November 20, 2010 · 10:24 pm

The Christmas markets are in full swing

How come when there’s lot’s going on fate steps in and throws a few unexpected odds and ends into the mix to make things a little bit more complicated?

Last Saturday, just as I was gearing up for the Christmas market season and preparing to deal with a garden makeover my poor Elsie was attacked by a neighbour’s gun dog.   I thought she was a gonner, but she’s made of tough stuff.   Full of punctures and with a backend as bald as a coot, we brought our bedraggled and traumatised hen into the house where she has been nursed for a week.  A trip to the ben, antibiotics and anti inflammatories seem to have got us over the worst thank goodness.  Chickens do not like being confined – this one decided she was going to dig herself out one day – what a mess!  Now she’s back in the coop with her pals so we watch and hope.

In the garden I have installed another feature plant.   I’ve rescued a pittisporun which was destined for the bonfire.   It was about 8 ft high but was chopped and stuffed into my little van and fortunately seems to be taking.

Meanwhile the Christmas market season is getting well into its stride.   Today I took our signs, wreaths and Christmas goodies to Albion Place – really enjoyed it and am looking forward to next month when we’re there again.  Tomorrow it’s Green Hammerton and next week Chapel Allerton Lights switch on.

Here’s the schedule so far!  Come and say hello if you can make any of them…..

 

Sunday 21 Nov

  

Christmas Fair

 Main Furniture Company, The Green
Green Hammerton, York, North Yorkshire YO26 8BQ		 10am – 5pm
Wednesday 24th November Chapel Allerton Lights Switch On Stainbeck Corner, Chapel Allerton 6pm
Saturday 27 Nov Woodhouse Grove Christmas Fair Woodhouse Grove School, Apperley Bridge, 

BD10 ONR

 

 10am – 1pm
Sunday 28th November Hob House Farm Christmas Fair Hob House Farm, Holmsley Lane, South Kirkby WF9 3JB 10am – 4pm
Tuesday 30th November Ramada Encore Christmas Market Whinby Road
Dodworth
Barnsley
S75 3LF		 6 – 9pm
Friday 3rd December St Gemma’s Christmas Fair 329 Harrogate Road, Moortown, Leeds LS17 6QD 3pm – 8pm
Saturday 4th December St Gemma’s Christmas Fair 329 Harrogate Road, Moortown, Leeds LS17 6QD 10am – 3pm
Friday 10th December Leeds University Union Leeds University, Leeds 1 10am – 3pm TBC
Tuesday 14th December Christmas Market & Gospel Choir 20 Stainbeck Lane
Chapel Allerton
Leeds, LS7 3QY		 6.00 pm – 9pm
Saturday 18th December Artsmix at Albion Place Leeds City Centre 11am – 5pm
Sunday 19th December Pure Genius Craft Centre 3-5 Grape Lane
York YO1 7HU		 10am – 4pm

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November 9, 2010 · 11:59 am

Cabbages and Chickens

This caused a bit of hilarity when I handed it over.   I like the idea of using something different  in arrangements so here’s a savoy cabbage hollowed out and filled with rosebuds.   I’m planning to make a few of these at Christmas filled with red roses or carnations and just lightly sprayed with some silver sparkles.

At home the hens are definitely not happy about the weather and the lack of daylight.   If I let them out in the morning before daylight their little heads peer at me from their perches as if I’m mad.  I can almost hear them ticking me off for getting them out of bed too soon.  However if I leave it too long Elsie gets in a proper tizzie.    Current egg laying time is about 7.45 and current egg laying location is a corner of the shed where she found some left over bear grass which is now a nest so I have to let her out or else.

Meanwhile the other two – Ivy and Daisy are so ravenous having been cooped up for such a long night they make a beeline for the breakfast bowl.   Current breakfast being warm mash – yum!

Egg laying is dropping off a bit from these two girls but Elsie, once she’s settled in the shed, continues to lay an egg every day without fail.   So on that basis alone I think she deserves to lay her egg wherever she wants to.

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October 31, 2010 · 9:03 am

Happy Halloween

Time to light the candles and draw the curtains now the clocks have gone back this week.  To celebrate Halloween I’ve hollowed out pumpkins for a display at Harewood’s Autumn Glory and at the Mustard Pot in Leeds.   These roses are just perfect as well, brilliantly coloured yellow with orange edging to the petals they look good with the orange dyed grevillea leaping like flames around the black candle.

Here on the table you can see I’ve surrounded the pumpkin with dried pomegranates, little squash and maize.

At home all I need to do is dig out some sweeties for the hoardes and prepare for the onslaught!

In the garden there’s still work to do.   Yesterday and very much in keeping with the Halloween weekend I planted some garlic – it’s an ideal time to plant between now and mid November.  And I still have my broad beans to get in, but when I looked in the packet thinking there were plenty I only had 8 left from this spring, so not much use, another thing on the to do list.

Enjoy the fun and games!

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October 18, 2010 · 1:47 pm

It’s all about the weather

I’ve looked back over my entries and I am clearly obsessed with the weather.  I certainly have a very weather dependent occupation  but I hadn’t realised how much of my blog was connected to it.

The seasons are a big part of day to day life as well, and as it comes up to Halloween I’ve been thinking about flowers in pumpkins and about fiery orange colours.   I’m not generally a big fan of gerberas (they’re a bit too perfect looking) but these are a great colour for this time of year and actually once I’d done it I really quite liked this neat little table arrangement.

