Garden pests

These days when it comes to gardening there is so much talk about pollinators.  I've really tried to do my part and when I've found gaps that need filling, I've especially chosen plants for pollinators.  I LOVE seeing all the bees in the garden as it makes me feel I'm doing something right!  So I recently spotted all sorts of caterpillars in the back garden and my first thought was "Yay, butterflies!!" 

I had planted some Stocks in the pots on the back patio thinking the scent would be lovely sitting out back and found them covered in these things.  I lost count at around 20ish little caterpillars all over the flowers and foliage.  They were chomping my flowers to death and a few of the plants had become just stalks. 

Nevertheless, I thought I'm doing good for the environment and I left them.  Out of curiosity though I posted a photo in my Candide gardening app to have someone in the community identify these things.  First response was small tortoiseshell (great!), second response cabbage white (not so great).  I really hoped that they were the small tortoiseshell, but about a week or so later (with even fewer plants) I started seeing the cabbage whites flying everywhere.  That's when I decided they'd had they're day!  At that point there were even more babies around and they'd eaten half the plants!

So I'm very sorry to say but they have now gone to caterpillar garden bin heaven.  Fingers crossed I may now get a few flowers back before the summer is over.

Time to try this again

I honestly can't believe I haven't written anything here since 2013!  Yikes, have I ever been delinquent! So, I'm going to attempt to give it another try, but this time I'm also going to include posts about my garden as well as anything else that maybe pops to mind. Maybe I'll actually keep it up this time!

Rose in back garden

So, anyone who knows me knows that I spend so much of my free time in the garden.  With having expanded the flowers beds a few times since we moved in six years ago, I often end up having to spend hours deadheading.  I tell my husband that our garden is my happy place. 

View down front main flower bed

It is a constant work in progress and I have made so many mistakes over the years.  The main flower bed is mostly full of perennials and I can't tell you how many times I've had to move plants around.  Honestly, I don't think I always read the plant tags well enough (I have the same problem with recipes!) and I put them where I think they'll do well, only to have them be dwarfed by the plant in front of them...oops.  

Yup, I'm trying to pay better attention now.  

Attempting to be back again!

I have been delinquent for ages now!  I had such good intentions at the start of the year that I would be back to my regular postings again...but alas, I slacked off.  Again so much has happened since my last post!!  After months and months of having our home on the market (and some disappointments along the way), we sold our house in the early spring and were in the new place by the end of March.  I'd like to say that we're now settled, but as we plan for this to be the "forever" house, we're taking our time in making it perfect.

The movers were great and it was amazing to see how much stuff we had!  Even worse was having to unpack it all.  But we've managed (mostly).  We've still got what feels like a ton of boxes hidden away in the eaves, and just as much in the garage, but we'll just deal with all those later.

One of the best things I love about the house is the new area we live in.  When we've had free time, we've always loved taking our dog for long walks.  One area we enjoyed was the Basingstoke canal, but it would take us a half an hour just to walk there.  Our new place is less than a 5 minute walk around the corner, so we've been walking there as often as the weather permits.

On a recent Saturday, hubby was working so I took the dog out for a super long walk to enjoy the weather!

It was such a busy day on the canal that day!  There were so many kayaks  out, as well as canoes, a narrow boat and lots of cyclists, dog walkers and people just generally wanting a stroll and some fresh air.

 It's so beautiful there when the weather is nice!  See why we love it so much!!

Now all we need are a few more sunny weekends and we'll be able to break out our kayak too!!

hhmmmm, I don't see that happening anytime soon!!

Fri

21°

14°

Sat

17°

13°

Sun

18°

11°

Where has the time gone??? ....and fruit infused alcohol!

Firstly let me apologize for this post.  The time references are all wrong because I wrote it up, saved it with the intention of adding some photos and then complete forgot to post it!  So now that two weeks have passed, I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas with their family and loved ones!! 

Wow I can't believe that in just one week it will be Christmas! (see apology above) This year has gone by so incredibly fast and so much has happened!  We settled into a new area, my husband spent 6 months in Afghanistan, I got a new job and now we're planning on moving again!  No wonder I seem to have more grey hair than ever these days (thanks for covering it up, Max!)

So I don't know about you, but I am the biggest kid at Christmas time!  I am SOOOOOO excited!  I know exactly what I'm getting (tell ya next week), and I can't wait!!!  (Taking photos with the photo my wonderful husband gave me for Christmas!!)  And I just love giving too.  I'm so excited for my husband to open up the gift I bought him (even though he knows what it is too) and see how excited the dog gets when we start ripping open paper!  (Mental note...must go buy him the biggest bone the shop has!)  I've also spent the last several months preparing fruit infused alcohol to give as gifts.  How the interest started is we spent a long weekend in the Cotswolds for our first wedding anniversary and the hotel supplied us with a small complimentary decanter of homemade sloe gin (which they topped up daily!!)  I was a bit reluctant to try it as I don't like gin...but I'm so glad that I did because it was delicious!  After a long day of walking in the countryside, it was so nice to put our feet up and sip sloe gin.

When we got home I ordered some sloe berries through a guy on ebay - I could have just gone out the country and picked them myself, but £7 saved me the trouble..not bad really. Once all the ingredients were in the jar, we were really good about shaking them daily and then weekly...even tasting occasionally to see how they were progressing.

As I was then on a role, I found other recipes online for fruit infused alcohol and settled on raspberry infused vodka (because that is hubby's favourite fruit) and then cranberry and orange infused vodka....which we also would religiously shake (and taste).

