Birds in the nestbox!

N and I have spent the day on 'nest-watch'.  From the lounge window, we are able to see the nest-box that N fixed up on the side of the garden shed, and we have watched a pair of bluetits flitting in and out all day.  We had been a little worried that they had abandoned our 'des res' for something more upmarket, but no, they have returned and have been incredibly busy all day.  First one in, then the other, then one pops out and flies away to return shortly after with a beakful of soft nesting material.  It's been all go.  No photos - it's just too far away for a good picture, and those little birds are here one minute and gone the next!  Clearly there is no time for a photo shoot, too much work to be done preparing the nest.

And it's not just the bluetits.  We've watched the female blackbird busy nesting in the hedge, flying in with dried grasses and leaf mould, while the jackdaws obviously mean business, collecting several small twigs for a somewhat more robust nest altogether.

It's been fascinating watching the birds today.  There's been a definite urgency about their work.

A railway walk on Mothers Day

Colourful tulips on Mothers Day

Such a lovely day today, no need for coats (and I almost abandoned my jumper, too!) and we had to get outside and enjoy the warming air.  We had a walk along another part of the now-disused railway track that criss-crosses this island.

Just across the road from where we walked is the IW Steam Railway 

Just a few meters from the main road, and we're quite alone in the peace and quiet of the countryside.  Yet again we both commented that we take this beauty for granted, quite forgetting that it's so easily accessible for us and that we should - and must - take advantage of it more often.  

Signs of Spring and new life all around:

and signs of old railways, too: 

This is the old platform at what used to be Whippingham station - nature is reclaiming it!

It was a lovely Spring afternoon.  I caught sight of a blackcap and chaffinch in the trees, while N spotted a jay flying across the path, but all were too far away for me little camera.  But it didn't matter - sometimes it is better just to stand and observe (and pat oneself on the back for correct bird identification!)

The clocks went forward an hour early this morning, so it's now light past seven in the evening.  As far as I am concerned, winter is over (this time last year we still had snow, for goodness sake) and I am looking forward with expectation to what the next few months have in store.  

A new list for tomorrow.  A longer list, obviously, because I now have an extra hour of daylight.  And also because I have a lot of things to do!

Indoors, and out

Indoors:

•          beautiful shoes (worn just once several years ago) deserving of another outing, perhaps to a wedding?  

•           finally beginning to knit that lovely Shetland wool I bought in Orkney last year.  It is so soft to work with, and the dyes are just sumptuous.  

• remember the milk jug?  Well, meet the matching tea pot!  We couldn't believe our eyes - and our luck - when we unwrapped this little treasure at work this week.  

The chances of matching milk jug and tea-pot turning up a week apart in different donation boxes are pretty remote, but it happened.  We were thrilled, to say the least, and bought it there and then.  There is a small chip inside the rim of the teapot but N has managed to file it down a little.  We couldn't wait to make our first pot of tea in it; of course, the tea was lovely!

Outdoors:

• new leaves glowing in the sunlight this afternoon, 

•  and celandines in the hedgerow adding a splash of bright yellow.

•  matching boiler-suits drying on the line, having had a well-deserved wash (I suspect for the first time, judging by the colour of the water!).  

Clean work overalls may be called upon in the coming weeks and months ;-)

It's all about the sequins

I think the short spell of sunny, warm weather we had recently was just a tease.  It is only March, after all.  We may have had the first day of Spring, the daffodils may be blooming and the daylight staying with us for longer each day, but it is only March.  Yesterday we had sleet - twice.  Enough said.

I have had a flurry of crafting these past couple of days.  Card-making to be precise.  Now I (supposedly) have more time, it is something I enjoy doing.  But I have learned two things: 1) keep the design simple, and 2) give myself enough time.  Don't leave it till the last minute - or the day it has to be in the post.  That creates panic!

This year I seem to be on a roll with sequins and beads.  And now N has worked out how to print wording onto the card, I won't have to worry about smudging the gold ink pen (oops).

As these two cards were popped into the post-box this week, I allowed myself to let go some anxieties as well.  I hope they are received in the spirit that they have been 'hand' made and sent.

And as we were off to work today, here's a quick photo of the fashionably patched jeans I mentioned previously.  
NTS - it is not easy taking a photo of jeans you are actually wearing =:o  

Milk from a jug

We are the proud owners of a milk jug!

Not any old milk jug, although it is actually old enough to qualify as 'vintage'.  This is one we rescued from work (and paid for, of course), so it is second hand, thrifted, recycled.  

We have been on the look-out for a little jug for a long time, and are quite delighted with our find.  And how much more civilised to pour milk from a jug rather than from a plastic bottle!

Part of the fun of giving something a new home is finding out a little about it's history - the internet is a wonderful resource.   Crockery usually has some kind of maker's mark stamped or printed on the base, and a quick search online often comes up trumps.  This jug was manufactured by Meakin, and the design name - Classic White - was made during the 50s.  

It's such a sweet little jug, and we are very happy to have given it a new home.

Spring-clean in the garden, and loving the walking foot

An interesting weekend, weather-wise; lovely warm sunshine, bitterly cold winds, rain, hail and sleet, and frost first thing this morning!  Not a bad selection for 48 hours.

