Rosemary For Remembrance

There is, or was, or will have been, a small rosemary plant that was managing somehow to keep going under the pile of nettles and various junk in the garden, but it's in the path of the strimmer tomorrow. So I finally got around to doing what I had been planning for a while. I cut it down, chopped it up and froze the leaves in olive oil.

I put a couple of springs aside for our meal tonight (nice sausage cooked with sprigs of rosemary in the oven pan, fancy frozen potato zigzag fries, peas cooked with a stock cube in the water and lots of gravy) and for the dinner planned for Sunday, which is honey mustard garlic sausages and I promise that we eat more than sausages but it's the way that the meals fell out this well, then dug in. I had this lot.

Which I got down to this

Which I chopped a bit, getting rosemary leaves everywhere and bunged into an ice cube tray.

It was all washed and I kept an eye out for any stray bits that shouldn't be there, then poured over around a quarter litre of olive oil. I definitely over filled it, and when I forgot to to take a pic before I put the lid on, I didn't dare take it off again in case the oil spilled everywhere.

I can always hack chunks off with a steak knife. And now the house smells like medicinal chest rub.

DH has picked up the strimmer. I'm sort of nervous, but I know that he'll do a good job and it's the push that I need to get the garden sorted out.

Hugs and good health to all. 

Small Steps

I've actually dragged myself out to our tiny front garden and I hacked back a stand of nettles. I've been watching too many of those self-sufficiency YouTube videos and I kept thinking 'there's good eating on these'. I pulled out a huge heap of them which I'm going to stuff into bags to take to the tip once they've wilted a little and reduced the chances of getting stung. I took a few hits as it is and I'm now very grateful for lavender oil and I smell like an old lady's handbag. But look at this - doesn't it look good enough to eat?

While I was battling the nettles, I cleared some space by Gladys, and I found some campers on her leaves.

The two tiny snails looked incredibly cute. 

I'm having to cut Gladys back as she's hanging over the garden and we can't get around easily. And I need to get the worst of the rubbish cleared in the next couple of days as DH has rented a strimmer for the weekend. And when DH gets a gadget, he goes for it with gusto. I expect the garden to be strimmed within an inch of its life. I'm seriously grateful and I want to make things easy for him. 

It's really noisy out with all the fireworks. I was originally considering popping into Aldi because if I go to the right one then they stock Thursday's deals late on Wednesday night and I can get a first pick of the good stuff. This week includes candles and I'm running short of candles, apart from the cute owls. However I don't always feel comfortable going out on Bonfire Night. Accidents can happen and while I'm pretty sure that I'll be safe, if I can stay in, I will.

Speaking of candles, I got a coupon from Tesco for 10% off candles in this week's batch. I did my usual trick of going through and clicking on all the ones that I fancy, knowing that I'll go back and weed out the ones that aren't actually that good at second glance. When the discount came in at over £13, I went back and pruned the list severely. It's not like 10% is a good discount. There will be better sales at other times, often with 20% off or more, or I could call in at HomeSense who have an extremely good discount candle shelf. It's the over-stocks and end of line candles and they're often from extremely high-end ranges. Not to mention it will encourage me to leave the house.

I feel quite good about today. There weren't any major triumphs, but I did a few very small, insignificant steps that were more than I have done recently and that to me is a win. 

Writing stuff - I posted a little bit on chat about why I wasn't writing a Novel in November here. For years, November has been a novel writing month and it's never worked for me, so I decided firmly that I was going to spend November tidying up some loose ends, editing pieces that I should have submitted years ago and generally getting my act together. I wrote the piece last weekend with a view to posting it today (as I said, I'm trying to get my act together), and then I dipped into Royal Road, where some of my unfinished stuff is languishing, and they're doing a Writathon. All (hah!) I need to do is write 55,555 by the 5th of December. Do you have any idea how hard it was for me not to sign up? I was jotting down notes about what I could write and how I could juggle it with other goals and what sort of milestones I'd need to hit - and I shouldn't do it at all! There is a non zero chance that I'll sign up before 15th November (when you are required to have written 25,000 words to stay in the Writathon), and if I do, I'll be ready to beat myself over my head with my own keyboard! I'll share how it's going. 

And I realised that my contribution to Connections E-magazine was overdue so I've been rattling along with that as well. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Too Cute

Last Christmas, DH got me cute owl candles. I've just finished burning one. 

The container is so adorable that I don't want to throw it out. But I have no idea what it could be used for. The lid doesn't fit snuggly at all and so I can't use it as a container for something like pins. It's such a small size as well that I don't think I could use it for something like a pen pot. Here's the container with a shot glass for size.

