January round-up

I  have not spent much money on crafts, just a knitting pattern and a ball of brightly coloured yarn and a set of needles, and a few bulbs and roots for the garden changes, I am trying to be sensible this early in the year. I did spend £7 on an Orchid, it will flower for months, my plastic tulips are out again giving colour to our room, I plan this year to not purchase any cut flowers. My Amaryllis are both going over, I am going to try and get them to flower again later this year. 

I did say I needed new jumpers, and I didn't want to pay full price, I got 4 jumpers and some socks for £56 from M&S, which was a bargain, I also got an email from Clarks outlet offering me extra discount, and spent £27.35 on trainers, which are light and comfortable, both on free delivery. I've spent loads, but got great bargains, I am being bombarded with emails which I am not opening, I don't need anything else. I have not purchased any books so far, the library is keeping me going. 

All our Christmas foods are finished, I purchased so much less than normal, not popping to the shops cut back on what I got, and it's much better for us, we both have put on weight, but that's due to not being able to get out and walk. February is the month to get back on track, get out and cut back on treats. 

My computer cost £120 to fix, more new parts, but 🤞🤞it's like new now, our dimmer switch failed in the dining room and the under cabinet lights in the kitchen as well, all has been renewed. Not the cheapest start to the year. We also purchased a 2nd Alexa, but we are finding them useful. We have ordered new lights for our main rooms, hubby has been itching to change them for ages. 

We are back in lockdown, so shopping is different, our large shop from Asda is full of plastic wrappings, but life is what it is in these times, I had not been shopping locally, we did try a delivery from our local Iceland, not good quality. As the month is closing we are again walking to the village for fresh items. The heating is on more, it's really cold at the moment, and we do have a clothes airer in the spare bedroom drying laundry, but keeping the house warm at a good price is always a struggle. 

Growing and blooming

My second amaryllis is in bloom just 2 flowers, there are another 3 buds, not sure if they will grow, this was an expensive bulb and I truly am not sure if it was worth the money. I now know I prefer the brighter reds and pinks flowers. Checking the box this bloom should have been pink with a hint of white. 

 My orchid blooms are almost gone, this plant has been brilliant, purchased in October for £6, it's lasted over 3 months, a great frugal way to have fresh flowers, and the hope is it will bloom again. 

After complaining about all my snowdrops failing around the garden, I have found a few small clumps of them, so there is hope. 

The greenhouse is looking good, my nasties are all thriving in there, the green pot has bulbs in, it's not a pot I can leave outside, so I have placed them where they can be seen, I will probably bring them inside once they start to bloom, I'm not sure what these bulbs are.

I posted a photo of these pots on my decking table a  week ago, blooms are forming and the tiny iris looks beautiful, in my eyes this arrangement will always be hope. 

We , well I mean hubby changed the brackets along the fence, I had asked him to put up cuphooks, but they did not look right, I found 3 of these curved metal hooks in my shed, which should have been put up on the front of our pergolia, but I did not like them, totally hung the wrong way, but they work, nothing heavy will be hung here. The bird cage has all our corks in, collected over the past few summers.

Spending time outside on Thursday morning was so good for me, I got things done, checked my plants popped in the greenhouse last year, they are surviving well. I do love to see the new growth, old plants coming back to life, friends returning, the work I did last year in the back garden is coming to life, so the promise of loads of colour.

I expected hubby to say no to changing the hooks on the fence, but he loved the way we are using them, much nicer than cup hooks. I can't wait until I put all my birds along the shelves and fill this area with colour. Most of my birds will survive the winter weather, but they do get knocked onto the garden, so they are best packed away. 

The back inside corner of my shed is really wet, we can't get to the outside as it built  and placed very close to the neighbours fences, not much we can do now, but once the dry weather arrives we will empty the shed and try and fix the problem, I have moved items from the corner to allow airflow. 

