I may have to confess (although regular blog readers may have guessed some time ago) that I am deeply addicted to socks. This addiction seems to have increased greatly since I stopped knitting socks for others and am only knitting socks for myself.

You see I like the process of sock knitting, the choosing of the yarn, Oh the choice, that would be a whole blog post in itself. The more I look at indie dyers the more choice I find. Its got to the stage and I may have to whisper this, that I’m even thinking of hand washing my socks, Just to increase my choice of sock yarn..

Then there is the cast on with a number much less than one hundred (and sometimes not much more than fifty) so my brain doesn’t become befuddled, I don’t have to ask a hubby/child/the cat to check my number of stitches or am most likely to be found making little stitch markers out of spare yarn as an aid to my counting abilities. The choice of rib beckons, shall I knit k1,p1 or k2,p2, or K3,p1. Shall I twist the stitch or not…

Is this a pair that I have spent hours searching for just the right pattern, and there are some wonderful patterns out there. Or is it a nice plain pair that can be taken with me anywhere, which has a lovely charm within itself.

I love the heel and whether the pattern will take me in a direction I have never been before or will it be my favourite heel that fits me so perfectly. Then once the heel is turned the race towards the toe, I even love kitchener stitch. I love it all and I love it even more when I slide that finished sock onto My foot.

I try to cast on (or complete) other projects but as soon as I finish a pair of socks, whether it be plain or patterned, there is this automatic pre programmed response that finds me casting on for another pair, pattern firmly grasped in my hand, whilst I’m gently getting high on the sock yarn fumes. (to increase this effect you need to sniff the yarn, although perhaps that should be done privately, coffee shop customers have been known to raise an eyebrow or two at this sort of behaviour, although I haven’t been banned from anywhere – yet!)

Today for your pleasure I have three pairs, firstly we have stripey socks. They are very stripey and I like the colours very much, I made my mum a pair of these for Christmas. Which could be a bit odd if we happen to wear the same socks when we meet for coffee. We could be part of a secret society or underground stripy socks network, people that meet on street corners dressed in dark rain macs, wearing stripey socks to identify each other and exchanging sock yarn in brown paper bags, then to be seen rushing off to cast on. (but then again, I’m describing Ravelry aren’t I?!)

I have found something very special in these socks.

They match Perfectly. I normally have a slight difference between socks, they are hand knit after all, so by the time I’m down to the toe my knitting tension has changed somewhere, (either that or a teenager has driven me to distraction and rather than ring Dr Barnados I have taken it out on a sock) but this time, I have perfection.

Note the heels

and the other side.

and even the toes.

and what is this mysterious yarn that has worked its magic charms so wonderfully I hear you cry. I have no idea. I lost the ball band sometime ago. Normality returned!

The next pair also have hidden charms, but in a much more subtle way. They do match quite well though. (I must be improving on this sock knitting lark)

These are Austermenn Step in colourway 55. Austermenn Step is treated with jojoba and aloe vera and this makes the yarn wonderfully soft to knit with and gives your hands a conditioning treatment whilst you knit. It also remains in the yarn for forty washes, which will be a lovely treat for my calloused hooves.

I think son no.2 did a lovely job on the photography.

and the third pair, well, I just think they are stunning.

This is a lovely pattern by Mona Schmidt called Embossed Leaves. Can you see how the pattern even flows into the toes, very charming. As soon as I saw this pattern which was many, many moons ago, long before I was capable of knitting them, I knew one day I would knit them. So having conquered charts recently and having won some gorgeous, Bugga! by Sanguine Gryphon, I just love this colourway, its called Differential Grasshopper, the two came together in a wonderful marriage.

These have been an absolute joy to knit and I love them very much. And these, will always be hand washed.

Whilst working in the shed the other day, I realised that I’d heard the building of a nest and then nothing more. I wondered whether the nest had been abandoned as so often happens and hubby went to check, so that he could clear the nest box out to entice another late breeding pair.

Oops, nope not abandoned, just very quiet birds. And as annoyed as I was with myself for misreading the signs, I couldn’t help but grap my camera for a quick shot.

