Little words of wisdom

 

Peace...

www.allposters.co.uk

Father, Mother, God,

Thank you for your presence during the hard and mean days.

For then we have you to lean upon.

Thank you for your presence during the bright and sunny days.

For then we can share that which we have with those who have less.

And thank you for your presence during the Holy Days.

For then we are able to celebrate you and our families and our friends

For those who have no voice, we ask you to speak.

For those who feel unworthy, we ask you to pour your love out in waterfalls of tenderness.

For those who live in pain, we ask you to bathe them in the river of your healing.

For those who are lonely, we ask you to keep them company.

For those who are depressed, we ask you to shower upon them the light of hope.

Dear Creator, You, the borderless sea of substance, we ask you to give to all the world that which we need most.....PEACE.

Maya Angelou

(4th April 1928 - 28th May 2014) 

Little words of wisdom

 

Peace...

www.allposters.co.uk

Father, Mother, God,

Thank you for your presence during the hard and mean days.

For then we have you to lean upon.

Thank you for your presence during the bright and sunny days.

For then we can share that which we have with those who have less.

And thank you for your presence during the Holy Days.

For then we are able to celebrate you and our families and our friends

For those who have no voice, we ask you to speak.

For those who feel unworthy, we ask you to pour your love out in waterfalls of tenderness.

For those who live in pain, we ask you to bathe them in the river of your healing.

For those who are lonely, we ask you to keep them company.

For those who are depressed, we ask you to shower upon them the light of hope.

Dear Creator, You, the borderless sea of substance, we ask you to give to all the world that which we need most.....PEACE.

Maya Angelou

(4th April 1928 - 28th May 2014) 

Little words of wisdom

 

And then there were four

Raised bed number four has been added to the kitchen garden!  With the four main beds now in place, we can decide what size the last two should be.  The first are all 6'x4', but the remaining two beds will have to be smaller so that it will still be comfortable to work around them easily. We have yet to measure up properly, but the space on the right will most likely have to have either a 6'x3' or 4'x4' bed.  As for the left-hand side, I'm leaning towards putting in either a 3'x3' or 4'x4 bed to use as a cold-frame.  Decisions, decisions!  

This area is still on the kitchen garden side, higher up behind the nature pond.  It's where we had one of those very unsuitable sycamore trees which had to come down when we first moved in.  We were so busy with the lower part of the garden that we more or less left this area to it's own devices over the summer ~ hence all the weeds wildflowers!

Adrian worked very hard clearing and levelling the ground on what is going to become our fruit cage.  

And here's the finished result ~ a sea of weed-suppressing membrane at the moment!  Needless to say we managed to choose a somewhat windy couple of days to lay said membrane, which made the procedure a tad tricky 😉  Three raised beds are going in here, although they won't be as tall as those in the lower garden.  The plan is to cut out and peel back the membrane in the beds once they are in place so that more soil can be added for the bushes/canes to be planted in and, of course, they will be able to send their roots down into the soil that's already there.  

I emptied out this little border earlier in the summer, putting the plants in the kitchen garden borders.  The border was already here when we moved in but it's not in a very good place as it's so easy to trip when coming round the corner with a wheelbarrow.  We've decided that the whole of this space will make a nice patio area so the border will be filled with concrete in due course, as will the ground currently covered with the blue tarp in the photo above this one.  An expanse of concrete doesn't sound very attractive, I know, but I already have a pair of narrow wooden planters that I'm going to place at the front edge, along with an old galvanised water tank.  They should look very pretty when they are planted up, and once we have a bench and table there too the concrete hopefully won't be so dominant!  It will just be so nice to have an area to sit and relax, and watch our garden grow 😊 

I see a blanket.....