I have been busy with the sleeves on my jumper, I have found a snag, because I am knitting long sleeves from a short sleeve design, I am making it up as I knit, my issue is I have too many stitches at the cuff, the sleeves are too wide, normally I would decrease from the elbow down, but if I do that the pattern will fail, so I am doing trial and error, 1st attempt too wide, 2 attempt wrong shape, I am working on my 3rd attempt, in hope this might work, photo's next post. Very frustrating, but it does need to be right, I hate to wear anything which does not look good. 

Thinking ahead.

This book from the library choice I did not think my taste, but I decided I would have a read, and I am so glad I did, the writing style is beautiful, I enjoyed the story, set in Victorian times, but with modern feeling. Book 5 this year. 

I had to pop to Specksavers, I had broken the arm on a pair of reading glasses, I have not been to town since late November last year. I naughtily popped into Wilkinson's, hoping they would have there summer range of flowers out, they did and I got almost everything I wanted, no extras, kept to my shopping list. These have already got their space in the garden. 

My jumper is growing, we have so much time, which I fill with knitting and reading, often in the evenings the TV is switched off, I can't stand it on with the rubbish often on, I never watch soaps. 

I decided to work on the sleeves, both are knitted in way where there is no sewing up to do, I will have loads of ends to stitch in, this jumper design and pattern is going to be one I use again. I want the jumper to be long, so by doing the sleeves first I can then measure the length to match my sleeves. I have a quirky twist for the sleeves, just to make it my own. 

I could not get one pack of flowers, so I will look online and get them, the chocolate cosmos has been planted in a blue pot saved from last year for them, they are tender and the pot later in the year will go into the greenhouse. The begonias will go in the tall chimney which is being moved to the corner of the flower bed, at the moment the chimney is empty. The rest of the flowers are space fillers and are plants which survive in our clay soil, I am itching to be outside and starting to grow things, but it's still a bit early. We did spend an hour outside moving some brackets, these are not for hanging baskets (which I have never liked or grown), I have a few quirky items to hang. 

This is always the hardest time of year for me, I want to do so much outside, the days are beginning to get lighter for longer, we have sunny cold days, from inside it feels as if spring should be here, so many bulbs are showing, soon we will have beautiful blooms. I need to wait, it's just too early, March has a habit of being a horrible month, so I wait. I am lucky I can plant things in the green house throughout February, give them a boost start before popping them in the garden. On the plus side we are not able to visit garden centres, so all the temptation is out of reach, I have most of what I need here, so back to knitting and reading another 6 weeks of lockdown, plenty time to relax and do enjoyable things. 

I have been knitting my jumper whilst wearing another of my handmade jumpers and socks, and using my warm handmade lap blanket, I'm feeling snug and warm and happy, we are trying not to have the heating on all day, If I'm cold I do also have a really warm long Aran cardigan I made years ago, I never wear it outside, but it's perfect for inside.

At home

I enjoyed this book from the library and again not one I would have picked up myself. I will add author to my list of preferred authors. 4th book read this year.

This is becoming colourful, I have now used all the shades once, some twice, and I am loving the effect, normally I would place the colours and then repeat the pattern they form, but the jumper design does not follow that rule, and I have decided I am going to be free with the colour placements. The design had 5 shades, I have 8, as I think they all go well together, sadly the hand dyed yarn only looks good against the dark shades, so I won't be using as much as I expected. 

I have popped the sleeves on spare circular needles, and I am now knitting the body, I managed to pop the yoke on and it's a good size, just a bit loose. but that's OK, the neck fits perfectly, looking at this photo, I think I will unpick the 2 rows of the pink and swap for the hand dyed yarn, and do the pink on the next block. 

I'm feeling chuffed with myself, often when I pop spare stitches on needles the ends of the needles keep getting in my way, how to stop it?, I had some glowsticks left over from Spooky night with Will (Halloween to the rest of us) and remembered I had loads of the little plastic joining tubes, well who knew they hold two needles together, problem solved. 

Saturday was a lazyish day at home, I changed the bedding and popped the Dyson around the bedroom and our bathroom, we both had showers so I cleaned in there. We did both walk to our fruit and veg shop, hubby has not been to the village since before Christmas, we walked the long way home through the park, it was a cold bright day. Rest of the day sorting laundry and knitting with a start of a new book, TV was good, I am loving The Wheel and The Masked Singer. 

