The onslaught of bad weather has meant that I’ve been indoors more than usual over the last few weeks. There are always those projects around the house that need to be done – you know, the ones that you eyeball and then shelve in the back of your mind for another few months! You have them! Everybody does.
Recently, mine included doing alterations on new curtains before they were hung. This also entailed installing new curtain rods. I like these sorts of projects because they add to the beauty of the living environment and require some sort of creativity. It also got me reacquainted with my sewing machine, which I had neglected for far too long. Cue the round saucer eyes! Yes! It was traumatic, but I got the flippin’ curtain hems – and lining – done!!!! (It did take me about half an hour to remember how to thread the machine and five-and-a-half hours to hem the curtains though! Ahem. More saucer eyes.)
This time has also meant that I’ve been reading. I’m still reading Mornings in Jenin, which you may remember I told you about a while ago. But, in true bookworm fashion I am very open to reading two books at once. When I got the notification that one of my favourite authors (I wonder if you can guess from my past posts who this is?) had published another book in his series, I absolutely had to stop everything, get the book and start reading. I was done within two days – yes I read voraciously – and left wanting more!
Phillip C. Quaintrell, you’ve got a gift! The Last Of The Dragorn was fabulous. I am sad that this is the penultimate book in the series, but at the same time I can’t wait for the next one!
I’ve mentioned a few times how nice it is to grow plants from seed and give away some lovely plants to neighbours and friends. It’s a great way to get people involved in growing their own and starting their own garden/ plant projects. Sometimes people think they aren’t good with plants, when all they need is practice and an opportunity to observe how different plants grow. They’ll soon become good at it! Other times it’s that people may gravitate to one type of plant and totally dismiss any others. I used to find this quite odd, as I naturally gravitate to any kind of plant and instinctively want to learn about all of them. But, I’ve observed it’s quite common that people may think plants grown for food are more useful than those grown for flowers, or vice versa where it’s thought that since you can get your veg in the supermarket easily flowering plants would be more valued in the garden.
This year I got two gifts from villagers. I got two cherry tomato plants, which gave me enough tomatoes for a few salads, and I got a small taster pot of locally ‘grown’ honey!
The honey was a real delight to taste. With moors all around and heather growing like weeds, the bees that made this honey had feasted on heather nectar. What a lovely taste to the honey! It was sweet, but not too sweet. It tasted honest – and I say that without being pretentious or pretending to be any sort of foodie. It didn’t taste as if there had been additives given to the bees and it really wasn’t cloyingly sweet. I suppose that’s what made me say it tasted natural – have you ever noticed how sweet things in nature aren’t quite as sweet as more processed goods? Take brown sugar and white sugar for instance. They’re both processed (so not quite straight from nature) but the more processed white sugar packs in much more sweetness per teaspoon than the brown sugar does. I’ve had the opportunity to taste sugar cane, cut straight from the stalks, and while it is sweet it is nowhere near the sweetness levels of even the brown sugar.
I know this post is a bit different to my usual reporting about my outdoor projects, usually fraught with some sort of panic or desperation to get something done, but the seasons have changed and I’m gearing myself up to tell you about the Mudscapades. Sigh.
On a brighter note, my primroses are doing really well!
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