Bored at home

This is very pleasing, at the beginning of the year my BMI was 29.1, so it is a good drop, I hit my 1st big target of losing a stone last month, I am close to my second big target, I have not set myself dates, life is difficult enough without adding stern targets. My amount to lose is now pounds rather than stones, and now we can exercise more than once a day, it should help me get to where I want to be. It's only now as I have lost so many pounds I realise how much excess I was carrying and how much it slowed me down, I do feel much better without my muffin top.

With so much time on my hands I am bored, I do loads of my crafts, but later I can't just sit and watch TV, some evenings are OK, I like Wednesday evenings, The Repair Shop and The Great British Sewing Bee, are both lovely and of course Fridays with Gardeners World, who does not love Monty. I do read alot, I have always been a huge book worm, I am reading from my Kindle, I have always loved holding books in my hand, holding a Kindle just does not feel right to me. I don't plan to use our local library when it opens for a while. 

I purchased these yarns when in Spain last year, they are very light weight cotton, behind is a long pair of needles sized 2.25mm, purchased for another project. This yarn was for my loom, which I have not been using, I am thinking I could use these together to knit a shawl, not something I normally wear or a baby blanket, really fine, I have been looking at patterns with cables or lace.

I have been busy sewing, these mask are for daughter and her husband, she chose her material, it's the same as mine, a pretty tea towel cut down. SIL mask are made with the same fabric as I have used for Will's (his choice). All my face mask have a tea towel lining, it's more absorbent than cotton, they are all washable. I am going to check each mask and trim any missed ends before sending them to be used. 

I wanted to make Will's mask more fitted and hopefully comfortable for him to wear, hence the fun fabric, daughter will have to fit the elastic length, all she needs to do is knot the elastic, snip the ends and pull the knot into the fold at the side of the mask. 

Just a reminder, we have reached our overshoot day, May 16, we here in UK will have used all the renewable resources for one year, everything else we use can not be replaced this year, just something to think about. Loads of my followers live a less commercial life, living a simple relaxing style like us, we just need to all think a bit more, who knows society might just change once we are released ( I'm not holding my breath). You can read more here. 

The sunshine outside is still beautiful, but it's still cold, hubby decided to wear shorts today, he is ever the optimist, but he does not feel the cold, unlike myself. I am hoping to do more in my greenhouse, I have a week before the new shelving comes for the greenhouse, at the same time I hope to be able to leave more trays of plants outside to harden off, I plan to empty the greenhouse, give it a good clean inside and then bring things back in, not a small job. 

Part of my problem is I'm not too tired at night, normally after a busy day, I sit in the evenings and read, knit or crochet, but because I am doing these in the day, by 7pm I want to do something different. I have promised myself this week I will not do my evening crafts in the daytime, not sure how I will fill daytime, but it won't be watching TV. 

In my hands

Another new author for me, I enjoyed this book, different story line, I would read another of his. This being my 27th book read this year. 

Book 28, I always love this author and I loved the way the cast came together, very clever. 

Just 80 pages, so a short read, I enjoyed it and wanted the story to carry on, it could have, they sorted issue which threw up another. Book 29

I've done another glass ornament, I purchased some larger cut circles, this is as big as I can use in my kiln, I used different thickness of glass, just to see what works,  the blue disc is just too thick to work well, to get the soft edges I fused for longer, but that made the clear circle edges go a bit too thin, my sister Lena has decided she would like this one. For my reference, I fused for 10 minutes and then a further 2 minutes.  

One sock is finished knitting, just the toes and loose ends to sort, the second sock is almost at the heal pickup point, not done loads on these.

I am still enjoying this blanket, I have not stitched the ends in as yet, but I will start the task soon, it's getting so big I have to pop it on the floor to take a photo, I am still using the 1st ball of each colour and have a 2nd ball to use. Not sure how long it will become, should be enough for my lap blanket. 

The colder weather has been a shock, we have been lucky the night temperatures have not dropped close to freezing, all my plants in the greenhouse are doing well. it will be a few more weeks before I start to plant out, it's hard to wait, but I know I must. 

Most days have been inside, I am a fine weather gardener, always have been, so plenty of crafting and reading has been done. 

Sat down on the job

I've been working in the greenhouse, sorting my raised bed, lots of my nasties are now in nice pots, I'm re-using the soil from this bed and the stones, I like to see bowls of mixed plants. The soil level is already going down. 

I had my Lemon tree in this pot, I'm loving the mixture of these plants, the soil is poor there are loads of stones mixed in, but perfect for these plants.

Lemon tree now in matching pot as my olive bush, all I have to do is place a layer of grey slate on top of the soil, but for now I can't get to it, so will be done once greenhouse is sorted. 

My Jade plant, this is a flour storage pot, but I love using kitchen pots for my plants, I love how the colours play together. 

Tomato plants both doing well. the plant on the left is in a compost bag, I don't have enough bigger pots. On the shelf behind is my chamomile seedlings. 

Both cucumber plants are growing, I will use both this year, 1 inside the greenhouse and 1 outside, they will produce at different rates and spread my crop. 

These smaller pots have my spring bulbs in, I am going to pop them in my outside raised bed, The big pot on the left has a gooseberry bush, which is not growing this year, I will leave it for a couple more weeks before digging it out, just incase it's just late starting. 

i purchased these shoes in 2017, from a local shop in their closing down sale, the dark brown ones I wear often, but now they are tatty, so I have pulled out the suede ones to replace them. The dark brown shoes will now be my gardening shoes, mine have split and become loose on one foot. 

I have come in from the garden, my back was telling me enough for today, by doing smaller amounts of work and resting I am trying to ensure I don't twist my back again, last time was very painful. 

I have lots of things on order for the garden, a fruit cage, a tree tie to help get our twisted willow to stop leaning, I have also ordered from Ikea 3 small galvanized shelving units and a folding chair for the greenhouse. Expensive month so far, but once everything arrives the garden will be sorted (famous last words!!)

Portchester castle walk.

Sunday we needed to get out and walk, so we went towards Portchester Castle, we have been avoiding this walk as we expected it to be busy, we did meet more people, but it was not as bad as we thought, everyone was keeping their distance. 

 Looking towards Portsmouth, the dredger is alongside M275 going into Portsmouth.  

 The white building is a boat builders, they have loads of these huge reels on site, I often call them star gates, Oh how I wish they were. 

 Sadly closed, I miss walking in the castle grounds.

 I'm not sure which new carrier this is, in Portsmouth Naval base, with the Spinnaker Tower behind, not the best photo, I only had my snappy camera and it was hazy out. Plus I have a dirty lens.

It was good to go for a long walk, we cut through the old estate and down to the water front, it's been years since we walked this way, the breeze made walking comfortable, I could hear the clink from the local yacht club boats, their rigging catching in the breeze. The tide was half in, and the sea was not to smelly, on a hot day with the tide out it can be eye watering, the weather was perfect for walking, it was good be be away from the house and garden just for a while.
The waterway is coming from The Solent, it cuts through to the main road going through Portchester villiage, at the castle we have Portsmouth and the naval base on the left and Gosport on the right.

Our path home was along the shore line, until we reached the point nearest to our home, a short walk through the local estate and home for coffee.