It must be love...

image from The Graphics Fairy

Well, my word, today is our 40th wedding anniversary ~ 40 years, how is that even possible 😳  We've actually lived together for over 42 years ~ again, just where have those years gone??  They've certainly gone quickly, that's for sure.  We've had our ups and downs, like any normal couple, but we've managed to muddle through and carry on.  I guess it must be love, eh 😉

image from The Graphics Fairy

A new venture

Guess what I've gone and done.....yup, I've started a new, stand-alone, blog for all my dolls' house ramblings 👏  So now there will be somewhere else for you to visit that you'll most likely find even less interesting than here on My Cosy Orkney Home (MCOH) 😄

It's actually something that I've been thinking about doing for well over a year now.  This is such a busy little blog ~ it's more of a diary, I suppose, of what's going on in my life so it's full of all kinds of everything.  I really wanted somewhere that was simply devoted to both my dolls' house hobby and what was happening in Hazelton ~ hence the new blog.

I don't suppose for one minute that I will be working on my dolls' houses until the bad weather sets in so don't expect posts on the new blog any time soon 😉  I want to get as much done in the garden as possible before the winter weather sets in.  Plus I have the very big task of getting my craft room in a fit state to actually do any work in!  It's in a terrible mess at the moment as it's become a dumping ground yet again, plus we rearranged the furniture in there when we moved the sideboard out into the porch so that's added to the upheaval.

I'm still pondering over what to do about all the dolls' house posts that are here on MCOH.  I think I will most likely end up copying them and reposting on the new blog, leaving the original posts in place here for posterity.  I'm not sure at the moment about how to set them up on the new blog as I don't want to be mixing them in with new posts that I make.  Hopefully I'll think of some suitable way to do what I want in due course.  Mind you I've still got an awful lot to get done in the garden before winter, so I don't imagine there will be time for doll's house tinkering any time soon! 

Just on the off-chance that any of you might be interested, my lovelies, I will be putting a little note on here when I do post on the new blog 😏

A little here, a little there

As well as spreading out tons of stone chippings and building flat-packed wardrobes, we have also been doing bits and pieces in various parts of the garden ~ little bites of that elephant 😉

I took a little time out, though, to take a couple of photos of the beautiful hips on two shrubs in this more shady border in the kitchen garden.  The photo above is a hypericum...

...and this is, obviously, a rose.  I'm pretty sure that it's Rosa Rugosa Alba but I really didn't fancy getting in amongst all those thorny stems to double-check 😯 

Our latest garden endeavours have mostly revolved around sorting out the old fruit cage area, as we've decided it needs to be totally overhauled.  The plan is to take out the central bed entirely, just leaving the two on either side.  We're going to set out a little seating area here in due course.  

Along with the weeds (!) in this bed there are a couple of holly shrubs, a couple of ferns, and three (I think) alchemilla mollis.  The alchemilla obviously like it here, judging by the growth they have put on!  I am going to relocate them to the back garden, so let's hope they will like their new homes as much.

Once the centre bed has been cleared out and dismantled, we are going to use the pieces of wood to make an extra layer on this right-hand bed ~ it will give us somewhere to put at least some of the soil so we don't end up having to make another soil mountain out the back 😄  I shall have to temporarily dig out and pot up the hollies and ferns in this bed whilst we do this so that it's easier to build up the new additional layer and, of course, put in the extra soil to fill it up.

I drastically cut back the blackcurrant bushes in this bed to make it easier to move them.  Just look at those weeds!

They've now gone in the back garden to make a short row of blackcurrant "hedge", in the bed with the bay tree.  The straggly-looking plant on the right is a piece of escallonia that I decided to leave where it was when I tidied this bed a couple of weeks back.  It doesn't look like much even now, I know, but is looking way better than it was before LOL

Only one of the redcurrants have produced much fruit...

...and we got almost two pounds from it!

The two redcurrants which were at the front are now in the bed with the fruit trees.