To put that into context, the glass measures up to two tablespoons of liquid. The owl is diddy!

I was thinking about it being perfect for air plants or tiny succulents, then I remembered the swarms of aphids that descended on the chilli plants, so perhaps artificial tiny succulents. Or I could donate them and someone else could get the benefit. But they're so cute!

I'm readying myself for an early night. Tesco's Christmas delivery slots are released tomorrow to those paying for delivery savers, like me, and they open at 6am. To be honest, I'll be extremely surprised if I can't get a slot on 23rd December even if I log in later. The demand for them seems to have dropped over the last few years. Besides, I'll have most of the snacks, goodies, and frozen food already in. My Christmas pudding came today and that's just the start. And I have no shame that I'll be buying ready made practically everything. Mind you, I'm also going to be saving space in the freezer to pack away frozen bags of whatever the stupidly cheap veggies the supermarkets are giving out. If they're offering bags of carrots and parsnips for 20p again, my freezer is going to be rammed with soup!

Writing stuff - I'm considering the whole Nyla story and I don't think that it's working how I would like it. This means that instead of returning to that, I've republished an old favourite of mine here - I Never Knew Her Name. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Knitting Continues

Bear continues to keep in touch. He's explained his coursework to me, which impressed me no end. I barely understood one word in twenty, but it was so lovely to hear his voice. Things are just happily tootling along. I'm settling down to hibernate. I've also placed a grocery delivery and I've ordered the first of the Christmas goodies. I'm using Tesco Clubcard vouchers to pay for Christmas. As usual, I'm swearing that I'll get less than last year, and to be fair, I've gradually cut down. However it's November tomorrow and now I'm watching for sales on things like goodies that I can stash away until the big day. Really, I just want the men at home and for it all to be cosy. I may invest in candles - lots and lots of candles!

The next bit is a lot of knitting. You may want to skip it if you're not a knitter as it's a lot of grumbling about knitting things.

The delay since the last post is because I wanted to take a pic and I was baffled about the best way to do it. I then took the pictures and now my phone won't share them! In the end I looked for a pic of knitting on Unsplash, and when I entered 'knitting' in the search engine, it pulled up this, which is crochet. I can't crochet.

Photo by Imani on Unsplash

Which sort of sums it all up. 

Eventually I managed to coax the phone to get the pics. This is the current state of the jacket I'm knitting. 

It's just a sort of heap, because I've finished the main body, and the back and both fronts are knitted in one piece from the bottom up. The jacket is this one which is a jacket in chunky, and as I'm a larger lady with a ridiculously ample bosom, I'm knitting the largest size. Which is big. The finished length is supposed to be 36 inches or 93cm, and the bottom hem, which is all in one, is 62 inches or 157cm if I knit to size, and I have the uneasy feeling that I've knit it large. I've just started on the first sleeve. 

The instructions I have are to block the pieces before making up. As it's all in stocking stitch or stockinette, the whole thing has curled up. Apparently, I need to block a stretch of knitting that's seriously curled and nearly two yards long - and that's just the hem! There isn't a single uncurled edge. I bought a pack of blocking pins but they look somewhat inadequate and the only place I can think of that has that sort of space and that is free is bear's bed, and I'm not sure that he'd approve. 

My mother used to lightly press her knitting under a damp cloth, and I may try that. I'll have to do something as it's curling up to a ridiculous degree. After the mess I made when I dropped all the shoulder stitches, I'm not going to be wearing it outside of the house, so I think the main quality I'm looking for is 'fits over jumper and t-shirt' and from what I can see, it will do that very nicely. 

I'm not knitting it again. I found myself knitting five stitches for the neckband on a circular needle that was 150cm or 60 inches long. I spent more time trying to get the needle and yarn in position than I did knitting the row. 

Writing Stuff - today is the last day of October and my writing blog can calm down. I posted a story a day from Kane's story, most of them old but a couple of new ones. Today I posted the final story here - Not Fit - which is new and is quite a read at just under seven thousand words. I hope that if you dip in then you enjoy it. 

The stats on my writing blog are now going odd. I have no idea what's going on and I'm putting it down to bots. However, for a while I've been getting a regular hit on Invitation Accepted so I thought I had better have a look and remind myself what it was all about. I'm ashamed to say that I'd forgotten how it ended. I enjoyed the read, but I feel like a very neglectful story mother. I've added the link to ease my conscience, but I feel that perhaps I ought to have a rummage and see what I've forgotten!

Hugs and good health to all. 

Where Did the Day Go?

It's been cold and windy here today. I managed to get one pic to show that Gladys is still going strong.

But it was hard to get as the wind was throwing the branches around like crazy. I feel like there is a hard winter coming. 

