April roundup

There is always spending in the garden in April, mainly compost, manure and bark, plus of course a few plants. I think this year I am being good, only purchased a couple sets of tea towels for my stash, my cross stich is taking my time and I have everything I need here. I did go mad a purchase a pair of summer trousers, just saw them, loved them and brought them home, and the new Karen Slaughter book, it was on offer in Tesco. 

We did get the new BBQ and loungers for the garden, but we did sell our wooden recliners which paid most of the cost of the replacements, nothing big for the house, just a new rug by the front door, even with the shops now open, we are still not going out much. The waste which came with the BBQ was huge, loads of foam packaging, we recycled the carboard box. Our food bills are much lower this month, we are using our larder and freezer, all the extra items we got for Brexit and the winter Covid surge are now being brought down to our normal levels. We don't walk to our local shops much either, milk keeps and last all week, just a pop to Lidl's every couple of weeks. 

The cold weather had stopped us walking so much, I am outside more often and my steps rise wandering around our tiny garden. We have been good, I ate my last cream egg, no more this year, and no more lemon sherbets, our treats are now home made cakes. No real weight loss this month, but we were not trying hard enough, we hope to focus through May. 

My Be Kind, was to purchase a tea towel and make another bee bag for the lady who works in our local veg shop, she has commented about mine every time she see's it. 

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. 

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.