At the back of the old bed was one redcurrant which I bought as a standard, and a tiny piece that had broken off from one of the other bushes.  I've now put the standard redcurrant (which rather surprisingly didn't have as much root as I was expecting to be honest) in a large tub, which I've positioned in the kitchen courtyard between the bay tree and rosemary.

The tiny "bonus" piece was really too small to just plonk down in the garden, I felt, so I've potted it up to let it grow on.  Hopefully it'll be large enough to plant somewhere in the garden next year.    

Moving into the greenhouse just for a quick look, I'm pleased to report that the tomatoes are now fruiting rather nicely.  I noticed earlier in the week that one or two are also ripening up, so fingers crossed that we'll get a decent crop 🤞

And to round off this post, I thought I'd show you the photo of a red admiral butterfly I took last Friday.  There wasn't any sunshine so I think it must just have been having a little rest rather than soaking up the rays 😊

Little words of wisdom

 

A new project

I bet I can guess what you're all thinking, my lovelies: "omg, Sharon, why are you starting yet another bloody project when you still haven't finished the guest bedroom blanket??"  Well, to be fair to myself, I did actually buy this yarn with a specific project in mind ~ namely a blanket to be gifted for Christmas😄  And as I'd actually like to gift it this Christmas, I thought I'd best put the guest bedroom blanket temporarily to one side and get on with this one!

I'm using Stylecraft Special Double Knit and as usual I purchased it from Wool Warehouse.  I chose a limited colour palette for this blanket: cream, petrol, duck egg, storm blue, and sage.  I'm using a 4mm crochet hook.

I went through my rather large (would you really expect me to only have a piddly amount 😏) collection of patterns and considered a number of them, but kept coming back to the interlocking block stitch that I learnt when I made the bonus blanket #1.  I really love this pattern and now have loads of ideas for different colour combinations swirling around in my head!

Same pattern, very different look!

The autumnal-hued blanket did take me quite some time to complete, which is why I've chosen to start this second interlocking block stitch blanket sooner rather than later.  I'm again going to finish off with an envelope border, but this time might try the instructions from Rosina Crochets as I struggled somewhat with those from Wool Thread Paint.  Of course, I still might find it difficult but it's worth a try methinks 😉

You'll be pleased to know, though, that I have finished all 144 squares needed for the guest bedroom blanket ~ 12 squares x 12 squares.  Originally I was going to make it 11 wide x 12 long but by the time I'd got to 132 squares, I decided it would look nicer if the blanket was square rather than rectangular.  Once I've got the new project finished, I'll be back to finish this one off.

There is still a lot of yarn left from that humungous amount I purchased for Olive's blanket, despite the bonus blankets I've made, and I'm pretty sure there will be a goodly amount left from both of the above blankets too.  So I'm planning to have a good 'ole rummage through my stash for any more odds 'n' sods tucked away in there and put the whole lot together, as I've already got yet another blanket in mind to try to get it used up ~ more to come on that little project in due course, though 😃   

Thinking of Mum...

Mum on her 80th birthday back in 2018

 on what would have been her 86th birthday today💕

Peace...

www.allposters.co.uk

Father, Mother, God,

Thank you for your presence during the hard and mean days.

For then we have you to lean upon.

Thank you for your presence during the bright and sunny days.

For then we can share that which we have with those who have less.

And thank you for your presence during the Holy Days.

For then we are able to celebrate you and our families and our friends

For those who have no voice, we ask you to speak.

For those who feel unworthy, we ask you to pour your love out in waterfalls of tenderness.

For those who live in pain, we ask you to bathe them in the river of your healing.

For those who are lonely, we ask you to keep them company.

For those who are depressed, we ask you to shower upon them the light of hope.

Dear Creator, You, the borderless sea of substance, we ask you to give to all the world that which we need most.....PEACE.

Maya Angelou

(4th April 1928 - 28th May 2014)  

The Big Job...