Sunday was cold and wet, it rained most of the morning, I'm not complaining, the amount of rain we get is nothing to the huge amounts in other areas of UK and in the summer months I will be hoping for rain. It was a dark day, so lights were on all through the house, but more crafting time. 

Most days I am now walking around the garden, it's not a long walk, but I am watching seeing signs of things growing, which fills my heart with joy, hubby has hung the garden signs, they look good in the dark and make the corner of the garage look good. All the time I am planning, as with every garden there is always an improvement to be made. 

Thank you for your recent comments, I do enjoy my blog, it's my record of everything I love, and so many of us like the same things,  I do try and comment on most of the post I read, it's always nice to have someone else's views. My socks arrived at their destination and are loved, so I am now looking for my February 'be kind'.

Outside in my garden

I saw this on a garden group page on Facebook and loved it, as an organic gardener, I am pleased to say our balance is such I don't suffer to too many issues. 

We spend some of our Christmas money on these solar lights, they will add fun to the garden, and have been placed on the garage wall. 

My pots have loads of new shoots, I find bulbs grow better in pots, our heavy clay soil rots most of the bulbs I have planted, the only bulbs to survive are daffodils and bluebells. I have 1 pot with snowdrops in, which I had forgot I planted, so finally I will have them on show. I looked back on my post from last year to see what bulbs I purchased, but I did not record anywhere, which bulbs I put in which pots, it's a case of wait and see. 

My Hellebores are also in bud, I cut back the leaves this week. The darker bloom was re-potted into this bigger black pot and therefore has less new growth on, the pink one has been in this spot for years. . 

I have a lone snowdrop in the back garden, I have planted bulbs here for the past 3 years, so this is an expensive bloom. I hope to remove the protective frames in a few weeks, it has stopped this bed being dug up by cats and foxes.  My pots look good, this are should be full of shades of green this summer.

The garden came through the storm unharmed, but in truth we had the weaker end of it, mainly windy with steady rain rather than the huge amounts dropped further up the country. My heart feels for everyone who has their homes flooded, I can not imagine how you start to sort out so much damage in your homes. Snow was spoken as a possibility for our area on Sunday, but I am not expecting it to pitch, I have said many times we often miss the snow, grandson Will is praying it snows he has a sled he wants to use .

I have been looking at what I have in our garden, not plants, I am happy with the placement of plants, but I do have one spot in the side garden where I moved the worms to fill, my 1st thought was to put the worms back, but they are sheltered in their new home. I have moved pots about and moved the tall chimney to the side garden, I also want to split some Alliums from the back corner, I split them a couple of years ago and they are huge again. I also have a small white lavender, it broke from daughters plants last summer, it has now rooted and can go in the garden. After an hour outside, I have noticed a few snowdrops in the side garden, none came up last year, so I'm just a bit hopeful they are such a beautiful dainty tiny flower early in the season. 

New start

I saw this on another blog and fell in love with it, such a simple design but so pretty.

I do have issues, as much as I love the colours, I will be using yarn from my stash, this is a neck down knitted jumper knitted in the round using double knitting, I only have 4 ply in my stash. I have purchased the pattern and I am now looking at how I can transfer it to a 4ply knitted down pattern I already have, I will make my jumper longer and with long sleeves. The yoke is the area where all stitches are added, I am hoping I can match the number of stitches on this jumper pattern to stitches on the 4ply pattern, which would make this much easier, as I would just have to adapt the lengths. 

 I purchased this hand dyed yarn from Burrow and Soar back in September, it just called to me, so I purchased 200grms, sadly I can't afford to make anything using just her yarns, it would be far too expensive. 

I have stocked up on the lovely shades, with the intension of using them with the hand dyed yarn above, my thoughts had been to make a striped jumper. Baby merino is one of my favorite yarns, and I often use it, so I always have colours in my stash. I am not sure about the navy and dark pink, but the other 5 shades work well. 

