The garden is full of roses, they obviously approve of the weather
I finished the coastal cowl, hurray! I really loved this simple pattern when I made the first rainbow bobble cowl and without even really thinking about it, one day I picked up a ball of yarn and started another. I LOVE the texture of crochet bobbles, plus with so many it’s a really warm fabric. I wore the other a lot in the cold weather we had before it finally turned warm in late May. It was a really cool spring. I think the coolest on record, but now it’s pretty hot today we came close to 30 degrees. There had been large cracks appearing in the fields and flowers in the garden have been drooping. Last week, driving through Devon a local radio DJ said the reservoirs there are lower than they should be this time of year.
However, at the weekend we had torrents of rain, thunder and lightning storms. The kind where we had to stop a car journey because there was such a lack of visibility. It was so dramatic that I filmed it. Anyway, now I shall put my cowls away and know that I will appreciate them both in the autumn and winter. (Pattern is from Simply Crochet, issue 128. Designed by Sue Pearson. If you can download Libby or Pressreader, and have a library card, Simply Crochet magazine is there for free, at least here in the UK.)
Next I am going to get out all my half finished (or should I say half started?!) projects and decide what to do next. I don’t think there’s all *that* many actually, I was pretty ruthless at unravelling and donating bits and pieces to charity shops in the winter. I know there is a stripey knitted blanket to complete, a knitted cowl and a glittery shawl / scarf thing, plus crochet circles I was crocheting using up odds and ends of Hayfield Spirit yarn. I can’t wait to get to the point where I have absolutely nothing started and I just work on one thing at a time. It’s how I used to craft and I much prefer it. What do you do? Do you start lots and lots of things and enjoy the variety of picking up something new every time? Or, do you work on one thing until it’s finished and then start something new?
Hey, hey look what I found in a secondhand bookshop. It has an absolute wealth of craft and recipe books, it’s a good job I don’t go there very often. I’m going to be really cagey about where it is as I don’t want to advertise it here and lose a source of treasure! Let’s just hope the locals aren’t too crafty…(but spend lots of money on other genres, to keep the shop afloat.)
What are you making, have you found any charity shop treasure lately?
MAKING Still crocheting my coastal colours cowl. I haven’t done a lot of anything crafty recently, April was ‘a bit of a month’ to use typical British understatement! I’m focusing on it now, and then will try to finish the Coast blanket next
LIKING Sitting in a holiday cottage crocheting and watching the lead up to the Coronation from 9:30am, just for a little while before going out. Then, it absolutely poured on and off all morning and so plans to walk, or go anywhere were shelved until the afternoon. Crochet, tea and the whole of the Coronation service (though not the balcony and fly-past) followed. I really enjoyed it all
COOKING Tray bake fish with olives, lemons & cherry tomatoes. I swap the fish, sometimes using haddock, or cod and last week it was salmon. I eat the cooked lemon too. See John Torode’s recipe
BAKING Sourdough rosemary focaccia. Woah! This is so good, it’s left to prove in the fridge in the tin overnight so develops an amazing texture. So good I made it twice in as many weeks
SIPPING I did Dry Lent once again and since then haven’t really drunk much alcohol at all, unless you count last Friday night’s spiced rums? No, we probably don’t count those, as it was holiday refreshments
READING A novel I saw recommended in Good Housekeeping magazine. I’m not entirely sure about it at the moment as it’s quite chick-litty, not my usual genre really. It’s One Moment by Becky Hunter
LOOKING A bit funny? Woolly slippers, no socks, joggers and one of my favourite bright pink patterned tees. Open windows and a rather cool day, but too lazy to go fetch a hoodie
Cowslips are everywhere, we’ve recently walked alongside a field full
LISTENING to Weightless by Elbow, on my liked songs playlist on Spotify
WISHING for free train travel for a year, including the sleepers. I’ve wanted this for ages, since someone once said they get it through their job working for a rail company