We took advantage of the sun to have a clear-out in the garden (and then got caught out in a hefty downpour and had to shelter in the greenhouse).  The gravel we shifted last week looks well on the pathways:

The potting shed was emptied - goodness, who knew was hoarded away 'just in case'? - cleaned and tidied up.  It was a time for being quite ruthless (if it hadn't been used in the four years since we moved back here, it probably wasn't likely to be used in the future) and we filled up several bags of rubbish.  We discovered bits and pieces we'd forgotten about, or lost, or couldn't even remember having in the first place!

We've moved on to the greenhouse - so many plastic plant pots - and the other storage sheds ('I've been looking for that for ages.').  Leaves to be swept up, pots to be moved, weeds to be pulled.  The garden looks so much better for a few hours work.

Indoors, I've been catching up on some sewing.  Having stated quite categorically that I would finish one project before starting another, I have found myself, this weekend, juggling no less than four projects at once.  So much for trying to pace myself.  However, I have completed two of those projects, very nearly finished another and decided not to start the fourth one at all - sometimes it's just as important to know what not to tackle, rather than take something on that is going to cause far too many problems than it is worth.

So, my 'work' jeans (the ones I keep for donation sorting) now sport some very nifty patches (these jeans are well into double figures, age-wise) and I have made good progress with my re-purposing project; hopefully just the front facing and buttons to go.  

The final project was to take in the side seams of a stripey jersey vest, which, at a size 20, was just a tad too big for me ;-)   For something that should have been quite straightforward, it took much longer than I had anticipated.  It was all about the stripes.  Matching them, to be precise (and in both senses of the word!!).  And the stretchy jersey knit fabric.   All this called for the interlocker stitch option on the sewing machine, and some very careful pinning and then tacking to try to keep those pesky stripes lined up.

So the first attempt was unpicked.

Then, light-bulb moment, I remembered the walking foot that I use for machine quilting.  The problem seemed to be that the fabric was moving as I was machining, so I was hopeful that the walking foot might cure the problem.  And it did!  Yay, beautifully matching stripes down the seams.  

Oh, I was happy!!

The week in a rush

Goodness, is it Friday already?  This week seems to have disappeared rather too quickly.  There's been a lot of running around, chasing things up, appointments, decisions.  Yes, definitely some decisions being made here at the moment; hopefully by early next week we'll be ready to take the next steps.

We seem to be very busy with not a lot to show for our efforts at present.  But that will change.  In the meantime:

 we've been watching the magpies in the garden, their black, white and blue plumage very striking in the sunlight, but they are such bullies to the other birds;

 we shovelled 1.5 cubic metres of gravel from the car park to the back garden (it took us nearly 2 hours - we're clearly not as fit as we thought we were!);

and I'm trying to fit lots of sewing projects into any spare few minutes I can manage.  I am just beginning to realise just how many projects I actually have on the go, and an awful lot of them need to be completed in the next few weeks.  In fact, there are some very important ones which haven't even been started yet.  This is not good at all.  I think life is just about to get a little bit busier.

March sun

Today was one of those beautiful Spring days just made for getting out into the garden, which is exactly what we did.  N read, I took a shirt to pieces (as you do!) and we both relaxed and simply enjoyed the warmth of the sun's rays and the beauty of the bird-song around us.

Working

The very last of the evening sun on our lounge walls

Let's hear it for the sun!!  Yesterday and today have been beautiful sunny - and warm - Spring days, bringing everyone out into their gardens.  We spent this morning lending daughter and SIL a hand, digging out a big rockery in their front garden.  The grandchildren helped out too, and we were treated to a welcome cup of tea made by Grandson No 1.  We enjoyed ourselves very much; I think simply working outside was good for the soul.

Yesterday we were at the donation centre for our weekly volunteering session.  We had such a productive morning, and our little team actually managed to clear all the bric-a-brac bags and boxes.  We actually saw the floor, just for a couple of minutes until the next load of donations came in, but for that very short while, we had such a sense of achievement!  We came away feeling pleased with our efforts - some days we don't seem to make any impression at all on the pile of bags - but yesterday was a good day at the office :-)

We're hoping to try our hand at making more of our own relishes this season, and as a starter, N had a go at pickling red cabbage.

Boiling up the pickling liquid

Shredded red cabbage ready for salting

And here's the resulting three jars of home-pickled red cabbage.  And the latest 'treasure' from work - a vintage enamelled flour bin.  The paintwork around the rim and lid was chipped and was not suitable for sale in the shops so we made a donation and rescued it from the scrap metal bin.  N had some green enamel paint, not too far off the original colour, and he has managed to touch up the damage.  I now have a retro flour bin to go with the very fetching retro wall tiles!