This is my 2nd start, I did my 1st with pale blue followed by the mixed colour, but the contrast did not work, the colours blended rather than stood out, I had wanted to start in the off white but I also wanted to use this colour on the cuffs. Having rechecked the design I could see the colours did not follow any pattern, they just sat where they could make the most dramatic contrast, so with that in mind I reset my thinking, I will use the darker blue next, and decide at each colour change what to use next, wish me luck. 

Well it did not take long for me to break my own rules of finishing things this year, except the pattern, I did have everything in my stash, so I'm not a complete failure. With everything going on outside, this virus and the way we are having to live, I needed something to inspire me, fire up my creativity, and sadly hexagons and knitted socks were not doing it for me.  Plus I can sit for hours and knit, I love watching this grow, all knitted on the round, hardly any sewing up to do. 

I have finished one pair of socks and have another pair on the go, plus a bit of knitting for Will's jacket. 

We are sitting out storm Christoph, the garden is undamaged so far, I did pop some of my pots off the table and onto the decking, just in case, they are full of bulbs and are all terracotta. Just tired this morning after a very windy and wet night, hope you are all safe and dry.

1st finish

I love these socks, main colour knitted using Head over heals 4ply by Stylecraft, which is 75% wool, so perfect for socks. The navy is Schachenmayr, Regina a German yarn, again 75% wool, which I use most often for socks. 

I am super proud of the matching colours, before I started knitting the 1st sock I took a photo of the yarn ball, so I could try and match the start point on the 2nd sock, it worked. 

My Amaryllis bulbs, for a few weeks I thought they were not going to grow, the white blooms are not so dramatic against our pale walls, but the flowers are impressive, the 2nd bulb, should have red/pink blooms. 

Another great book, a very different story, a death, and the back story, 2nd library choice book this month, 4th book this year. 

Hubby made an apple crumble cake, it's huge but lovely, a moist apple cake with a crisp crumble topping, brilliant with custard, and great on its own. It took a lot of work and hubby would not make it again for just 2 of us, but a good family day cake or dessert. 

Sunday was a really sunny day, I spent a bit of time outside, I moved my pots around, I have loads of spring bulbs coming through, now I can see the pots from inside. The greenhouse was warm inside, the position is perfect to get all the winter sun. 

The socks are a gift, it's my 1st big 'be kind' of the year, I plan to do many more. I can show them on here because the person does not follow my blog. I am also on Instagram, which I love, one follower of mine, often make lovely comments on my knitting projects. In December she commented, she loved hand made socks but can't knit, and why are they so expensive to purchase, so an idea formed. These are knitted from my stash, using a yarn which would probably sit there for ages, the yarn was part of a gift to me, and I don't wear much pink, so perfect solution. The navy is one of many colours I have in this yarn, I love to make striped socks, I find the stripes much quicker to count and make matching sized socks. I did ask the lady for her shoe size and said I would be making her a pair, but she has no idea how they are going to look. I prefer the lighter pink shades, my 1st sock which I manged to ruin, was the darker pink section of the yarn. 

We had another stay at home weekend, reading most of the time, it has been cold, wet on Saturday, sadly no snow, but we rarely see snow here. Sunday we walked to the local park, hubby is still wearing his boot, but is mobile enough for a short walk, I did some jobs outside, enjoying the sunshine wrapped up from the cold. 

It is so dark most days, I have candles most nights, they fill corners with dancing flames, along with a few coloured tiny lights. January is the worse month of the year, it's dull, cold and often wet and it just lasts forever. 

Thank you for you comments on my last post, it has been a few stressful weeks, hiding tears from daughter and SIL, but with hope, which we always need. It's pure joy for us, we thought our families were all complete, no more babies, and now the thrill of one more baby. 

Expanding

Grandchild number 9, a younger sibling for Will and George, 

due to arrive in July.  

