Blooming lovely

Bette's hair is growing, it's taking it's time, but I'm happy waiting. 

I cut this plant in half, this section sitting on my bathroom window sill is doing well, flower buds already, the other half is in the greenhouse on damage limitation, I hope I can keep it alive.  This plant is a much better size for this spot. 

My amaryllis bulb I found in the shed with a small leaf tip, so I planted it, but sadly I am only growing 4 leaves. I let this one go to seed last year, and have 5 plants from the seed, so I was not expecting too much this year. 

I have treated myself to a new bulb, I never have any luck getting a flower the 2nd year. The pot in front is a birthday gift from my daughter, she saw me looking at it at a garden centre and asked if I would like it as my birthday present, my birthday is not until November (6 weeks away), but she got it whilst it was there, I do love the pot, it's a good size. 

This African violet flowers most of the year, it's a sunny spot here, they are tiny pretty white flowers. I do nothing to this plant, just some water now and then, I have tried rooting the leaves, I can always get the roots to grow, but never successful in getting a plant to grow. 

My coffer plant is looking good, I have moved it away from the radiator, and into a shady part of the dining end of the room, it's getting rather huge, I am hoping to get flowers one day, can't see me ever growing coffee beans. 

 All day our cats sleep, we changed the sitting room to our winter setting, clearing the space in front of the radiator, which is now the best spot for the cat baskets, it's near the patio doors so they can watch the birds in the garden. 

The rain slowed down for a couple of days, which is a relief, I do always feel the need to do something in the garden, it's healing for me, this week I have potted up a couple of geraniums, they are in the greenhouse in hope I can use them again next year. I have also moved 2 white begonia's to the raised bed by our kitchen door, I have red ones there which come up every summer, I am hoping the white ones survive the winter, if it gets really cold I do have a cover for this bed. I will leave planting the 3 pots along the side of the house and the 2 long pots in front of the raspberry bed until next week, my plants are still a bit smaller than I like. I have planted some of my forget-me-nots in hope they survive the slugs and winter. 

We popped to a garden centre on Tuesday, I got a few things, hubby for once spent more than me, he purchased some heathers and ericaceous compost, he has a lovely pot he wants to plant up. We did get a few things for Christmas, I have started a box, this garden centre has more up market foods, so we were able to pick up a few special things. 

Wednesday we had Will and George for a few hours, Will ate pizza in the garden, and looked for bugs, Will loves bug hunting, I am always lifting pots for him to look under. It was a lovely warmish sunny time, George had his nap and was safely inside for a couple of hours. 

I have my new Amaryllis to pot up, and I have some Hyacinth bulbs to pop into my birthday pot, daughter is happy for me to start it, I will keep it in the dark and warm for weeks to come, we don't have an airing cupboard here. The tulips which came with the pot I will plant outside. 

Natural beauty

I have another wooden bowl, made by my friend Mick, the wood had cracks in so the bowls are not perfect, but I love them.

 These bowls both belong to my sister, they came from the same log, which was taken from a tree being cut down from our village, my sister asked if she could have a couple logs, forward a few years, she had stored them in her dry garage.

All of the pots have interesting marks and splits, I think in each case they add to the beauty of the pot, Mick has his own lathe and loves to turn wood, making these wonderful pots. There was a 4th bowl, but it split on the lathe, which in truth I though all the pots would break with a split running through the middle. 

I don't know what I will use my pot for, it's much smaller than the pot Mick made here, and it's a bit thicker, he did not go too fine as he wanted the pot to hold together. 

Rain drops

With the changing season comes a new display on my kitchen windowsill, nothing here is new, the oak and the brambles were purchased last year, the pumpkin in countless years old. The acorns were collected by Will. This is a very tactile display, and my favourite of the year. I do have one other china pumpkin, which I don't use here.

I have had these two wooden acorns again for years, I love everything wood, and can't resist the touch of polished wooden items, these stay on display in my side of the office. 

Our seating area, and along the fence, I have cut back all the raspberries and packed away all the beautiful supports in my shed, soon it will be time to cover this table and chair set from the wet winter weather. The table was new this year but the bench and chairs are over 20 years old. 

The Cosmos along the side bed are huge and full of flowers, my homegrown plug plants in the propagator are a good size, I will be able to plant them soon, They are all going into pots around the garden and drive. 

No damage over the weekend, just so very wet. 

Book 3 in the Cincinnati series, another huge book, 613 pages, full again of much the same as the previous 2 books, just with new people added into the mix, it is basically a continuing story line. 65th book read this year. 

The heating is now on each morning, we have changed our alarm to sound at 8am instead of 7am, there is no reason to be up any earlier these darker mornings, we wake up to Zowie Ball on radio 2 weekdays, the alarm is not used on weekend mornings. Every sign of summer is gone for this year, the garden has huge spider webs, moist each mornings, grey skies, rain and windy. Plants are settling down, leaves are changing colour and dropping, preparing for the cold weather to come, I have noticed a heavy amount of berries this year, my mum always said it was a sign of a cold snowy winter to come, mother nature fattening up her animals for the long winter ahead.

The relentless rain has stopped this morning, we are expecting rain later, out of the last 7 days only one has been dry, which is not normal for the area of south Hampshire where I live, our water table will be high, but we are not at risk of flooding,  so there must be a positive side. I have a clean house and have done loads more crafting, I have started thinking about my design for this years Christmas cards, again I want to use my stash to make them, whilst it has shrunk, I still have loads I can use. 

Losing myself

I am enjoying having cross stitch on the go again, it's a peaceful thing to do, these designs are not to big, I still have to count very carefully, but I am loving the design. I am also not changing any colours, normally I start to add different shades to make the design mine. 

I have not checked in with my weight loss, I still have about 8 pounds to lose, my BMI is closer to where it should be, I will struggle to get to my suggested weight, so I am aiming for a comfortable level, my BMI was 29.5 at the start, and I have lost 5" off my waist, I am now more a pear shape before I was apple shape. I am getting closer to the green section.

Our weight loss stalled through August and September, loads of birthday cake and BBQ's as we mingled again, I was not worried, hubby and I decided we would enjoy the weeks with family. So at the start of October I am just half a pound heaver than I was on 1st August, which is pleasing, hubby put on 2 pounds. So we are back on the controlled eating ( I hate being on a diet). The thrill of popping on clothes which I love and not worn for years is unbelievable, I still have a small muffin top, which has shrunk and my hope is to get rid of it. I keep imagining 20 pounds of butter, sitting on a tray, that's what I have lost so far. 

We are helping ourselves by taking part in a T21 challenge, where you do anything involved with 21, ie 21 days, 21 times or 21 miles.  October is Downs Syndrome awareness month and it's a big fundraiser month. So for 21 days we are not having any wine, no treats, no lunch out, we will have a list and add the cost of the things we are not purchasing and at the end we will donate the money to our local branch at Portsmouth. The support both our daughter and SIL has received has been brilliant, from the very early days to now and the development of George, all done by volunteers, our daughter has done a fundraiser, and raised almost £2,000. T21 is the common name for one of the forms of Downs Syndrome, and it's the one George has, it's used often, lots of accounts on Instagram have T21 in their names. We start on Monday 5th until Sunday 25th. 

As I type hubby is making another batch of vegetable soup and home made bread, which on cooler days is our lunch, we both love the soups, no two batches ever taste the same. Porridge is back on the breakfast menu for me, so we are purchasing more milk, our evening meals will be smaller as the daytime meals become more filling. Our walking is slowing, it's never nice to walk in the rain, and it has been raining the past couple of days here (good for the garden as our ground was so dry), with loads more to come.