Little words of wisdom

 

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)   

Home...

A guide from Northlink Ferries about the beautiful islands that I call "home" 😊

Little words of wisdom

 

Starting from scratch

image from Freepik

As you know, I've had very mixed results growing vegetables.  Starting with plug plants hasn't been as successful as I'd hoped it would be, which has been disappointing to say the least.  Some of the problem is that the plugs are sent by courier and can take days to arrive all the way up here which, of course, does the poor baby plants no good whatsoever.  Another issue is that the season is shorter than it is down south so by the time the plugs have arrived, I've just been running out of enough growing time 😒

This year I decided to take the bull by the horns and have a go growing my veggies from seeds.  Now I must hasten to point out that I have absolutely no experience at all with starting from scratch, so I'm a little apprehensive about how successful I shall be 😳  Still, nothing ventured, nothing gained, and it'll either work or not ~ which to be fair is my usual approach to growing plants anyway 😄

So I had a lovely time on the Marshalls Garden website at the weekend, mooching through all their lovely seeds pretending I knew what I was doing like a proper gardener 😉  I've ordered a variety of vegetables to try out: three varieties of tomatoes, swede, sweetcorn, three varieties of lettuce, sweet pepper, cucumber, carrots, broccoli, beetroot, and three varieties of dwarf French beans.  I also got somewhat carried away with a whole bunch (excuse the pun!) of annual flowers, which I'll try out instead of buying ready-grown bedding plants this year.

Obviously the seed packets have all the information necessary for sowing, growing on, etc, but I've decided to experiment this year by sowing the seeds earlier than suggested.  As I mentioned above, I just run out of time during our shorter growing season up here.  Starting them off earlier will either work or not and if I don't try, I'll never know 🤷 When the seeds arrive (they've apparently been dispatched already which is pretty exciting 👏) I'll sit down and study the packets, then ignore the instructions and draw up my own sowing timetable 😉

Before I get to the dizzying heights of sowing my own seeds, though, I shall have to have a good tidy up in the greenhouse.  I've neglected it all winter and really need to sort out the plants I put in there last autumn.  Some have survived and some haven't but I think it was still worthwhile to try to overwinter them.  My seed potatoes are also out there, quietly chitting away.  Potatoes are something that, touch wood, I have been successful with; I think it helps that I grow in raised beds, so they aren't sitting in really wet soil as the water drains through quite well.

Wish me luck, my lovelies ~ I shall keep you informed of my step-by-step progress!

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)   

Bonus blanket #3

I'm not very good at just having one project on the go at a time so ~ full disclosure ~ even before I'd finished the baby blanket, my restless little butterfly brain wanted another project to work on alongside the guest bedroom blanket.  The latter is coming along nicely by the way ~ I've crocheted all the squares together in one direction and am now on the fourth row working in the opposite direction.  It's a big 'ole thing so I find it easier to sit on the sofa to work on it!

As you know, I still had lots of yarn left over from making Olive's blanket despite attempting to use it up with bonus blankets #1 and #2.  So I decided to make yet another attempt to use it up.  I thought I'd have a bit of a rummage in my stash to weed out the odd balls of yarn stuffed in there to add to the pile, too.  

This is what I ended up with😲 I've chosen to concentrate on the more autumnal shades, which are leftover from Olive's blanket, along with one of the balls of black and one of white.  I also dug out a turquoise shade which I've included in the new blanket, which for some reason isn't in the photo 😕  I haven't put the other shades back in the stash as I'm determined to get them used up as well once the latest blanket is done 😉

Most of the yarn is my go-to Stylecraft Special double knit, but there are a few oddments from other brands.  I found one ball of Patons Fab! in the bundle of black yarns which works up a little thicker and "stiffer" than the Stylecraft, despite also being an acrylic double knit.  It's not really noticeable, though, and I just wanted to use it up.  I also found a couple of thinner yarns but they are working out okay just being doubled-up.