Will and George playing together,  

Daughter had scan 2 days before Christmas it was her 12 week scan and our local hospital was concerned, they listed a long list of things which concerned them, which was heightened because George has Downs Syndrome. Daughter and SIL decided to have private scans and test at a different hospital. Yesterday the results came back very differently, baby has been given excellent odds against many of the issues suggested at 12 week scan. Private medicine is not cheap, but the test are less invasive, and the scans are longer, so time was give to daughter to ensure everything was covered. There may be a smaller issue, but all we can do is wait, the main thing is daughter is now not worrying, she can get on with their plans for moving children's bedrooms. This should have been my happy news for my last post in 2020, but the shock and upset sent me reeling whist trying to support our daughter and SIL. Daughter is not finding out the sex of the baby, as with both Will and George, she is happy to wait, to add to the joy on the day. 

I am so pleased we are in a support bubble with daughter and SIL, it was hard enough to watch them both so upset, families are so important at times like these. We had Will on a sleep over on Tuesday night, he is becoming really angry at not going out, he loves space and running around, and meeting his friends, he was such a good boy for us, he loves being in the garage or cooking with his Grancha. Just the change for one night has helped him, he went home happy and good. 

We are blessed with lovely boys, from Dominic who is not yet a year old to Josh who is now 15, sadly we have not seen much of our grandsons in the past 12 months, like every other grand parents we are missing so many parts of our lovely boys lives. 

So for once good news, have a great weekend.

As another week flies by

One of the best books I have ever read and a new author to me, she has more books to read, I could not put this book down, I normally enjoy Sunday night TV, but I sat reading , 3rd book this year. 

I am doing well with my socks, 1st sock finished, just need to motor on and get the 2nd one done, I have found a crochet pattern which I would like to make for George, so to keep with my list of things to do, I am going to try and follow the simple pattern, the bowls reduce in size and will fit in inside the other. You can find the pattern here,  I am hoping such a simple design will get me going on making crochet designs. 

I purchased these in December, stating there was no need for them to arrive before Christmas, so they flew into my home this week, made by Glassworks who I follow on facebook or her site is here,

My 1st Amaryllis is opening, this is the cheaper one purchased from Lidl's, the expensive one is a couple weeks behind, you can see the flower bud in the photo. I have never before had a white flower. 

Monday I went for a walk with a friend and her dog, we were out for an hour, did not touch anything, stayed apart and both wore face mask, I was trying a clear mask which is attached to a plastic glasses frame, my friend is registered deaf, with some hearing at a poor level, so she needs to see your face as she lip reads. We walked to the shore near our house, hubby is not able to go out for walks, so it was a real treat for me, it stayed dry.

I am thinking this is the year without in the garden, there are so many plants I would love to grow, many I have tried and failed, each year I purchase snowdrops in the green, plant them and then wait, and very few grow. I am using my thinking head this year, and I am NOT getting any more, I have wasted too much money trying to get the wrong plants growing.  I do have things in pots, but I am trying to limit the number of pots and not have many more, I did a post last year on my pots, and have since added a few more. Normally I would tell anyone to look at their neighbours front gardens to see what grows in the local soil, but alas most front gardens are carparks, and many without any plants, unless you count the dead thing in the corner pot. 

I do try and grow loads of seeds, and often give away the plants I don't need, this year, I am only plants a few different seeds, I have decided bedding plants are so cheap locally, with a good mixture of plants, I can get the colour I crave and I can buy stronger plants which I can always get cutting from.  

I have been looking back on old post, looking at what grows in our garden and when, I found this post I did on the evolution, 10 years work, I spend loads of time in early months of the year, remembering what I loved in the garden and more importantly what did not work, these years I have less of the non working areas. Our side garden need winter colour, I won't go to any garden centres in lock down, it's an unnecessary journey, so that will be sorted later this year.  

1st start of the year

I love these socks, using an odd ball of nice yarn and a contrast colour, all the ends stitched in and on to the sock stretchers.

I have a hole, I must have snipped a stitch when cutting off the ends, I could darn this and it would hardly notice, but these are a gift. Cue loads of swear words, I'm not going to say how I feel, stupid mistake.

