red, colour in the garden, vegetables, chard

Isn't red a beautiful colour? It warms the heart, and gladdens the soul. Today I'm going to share just a little of the glory of my garden at the moment.



The chard is positively glowing in the vegetable beds. Plumes of flame sprouting from the earth like mini volcanoes. The central stems can be cut from the leaf, and make a crisp vegetable, akin to celery. The crinkly, puckered leaves are soft, and similar to spinach, but with a stronger flavour. But the colour, the colour!!!

The reverse of the stems is that beautiful pinky red of the forced rhubarb stems that abound in early spring, so different from that of the inner rib that's visible.

The orangey red flowers of the runner beans are still framing the garden as they clamber over the arches. It's possible to see the long, broad runner beans (which are being left to provide seeds to sow next spring) dangling down from a couple of the plants. Once the decision has been made as to which plants to gather seed from, this plant will cease to produce new beans, believing it's job to be done. So only select one or two plants, or you'll lose production!

The Photinia Red Robin is confused, and sending up the deep, almost mahogany, new leaves it should be saving for next spring. I'm not complaing, though, as they are so beautiful, this photo doesn't really do it justice, but you get the idea.

The red Rowan berries are like clusters of small, round rubies. Allegedly this augures a harsh winter, so don't say you haven't been warned.

The autumnal tints are spreading on the Rose of Sharon leaves, and the berries are reddening on their way to being jet black.

The flat, multi-blossomed heads of the late summer flowering Sedum are just opening from within the palest green sepals. The contrast is spectacular - fresh green and rich reddy pink tones.

There's a lot to gladden the eye in the garden just now... I hope you've enjoyed seeing a glimpse.

free food update, potatoes

Yesterday I dug up some of my free potatoes, as you can see. It's such a pleasure to discover just what the harvest will be. Sometimes there are very few tubers, others there are loads. That's one of the good things, though, you just never know what's below the surface. It really is digging for buried treasure!

This time I was very pleased. There had been three plants appeared, quite close together, in this spot of the garden. Presumable tiny tubers left behind last time I dug some up, as I had not planted them myself.

You can see how beautiful they are. The colander shows the small ones, the larger ones are beside them. Some of them had been nibbled by slugs, but the majority are beautiful. Firm golden nuggets to enjoy, simply

boiled, along with some freshly picked runner beans and sliced carrots. I stirred in a tin of chickpeas, and made a lemon and garlic mustard dressing which I poured over whilst the vegetables were still hot. Yummy.

The dressing was juice and zest of two lemons, 1 good clove of garlic, 1 tablespoon of mild mustard, and about 100 mls of olive oil. Whizzed together and seasoned with a lilttle salt this makes a refreshing, tasty dressing for warm veg.

time flies, where did summer go?

Where did the summer go? When did it disappear? The sun is shining out there, and it's very pleasant (I know because I've just returned from walking to the supermarket), however, it's no longer summer. There's a crispness to the air, and that faint aroma that autumn brings with it.

I'm lucky, I actually think autumn is lovely. The glorious "goodbye" gradations of colours on the deciduous tree leaves, tumbling to the ground. Cheerful crimsons, outrageous oranges, yummy yellows, bronzy browns, claret, gold, amber, bronze - all that richness and opulence to take pleasure in.

A glorious free display which always cheers me and fills me with wonder at nature's majesty. I have a friend whose attitude is diametrically opposite to mine. She feels depressed as the leaves change, seeing only decay and death. I see the plants preparing themselves for sleep, ready to waken again in the Spring. Waving goodbye in their glad-rags before they slumber. A time for peaceful regeneration.

How do you feel about Autumn?

new short story,

I've just been on the Pictures, Poetry and Prose site, and I wrote this short story to accompany a photo of a long, lonely road. You can log onto the site from the icon on the right, if you are interested in seeing more of mine, and other people's writings:)
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The Hitch-hiker

I'd been ambling along for an hour down this arid road before I flagged down the car. Many had passed by, they always do, but they’re not all right for me.

This one is right. A young girl. Not too pretty, not too young. Just right. Vulnerable. Open to being waved down by a good-looking hunk like me. No point in being modest, I am a handsome devil.

We chat about this and that. She hasn't been down this road before. For me it's a road well-travelled. I describe the beauty of the area. She relaxes.

I tell her I'll treat her to an ice-cream at the next lay-by, which is just ahead, round the next corner. The van belongs to my cousin, I tell her. It’s where I was walking when she stopped to pick me up, as I do every weekend. I didn’t tell her that, though. I told her I was aiming for the next town, 10 miles on.

We'll draw up, he'll hand over two cones. One will contain a little something extra, along with the chocolate flake. She'll be asleep before she knows it, and I'll be a hundred dollars richer.

She'll come round, trussed up in the back of his truck. I'll be on my way in her car to have a little fun.

My cousin will have his fun later. I've never asked just what he does with them. I really don't want to know. No, really, I don't.

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I'd love to know what you think!

A TV-less life

Well, that's it. I finally did it! I phoned the TV licensing office and told them I would not be watching live TV after the end of August, when my TV license ran out.

I explained that I use my 32" tv as my pc monitor, so that would remain on the wall, as usual, but there would be no arial to receive live tv, but I would watch tv catch-up through my pc. The young man at the other end of the line said that would be fine, as long as I didn't watch live tv.

