3:15 project, update 16

Photos 1 and 2 have nothing to distinguish them this week; all "move away, nothing to see..." Here's pic 3. There are clearer areas down both sides...


And pic 4. Apart from the fennel and lilies on the left, there's the dyed tops for the Tour de Fleece [Ravelry link] on the right...

Lilies have happened! without being completely eaten by the utterly disgusting lily grubs...

And there are pretty things in pots...


A chunk of this week's progress - some ground elder pulled out...

Meanwhile, at the other side of the garden, the flowering currant I thought I'd killed is making a comeback. I'm not unhappy about this - as long as I can control it... I really like the smell, the look and the early flowering. And BoyNextDoor has removed all the dead stuff from the top of the fence, so there's a lot more light...

Self-satisfied cat is also making her appearance...



The other thing I've been doing today is boggling at the Boss's appearances at Glastonbury last night. Go to iPlayer for the main thing...; but I also loved his appearance with Gaslight Anthem

After all the Michael Jackson business over the last few days (I loved Thriller, and it's a very sad day for pop, but I was glad Springsteen's tribute was to Joe Strummer) it's so good to see someone a decade older looking cool, sharp, fit, healthy and totally enthusiastic about what he's doing... And love the leather wellies, Bruce...

More spinning, and a plan...

I did more spinning last weekend - this time using a plait of merino from Limegreenjelly (currently at Woolfest along with the rest of the UK knitting population...), bought at the Brighton Knit Safari last year. I called this Agincourt, because of the colours in the pennants and sky of the Olivier film of Henry V; but I gather it's all been remixed and brightened up recently, so the lovely bright pastels I remember weren't actually in the original film...

In its unplaited state...

Split up for spinning...

Singles...


And all plied up...

It goes surprisingly well with the yarns I showed you last time - probably something to do with my purple fixation.


And a rare shot - the Bug and the wheel in any sort of proximity. She dislikes the wheel intensely. It could be because of Stackhouse, the Folkmanis lamb-puppet I won in a random KAL draw, which sits on the flier when the wheel's not in use, or it could just be because it's Something Demanding Attention When I Am Here...


The Plan... I've worked out what to do with these yarns and a couple of others. More tomorrow...

3:15 project, updates 14 and in fact 15

I've got fed up at being a week behind; and the differences over the last couple of weeks have been largely invisible at my usual photographic angles; so here we go...

Additionally, I've discovered that my newly-installed IE8 (which everyone I've whined to about it also hates) doesn't play nicely with Blogger on the matter of photos at all; so I've switched to Firefox for editing. MSFail...

Pic 1, no change really; the limes are getting sticky and unpleasant, but they always do; and I don't have a car to get coated in their rather unpleasant juices and attract wasps, so why should I care?

Pic 2, the hanging baskets are growing in and getting pretty (and they're the miner's canary for the rest of the outdoor stuff... if they start wilting I know watering the other pots outside is urgent...)

Pic 3: the main difference - the loss of the huge holly bush - is at the far end of the garden and so unnoticed... you can see a chunk of it on the right-hand side of the patio though most of it is in the green bin...

And no 4: up the garden...

The lilies are preparing to bloom. So far no sign of lily beetles but I'm not holding my breath...

I put in a new edging on the bed under the rose-bush - it's not the straightest edging ever, but it will do the job, and I have another stretch of the same stuff (bamboo sticks fastened together with wire, from Wilkinson's) to carry on the work... I planted some bronze-leaved dahlias (which I have no great hopes of, the snails having feasted on them before they even made it to the flower-bed) and a perennial geranium (which might survive)...

And possibly the earliest ripening tomato I've ever had. This is from a very spindly plant I bought way too early and which sat on the kitchen windowsill for months growing upwards but never bushing outwards...

Sunday spinning

Last Sunday it was rainy, and dark, and I was tired after the Feast and spending the evening sawing up branches. I had a good audiobook (John Connolly's The Reapers) read by the wonderful Jeff Harding, and 72 grammes of merino/silk roving from Wingham, a souvenir of the Bradford Trip five years ago (which turned into SkipNorth the following year)

I stripped it down in accordance with SamuraiKnitter's instructions, which makes it much easier to spin something finer.

Turned it into singles...

And plied it. Pretty yarn...

There's about 100m of it, and it's sort of a DK weight. I have other things which will match it - top to bottom, some Cherry Tree Hill merino/silk DK which was a present from Gill when she came to stay in February, the new handspun, and some Artist's Palette Buttersoft DK bought at Stash...

Not sure what it's going to be yet, but it'll tell me at some point... I have signed up for the Tour de Fleece this year on the strength of it, anyway... I want to spend half an hour a day spinning, just to get some kind of momentum going...

3:15 project, update 13

Last week's photos, having failed to catch up... I'll try and put today's photos up today, too...

No real change to photo 1, and Bannolds' van was parked up outside last weekend...

Not much to picture 2, either, but the hanging baskets are growing in nicely;

The main job for the weekend was clearing away the large quantity of greenery I'd chopped down the previous week; after a wonderful day on Saturday, Sunday was pretty miserable - it rained solidly until about 2pm; but by about 4pm I'd managed to clear it...