So here's my new sock, not so bright pink, the colours are lighter going into grey. I could unpick and use the same pink yarn, but there are loads of sewn in thread, making unpicking a bitch to do. Not the crafty start I had planned for the year. 

PS these are not for SIL.

Amaryllis time, this is the cheaper bulb purchased at Lidl, a white flower,  the expensive garden centre bulb is a good height, its a couple weeks behind this one. 

I got my plastic tulips out again, a bit early, but I felt the need for colour, these are behind the sofa brightening up the corner. The orchid flowers are the last blooms from the plant we purchased back in later October, these are such great value plants, they bloom for so long. 

My last two jumpers arrived, both in one parcel, so 4 parcels for one M&S order, I'm pleased with each jumper, they should keep me warm for years. We also purchased another Alexa for our bedroom, we both enjoy playing 70's or 80's music on our sitting room Alexa, or different artists, all without ads or anyone talking, perfect for background when reading, we have also ordered special bulbs, so she will be able to turn on and dim the lights, we are not lazy, often we have a cat on our laps. We have a lamp in the bedroom which will be great to be able to turn on/off hands free, plus we can set a wakeup alarm, we can also get information from her, on cold mornings we can set music to listen to without getting out of bed. 

We have not been out in days, it's cold and dry outside, no snow here, we have food and a warm house, plenty of books, and craft for me, hubby is back baking, he still has his boot on, but his ankle is much stronger. We have together made decisions for the back garden, I am always itching to be outside this time of year, my unheated greenhouse is doing well, I do have a heater but as yet I have not needed to use it, it does stay warm inside. 

I have loads of views on the idiots who think the rules are not for them, and the ones who choose to view the rules in their own way so they can carry on with their lives, I know I'm not alone, I have read so many bloggers post, all feeling the same, the figures locally are off the scale, I'm scared and so are my friends and neighbours, so we hide in our homes. I don't know how we can repay the shop workers, the bin collection guys, the bus and delivery drivers, those who come face to face with different people every day, they are bloody marvellous, normal people who are doing the greatest of jobs. Stay safe, don't take risk, someday we will look back on this and hopefully learn lessons. 

Coming in

I was so pleased to see our library is open to drop off and collect books, all pre-picked for me, this is my 3rd month and I am enjoying the selection of books, I have not read any of these. I spoke to the ladies, they leave returned books on the shelves for 3 days, the rack have wheels on so they can wheel them away from the door. The books are picked the week before collection, we can only step just inside the library, the racks and tables block the entrance. It feels safe and for me it's an important life line, we read most days, these will be left before I start to read them.

I have been clothes shopping online, some of my jumpers are getting a bit tatty, and whilst I'm not going out much, I still like to look smart, for myself. So with the January sales on, I went to Marks & Spencer site, well at my age it's where you start, I got 4 half priced jumpers at £12 each, they are not huge thick ones, I'm OK for that style, these are the thinner soft ones, which I wear most days in the cooler months. The free postage started at £50, so I got another pack of cotton socks, always handy to have. I am surprised M&S are making any money, 3 out of 5 items arrived, all in separate parcels, they did say they were coming from different locations, but that's a lot if postage. 

I got another email from Clarks outlet site offering me more discount and free delivery, so I had a look, these soft trainers were £65, I would never pay that for this type of shoe, with the discounts they were just over £27 a much better price, my soft deck shoes were scruffy, so these are now mine. I am being bombarded with emails, but most of them get deleted unopened, my spending is now done. 

I got this book from a charity shop, it's a another big book, 469 pages, this is my 2nd book read this year. I enjoyed the story set in Dublin, it was believable, lots of wrong turns and what if's. Her writing style is full of detail, normally that wears me out, but in this case it was done well, I will read more of her books. 