...is finally finished ~ well, almost 😉  We had four more bags delivered, two in the driveway and two here in the kitchen garden.  It's amazing how much of the bloody stuff we've got through!

We were on a bit of a mission to get the bags in the driveway emptied, as we share it with our neighbour and wanted to get it all cleared away before she got back from holiday.  Not that there would have been a problem if we hadn't quite finished but we do like to be as considerate as we can.  Having a couple of bags put on the driveway made it very much easier getting the stones wheeled round to the back.

Mind you, wasn't an easy task to get the wheelbarrow along the back of the shed as there isn't much space to turn in the corner!

We managed it, though, and it was easier along this side.  The bags contain leaves gathered up from last year and the compost that Adrian emptied out from our bins ready to move them for the Big Job.

It was a straightforward task laying the stones here.  We've decided that we should perhaps put some kind of little fence along the top of the wall at some point, though, as there is a drop down.  

Just about the only "before" photo that I remembered to take 😏

To outsiders, as it were, I'm sure that it doesn't really look like putting down this additional layer of stone chippings has made much difference, but we can really see the change it's made.

I have to confess that it took us much longer just to get this section of the back garden done than we thought it would!

This was another very awkward area.  The wheelbarrow wouldn't fit past the downpipe and Adrian just didn't have the heart to dismantle it.  Even if he had done so, it would still have been difficult bumping the wheelbarrow up the step.  In the end he filled a metal bucket with stones and wheeled it round.  It was easier once we'd reached the lower level as he could go back to filling the wheelbarrow, dumping it this side of the downpipe, and then I could drag it along.

The little piece of paving slab used to make the edge of the step didn't quite reach all the way across, so we tidied it up by digging out the soil that had gathered there, and wedging in a couple of pieces of broken roofing slates.  We placed them back-to-back to strengthen them and it's now very much neater.

Again, there wasn't enough space for the wheelbarrow trundle along the side of the kitchen but it wasn't too much of an issue as Adrian just tipped the stones down from the top.

We moved the small pots and the old wheelbarrow  in the kitchen courtyard out of the way, although it wasn't possible to move the large containers so we just worked round them as best as we could.

It's really made a big difference here as everything is now level.  Incredible as it sounds, we actually emptied the two bags on the drive and had to make inroads into the bags that had been placed in the kitchen garden 😳

Thankfully there was still enough left to finish off the strip at the far end of the kitchen garden.

Adrian had put down an extra layer whilst I was staying with my Dad earlier in the year, but he ran out with just this path section left to be done.

It was good to get it finished off.

Another job well done, even if I do say so myself 😉

And this, my lovelies, is what we have left from all those bags we had delivered this time around.  We do still have more sections of the front garden to be topped off but I really don't think that will be happening until next year now ~ our 60-something elbows, knees and backs really need a bit of a rest for a while to be honest 😄

Little words of wisdom

 

Nope.....

image from Clipart Library

.....not finished yet *sigh*

This was taken the year we moved in, when all the exterior work to the house was about to start, although we had already had the windows replaced by this point.

And this was, as you can see, taken a couple of years later.  Apart from the porch, the work was all finished.

Fast forward four years and although the porch was now done, by the end of June scaffolding was back again albeit on a smaller scale! 

The weather up here is very hard on paint finishes, both wood and metal.  The wooden cladding around the dormer windows was starting to show signs of needing to be repainted again, with some of the wood actually needing to be replaced.

Bearing in mind that it had only been four years since the previous painting had taken place, we made the decision to have all the old wood covered with uPVC cladding.

Thankfully the wooden finials were fine, so Shug simply painted them white to match the cladding.

When we had the roof replaced, George told us that he thought the finials had been made from pitch pine, which I understand is a very durable wood.

Shug did have to make a few repairs to the old cladding before he topped it off with the uPVC, and needless to say the weather did interfere with the job slightly so it took a little longer to complete than it would otherwise have done 😄

Just a reminder: before.....

.....and after 😊