though everything's had a good wash.  Everything had been so dusty - the car was a rather fetching shade of beige and the boys were coming back from school with shirts that were, quite frankly, about as un-white as it's possible for white shirts to be - but now order is restored - the car is once again red and the boys are back to their usual white-with-mud-splashes uniform.  Phew.
The countryside is now a beautiful, vivid green and the garden is looking full and lush:

And remember the sad-looking pansies that I blogged about in my 'Apathy r us' post?

Well, they have gone absolutely mad and the pots I put them in now look like two huge yellow and purple pom poms.
On the crochet-front this week, I've been putting some serious hooky time into my treat scarf, which is actually now starting to look like a proper scarf and not just a stripy rectangle; and I've been showing my springtime throw some love too - I'm now up to a square count of 200 (oh god, that actually doesn't sound that good, considering I've been working on it sporadically since February.  Boo)  Another little something has been getting underway too:

Some more little 3D hearts have been slipping from my hook.  This project seemed like a great way to use up the left-over yarn from my small flower squares cushion and it involves Fimo (which I haven't used since I was about twelve) and I'm saying no more for the moment!!  Ooooh, mysterious.....x

Granny's garden of flowery loveliness

Aaaagh, I'm having a slightly panicky moment.  I've got so many things that I ought to be doing.  There's nothing enormous, just lots of fiddly little things, but when you add them all up there's enough to make me slightly hyperventilate. 

Eeeek. Must. Calm. Down...

mmmmmmm - lots of deep breaths and some photos from my gran's lovely garden - that should do the trick.

I asked my mum if this was a willow and she said that yes, it is a willow.  A wiggly willow.  If I ever start my own company I think I'll call it Wiggly Willow, I think it's a brilliant name.

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful - my gran's put so much time and love into this garden and it really shows.

Right, I need to go off and panic a bit more so I'll leave you with one last photo, because really, what blog post isn't enhanced by a picture of a ladybird's bottom? x

We love Dorset

This post today comes to you from sunny, sunny Dorset (hurrah!)  Well, we had to come here for Easter because nana (my granny) has the best garden of anyone we know for Easter egg hunts and this is a really, really important consideration when you're under the age of, say, 35.  Plus, when you're (only slightly) over the age of 35, you can get a bit excited about going to Hanson's, which is the amazing haberdashery warehouse I mentioned in my 'springy things' post.  Soooo...Hanson's...well, we've been here 24 hours and already I have made a little pilgrimage.  I had some Easter money from my parents-in-law burning a hole in my pocket, so decided to treat myself to some really gorgeous yarn to make myself a little something.  I managed to persuade Mr Nut that it would be a good idea to spend some quality time with his three children while my mum and I 'quickly' popped out, so I was able to really check out all the yarns and spend a looooong time going 'hmmmmm' and 'huuuuuh' and 'errrrmmm', while stroking yarns and secretly wishing I was very, very rich.  Anyway, I finally managed to make a decision and very pleased with it I am too.  Want to see the yarn? 
Okay, here it is:

Mmmmmmm, sublime by name, sublime by nature.

This is the softest, softest yarn you can imagine - it's 75% extra fine merino, 20% silk and 5% cashmere and I cannot wait to get making!  The colour hasn't come out that well in this photo, in real life it's a sort of cream, a petrol bluey-grey and a greeny-aqua colour.  Yum, yum, yum.  I'm not sure exactly what pattern I'm going to use for this - I think I quite fancy something along the lines of loopy flowers joined together, but I haven't made up my mind yet and I am open to any suggestions anyone may have!

And as if all that yarny excitement wasn't enough, my lovely mum bought me a rather splendid new cook book:

I love everything about this book: the title, the cover, the style in which the recipes are written and also the homemade, slightly economical vibe.  I'm already getting excited about making something to take to my gran's for Easter Sunday lunch (had better make sure we don't all get too carried away with chocolate in the morning.)
I just cannot get over this amazing weather we're having at the moment, it feels like high summer.  It's just brilliant, we've been spending whole days outdoors just soaking it all up and playing with the children.  My mum's garden is always beautiful and is looking especially lovely at the moment, with everything growing at a rate of knots.

 

 

 

 

 

Love, love, love the colour of this beautiful tulip.

It's just possible I might have gone slightly overboard with the flower photos today, but really, you've got to love it haven't you?
Oooh, Mr Nut's just presented me with a piece of cake and a hot chocolate - he really knows the way to my heart!  Better dash.  Hope you're having a lovely, sunny Easter too. x