Hubby is not impressed with me, he would love me to treat myself more, and buy clothes like I used to, but when I gave up work 3 years ago, I was sorting my wardrobe to pass on work clothes, I was horrified how many items I had, many of them not being worn, I vowed then I would wear them all. For years I was happy to buy clothes and after a couple of wears pass them to the charity shops, these days I am aware of the amounts of water and energy it takes to make garments, often in countries where there are poor working conditions. I do give items to the Salvation army collection bins, we have one in a local car park, these items are sent to those who need them most. Shoes and reading glasses are collected by our dry cleaners shop and sent around the world, I don't have so much to give away, but everything decent gets a second life. Books and household items all go to our local charity shop. 

We are both feeling much better, the cold lingered as they always do, thankfully the cough has gone, nobody wants to hear you cough these days. I have been out once, we needed milk and eggs, I'm having porridge and hubby cereal each mornings, and I am making milky drinking chocolate most nights, and some fresh veg, only stayed in the village, we do have an Asda order due next week. I have no plans to go out again the numbers infected and passing away are horrendous, we have our local figures published each week, they are below the national average but still far too high for my liking, so we hide at home. 

I have started another pair of socks, which I am excited to be knitting, and I have collected yarn for SIL's socks, I plan to finish one pair whilst knitting the boys jackets and then go on the knit for SIL. I read most days, and I have started watching on BBC Iplayer, Hidden, it's a police drama set in Wales from a couple years ago, there is a second seriers so plenty to watch. Hubby and I have also started watching The Queens Gambit, we don't watch TV in the day time, but it helps fill the evenings as we are not getting out much and boredom is lingering. 

 

Be kind

I'm taking kindness into 2021, myself and my family had recent unexpected acts of kindness, which lifts the spirit, so my overriding theme this year is to be kinder, (PS I'm not a mean person), so it should be easy to do. 

These wonderful items were sent to me by Jo from Through the keyhole, 12 days of Christmas, a parcel to open until 12th night. The mini yarns are so beautiful, can't wait to knit them into squares for my blanket, plus an extra treat each day. 

I saw on Facebook a local lady asking about growing pineapple plants, so I offered the small plant below, it's one of the babies from the plant I purchased last year. I have 2 other plants which are enough for me. 

I have more plants waiting to go to new homes, one for a neighbour at the other end of our street, we often say hello, and I love her garden, like me she has a few gaps, and I had a spare passion flower. I also have 3 low maintenance plants for my brothers garden, hopefully I can plant them later this year. 

I am a helpful person, friends, neighbours know I will always help, lifts to appointments, looking after children for a couple of hours, some sewing, anything they need, it's what makes the world a better place. I did more in the run up to Christmas, which was easier, gifting money to local charities and food banks, again reasonably simple, I didn't spend much on crafting, so I have a little more spare cash. I joined our local Facebook pages, which helps focus on local needs, and it's rewarding to see so many people helping out. We have not had any snow but loads of icy mornings and already people are checking to see if anyone is struggling. I often speak about our village, but we are not a traditional country village, on the edge of a big town, very close to Portsmouth City, the houses just run into each different place, so driving through it hard to know where the village starts and ends, but everyone tries to keep the village feel.

Both our Covid tests came back negative which was a relief, we would now like to rid ourselves if these bad colds, it's been over a week. We still have no plans to go out, it's warm and safe at home. With the new lockdown in place, we are not able to do much, we will stay local in our village and once a month use a Asda home delivery. We can still support daughter, Will and George, those rules are still in place, but Will still goes to preschool nursery twice a week, they are a good nursey and act quickly to any reports of Covid, we just have to take extra care. 

My weight loss is due to resume, I put a few pounds back on in December, I'm not worried, I now am focusing on losing a stone this spring, soon hubby will be able to go on walks again, so the exercise will help. My BMI last January was 29.6, on Monday it was down to 26.9, a very pleasing reduction. Most of our Christmas goodies are gone, we did not buy so much and have not missed the chocolate feast. The last of the cake was finished, we both agreed it was a good bake this year, strange as I use the same recipe, cake tin and oven each year. We have started baking cakes for our mid morning treat, we enjoyed having a simple treat each day and being homemade it's not full of sugar.