The rain did mean I didn't need to water things this weekend...

The Alpine strawberries are in fruit...

The geraniums (OK, pelargoniums) are starting to flower. I'm mildly obsessive about getting red ones - which seem to be in short supply in recent years. There's something not-quite-right about any other colour...

And some of the plants from the Feast which need planting out - in the pink pot, a Fuchsia, behind that a phlox; then there's a pink perennial geranium (they're allowed to be other colours), a dahlia, some blue morning glories, a couple of crystanthemums, a perennial sweet pea, and a couple of bedding plants which looked pretty on the label; but I can't remember what they are...

A shameless plug

You might know from previous posts that I'm a bit of a Joshilyn Jackson fan. So over on her blog she's running a contest for a signed copy of her newly-paperbacked The Girl Who Stopped Swimming (link to Amazon here which doesn't seem to list a UK edition of the paperback yet...), and another contest for people like me prepared to give the book a mention on a blog or website. I don't need any persuading, as those previous posts will tell - there aren't many authors whose work I'll pre-order from the US; this is a tremendous book and I'm already looking forward to the next one, Backseat Saints, in spring 2010.

That time of year again (2)

So - this was Waterbeach Brass, in the middle of an enthusiastic rendition of Born Free. I don't think we got the film medley this year, although I think I might have heard Eye of the Tiger in the distance... I really don't mean to snark them because they play really well; but as an ex-trombonist, I'd like to opine that playing a little bit of good old fashioned brass band stuff, or a bit of classical, would also be lovely; and they do have a captive audience...

In previous years, I've put up pictures of the parade. However, members of my family who take photos have had difficulty with taking pictures of children in a church (baptism) setting in the last year or so, so although I'd just have shown you the usual pictures of children enjoying themselves by dressing up and walking around the village, I'm reluctant to do so now... So although I had some perfectly nice photos of Pocohantases, and Christmas trees, and other children who'd obviously put a lot of effort into their costumes... here are some adults.

Here are the Pirates of the Caribbean - sorry E-J, no Johnny Depps - we really don't have the budget even if he's only in France at the moment.... And sorry, WI; the Pirates are with the Young Wives this year...

I suspect the I.P. stood for something. But I loved the idea of a WIP ranch - we could all go there, corrall in our Works in Progress and do something about them...

This was where the man with the inflatable trousers would have been... unfortunately, sticking with the library stand for the rest of the afternoon was a bit too entertaining...

Now, was it just me, or would anyone else find these "prizes" a bit disturbing? Yes, those are cows, above the Scoobies.

Or this? (I am not a vegetarian, but Barnyard Amusements is possibly a bit spicy...)

Anyway, that's it for another year, sadly...

That time of year again

It's Feast Day here on the Green - and they're all set up. The Army-type stuff in the middle is for the final bit of the programme when we'll see a bridge being built... there's been a bit of a hiatus in Army involvement for the last few years for obvious reasons, but looks as if there are enough of them this year...

This is what it looks like down my end of the Green - slightly more commercial. I have Thomas the Tank Engine just outside...

And here's the action-packed programme for the afternoon - click to embiggen...

We have candy-floss, we have tombolas, we have frumenty, we have ABBA blasting away in the distance, we have the promise of exotic animals (normally that slot is taken up by Dog Obedience so it'll be interesting to see how exotic the animals actually are this year) and Waterbeach Brass doing their now-famous annual rendition of the themes from Star Wars and Pirates of the Caribbean, among other things. This year we have actual Caribbean Pirates - middle-aged men in Johnny Depp wigs - on the WI stall; also Cowboys, one with very strange inflatable hobby-horse trousers... That's as close as I can get to a description - I'll try and get photos...


The theme this year is Something beginning with C. (No idea why but it's as good as anything else... beats Global Economic Melt-Down or something equally topical.) We have seriously cheap plants grown locally... and we have a library bookstall with several thousand books - I'll be putting in a couple of hours there this afternoon. The pubs are open and the weather's brightening up...

What more could one village want...

The band are starting; better go...

3:15 project update 12

This week: "Someone give me a river to forge, a serpent to slay...*" Also, regicide.

Nothing to see on photo 1...

Photo 2: bit clearer than last week: and a lot sunnier... Note lack of greenery at high level... and planted-up baskets (more on that later)...

Photo 3: note big black space on left-hand side - the Flowering Currant is no more... More on that later...

Photo 4: nothing much to see so not included...

The rose has started flowering - and the sky was so blue...

The hanging baskets aren't anything unusual - the "garden centre" I can get to easily is Focus DIY round the corner from Cambridge Station, so they're just petunias and lobelia, but they'll be pretty if I can keep them watered...


Here's what's left of the flowering currant, along with the somewhat Fearsome Saw used to cut it down... Saw is around 12" long folded, for scale...

... and here's what I've got to chop up small enough to get into the green bin - although I'm going to keep some of the long straight sticks to see if they'll make bean-poles/tripods etc. next year...

The regicide bit - turns out the flowering currant I beheaded was Ribes sanguinam Edward VII.

Oops.

* yes, that was a West Wing quote, and of course a Josh quote. Episode 2... as I was hauling the third or fourth absurdly enormous branch up the garden, the thought came to mind...