I found myself wondering what I managed to do today. I seemed to have done the very barest and my major triumph was remembering to take out the recycling for collection tomorrow. Of course, I also wrote just over five thousand words, so I suppose that accounts for some of the time. Some of it was for DHm but a large chunk was for my writing blog. I'm feeling pretty good about that.

I had a call from bear yesterday which was lovely. He sometimes calls just to talk stuff out, though I'm honest when I say that I haven't got a clue about what he's talking about. 

With the weather being so cold and dreary, it's such a temptation to pile on the blankets and revel in feeling snug with all the wind and rain outside. It's my favourite time of year and I intend to enjoy it!

Hugs and good health to all.  

Finally Finished Something!

I finished the fish-tailed blanket, the one that had sat in the corner for years. 

I had a good go at it because I spent a ridiculous amount of time at the garage. I thought something was burning, but apparently nothing was burning but the crankshaft pulley was loose and then they couldn't get the part, then the part turned up late, and it took some time to fit. I got about six inches knitted on the blanket that day. It turned out very roughly 150cm x 150cm or sixty inches square. I plan to hibernate under it.

I should carry on with the jacket I'm knitting which is in the home stretch, but I started another blanket, to have something mindless to knit while I'm watching tv.

I'm missing bear. He's been gone almost a month now, and he's been poorly as well. I guess most of the people reading this know that feeling. I'm sure that it doesn't really get much easier. I'm proud of him, though. He's getting good marks and I think that he's eating well. Tonight he's planning a fancy meal with chorizo and chickpeas. Hearing him managing just fine makes me feel that I've done something right and it's incredibly reassuring. 

I've decided to give up on the chillies. They are absolutely crawling with bugs and it makes my skin crawl. It's a shame, as we were getting quite a bit of pleasure seeing the plants grow, but DH isn't enjoying the pickling so much and now that I've found a brand of hot chilli pickles at the local supermarket, at a cheaper price that DH can make, and they taste fine, then I may as well abandon the plants. If DH was enjoying the pickling, or the stuff in the supermarket was significantly dearer, I would probably have persevered, but I want my windowsill back, without the icky bits.

We've not gone entirely to ready made, though. I chopped up 2kg of onions for the freezer today and the house stunk. Still, I have the benefit of a good deal, ready to go and easy to use. 

Writing stuff - for those who subscribe to email notifications on my writing blog - I'm sorry. But October is almost over. It's been all about Kane, and the new stories in order so far are Watching the Shop, Afterwards, A Cup of Coffee and Dumping the Junk. And of course there'll be a nice long instalment on 31st October. If you want to read the whole thing so far, you can start here, but it's quite a read in full. I was surprised when I was going through. 

Hugs and good health to all.

I Used My Lucet

I love using my lucet, but I can rarely think of any use for it. This is the lucet in question.

And this is the braid I made from some faded twine I found the other day. I've had it since father was gardening.

It's not brilliant, but it took me about half an hour total, including watching the video to remind myself how to use the thing.

You can see the difference between the cord on the video and the my attempt, which is largely because the lucet is too big for the thin twine I used. I've already started rummaging around to find the smaller size that I'm sure that I have somewhere. Or, apparently, I could use an ordinary fork.

The reason for the braid is that we have a log basket in our study. We don't have anything in the house that will burn logs, but it's a great size for us to drop the bits of recycling from the non-kitchen areas of the house into. The kitchen recycling bin is down a flight of stairs from the study and I currently can barely manage to walk across a room. Don't get me wrong, I can do the various cook/clean/laundry stuff but I'm grateful for things that can save me a few steps. At the end of every day or so, I can empty it into the outside recycling bin. 

It came from Temu, equipped with wooden bars for the handles. 

This presented a number of problems. The first problem was that the dowel wouldn't fit through the leatherette loops to make a handle. I dug out some sandpaper to cut down the size, but then promptly lost one of the dowels. It was always going to be a matter of time before they went missing regardless. However the basket is a nice size and it's made of a comforting sort of felt so I braided up the twine to make handles.

Which I will be replacing the instant I can find the smaller lucet. I like the rustic look but I think that I'll like it even more if it looks a little more deliberate.

Bear is feeling better, and seems to be settling in well. All is good with me as well, apart from the walking stuff. I had the flu jab today, so I've decided that the weekend is dedicated to resting my knee and knitting. 

I've been dipping into some craft videos to see if I can find uses for braid that don't involve making mats. The few times I've tried it, I've ended up with more of a bowl and it hasn't worked at all. It's risky, watching those YouTube videos, though, as I get tempted to try things and I need to run down my craft supplies, not go out and buy more! 

Hugs and good health to all.