Catching up

Cousins having tea out together

 Last night we all got together for tea at a burger place the boys love

I got the best bargain ever off our local Facebook selling page , all these pots, there is over 50 here for £15, most are old, most are hand made, I have too many so I will pop some back on Facebook, with a few other things I don't use. If I am lucky and sell everything, it will replace the cost of these. 

 I thought this was a Christmas Cactus, but it flowered earlier in the year, now there are a couple more buds and loads of new growth. 

Hubby wanted to change the pot our Olive is in, and chose a huge pot, with plenty of growing space, it was pot bound in the old pot, so we had to cut roots. I am hoping it survives and grows.  

I now have another huge pot to plant up, I have some flowers in the greenhouse I can use.  

The weather is still warm here in Hampshire, Saturday was dull all day, can't complain after the perfect sunshine the day before. We spent most of the day at home, popping out only once to B&Q as hubby wanted a new pot for the Olive tree, I passed on all the plants, nothing in the half dead section I fancied. We had time to sit and share a shandy in the afternoon, enjoying the garden

Sunday I was home alone, I collected the clay pots and spent an hour cleaning them, each one was dirty, I have a thing about clean pots, there was plenty of space in my greenhouse for the pots, so they are packed away. After doing some house work, I had a restful afternoon, I should have got my sewing machine out but was not in the right mood. We had a nice amount of rain in the afternoon, more water in our water buts.  I have added the cost of the clay pots to my stash list, the new pot for the Olive came from the garden refurb fund.
Monday we had Will, but I had to pop out with youngest daughter, so did not see as much of him as normal, he went to town with hubby on the bus, which Will loves, he slept most of the afternoon. We drove to collect Josh, oldest grandson and all met up for tea. We have a great burger bar not so far away, which makes wonderful burgers and hot dogs, both older boys love it there.
Today is bright and sunny, so we have washing on the line, we have a trip out planned to a big garden center, they have a pot recycling area, I have sorted all the plastic pots to recycle, I now only have a couple huge pots (always handy to have) and some tiny ones for cactus.

C word post

My socks are done and I love them

Plus I finished hubby's as well

 His size 11/12 look strange against my size 6, 

they are twice the size

 I decided to start his tops with green, mine are red. 

 I weigh my socks when finished, these are 53grms, 

I have 47 grms left.

 This is for my hairdressers baby due in September, as you know I love making ripple blankets. I am placing the colours in a difference sequence, where the bright pink and white will have slightly larger bands. I need to complete more of the design to show through.  

 The light pink looks a bit grey here, but the babies room does have grey in, so it should match well. 

The West Yorkshire Spinners yarn was a pleasure to knit with, it did not split and went a long way, I was surprised to have so much left over. I was hoping to make a pair of socks for my daughter, she loves the colour, but I don't have any yarn to match to use for the rib, heels and toes, if I buy another ball, I will just end up with more yarn left over. I will have to think about it.
I do love the simplicity of knitting socks, I don't need the pattern anymore, so I can just click anywhere, just taking yarn and short DPN's. I have had request from family, hinting it's a good Christmas gift, so I have looked at my yarn stash and pulled out a few balls. I already have 7 pairs, hubby has 3 pairs, and I have made 2 pairs as gifts. So the summer months I will make socks for gift's, I do love to knit.
I have given up reading The Historian, I had no problems with the story, but I found I just was not choosing to read, which for me is strange, I always find time to read, I will now find another book for the pile I was given.
My garden is looking good, just waiting to see what grows back in my side flower bed and my raised flower bed, I have some plants in my greenhouse to fill gaps.
Thursday I gave my greenhouse a clean and clear out, it great to have space in there, soon my cucumber plant will grow and take up space, I also sorted my shed, but both places were full of overwintering plants (greenhouse) garden ornaments (shed), so summer has arrived at my garden, our weather for the next couple of weeks is staying warm, so it's safe outside for most of my plants.

Planting

My raised bed is looking good,

 I have 2 coleus to go in each back corners, so far I have only purchased the 4 bedding plants.

 Alpine pot looking good

 My sink is good, I have just one more grass to add, something was nibbling at one plant so I had to use the dreaded blue slug pellets.

  I popped the hosta in the metal bucket, and added the pot of French Marigolds, they will both stay in front of my Acer. The planter next to it, was placed there to harden off and will be placed nearer the house.

Lupins, Ostara, 3 of each for the garden and the grass for my sink.

 Cosmos, Dahlias and a huge pot of salad leaves, spring onions and radishes.

In the propagator is succulents. 

 My raised bed is sorted, I have added farmyard manure ready for planting, my sweet peas are starting to show. I have lillies in the big blue pot, I have placed the pot here to get more sunshine.

I got 6 Busy Lizzie's for the pots at the side of the house. 

I spent most of yesterday in the garden, it was sunny and hot, just pottering, moving pots and planting things, which I have harden off from the greenhouse, I still have more to plant. I did walk to the village and the market and got 1 tray of 6 Busy Lizzie's, which I will put in the pots along the side of the house, I also have a Dahlia for each pot.
Will and mummy came over for a couple of hours, Will loves being in the garden, he walks around with me as I tell him what things are.
I had a shower at 3pm and then went for my haircut, we had our tea outside, as the evening cooled down, a perfect day.
Today I am back outside for the morning, I can always find a few jobs, I have loads of pots to wash and store to use again. I hope to spend some time reading, if it is as warm as yesterday, we will both spend the afternoon outside.

Shopping

 For a baby girl ripple blanket,
I have 2 balls of each colour, the joy of working with pink,
it's for my hairdresser, no grand daughters for me. 

 1 ball of darker blue and 2 of blue/grey,
with my left overs for a scarf,
 I am going to weigh these and see what I can make. 

 1 pale blue and 1 purple, with the left overs from my jumper last year, enough for a scarf. All of the yarn was from Wool Warehouse their Drops range is on sale. I do love the Alpaca range, it is so very soft. I will wait until I have finished the baby blanket, I might have some pink to include. 

I fell in love with this woven succulent

I am really interested in Bonsai, but most of them are way to expensive for me to try out, so I was really happy to see this tiny Acer at a price I could afford, the shades in the leaves are beautiful, it is now on my desk, I have been on the net, finding out everything I can, my hope is for this to stay small and improve over the months. The worse thing that could happen is it grows, then I would have an expensive small tree in the garden, it cost me £19.99, which is cheap for a bonsai. It is an outdoor plant, but I aim to keep it on my desk, the sunlight is good all morning, I might have to move it in the winter, when the heating is on. 
All the above has been added to my stash spend, I have a few garden things I require, but I'm still not ready to plant everything outside. 
We had a lazy afternoon at home yesterday, eating lunch outside in the sunshine, it was good to do nothing after the busy weekend. I have done loads of knitting on my Christmas socks, now I am planning the design for the crochet baby blanket. 
This morning is sign class, followed by an hour bridge class, I am making a 4, learning with Shelia how to play. 
Tomorrow is market day, I have 2 plants I require for my pots, so it will be a garden day.