My garden in October

Unusually I don’t have many garden pictures this month, partly because we’ve been out and about a fair bit and partly because the weather hasn’t always been fine. But there was at least one gardening session this year as we prepped the garden for winter - and the rhubarb photo below proves that. It’s the last stem from the rhubarb crown that I planted earlier in the year after rediscovering it growing in the garage.

I’m looking forward to it coming back next year, as we’ll be able to pick the stems and enjoy them - which will be the first time since we moved here that we’ll be able to. I’m hoping it will be as tasty as I’m anticipating.

Another reason for their being fewer photos this month is that we needed to make full use of our time in the garden - and there’s nothing like an incoming storm prediction to focus the mind. Or in our case to make sure we could get our garden furniture way in an organised fashion, which we did and I’m so grateful for as there’s still room to move about the garage as we need to.

Both of our olive trees have had a successful year - they’ve clearly enjoyed the sun and have repaid their happiness with actual olives. Even the older tree in the smaller pot that we brought with us from London. I joked in my October post that MOH might actually be making olive oil at some point sooner than we perhaps thought, but who knows?

The forecast storm did arrive on one of the weekends we were away, and I was so pleased we got what we needed to into the garage before that. Our tall umbrella blew over, which was fine and the rosemary pot next to the old olive tree also blew over. I know right, how windy was it?

I didn’t realise until afterwards that it had left a ‘heart shaped’ gravel deposit on the grass - you could’t have done that if you tried. But it’s kinda cute isn’t it?

Our garden has been top of my thoughts this month though, and that’s probably another reason why there’s few pictures. After the multiple heatwaves from this summer it’s been clear to me that we really need to get as many things out of pots and planted into the ground as we can. And I can’t do that right now as we just don’t have the beds that we need, and if I plant the plants where I can then they’ll be in the wrong spot and I’ll want to move them again - and I’m not sure if that’s any better than staying in their pot!

Towards the end of the month we had a garden designer visit us and our garden for an exploratory introductory chat. I’m keen to get help on my ideas, how to improve them and ideas for the areas I’m struggling with, plus a plan on how to make it all happen - so exciting times.

Ahead of their visit I finally got around to capturing my thoughts into an (almost) cohesive list - I even surprised myself.

I’m sure I’ll be sharing more on all of this at some point, but for now I’m off to contemplate my next steps, though I think I know already what they’ll be!

New to my craft room in October

It’s been a busy month in my craft room, but one where I’ve felt like I haven’t really got any sewing actually done. Though I seem to have been finding projects, and adding them to my list quite successfully…

Oops.

I shared that I’d fallen for Alison Glass’ colour study quilt heavily - and although it’s five weeks in and I have my colours sorted, and even four of the blocks cut out, none are actually sewn yet, so I need to fix that. I’m making the dark background version and so to make it work well I opted to extend my blacks a little. I think this quilt is going to be stunning.

My next purchase also adds to my sewing list, but it’s something I’ve been contemplating for a while now. Won’t this vintage quilted fabric - see the year 1979 on the selvedge - look great as a jacket?

I couldn’t resist the yellow with the embroidered bows either, and I’m hoping to turn that into a pouch to store my overlocker foot in. I’ve had a slight rearrange in my craft room, moving the overlocker out from the corner into a more practical, and hopefully more usable space, but that’s means it won’t be plugged in all the time, hence needing a pretty pouch for storage.

I’m already finding that the rejig has meant my middle desk is a more flexible space, and so I think this slightly amended layout will work well for me.

I’ve an interesting reuse pile this month - from the vinyl pouch which I intend to cut up and use as windows on some pouches, to the ribbons and red headphones and onion nets for my weaving with waste pile, which is another thing I need to start making use of soon - an idea is brewing!

My advent calendar arrived this month too, and while it looks as if I’ve had a sneak peek, I haven’t - honest. I’ve torn the wrapper to insert the stuff that came with the calendar, so I have everything together and aren’t tempted to investigate sooner.

Fabric-wise there’s been some more additions this month, with these browns and mustard fabrics coming from another stash buster at my patchwork group, and the new fabric shop in Newark respectively. I’d hoped there’d be enough of the darker brown to back my Flying Geese quilt but I’m not sure there will be, sadly. I thought the pattern on the mustard one was similar enough, and even though the colour was different I think I can probably make it work - but I’m just not sure how yet, it’s on my pondering list. I’ve quite a selection of these colours so with some thought I’m sure I’ll come up with a plan.

I saw in my sewing group Facebook group that one of the charity shops in Newark had received a large craft supplies donation and were calling for crafters to come in and help them out - well, who am I to resist a call such as this. I left with these two bags for £6 resisting similar bags of other colours, and wondering what I’d discover inside them - but at £3 each I couldn’t really go wrong.

Both have some great fabrics in, and the blue one has some part completed blocks which I’d spied in the shop and which swayed my decision. I’m not sure if I’ll make more of the blocks yet or not, but it’s nice to have some inspiration included isn’t it?

There’s a good length of the interlocking circles fabric in the green pack and whoever put this fabric together has done well, and clearly had a circles, spots and squiggles theme in mind.

My final purchase of the month was these Portuguese fabrics which we happened across quite randomly. I love both of the sardine fabrics, and you really can’t go wrong with anything that resembles a Portuguese tile can you? Though that fabric would be ideal for a bread bag especially as it’s where the inspiration first came from, but as I’ve recently made one of those I don’t need a third, but I’m sure I’ll know when I know.

In the shop MOH commented that the checked sardines fabric would make a pretty cool shirt - so now I have a pretty cool shirt to make for MOH. I think we’re both a little scared at the prospect!