Seven little dicky birds.

Hubby carefully put the nest box back into place and we waited with baited breath and sure enough Mum or was it Dad flew into the nest box 30 seconds later. The following day all seems alright with their world, so no harm done.

Well it had to be the Beatles singing his birthday song didn’t it.

Happy birthday hubby.

xxx

I cannot explain to you just how happy my heart is to see our plot so productive this year.

It gives me great pride to see my greenhouse bursting at the seams, its been a tough few months but I did it. (with alot of help with the watering from hubby) There are peas, sweet peas, cabbages (summer, winter, savoy, white and red) , brussel sprouts, (early, mid season and lates) purple sprouting, black kale, lettuces, tomatoes, cucumbers, courgettes, various squashes and pumpkins, runner beans (3 varieties) borlotti beans, haricot beans, sweetcorn, leeks, ( 3 varieties) marigolds, chilli’s, basil, flat leaf parsley, coriander, chives and no doubt other treasures that I have simply forgotten about.

as space becomes available because hubby has planted our crops, I quickly fill it. (mainly with peas, but what can I say, I love peas)

A very nice looking strawberry bed starting to flower. We moved this bed in the autumn and it seems to be recovering nicely. Along with a row of lettuce, there are celery and other herbs in the foreground.

Hubby planted various brassicas for me, there are lots more to plant.

I do like that he has developed a new way to stop the mesh from sagging onto the plants this year with the addition of bamboo canes. Very Clever!

The shallots are doing nicely.

two varieties of Japanese onions, one of which is just fine and the other has not done well at all. I must make a note of that for next year.

peas, I love peas. (I may have mentioned that before!) Two rows already in and thriving. The old boys on the plot are always very suprised that I have my peas in so early and even more suprised when I show them the bag full I have collected in early June. I think I’m one of the very few that brings them on in the greenhouse first. The plants beside them are globe artichokes, which I raised from seed last year, hopefully they will fruit this year.

Parsnips have germinated well this year.

Carrots on the other hand, haven’t. This problem seems to be widespread on the plots, so just as soon as we have had a drop of rain, I shall sprinkle a few extra seeds into the rows. Radishes look good, although the flea beetle decimates there leaves so we can’t use them for salads and you can just see on the far right the beetroot which looks fine.

more onions, these are the main crop onions which will (hopefully) store well over the winter. (they need a little bit of a hand weed)

Spuds, these are first and second earlies, there are some maincrop on plot 2.

just a quick shot of the plot taken from amidst the raspberries and blackcurrants.

And even with all of these photographs there are lots of treasures I’ve missed out, to be discovered at another time.

Plot 2 just has a few rows of spuds in at the moment, but there is plenty in the greenhouse to fill it up and the preparation of the soil is almost done.

And no, I haven’t done any digging or for that matter planting, although I might try a little light work with a hoe this week.

We have been very lucky as chicken keepers that for the last six years we have not a visit from a fox, or at least not a successful one.

Sadly that has changed, three days ago, my favourite hen was killed by a fox. (I won’t go into details, its not nice) she was in separate quarters from the others as she had been poorly and was getting the first class, five star treatment and was fully restored to health. She had enjoyed her time so much in her special quarters that she preferred them to home and when let out to roam on a daily basis went back to her new nesting site, rather than her old home.

The night after, hubby and I were discussing the problem of the fox and how it was most probably a vixen as she would be getting more desperate at this time of the year as she will be feeding pups, along with how she would be back. Just at that moment, son no.1 came tearing down the stairs screaming there is a fox in the chicken run.

And we all went racing out, (well I didn’t I let the men go first) and sure enough we had a captive fox in the hen run. We also had screaming chickens. There was much running back and forth of the fox and the chickens, whilst the fox tried to get out when realising the humans and their dogs (who were useless by the way) were about.

The fox managed to escape and we were left with completely traumatised chickens. One of which had escaped and was hiding in the garden, which is very small, but at that time of night very dark and it took us several minutes to find her.

