{hmm; tastes... different}

Summer

 

It's officially summer! Queens Jubilee and long weekend. I'm planning to clean, garden and picnic. My gardens are being so neglected this year it's shameful, but I try to go easy on myself, what with a newborn and all.

 

The Experimental Division

Can you guess what this is?

Who would have thought leaving a load of oca tubers in a paper bag in your kitchen til the end of May would create such a beautiful mess?

I knew there was a reason we never planted/ate those ocas ;).

 

Garden Museum

 

This must count as one of my favourite places here in London. Set in the premises of the abandoned ancient church of St Mary’s sits the Garden Museum. This museum is small and intimate and run predominantly by voluntary means. It is surrounded by a lovely little garden of its own and it has a cafe which serves vegetarian food where there are always plenty of tasty vegan options.

 

Friday

Finally Friday! And the sun is out. The throw is taking forever to finish. Especially as both Teds and Ness have taken a liking to it and insist on lying on top of it while I'm working which makes matters more complicated. Ness has got her uncut claws stuck in it three times already. Am on my way out with the hens' evening treat. Better dash before they get really cross. They're normally happily munching away by now!

 

Another One

 

Being in a much shadier position than my other tree peony this yellow beauty is flowering now. I had almost forgot how much floral bounty there is this time of year. Our Wisteria is flowering in the front garden together with our lovely, fragrant yellow rose that is so wonderfully loyal, she never fails us.

It has been unseasonably cold, grey and dull here every day for two weeks now and raining pretty much non stop and the rain keeps pouring down outside my window as I write this. I love looking out at the rain and I quite like being in the rain once in a while too, but even I am ready for it to stop now. It is supposed to be spring after all and we've got plenty of vegetable plants that need to go in.

By the way, did you see the children's clothes at Jakeandmaya? Such playful charm and they are made in the UK too, which is unusual these days; local and loveable children's clothes! I got the gorgeous "Charlotte Dolly Top" for Pixie, and this  + a dress which has sold out now it seems. Yes, not cheap, but definitely worth it!

 

Finishing Off

 

Ok, I have declared war on all half finished projects existing within these four walls in a real way now. That throw is going to be assembled once and for all, period. It's planned to serve as a cover up for our small sofa which is miserable looking and charcoal coloured and screaming for a throw of a scrappy looking, homely sort, so there it is. I have also begun the Pixie quilt now, but it is going to take a while to finish as it involves a whole lot of embroidery and I want J to have time to get stuck in too. But as the bank holiday is approaching, we'll hopefully have a little spare time to work on it somewhere in between planting the vegetable seedlings and painting the cot bed.

I had so hoped to receive our new garden tree bench by now so we could have put that up too, but of course I had to miss the delivery and now it won't arrive 'til Tuesday. If you're waiting for a delivery, especially if it is one that you are really excited about, don't even think about going out for as much as a second, I repeat, DO NOT GO OUT, because that is when it will arrive and you know it, such is the natural law of things. Sigh. Happy bank holiday to you british peeps and I suppose just happy weekend to the rest of you! I, for one, am really looking forward to this one!

 

Tree Peonies

 

Photograph by Johan Krantz ©

I'm happy I managed to preserve our flowering tree peony on camera before it swiftly rained away last week. Sort of regret I didn't take them indoors so I could have wondered at their beauty a little longer. The colour rendition of my own photos were totally out though, so I single-handedly decided to steal Johan's pictures and put them out here instead. I suppose I should tell him when he comes back home from work, right?

Photograph by Johan Krantz ©

Photograph by Johan Krantz ©

Photograph by Johan Krantz ©

And in the process of stealing my sweetheart's peony pictures I also came across this photo of a shady corner in our garden. Reminds me I haven't seen our toads this spring. One of them (they're two) usually hibernates under that log behind the bucket together with a dozen slugs and snails. So breakfast is near after a long winter's sleep. Johan has got a sudden obsession with The Apprentice(!?) and I have been informed via sms that I shall be allowed to go to bed early (I am knackered from nighttime baby feeds these days) as long as it is after Apprentice, so I suppose I will be watching it tonight!

 

Raining = Baking and Project Making

 

It was raining all last week, so most of it was spent indoors crocheting, making Black Banana Cake and hoping that all this rain would make a difference to the hosepipe ban, but knowing that it would not. (And how often do I use the hose anyway? I hear you ask. Well, almost never! I just think I will.) I only ventured out to the back of the garden for short spells in an effort to keep the three feathered musketeers out there in good spirit. They spend most of the rainy days hiding under the lower ceiling parts of their run, even though most of it actually is covered and so is not affected by the rain anyway. I guess they just prefer to stay a bit more cosy when the rain is pouring down and who can blame them for that?

Monday morning.

If it continues like this I will surely manage to finish off some of all those half finished projects I have been meaning to finish since before P was born. After that, it has been a bit of a standstill on the project front. There was the huge crocheted granny blanket from way back here that still needs assembling, a knitted patchwork blanket and a doily tablecloth project which I'm not sure I ever mentioned, the Floyd Pullover from 'Vintage Baby Knits' which I never finished because I needed more of the Blue Sky Alpacas organic cotton yarn (which I love by the way) that I was using in "Sage" and now can't find in this colourway anywhere in all of the UK, grunt, and then there's the shop bought blanket my mom gifted that I'm adding crocheted edging to and that embroidered cot quilt that Johan and I had plans on making together for P before she was born, using embroidered patches with images that would represent her future life (and it's still happening indeed).

 

Min vackra.

 

So there she was. A gazillion of knitted baby bootees and even more cupcakes later. My Beautiful. She arrived during a cold spell, "The Big Freeze", on the second last day of January... born in the early winter morning warmth of our home. There and then our lives changed forever and I can't believe it is almost three months ago already.

Cosy News

All is drawing in here at the Flavour Farm. Autumn is really here now. Even the Duchesse and the Baronesse seem closer than usual. Those two hardly ever go close to each other if it's not to give the other a cheeky pinch. Still matters have seemed a bit cosy here lately.

This is big news; The Baronesse and the Duchesse are snuggling! They're like two little yin and yangs together in their basket.

This is how I found the Baronesse recently. Yes, it seems we are all calming down and nestling up after summer. The oven has been on non stop today and tonight we're having a lazy night in with steaming, warm mushroom toasties and just baked raspberry chocolate petit fours.