Problems...

... posting comments. I have not been able to post comments on blogs lately. It keeps coming up with a service error which is most annoying when I have spent time typing out a comment and then cannot send it. So if you know read your blog and i often comment but have not recently then you will know why. It does not happen every time and it is not always the same blog. I usually read via my net newswire rss feed but I do not think that is is that. Do others have the same trouble. Of course if you have and cannot send me a comment I will never know!

The weather warmed up for John's birthday yesterday. I bought him mainly allotment related gifts.The little furry chap is a hairy wild haggis!


He had the day off and spent it continuing the greenhouse renovation




Gardener Bunny came to live here this time last year and so she shares John's birthday. She had a new cushion for her chair and a hat for cold days


She tested the hat out at the allotment


I have had no time for sewing this week

Thanks if you stopped by and sorry if you get the error message trying to leave a comment.

busy busy busy...

...and back to work this week which I have enjoyed so far. The new pupils seem keen to learn and like the undivided attention.

We finally have some red tomatoes. They are taking ages to ripen probably because it has been cloudy and the last few days it has rained.

Do you remember the lonely raspberry back when we first took on this allotment. Well on Sunday we made the decision to pull out all the old raspberry canes and start again so in front of the shed now looks like this:


It all now needs a good dig over and a bit of research on raspberry and soft fruit growing.
We have a glass free green house at the moment.

It is in a bad state of repair and so John has begun some renovations as I do not think the birthday fairy or Santa can conjure up a new one. This will involve wood hardener,filler and some new wood in places. The shed is a mish-mash of repairs and recycling.
Gardener Bunny is pleased with the cabbage

We took down the netting but then along came a cabbage white butterfly so we put some more up with a bit more growing space. Gardener bun had a little bounce to make sure it was secure.


I finally started knitting my scrummy yarn. There should be just enough for a pair of fingerless gloves like these
scroll down the page to see the photo of a complete one.

I love this colour and it is much brighter in real life. I wear my others all the time once the cold weather starts and unless it is really cold having warm wrists and palms keeps my fingers from going numb.

At the weekend I spent sometime stuffing but had to replace the upper legs of my sprite because the fabric was fraying and pulling away at the seam. I am disappointed because it was a good colour. However I was not surprised as it was a very loosely woven one. I hope to show some progress soon at the moment I have almost stuffed body parts. It is astonishing how much stuffing fits in a little arm. I buy my stuffing on line in bulk and the last lot was different to what I usually buy. I have discovered it is too lumpy for textile dolls. So it was lucky that I had some of the old left. I think I might be making large cushions out of the new lot.

Thanks for stopping by. If you comment I will try to reply personally

Can you spot him?

A visitor we have not seen for a while turned up today. He has probably been but I just haven't looked out the window at the right time. I am surprised he is still about considering the number of cats that visit our garden.

On my first trip to the allotment after the Grand Trek I was surprise to see how much everything had grown in two weeks.



The potatoes are safely stored in the cellar leaving two patches like this at the old allotment

Surrounded by this


The blossom on the tree has produced these


Tia decided the best place to sleep was in the basket of freshly ironed clothes

She was not allowed to stay there long!

I have finally got my act together and have made this



She is a Magic Threads Wood Nymph

Now to do the time consuming stuffing. it will be an activity to tackle while watching television.

I have been into school this week to sort out which children I will be tutoring over the next few weeks. I am looking forward to this.

Thank you if you posted a comment last time I have been very remiss at sending individual thanks.

When I logged in today I noticed that I am coming up to a 150 blog milestone. What on earth have I been writing about all this time?

There is a bit of a nip...

... in the air today. Well it is September and the nights are drawing in once again. Our annual gad about is now finished. We rounded it off with a trip to the Picasso exhibition at the Tate in Liverpool and on Friday a visit to
Yorkshire Sculpture Park
The Picasso exhibition has now finished but the exhibits by David Nash at the sculpture park are there until February.


I found both extremely interesting.
Biddle did not visit Liverpool and missed out on a Chinese meal for lunch but he did enjoy the sculpture park


We watched clouds
and took some photos

This spot in the park should be a tranquil space. Outside is a notice clearing stating this however our time studying the passing clouds was disturbed by three of the most badly behaved boys one would ever wish to meet!

We took a leisurely stroll around the park revisited and discovered that the Andy Goldsworthy
pieces had weathered quite a bit since we first saw them in 2007


These are not photos of the same piece but they all had weathered in a similar way.
Saturday we made a short visit to the Bankfield Museum in Halifax to see some quilts and afterwards I discovered a new wool shop in the piece hall called Three Bags Full there was a delicious choice of yarn and I bought two balls of Alpaca to make some fingerless gloves. There is a blog
to follow

Monday we made our yearly trip to the Leeds West Indian Carnival, the costumes were great



And the fried chicken with rice and peas extremely tasty!


So that is it. Life goes back to normal now. Work eventually and hopefully some spare time to make something nice.

Thank you if you left a comment last time