We settled them down for the night, locking them in their house. We had always thought our hen run was fox proof, which clearly it wasn’t. So had allowed our hens the freedom of their pop hole to be left open.

The next morning the chickens were opened up, they all seemed fine physically, mentally though, well, I’ve never seen anything like it before. They remained on their perches and even though I was wandering into the garden regularly, given them encouraging pep talks they told me very firmly that they were staying where they were. And they didn’t move off their perches until 2.30 p.m. This morning they took an hour to come out. They are normally full of the joys and out at first light.

Hubby has put more reinforcements in and around the hen house, closing up the tiniest of gaps.

I wonder whether the urban fox, especially the female, feeding pups urban fox is becoming more desperate as now there are no sacks of rubbish around containing food as all refuse has to be contained in the new black bins. This is not a good reason to feed them. They need to get back to the country side otherwise it won’t just be hen keepers that suffer, cat owners will too.

I’ll leave you with a quick photo of two of our hens. You can clearly see how the feathers were flying.

Some years ago, hubby and I discovered a fig tree for sale at the local garden centre. As they only wanted two of our English pounds we decided to give it a go. The variety is Brown Turkey and as we were not knowledgeable we planted it right in a corner of our house. This was a good idea as we have since found out that the roots need to be contained for the plant to fruit well and the plant needs shelter, but was also a very bad mistake as apparently the tap root can cause damage.

Its going to have to be moved next winter. (I would have moved it this winter, but as regular blog readers will know I had other things on my mind.)

(do you think it says something about me, that if I was old and decrepit and only had a few years to go, I’d say sod the house, leave it there and just enjoy the figs!)

Moving it is a shame as this year it looks like we are going to have the most fruit we have ever had off it. In all of the books I have read about fig trees it suggests that if plants are to be kept in Britain that the larger fruits that remain in the autumn that haven’t ripened should be taken off as they will rot over the winter.

Not knowing this snippet of information, I left them on that first year, the really large ones did rot, but the middle sized ones didn’t and in the spring carried on growing.

and if you look carefully at this photograph, you can see the odd big fig and the small figs that are this years growth.

Our cherry tree blossomed a couple of weeks ago, doesn’t she look so very delicate, almost like lace.

And I think there is nothing like the vigour of hostas springing strongly from the earth to show that summer is well and truly on its way.

Being at a loose end, hubby and I decided to take a little trip down the lane to look at the spring lambs bouncing in the fields. Although the light was fading I grabbed my camera just as we went out the door, if I told you were we in house slippers would you believe me. Well we were, this becomes relevant.

Travelling down the lane we were slightly giddy, we are the kind of folk that will just dash off to see the sights around here, whether its spring lambs, the blue bells in the woods or shooting stars, it gives us the greatest of pleasure.

When, just as we were approaching the field of lambs that we were heading for, we could clearly see a dark object bouncing around the wrong side of the fence and a fully grown sheep the right side of the fence that was clearly in distress, calling very loudly.

“Oh no, one’s got out!” eloquent as always I am.

Hubby quickly stopped the car and we both jumped out, I still had my camera in my hand.

Wading through knee high stinging nettles (in slippers) we very quickly cornered the lamb, one photo later, (look at those ears!) and hubby carefully lowered the lamb over the fence.. Your heart is in your throat when your doing things such as this, just in case the lamb dashes into the road and a car is coming. But what choice do you have, if you leave it there, its likely to come to harm one way or another.

Mum quickly called her lamb to her and off they trotted, looking the picture of contentment.

When, from out the blue, gamboling towards mum, there was two!

All say aaaaah..

Edited to add, we then found the hole in the fence, called one of the farms we know who my father used to work for and the farmer will be telling the owner of the sheep tomorrow and just where the weakness is in the fencing..

Casting a critical eye around the kitchen I noticed that there were two loaves of stale bread hanging around. Which is when I thought about my grandmothers wonderful bread pudding. They should have built castles with it, it was that solid it would have kept the cannon balls at bay, but it was very tasty and there was always a scramble for it if my mum was lucky enough to bring a tray of it home. My grandmothers was the standard bread pudding mix, this has turned into bread pudding with a little something added.