And this is what I'm trying to use it up in: a "log cabin" patterned granny square.  It's really not the most attractive thing I've ever made but it'll do to replace my own somewhat elderly lap blanket, which has definitely seen better days ~ I certainly don't think anyone else would want it gracing their home 😄

Little words of wisdom

 

Finally finished!

image from Clipart Library

Those oh-so-tedious ruffles are finally finished and at last there is a completed baby blanket:

I can hardly believe just how bloody long this little blanket took to make!  Well, to be fair to myself, the main body crocheted up pretty quickly as it's not a large blanket.  But those ruffles 😲 It's such a simple pattern and really shouldn't have caused me all the angst that it did, but I really did not enjoy adding those ruffles!  Still it's done now and as the baby arrived yesterday, I got it finished in time 😄

On an entirely different note, my sister found these photos that our Mum had kept ~ I thought I'd share them with you for a little giggle 😉

Dad and I outside the church

They are from my first wedding, back in June 1980; I had just turned 19 and my ex-husband was coming up to his 21st birthday.  The marriage didn't last long ~ looking back with the benefit of hindsight I can see that we just weren't right for each other.  I left in 1982 and moved in with Adrian, so we've lived together for almost 43 years now, and have been married for over 40.  I think I managed to get it right second-time-around 😊

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)   

Reading round-up: January 2025

image from Clipart Library

I managed to read three new books, and finish one I had started in December, during January.  I'm really pleased to have got my fiction-reading mojo back!

Another Man's Poison (George & Molly Palmer-Jones series book 5): Ann Cleeves

(started in December 2024)

Sea Fever (George & Molly Palmer-Jones series book 6): Ann Cleeves

Murder at the Brightwell: Ashley Weaver

The Mill on the Shore (George & Molly Palmer-Jones series book 7): Ann Cleeves

 I'm off to a fairly good start this month.  I finished the last in the George and Molly Palmer-Jones series that I started last month and I'm now on my second book from the first collection of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple boxed sets I treated myself to with Christmas money.

Here's to a lovely year full of books 😊

Little words of wisdom

 

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)  

Little words of wisdom

 

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)  

So tedious

image from Clipart Library

I'm still plugging away at the baby blanket that Beverly asked me to make for her friend.  The main body of the blanket crocheted up pretty quickly but omg, the ruffles are taking forever and are so bloody tedious 😒 And, just to put the icing on the cake, I didn't order enough of the Oyster shade that I'm using for said ruffles ~ but did order way too much of the Sage 😕  I really will have to try to get to grips with how much extra yarn to order if I make a pattern larger!  Still, as I said in a previous post, at least this cotton yarn will be useful for future dishcloths 😉

I ordered a couple more balls of the Oyster last week and they arrived yesterday.  I made a start on sewing in the ends on the ruffles ~ another tedious task, my lovelies.  I'm about 3/4 of the way through the actual ruffles themselves, and have got about 2/3 of those ends sewn in.  I found myself getting really cheesed off with the task ~ and should have done what I usually do, i.e. sew in the ends as I go along 😏  

So I decided to have a break from the baby blanket ~ thankfully the baby isn't due until the end of February ~ and make a start on putting together the squares for the guest bedroom blanket.

I laid out all the squares to see how I was going to arrange them.  The photo, by the way, doesn't show the colours of the squares very accurately as the Pistachio shade looks a tad orange-y.  Mind you, it was very late afternoon when I took the photo so the light wasn't so good by then!  In the end I decided to just join them together in the order in which they were made.  I'm crocheting the squares together and it's actually going more quickly than I thought it would.  I've got six rows joined horizontally, so am halfway through the first part of the exercise.  Once I've got the remaining six rows attached, I'll turn it so that I can join the rows in the other direction.  Before I get that far, though, I think I'd better get that baby blanket finished!

Little words of wisdom

 

The joy of books

image from Clipart Library

Back in the day I was a voracious reader of fiction, but when I had the kids I sort of got out of the habit.  I would have the odd bout of reading, but the habit has never really returned like it was when I was young and for a long time I just couldn't be bothered to even pick a book to read.  A bit ironic, then, that my Kindle has 485 titles on it 😳  It's not entirely filled with fiction but I soon discovered that, for me, craft books are nowhere near as easy to use in a digital format as they are in a hard/softback edition!  I haven't purchased everything that's on there, I hasten to add ~ some were free downloads and a lot were very cheap, with some as little as 99p.