 .....or two in my future 😉

Believe it or not, I downsized my stash of yarn considerably before we moved up here.  We've lived here for over 2 1/2 years now and I still haven't done anything much with the yarn I did bring with me, it's just been languishing in a corner of the guest bedroom!  I must confess that this photo does makes the stash look a tad smaller than it actually is.....way back in the right-hand corner is a pretty large bag full of yarn that's hidden by all the other bags piled in front of it 😮  We're hoping that work can start on the guest bedroom sometime in the early part of next year, so I thought I really ought to start sorting out everything in there.  I've found a few blankets that were already started but for some reason none of them have the crochet hooks I was using still with them, so I've decided to frog them all and start from scratch.  

I would like another lap-blanket for myself (I actually want a couple more in the living room), and I was thinking that I could also crochet two or three as gifts ~ there is more than enough yarn in that stash to make them with. 

So I had a rummage and started the stash-busting exercise by pulling out all this Stylecraft Special double-knit.  They are 100g balls and there is a lot of 'em as you can see ~ I have a very vague recollection that I had planned to use them to make a blanket for our bed.  I really like this acrylic yarn; considering how reasonably priced it is, it's surprisingly soft and hard-wearing.

I decided what order to place the colours and here's the start of my first stash-buster.  It's a pattern I've used several times before from Jane Brocket's book The Gentle Art of Knitting.  The original pattern uses lots of different colours and with the first blanket I made I followed the pattern closely, albeit using the Stylecraft Special double-knit yarn instead of the Cascade Aran-weight, matching the colours as closely as possible.  I really like the pattern, in particular the random nature of the stripes.  It's a very simple pattern and once the foundation rows have been made there is an easy, gentle rhythm to it.  The pattern calls for a 4.5mm hook as it's using an Aran-weight yarn but I like to use the same size even with the double-knit as I prefer the slightly looser feel it gives to the stitches.  I have also increased the starting chain (adding an extra couple of the pattern-making multiples) to make the blanket slightly wider.  I've found that the pattern works no matter how many ~ or few ~ colours are used.  The original pattern has twenty different colours, the one I have just started is using seven: mocha, duck egg, petrol, cream, sage, stone and storm blue.  I love the combination of colours, and to my eye they have a Scandinavian feel to them. 

Of course, I now have the dilemma of whether to make this blanket as a gift to myself or to give to someone else!  Hopefully there will be enough yarn there to make a couple of blankets, then I won't have to make a decision at all 😃 

Peace...

www.allposters.co.uk

Father, Mother, God,

Thank you for your presence during the hard and mean days.

For then we have you to lean upon.

Thank you for your presence during the bright and sunny days.

For then we can share that which we have with those who have less.

And thank you for your presence during the Holy Days.

For then we are able to celebrate you and our families and our friends

For those who have no voice, we ask you to speak.

For those who feel unworthy, we ask you to pour your love out in waterfalls of tenderness.

For those who live in pain, we ask you to bathe them in the river of your healing.

For those who are lonely, we ask you to keep them company.

For those who are depressed, we ask you to shower upon them the light of hope.

Dear Creator, You, the borderless sea of substance, we ask you to give to all the world that which we need most.....PEACE.

Maya Angelou

(4th April 1928 - 28th May 2014) 

Little words of wisdom

 

Peace...

www.allposters.co.uk

Father, Mother, God,

Thank you for your presence during the hard and mean days.

For then we have you to lean upon.

Thank you for your presence during the bright and sunny days.

For then we can share that which we have with those who have less.

And thank you for your presence during the Holy Days.

For then we are able to celebrate you and our families and our friends

For those who have no voice, we ask you to speak.

For those who feel unworthy, we ask you to pour your love out in waterfalls of tenderness.

For those who live in pain, we ask you to bathe them in the river of your healing.

For those who are lonely, we ask you to keep them company.

For those who are depressed, we ask you to shower upon them the light of hope.

Dear Creator, You, the borderless sea of substance, we ask you to give to all the world that which we need most.....PEACE.

Maya Angelou

(4th April 1928 - 28th May 2014) 

Little words of wisdom