Frisian Frillies

While eating lunch, consisting of toast with stinky cheese and with the doors to the living room closed (let's just say the kids are less enamoured with livarot cheese than I am), time for an update on the hap! Yes, it's been done for a while and yes, I've been wearing it as well, but something with life taking over and bla bla. Two weeks ago, we had a glorious Saturday - the first one of the year, basically - and we decided to go and do a good garden Spring clean. And while we were at it, I got out the bamboo sticks and built a frame for my hap. The frame building was the easy bit... I then had to string up all the points of the hap. And then I saw the frame could have been a bit bigger. Ach well, next time I want it blocked a bit bigger and tighter, I'll just have to use long-sized bamboo sticks only, as I was a bit limited to the length of the shorter ones this time.   But it did the job! I rested it against the clothes line, where it would not be in the ...

After a few dreary days, this morning the sun decided to peep out from behind the clouds again. A perfect opportunity to show you some nice things in our garden... Huh, that ain't a plant... Correct! It's Hannah's new summer dress. Which I shamelessly copied from another dress she got recently. I liked the model, it was easy to make (ish) and literally got done in two nights. It's pink, it's a dress, it makes mommy very popular with 8-year-old girls. Always nice to get a smile on that wee face! And a wee mouse on the back... But really, lots of fruit (and veg) in the garden! After those two days of rain, the garden is exploding! (And so are the weeds, but that's a different story, we know what to do this weekend...) One of our cabbages... This is the savoy, I think... Also have a cauliflower and normal cabbage lurking around. As some kohlrabi, which is doing really well. The carrots are lagging behind a bit. They will get a talking to this weekend... And ...

Hydrangeas, lemon balm and coriander flowers from the garden, in one of my favourite finds from the thrift shop, a lovely jug. One of those jugs you pay too much for, but which has the potential to fetch thousands according to the bloke on the Antiques Road Show, being - of course - an antique, 'if only it didn't have that chip on the edge' (not visible here). The house is filled with flowers these days, as the garden and the allotment are brimming. I so love my hydrangeas! (Don't believe me? Here's my business website ) Knitting again soon :) Promise... My Saskia is finished (has been for a while) and it will be blocked later today, I have finished another Sophie, which will be given the final touches today, and my Biedermanns are also nearly done.   Despite it still being busy here - but manageable - and the kids being at home as school's out, I am finally getting some free time to knit, work on the allotment and enjoy our summer . We love summer, we doooo...

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Oooooh, how I hate snails... I am totally for nature, for eco, for green, for everything nice and fluffy and colourful and cute... but snails... They're the bane of my existence in the garden. On my inspection round tonight (it had been a few days, we were away to Austria this weekend and I spent Monday and yesterday catching up with work), I noticed that MY GOOSEBERRY BUSH HAS NO LEAVES. NONE ALL GONE the little shites... And they had started munching on my lavatera and had already eaten away a few smaller plants. Craps. Tomorrow we will be working in the garden and I will see to it that each and every one of the little bastards will be sent to a place where they can no longer attack my precious plants. And necessary action will be taken to avoid more plants being attacked. But I do wonder if my gooseberry is going to survive... Would talking to it help? Oooooh, wat heb ik toch een hekel aan slakken... Ik ben helemaal voor natuur, voor eco, voor groen, voor alles wat mooi en donzi...