BAKING Sourdough pitta bread regularly now. I have now stopped buying any and freeze half of each batch. It’s always handy to have emergency bread in the freezer. You can defrost them in the toaster then warm them. I can’t recommend them enough. So much tastier with the sourdough flavour, than the supermarket equivalent
Part of the first batch, now I make them half them the size, weighing the dough for accuracy still
ENJOYING Warmer weather, it’s very on and off at the moment but my flowers have doubled in size in the garden
Parsley seeds are growing well on my sunny windowsil
BUYING A variety of seeds, plant labels, the May issue of Gardeners World magazine mainly for the 2-for-1 Garden Card, a sprouter (actually this was with the last of a birthday garden voucher), pots, bottle top waterers, propagators, compost, top soil, plug plants … it’s that time of year again
The Cotswold Sculpture Park has reopened, hurrah! GW mag 2-for-1 card still accepted. ‘Despair’, the detail on this is incredible
OBSESSING Over seeds and sprouts and microgreens. I’ll show you a few pics, but if you’re interested keep an eye on stories for progress pics on my Instagram
Look at the roots on these microgreens! Grown in a hydroponic sprouter, they have replicated the pattern on the base of the section in which they sat Mung beans in a soup mug covered with muslin, after 8 hours soaking. I think we’ll eat them before the roots grow so long this time. When they looked like tiny tadpoles they were at their crunchiest and sweetest, that might be the time to add a few to salads
APPRECIATING Salads for lunch again with home sprouted beansprouts! Delicious with this dressing and toasted pumpkin seeds
MANAGING To produce mouldy and rotten peas, instead of pea-shoots, in the new sprouter. So I’ve gone back to growing in soil, I’m not sure about hydroponics for those. I have put my first lot of lentils (puy) in it today though, we’ll see how they do
WONDERING If you know that sprouted lentils are meant to be good for chickens too?!
Mustard, mizuna & beetroot, they are packed with so much good stuff. You’re going to be seeing grown microgreens and sprouts for sale and I predict there will be an explosion of sites about how to grow them For sale from the shop pictured below, in Chichester. Spotted on Monday
EATING More chocolate, Easter always gives me a taste for it again. The less I eat, the less I fancy any
WAITING for my pea shoots! They’ve just starting to show. I can’t wait to eat them
WATCHING Annika. (I’ll generally watch anything Nicola Walker does, apart from the Marriage thingy with Sean Bean.) I’ve only watched the first episode on UK TV Play, it’s free with ads, and Annika breaking the fourth wall, quoting literature is refreshingly different. Have you seen it?
WATCHING Would I Lie to You? But nearly at the point where we watched the latest series, it’s the best thing after an urgh day. It makes us laugh so much. (Newer series is on the BBC Iplayer. Old ones on UK TV Play for free, with ads)
Bluebells
HOPING for sunnier days please, today we had everything: a dramatic hailstorm, torrential rain which was so heavy I had to stop the car, then weak sunshine and super fluffy white clouds in a blue sky
NOTICING A MASSIVE spider by the bed this morning. The spider pot (an old ricotta tub) and birthday card was fetched from the bathroom cupboard, along with Someone to pop it outside as I was only wearing a towel. Then I peered out anyway, as it was walking along the garage roof. I warned it not to even think about coming back in again
FOLLOWING The weather forecast
Inside The Gothic Temple at Stowe, a National Trust property. It’s a holiday let and this was an open day so visitors to see what it’s like inside Stunning. Spooky at night I would say
SORTING Seed packets. Oregano, carrots, beetroot and lettuce need to be planted soon
GETTING Teased by a friend, Lucy, for taking my beansprouts away for the weekend
West Wittering beach
COVETING Raised vegetable beds
FEELING Pressed for time. I need to add photos, change and go to take someone for their Covid Booster (and ummm collect the 34 tomato plants, including a few which look suspiciously like pepper or chilli, which were babysat for the long weekend. I thought taking a freshly baked fruit cake for a Coronation Street Party would be a fair exchange. In retrospect it went as well as I’d anticipated, haha
The Little Room of Rachell 
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