Thank you for joining me for another month in my craft room, please check out my previous updates for earlier additions, and remember to let me know below what you’ve added to your craft supplies this month.

This October...

Usually I post my monthly catchup posts on the last day of the month, or the first day of the new month in more tardier months. But I’ve surpassed myself this time as we finished the end of the month enjoying some sunnier days in Porto, which we booked relatively last minute, and I’m catching up with myself and typing this (offline) on our flight back, aiming to publish it when we’re back home.

It’s been a good ten years since we last visited Porto and it’s just as good as we remember. The temperatures were at highest 25 degrees, and so a lot warmer than home. It was good to see the city prospering, and notice what had changed. This time we stayed in the Ribeiro area and so that meant exploring some new to us spots, as well as plenty of steps and ‘hill climbing’ to get back to our apartment.

But before I share more about our trip let’s go back to the start of October, and a long weekend away visiting family in Devon. Once again we were lucky with the weather and enjoyed visits to Hestercombe Gardens, Killerton NT, and our first time back at the fully restored, and finished, Castle Drogo (also National Trust).

ENJOYING THE SUN AT HESTERCOMBE GARDENS

IN THE LIBRARY AT KILLERTON NT

I love the library at Killerton because you can stop and enjoy the books - and touch them too. The last time I was there I spent some time perusing a paisley book, and I found that one again, but this time it was this gardeners almanac which piqued my interest most. Perhaps I’ll dig out some more photos of the books there for another post.

YES PLEASE, THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR THE IRIS RHIZOMES AT CASTLE DROGO

Castle Drogo was magnificent and it was so good to see the refurbishment work complete and the collections back on display. I had a good find in the gardens too as I discovered a trug of unwanted iris rhizomes for sale, and at a bargain price of 5 for £3, so it was very much a case of yes please, thank you very much.

We broke the long drive back with an indulgent night at Chipping Campden in the Cotswolds in a fancy hotel. It was great, and so was the food, although the poor waitress caught MOH’s glass at one point and his red wine went flying, though rather remarkably he stayed red wine free, and I’ve actually no idea how.

Chipping Campden is a great little town with some fancy pants shops, and as we discovered plenty of crockery shops. I left with a second hand flan or quiche dish with the Evesham Vale pattern by Royal Worcester from a charity shop and a vintage Portuguese baking dish. I also persuaded MOH to go for a crystal decanter, so our port this Christmas will be more stunning than usual.

ISN’T THIS GLORIOUS?

Then with the good weather continuing we stopped off for an enjoyable saunter around Hidcote National Trust, a garden which has become a regular stop off point on our Devonian journeying.

AT HIDCOTE NATIONAL TRUST

Back home, we’ve done lots of the usual and mundane stuff ticking off ‘no further work required visits’ at the dentist, though that reminds me I need to book in for the hygienist, which is never as bad as I think it will be.  There’s been sewing groups, patchwork groups for me and darts and cycling for MOH, plus we’ve both been enjoying our Reformer Pilates.

We had a night out in Nottingham seeing Huey Morgan, which wasn’t as loud as we expected, but still a very good night - he’s a great artist and very charismatic with it. It’s the second time we’ve seen him in a small venue, and I’d absolutely sign up to do it again.

We’ve started to seriously think about the design of our garden here, and have had a garden designer around to visit to listen to our (my) ideas and see how they can help us make them work, and how they can make them even better. It’s early days but it’s exciting, and after the summer we’ve just had I desperately need to get the plants we brought with us, and those we’ve acquired since out of pots and into the ground.

Though our olive trees are happy, just look at those olives. I’ve a feeling MOH may be trying to make oil from them at some point soon, or sooner than we ever expected.

My crocheted efforts for the tree dressing next weekend are ongoing - I’ve a few days left to finish my super cute pigs, so they’re ready to join the other garlands I’ve already made, and rather annoyingly forgot to photograph before I left them with the organiser. All is not lost though as I’ll see them on the tree and will remember to take photos then - you have been warned.

CROCHETED PIGS WITH SNOUTS, CURLY TAILS AND GOOGLY EYES

I’ve been enjoying my crochet again so started to wind some of those skeins I’d dyed a while back and more. Of course I quite quickly got into a great big tangle and spent more time than I’d anticipated untangling the mess before finally starting a granny stitch cardigan for myself.

We put our garden furniture away ahead of the first named storm and managed that in a more orderly way so there’s more room in the garage than last winter, so that’s worked well. But it also made me realise that I need to crack on and sew those zipper storage bags I’ve spent the summer talking about. I’ve found a pattern for a much smaller pouch which I’m planning to road test and then road test resizing before I upscale it hugely to get the size I need - watch this space!

I’ve got the next village quilt top ready to assemble and quilt, and I’ve finally assembled, basted and tacked my block of the month quilt too. It was the deal I made myself when trying spectacularly badly to resist adding a new quilt project to my list! That and making progress with my geese, which I’ve also done.

That’s also bad news though as I’ve seen another mystery quiltalong is starting towards the end of November and I’m severely tempted by that one too. I know I’m a hopeless case!

But let’s finish the month in Porto where we did all the things, drank - and tasted - quite a few ports in various port houses (Kopke. Quinta do Noval, Fonseca and Grahams if you’re wondering), ate pinchos, bacalhau cod fish cakes/fritters, plenty of ham and cheese and obviously multiple Pastel de Nata. 

I photographed more doors and tiles than I care to count and picked up a few tins of sardines (both the chocolate and fishy sort) in duty free on the way home.  We even successfully navigated the EES entry/exit scheme, though more easily on the way home, but the queues were loooong.

Portugal, I know we’ll be back - it’s just a matter of when. But first I need to spend time as usual catching up with myself, and reacclimatising to this more seasonal weather we’ve returned home to.