Chilli jam is on the agenda this afternoon.   I’ve never had such a bumper crop ever.  I know you can dry then, freeze them and of course cook with them but at this rate I shall be eating chillis till the cows come home.   So in my bid to preserve everything surplus from the garden this year I’m experimenting with chilli jam.  I’ll let you know how it goes.

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October 16, 2010 · 8:00 am

Ive finished digging the lawn!

At last I’ve dug over the patch that will be a lawn – honest!  Here we were half way through, but it took 3 solid digging sessions to finish it.  Now all I have to do is rake and rake and rake until I get all the stones out, and believe me there are lots.

The weather sounds as though it may be colder next week which is a shame though because I’d really like to seed it and I need a bit of warmth to germinate the seed….let’s see though.

Pictures have arrived of the wedding party flowers I did 3 or 4 weeks ago.   It was in a giant tipi, well 2 tipis joined together which was big enough to seat 110 people.  It had a really nice feel about it, informal but special.   And each of the tables had a ring of beautiful flowers with a hedgerow feel to them, so I added crab apples, rose hips and berries in   rich red and autumn colours with a great big candle in the centre of each with 3 wicks so they added a lovely light as darkness fell.

There was room for a great swag to hang from the central beam made up of red and cream roses, astilbe, ivy and more berries and greenery, but that was a real nightmare to photograph.  I guess it was a couple of metres long so it kind of loses it as a picture.

 

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October 15, 2010 · 4:49 pm

Orange…..

I’ve just put this together from left overs and I’m quite pleased with it – I had some orange roses and a bit of amaranthus and so hey presto an orange rosebowl it is….. meanwhile in the oven we have oranges drying so I can start on the Christmas wreaths and things.  The great Christmas craft fair season is getting underway.

Tomorrow I’m popping into one in Ossett where you can see and order our signs at Mrs Madden’s house, her speciality is pinnies, customised and vintage ones (see http://www.mrsmaddenmakes.co.uk).

Next week we go to Harewood House for Autumn Glory on Tuesday 26th.  Looking forward to it, there’s children’s storytelling, broomstick making and leaf printing and a farmers market and craft market, and more (just can’t remember what else at the mo….) so I need to get busy!

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September 23, 2010 · 9:12 pm

Floral overload

I love flowers….but I was feeling ever so slightly overwhelmed by them today…there was nowhere else for them to go! Thank goodness it was a nice day.  I think I need another shed.   25 table arrangements done and delivered though.

Onwards and upwards – tomorrow we’re onto wedding flowers.

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September 19, 2010 · 11:46 am

Soggy Sunday

No digging today!  It’s very wet out there.   But yesterday I did at last start on the bit of compacted mud that is to be the lawn.  I dug a border, or a circle.  I’d rescued a little acer ages ago and it’s been suffering in a pot and then in a temporary spot, looking very fed up – well about to die I suspect, now at last it has a home.
There are bricks all over my so called garden so I’m recycling, and they make a perfect edging, yet again.
Damp hens today.   Generally Daisy is determined to lay her eggs outside but because it’s raining on her favourite spot there’s no egg today – so where on earth is it?  Well I’m not going hunting now – it’s chucking it down, I’ll let you know if it turns up.

Now I suspect it’s going to be a Sunday of newspapers, telly and I probably have no way to avoid the ironing – oh joy….

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September 15, 2010 · 12:24 pm

What now for the Veg Patch

It has been a great year for courgettes!  Everyone who’s grown them seems to have had so many that all the recipes in the world have been tried.   I’ve turned them into chutney, fritters, soup, ratatouille and even cake….

And it’s great to go out into the garden and dig up the potatoes and go our harvesting and then bring them into the kitchen, but what now that the summer season is over?

I’ve left it late to do much with overwintering vegetables so I could  sow a green manure.   Garden centres will have them in now but  I might sow something like red clover which will fix nitrogen into the soil.  I could simply sow the seed on empty ground and let it get on with it over the winter.   When I would normally dig over the patch for spring sowing I can dig the green manure into the soil and  instantly fed the soil for the coming season.

It’s not too late for some things, winter varieties of spinach and lettuce can still go in but I’ll probably be harvesting them in the spring.  Or if I spot some little plants in the garden centre I might cheat with some greens or cabbages.   I’ve got some parsnips in but I pulled a couple out today and was really disappointed with them.  They weren’t straight at all and I thought I’d put them into some lovely soil where they’d grow straight down.

Garlic can be planted either in autumn or spring but generally you’ll get better bulbs from an autumn sowing.   I know I will but but I mustn’t be tempted to divide up the ones from the supermarket, they tend not to be hardy enough to go through the winter.  Plant them up in a sunny spot where they won’t get waterlogged and wait till spring!

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September 13, 2010 · 2:22 pm

Quick Easy Planter

The summer bedding’s  starting to fade  a bit now but there’s plenty of autumn and winter bedding appearing at the garden centres to give instant colour now and into the winter.

I potted up a couple of planters with pansies to show off the flowers to their best advantage.   This is a simple wooden box with a pack of winter pansies potted into it and just finished with a little moss to smarten the surface up a bit.   It’ll need nothing more than a bit of water when it’s dry and an occasional deadheading session to keep it tidy.  The flowers will carry on right through to the spring.

As good and very popular this year are hardy cyclamen.  Some have a lovely scent and they’re much more readily available than they used to be.  They look delicate but they’ll withstand quite a bit of winter weather and with a bit of luck they’ll come back year after year.

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