I knew there was some banana’s that were getting to the extremely ripe stage and so an idea was born.

I found dried fruit from Christmas along with some lovely candied peel and I was on the scent of hubby’s secret stash of Wood’s Rum. If you like rum, you would love that.

Recipe Ingredients,

1 stale loaf
less than a cup of milk
3 banana’s
a few handfuls of dried fruit
half an handful of candied peel
2 tables spoons (or one good slosh) of rum
2 eggs, beaten.
4 oz (or there abouts) brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 freshly grated nutmeg.

So after cutting the bread up into smallish cubes I soaked it in less than a cup of milk. Leave it to soak for a while.

I soaked a few handfuls of dried fruit in a few tablespoons of rum,

after soaking I added them to the bowl of bread and milk. Mashed three bananas together and added them. The smell of the banana’s and rum was divine. Resisting the urge to pour myself a snifter, I added the rest of the ingredients to the bowl.

I then divided the mix between two loaf tins

and placed in a pre heated oven of 180 C for about an hour. It might take longer, just make sure its not wet in the middle.

Leave in the tin to cool.

Then cut up and enjoy.

I was woken this morning with a vast electrical storm playing its merry tune above my head. The like of which I don’t think I’ve ever heard before. Sensibly or not, I stayed in bed with a nice hot cup of tea provided by my lovely husband.

The one thing I have noticed since starting to knit, is that I stay warmer. Which was the plan, that I should stay warmer but I hadn’t realised just how much I would come to love my woollies.

Later on I decided to walk up to town which is the first time I have entertained such a thought since my operation. I knew even though I was walking (at a snails pace) I would need my winter woollies today. I donned scarf, hat, gloves, cardigan, ( and coat) and socks and had a very enjoyable walk. Okay it was slow, but that gave me more time to appreciate how wonderfully warm my woollies were keeping me and how spring was sprung. I love the spring flowers, they always seem to look so perfect and vibrant against there often bleak background.

One pot of tulips are displaying beautifully at the moment, I’m so glad the storm didn’t batter them to the ground.

I finished my Show-off Stranded Socks, which is the perfect pattern for a short row variegated sock yarn. I love the way the stitch highlights the yarn, its lovely. This is a Fyberspates Sock yarn, I have no idea what though.

But it is very pretty.

And then I finished a hat, well actually I found it. I finished it ages ago, then lost it, and found it yesterday. Its shocking the admissions that this blogger makes about her housekeeping abilities. So I quickly photographed it, before I lost it again. Its Hawthorne by Tanis Gray, knit up in Manos del Uruguay Manos Silk Blend. Its a lovely pattern and not nearly as complicated as it looks.
Hat with flash.

and without.

and last but by no means least.

This arrived yesterday, drum roll…..

…………………..

Yes, my very first Wollmeise Lace, (not that I’m an addict or anything. – yeah right!)

Its called Terra di Siena. Which according to the translation on the Wollmeise site means Earth of Siena (Italian)

Laying there like a hussy,

I’m not saying I mugged my husband and forced him under duress to help me wind this into cakes as soon as he walked through the door when he finished work.

But it was a pretty close thing!

So refreshed from my walk, I shall sit down with a lovely cup of tea and work on the lace pattern called Kiri, I’m not sure about gauge or what I’m looking for yet, as this is my first lace, but I’ll know it when I find it.

As I snuggled into my Emerald Cardigan the other day I realised that I hadn’t finished blogging about it. I thought I’d best get on with that job otherwise it would start to look a little tatty, considering the amount of wear it gets, before the final photographs.

Anyway this is it, with a huge button. I’d had trouble trying to find a button until I found Roles Woodcraft.

Les couldn’t have been more helpful and went way beyond the call of duty to provide me with a button that I was absolutely content with.

I only noticed after I’d taken photographs that there are a couple of water marks that had happened earlier. I’m sure they will disappear with a little wax.

It really is a wonderful button.