After about 2 months everything was ready to be bottled.  We've kept quite a few for us, but I've also given some out at work as Christmas gifts for colleagues.  My boss was thrilled! (brownie points for me!)  I just think sometimes a homemade gift means so much more.  I hope everyone enjoys drinking them as much as I enjoyed making them!  This project is definitely on my list to do again very soon!  Maybe I should rename this blog "Fancy a tipple?"     *smile*

We're saving the last decanter of sloe gin (photo above) to enjoy in the new house!  I can't wait!

Finished Top Down Sweater

So after months of being delinquent again, I decided to log into blogger and consider possibly maybe catching up with another post..and see drafts sitting there! ????  I apparently logged in months ago, wrote a couple of posts, saved them and then must have immediately forgotten about them. Yeesh!

So here is my first one.  Another lovely FO!

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I think I bought this particular pattern by Per Amore Designs a few years back.  I had good intentions on doing it right away, but as I do with knitting, there are soooo many projects that I want to do that I get completely sidetracked.  I bookmark so many and get overwhelmed with all the choices!

Finally last year when wanting a super easy knit I could do in the car on the way up North, I remembered this top down pattern.  And as I'm trying to work through my stash, I grabbed some inexpensive acrylic I had.  It was super soft and a stunning colour.

Unfortunately though (insert curse here) so many things I make come out too big!!  I even started this, pulled it out and started it over again in a smaller size and it still came out too freaking big!  Damn!

So I couldn't really bring myself to pull it all out again and start over, so I packed it up and mailed it to my mum. *smile*  She loved it of course (as she does the several others I've given her over the years!)

Doesn't it look great!!??  I think the colour is just so flattering and she's almost colour coordinated with the azaleas in the background!  Never mind that it was super hot and she complained about having to try it on in 80 degree weather!

(I must remember to tell her the date on her camera is completely off!)

Another Finished Object

So I recently finished another knitting project.  With hubby working overseas for several months it gave me a chance to catch up on all my knitting!  The latest one is the little lacy top in merino/cashmere.  Would you believe I started this over a year ago!  I originally started this when we were living back in Essex and was so excited at first..and then I made the mistake of putting it aside.  Oh how you lose interest fast!  Of course I started other projects, got myself completely sidetracked and finally I thought enough is enough..no more new projects until I get this thing out of the way!

Didn't it turn out lovely?  I am really pleased with how it turned out and am so glad I finally got around to finishing it.  That said, I wore it once and the neck stretched out quite a bit..perhaps I bound it off too loosely.  So I need to figure out someway to fix that without unbinding it and casting off again, but there should be an easy way to do it.

I'm still super pleased with the result and definitely think I'll make this again soon.  I have some lovely silky bamboo yarn that I think would make the lace pattern drape beautifully!

If you're interested, I found this pattern through the Lana Knhttp://www.lanaknits.com/its website....or otherwise look for it on Ravelry.

Happy knitting!

(now to tackle all my other half finished projects!)

I'm back!

Wow, I've been so delinquent with this blog again.  And so much has happened since I've been gone!  Most importantly, I got married to the most wonderful man!  We'd been doing the long distance thing for several years while I lived in Canada, but then we made the decision that I move over the England...and let the wedding planning begin!

We couldn't have asked for a more perfect day in October.  With a sleeveless dress I was worried I'd be cold, but I couldn't have been more wrong!  The sun was shining and it was gorgeous and warm!  Perfect..perfect..perfect!!

 

Isn't the dress lovely!?  I got such a wicked deal by buying this from China!  We were on a bit of a tight budget and I found this dress online, took a chance in ordering it and it was just lovely when it arrived.  I had a few minor alterations done at a local seamstress and then it fit like a dream!  And I only paid about £140 in total!  Better  than the £450 I would have paid had I bought the cheapest dress I'd liked in the shops!

It was so good to see everyone again, even though I didn't get near enough time to talk to some people.  And everyone looked fabulous!  It's always so nice to see people dressed up!  And even better, everyone got along so well!  Our friends and family are awesome!  We're so blessed that some people came from so far to celebrate our special day.  It really meant alot to me.

 

The venue was so lovely and the staff couldn't have been more helpful!  I also have to rave about the wedding cake we chose.  I lucked out when I found Natasha who wasn't far from the venue and she has a special technique where she paints on the cakes...anything you like!  So with our Canadian connection and being in October, I wanted something with maple leaves.  We chose to have a small top tier of yummy chocolate mud cake with chocolate ganache for ourselves (half still in the freezer to enjoy together) and then maple flavoured cupcakes with maple butter cream for all our guests.  The top cake was painted with a scattering of leaves and each cupcake had a single disk on top with an individual maple leaf.  Beautiful!

If ever you need a wedding cake or extra special hand painted treats  anywhere near Buckinghamshire, please call Nevie Pie Cakes. She's worth every penny!

You can also keep up to date with all the events she's involved in by following her blog Amelie's House.  It's from here I found out about her visits to Selfridges in London and popped in and got some delicious hand painted gingerbread cookies in December! YUM!

Aren't the cupcakes adorable!?



So after all the excitement of our wedding, we luckily had a few days of down time in the South of Spain.  It felt good to finally lay back, put our feet up, relax and order a pitcher of sangria!  Ah!  We stayed in a little village just North of Marbella called Benahavis, which is renowned for it's restaurants and often referred to as the dining room of the Costa del Sol.  How convenient..since I love to eat! *smile*  I'll gather up some photos and add more on Spain in a later post.

We returned home to pack up the house, load up the cars and moved to our new home in Hampshire.  We had a few months together here and now unfortunately hubby is working overseas for a few months.  Ah well..so I get to explore the area on my own until he comes home again.  Wait till I post some pics of my walks with Charlie in the area!