During the latter half of last year, though, I rediscovered my love of reading fiction and that enjoyment has stayed with me.  I've always been a fast reader so I got through quite a few books in those last few months of 2024, but it's still only made a little dent in my collection 😄  I did have a brief hiatus during the second half of December as there was lots to do to get the house half-decent for the family coming up and I found myself a wee bit too tired to concentrate on reading to be honest, but I got my nose stuck back into the 'ole Kindle after they went home.

I follow a few bloggers and had noticed that a number share what books they have been reading.  Every time I come across the latest book-sharing it always strikes me as a lovely idea, not least because it perhaps brings to the blog readers' attention books they might not have come across before.  When I got back into the familiar routine of reading fiction last year, it crossed my mind that I could share with you what I currently had my nose stuck into ~ of course, as you might have guessed my lovelies, I kept forgetting to do any such thing 😏

  Today, though, I was reading Ann's blog ~ Polyester Princess ~ and her post gave me a reminder to finally get myself organised!  I have now set up a page (in the list running across the top just below the blog header) to catalogue the books that I read during 2025.  It will just be a book list, although I may post occasionally about a book that I've particularly enjoyed ~ or not, as the case may be 😉

As you can see I've managed to read four books this month, although Another Man's Poison was started in December.  The three Ann Cleeves books are all on my Kindle, with the Ashley Weaver being a book that Adrian picked up when he was in the library recently as he thought I might enjoy it ~ it was okay but not as enjoyable as I thought it might be.  I'm about to start on what I think is the last in the George and Molly Palmer-Jones series, High Island Blues, on my Kindle then I shall move onto some "real" books I splurged on with Christmas money:

 Excuse the photo quality ~ I took them in the evening, and the plastic wrapping didn't help either!  I wouldn't normally buy "real" books as I don't have a lot of shelf space, but these were too tempting as they were considerably reduced 😄

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)  

Little words of wisdom

 

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)  

Little words of wisdom

 

War of attrition

image from Clipart Library

I've got gnats!  Well not me personally, you understand, it's my poor houseplants 😱 They are bloody annoying, as I'm sure you can imagine, and at the moment I am waging war with yellow sticky traps pushed into the pots.  It's incredible just how many of the buggers the traps are catching, with some plants being much more badly affected than others.  The plant with the biggest infestation is the ctenanthe division I took when I repotted Laura's plant last year ~ and funnily enough Beverly has had the same issues with the division I gave her, too.  I didn't notice any gnats when I was manhandling the original plant, so I am assuming they were lurking in the new compost 🤷

Methinks I will need to be a tad more proactive, though, to try to get rid of them completely.  I really don't fancy having to repot all the plants that I did recently, so after doing some internet research I'm now considering my options.  Diatomaceous earth seems to be a frequent recommendation, along with the sticky traps which I'm already using.  I'm actually very familiar with diatomaceous earth, as it was something that I used to help keep my chickens healthy back in the day.  Every time I cleaned out their house, I generously sprinkled the stuff around on the fresh bedding to help keep mites at bay.  It obviously worked as my girls never had any pests of any kind!  Remembering back, I also hurled about with gay abandon another product, called Stalosan, which was a pink (if I remember correctly), powdered, disinfectant ~ I rather liked the smell of it 😄

After my research, I think I have come up with a suitable plan of action.  The first step will be to tackle the plants that were repotted recently by replacing the top inch or so of compost.  Then spread a generous layer of diatomaceous earth over the fresh compost, and top with fine grit to make it more difficult for the gnats to reach the soil to lay their eggs.  I still have a fair few more plants to repot, so I think that I'll add some grit to the compost to make it a bit more free-draining.  I shall also try to remember to make the effort to water from the bottom of the pot where possible!

Wish me luck, and I'll let you know in due course how my "banish the fungus gnats" campaign is progressing 😉

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)  

Little words of wisdom

 

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)