Crafty Ways With Wool; A Day Out in Hampshire

We took a little trip to the Smallholding at Tufton to check out an event they put on with the Hampshire Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers called Crafty Ways with Wool.
As a knitter, I haven't always given so much thought to where my yarn comes from. It's almost as abstract a concept as my dinner coming from the farm to my fork. It really opened my eyes to a whole new world of textiles and it was fascinating to see how a fleece can become yarn.

Spinning Demonstrations.
Geno and me, meeting the baby alpacas! (He's such a good sport!)
Wool, yarn and dye samples.From fleece to swatch.

Some of the sheep on the farm.

In case you needed to know your shetlands a bit better!

No cats in these hats!

I made it to my first British wedding this summer.
I was enamored by all of the hats most of the women wore.

Here's the mother of the bride!
Here's a chicken-egg sort of question -- which do you think came first, the dress or the hat?

I even got in on the action! I felt soooo Jackie O!
Here's one of the boys.And last, but not least, the bride and groom!

The wedding was in June, but as any of you who manage to check this space regularly are well aware, I have been out of action for a while. Geno's off on an adventure tonight, so I've got the house to myself, a glass of red wine and full control of the remote! It's also given me a chance to catch up with you. So how was your summer?

So...where have you been?

This has to have been the longest break I've taken from the blog since this thing first started to take shape two years ago!! Hello again, dear reader. And how are you?Summer flew by this time around. It seems like just yesterday we were back in Pembrokeshire, but these pictures were taken the in the last two weeks of July!! I can't really get enough of the Welsh coast, Pembrokeshire knocks my socks off and I head West every chance I get. The rugged coast line, the bronze age artifacts, modern day artisans, and the deliciously slow pace of life when plodding about the coastal trail. Check out this stone circle we stumbled upon just about a mile from our hostel's back door.

And this old grain millstone with the world's greatest view!
The pace picked up a bit on the other side of the peninsula from where we were staying, with sandy beaches and the throngs to match. Mostly we took in the views on our own terms, though often the wind had other plans.

Can you see why we keep coming back?Oh! And did I mention the ice cream?? If you're ever in St. Davids you've got to stop off at a little coffee shop called the Bench. This adorable Italian man called Gianni makes the most amazing artisan ice creams. I insisted that we go back for a new flavour every day. (I still can't zip up most of my jeans after that trip!)Damn, that's some good stuff. My favourite was the Welsh honey and lavender. Manna from heaven.Did you notice the blue sky as we were packing up to leave? Isn't that always the way?

Sorry about the formatting - I don't know what the dealio is with all those links and to be honest, I can't be bothered to go through and sort it out!!

The Siamese Sunflower and Other Gardening Disasters

There must be something in the water. Speaking of things not going exactly as planned in the garden, have I mentioned that I lost the complete crop of tomatoes to tomato blight? It's so depressing! They were just starting to turn a scrumptious looking red and within about three days all 10 plants started turning black and withering away.

I had this bright idea that I wanted to grow my own pickling cucumbers and make gherkins, but despite a good showing of flowers, only got one cucumber!! Here he is in all his glory...With a little help from the farmer's market, there's no shortage of summer bounty on the table. The three colour zucchini is coming up trumps and we've got quite a few sugar snap peas as well. That photo below made a kick ass tofu stirfry!! Have you had romanesco cauliflower? It's the green geometric one shown below. It tastes like extra cauliflowery cauliflower. Mmmm.

As Busy As A...

And I'm not the only one.... Summer's grinding to a halt and with the onset of autumn comes a boat load of work to get going for the upcoming school year. Sorry I've been so quiet on the blog, but you know how it goes....
I've missed you guys! I'll make a sincere effort to post more often. See you soon. xx Bee

What's Happening in the Kitchen Garden...

I've always had a thing for butterflies....

I've been threatening you for ages with the tour of our kitchen garden. It's my first attempt at raising vegetables, especially from seeds, (and smuggled back from the US no less!) and I have to admit I approached it a little unconventionally by planting all the veg in the borders mixed in with the more traditional flower beds. Feverfew among the marigolds

It's been super successful so far and we currently have courgettes (Zucchini) coming out of our ears.Looking toward the end of the garden. Courgettes, corn, then euphorbia, tomatoes, carrots, radishes, blackberries, cucumbers, and pumpkin. Whew.

Courgette (Zucchini) blossoms

And speaking of ears. Look at the corns bloom! Amazing that each of those little flowers will be a corn kernel when it grows up. Yummy.

These little ganzanias make me happy.

Look! There's some sugar snap peas among the nasturtiums and dahlias. Can you spot the swiss chard?Stargazer Lily.

My lilies were a complete disaster. I had red lily beetle pretty badly and they completely decimated the lily crop. I only got 2 flowers from about 8 plants!

Here's looking back at the house through the tomatillos and even more tomatoes. What on Earth am I going to do with all those tomatillos? Salsa verde, anyone?


This is looking back at the house. Note the inviting hammock complete with lap cat.I'm convinced that Warwickshire must be the slug capital of England. I've been trying to get lettuce leaves going for the past 7 or 8 months and only ever got a half eaten leaf or two. I've had much more luck planting leaves in pots, starting seeds every three weeks or so in order to always have some fresh lettuce on the go.
This is the potting shed and shady sitting area at the farthest end of the garden. You walk under this archway dripping with honeysuckle and climbing roses to enter, but for some reason I didn't take a picture of it.
We haven't really set up the sitting area yet, we only just moved in about a month ago.... But I did plant a sunflower garden along the wall. Here's a closer look at the first sunflower of the year!
And finally, a little taste of our daily bounty.