Whenever I go into town, I invariably have a little browse around the charity shops, as you never know what might be lurking on the shelves and racks.  It's also quite funny to see items we've sorted at the centre finding their way into the hospice shops - we feel quite protective towards them!  I always have a look through the linens and sheeting, just in case, and this week I hit the jackpot with this fabric:

. .  . cotton curtaining fabric, 4m in length, and as the shop had everything marked at half-price that day, I paid £1.50 for it.  Yes, it's a bit bright, but goodness, I wasn't going to be picky about that!  I've got it ear-marked for curtains, bags, aprons and table-mats just for starters.  I have a feeling this bit of spring colour is going to be brightening things up around here in all sorts of ways.

The lighter mornings and evenings are filling me with energy again.  I want to be up and about, making the most of each day.  There is always plenty to do, in the house, in the garden, sewing, baking and cooking.  All part of a simpler lifestyle that gives us so much pleasure.

Home-made goods

We've been blessed with a lovely warm sunny day, after fog in the early morning.  N needed no encouragement at all to clean the greenhouse out.  All the staging, pots and containers were strewn around the garden, and he set to with brush and disinfectant, cleaning the glass, frame and base.  It certainly looks a good deal brighter!  He's also had a go at taking geranium cuttings from the plants we over-wintered, and hopefully they will strike and produce some new plants.

It's just so good to be outside again.  Gradually the ground is drying out, and we can begin to think about repairing the pathways and replacing the one or two pieces of rotten timber in the decking and edging.  Then there's the shed which is now straining at the seams with all the bits and pieces that seem to have found a home within it's walls.  Yes, I think a decluttering session is overdue there!

I've been busy working my way through the bag of 'rags' we bought at the donation centre a couple of weeks ago.  The towels have all been washed and cut up for garden cloths, so I had a great session zig-zagging the edges to reduce the cut pile going everywhere.  It's produced two bags full of rags which will be very useful in the shed and garden.  I also have a pile of items to be unpicked and hopefully re-used for clothes or linens at a later date.

One of the projects on my 'to do' list has been making some muslin produce bags, similar to these.  I thought it was a really good idea, one which I definitely wanted to have a go at and quite simple to make. 

For some reason it was on my list for a very long time - I just never quite got around to making them - but having returned from our break, I just got stuck in to the project and now have a selection of different-sized net bags I can use when I purchase loose produce.  I haven't had opportunity to try them out yet, but I'll report back when I do.

And finally, I needed to come up with a birthday present very quickly last week (forward planning and preparation has not been my forte recently =:o) and just in the nick of time found inspiration from my fat quarter stash.  This piece of fabric printed with wine bottles was the starting point for a handy bottle carrier in which I tucked four bottles of Island real ale from Goddards Brewery.

A bit of last minute hemming and finishing off on the cross-Solent ferry

As is so often the case, I just started cutting fabric and hoped it would all come together as it went along.  I interfaced the whole bag to make it a bit sturdier, and used some bottle-green fabric (sorry, pun not intended!) as a contrast and also because I didn't have enough of the patterned fabric ;-).  The tricky bit was constructing the interior partitions (to prevent the bottles from bashing against each other in transit) but after a bit of head-scratching, even that eventually came together.  I was really pleased with the finished result.  It made me think about home-made/hand-made gifts.  I know how much of my time went into crafting the item, the thought process required to see the idea through to fruition and the care I took to ensure that it was well-made and to the best of my ability.  It wasn't mass-produced for profit.  It wasn't one of hundreds of identical items in a store or on the internet, available at the click of a button.  It was made with care, thought and a little bit of skill and I hope it was appreciated.  

Time out

We've had a few days away from things, time to stop and recharge the batteries and try to clear our heads of everything that has been going on recently.  We knew that we were tired and we needed to be kind to ourselves.  Sometimes it's important to know when to stop, step away from the problem and re-assess.  We are fortunate that we were able to do that, just for a couple of days.  We slowed down, chilled out and relaxed.  We needed to do that.  A spot of swimming, a steam room that cleansed, and time with loved ones has allowed us to get some perspective again.  We can pick up the reins with clearer heads and move forward again.

Signs of Spring are all around.  The hawthorn hedges are frothy with white blossom, there is a hint of lime green newly-emerging leaves on a few trees while others have fat buds ready to burst open.  The birds are busy fetching and carrying twigs for nests.  And it is getting warmer, gradually, and the days are longer.  After the miserable wet weather this winter, these early spring days are such a blessing and a joy.

We were in the garden yesterday, just hoeing over the beds and pulling a few weeds.  It felt so good to be outside, tending the garden, discussing planting options, airing the greenhouse.  Time to sow seeds and start the growing process over again, to watch the seedling emerge, sending shoots skywards and roots deep into the soil.  It's a magical time and is just what we need right now.

I had some time to myself this afternoon and I had a beautiful walk along the 
front at Cowes.  The sea was so calm, there was a haze across the water and the only sound was from the seabirds along the water's edge.  It was just lovely and I was thankful of the time to simply stroll and enjoy.

The car ferry leaving East Cowes for Southampton ....

.... and the passenger ferry from Southampton arriving at Cowes.

The weather looks settled for a few days (along time since we could say that!) and I'm hoping to settle down again to enjoying the simple things of life that give so much pleasure.  Just taking that bit of time out has swept the cobwebs away and given us the chance to re-evaluate and focus once again.