So, before I went to bed on the last day of August, I unplugged my two small tv sets completely, and removed the arial to the large one in the living room. It felt quite liberating; I wish I'd done it sooner.

Next morning, I have to admit, it felt a little strange not to go to freeview 36 to see what crafty stuff was on to watch whilst I had my breakfast, but only for a moment. I know I can log on to the crafting channel and watch any time I want to.

I've watched some catch-up tv, and since the 32" tv is my pc monitor, what I've watched has been virtually full size, and the quality is fine, so I don't regret the move at all. And I'm £12 a month better off, too, which is almost two trips to the cinema per month on a Wednesday using the Orange 2/4/1 for me and whoever I take with me :-)

TV - who needs it? Not me!

Best laid plans, decoupage card

Well, the best laid plans of mice and men, as they say, gang oft astray, and so it was with my neighbour's birthday party.

In the end I decided on hand and body cream as a present - aged skin can be quite dry, and I thought it would be something useful, yet feminine.

I created a floral birthdy card, with a little decoupage for depth. I made a slit in the side of the card about an inch up from the bottom edge, and threaded a length of grosgrain ribbon through, stuck it down, then stuck a bow over the join, at the left-hand side.

I hunted out the numeral 9 and 8 from my chipboard stock in toning colours, and stuck those to the ribbon at the bottom right.

I stuck a chunky foam "F" at the top left of the card, and in a matching felt tip pen wrote the rest of her name from that. I know she'll appreciate the fact that her name and age are on the card.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to attend the party after all. I popped round with gift and card, said a quick hello, then left. She was very tired with all the visitors.

Balloons had been filled and tied to some shrubs down the path to give a festive air to the occasion. They are still there, and I'm sure still giving her pleasure as she looks out of her window.
The cards will stay up for a while, too, reminding her of the people who love her, and care about her.

Another year marked, and gone. I wonder how quickly time seems to go for her. I find it whizzes by faster and faster as I grow older, but she's nearly twice my age, is it but a moment between birthday, Christmas, Easter, birthday? Maybe one day I'll discover for myself what it's like to be truly old, only capricious time will tell.

hand-crafted cut-out anniversary card

I was rather pleased with this card I made for my daughter's wedding anniversary. I had never attempted this style of card before, but wanted to produce something special for this lovely occasion.

I used 2 sheets of cream A4 cardstock, half an A4 sheet of yellow backing paper printed with daisy type flowers, a strip of matching velum, a small piece of mirror board, about 9" of lemon organza ribbon, a daisy punch, a scrap of toning yellow paper for punching daisies, some gold heart stickers, and a yellow anniversary greeting peel-off sticker.

First score one A4 sheet of card down the centre to make a regular A5 card. This is the outer card.

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The inner card is created by scoring the second A4 card into 4 equal sections across its width. I used an embossing board for ease, scoring on the gatefold and centre lines.Fold this inner card along the centre fold and cut out half a heart shape in the centre, so when you open up the card again, you have a perfect symmetrical heart, as you can see in the photo. Mine is about 5" long.

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Use the heart that you cut out as a template to cut out a piece of mirror board for the front of the card. Put this to one side for later.

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Glue half the sheet of backing paper across the centre of the inside of the outer card, so that when the inner and outer cards are stuck together, the paper shows through the heart aperture. See photo.

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Punch several small daisies in yellow paper. Stick a few on to the backing sheet to highlight the inside of the aperture. Stick the rest around the mirror board heart to give a neat finish, see photos.

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On the two plain sections of the inner card, score a heart pattern border, see photo. This isn't vital, of course, you could leave them plain, or decorate them in some other way. I stuck a daisy flower at the top of one border, and a double heart peel-off on the other.

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Assemble the card by laying the inner card on the table, blank side uppermost, so no stickers are visible, just the reverse of your embossing, if you did any. Use your favourite method of gluing card together, either sticky glue, or double sided tape for this. I used tape. Put your glue/tape on the two outer quarters - these are where you will fasten the inner and outer cards together. Lay the inside of your outer card over your now partially sticky inner card, so that you can see the plain front and back of the card (the backing paper side faces down, fitting across the heart aperture).

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When it is stuck you will have your aperture card, but the outside of the card is pretty boring! So, now take the remaining backing sheet, and stick it to the front of the card. Offset the matching velum by about half an inch, just to give a nice effect, at the left side of the front. Punch a hole at centre top and bottom through the velum, backing sheet and card. Cut the ribbon in half and thread one piece through each hole to hold the velum in place.

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Mount the mirror board heart in the centre of the card using some foam fixers for a little depth. Stick your peel-off greeting in the lower right hand side of the card. I stuck a gold heart peel-off at the top right for a little balance.

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I think it's lovely, but I'm biased, I know. The only thing that went wrong, (and invariably, something goes awry, doesnt' it?), was that I embossed my heart border upside down, so had to scrap my first inner card.

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But, being a crafter, I haven't thrown it away. I'll use the borders on another card, and the heart aperture, and the heart I cut out (yes, of course I'd done that before the embossing, that's how it was upside down!!) will be used somewhere else, perhaps in my scrapbook I'm starting soon.

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Enjoy your crafting, and remember, there's no such thing as a mistake, it's just a learning opportunity :)