Tomatoes anyone?

I have grown so many of these in my new Hartley Botanic Greenhouse that we are eating them for almost every meal! Yes and I have given my neighbours some too. I was given the seeds for the small yellow ones by one of my brother's for Christmas and they have been extremely prolific. Suffice it to say that we are making loads of salads and tomato soup and today DH made minestrone for lunch.

This next shot is the greenhouse table groaning with them sigh..... There are loads more on the plants.

I also received some cucumber seeds from the same brother and these have been very good  because they only grow small ones. They do go well with the tomatoes ahem...

I also have many of these too.

But DH does not like them so much....blast.......

And this next shot is the leeks which will keep until the winter he says...........

 
I have no idea why all of my seedlings have not been eaten by the voracious slugs and snails which are so happy to live in my garden. Or why the constant downpour of rain which has been our summer allocation in the Lake District has not put a stop to all attempts by the plants to raise their heads above the mud. Such is life and next year I must remember that with only two of us here it might be better if I own a freezer......Infact, I have been longing for one since the toms started turning red. If Karen is reading this I know she will smile....
 

Time to try these out

I bought these in my local gardening shop in May along with a heavy duty pair for the actual garden, these looked just right for quilting.  So it was about time I gave them a whirl... and do you know they are just right; they fit like a glove ...... sorry ha ha and they really do grip the fabric. I know you can buy pairs that are sold for quilting at much more than I paid for these which was about £2. I love the cute colour too.

I have finally managed to start on one of my quilt tops and I am using Mathilda's wadding which is great but fairly bulky to put through the machine, so I also taped some duck tape to the knobs on the Bernina 1260 because sometimes the quilts are so big they catch the knobs and turn them as I am manipulating the quilt. So I have improved that grey area too...hmmm.  I also taped some slidy plastic over the Horn cabinet plexiplastic once it was in position and I made a small hole for the needle to pass through, I had read up on a 'silicone slider' which was quite expensive and also I have no idea where you buy it in the UK, so I thought I would improvise.  It works too and the quilt slides through a lot smoother. This next photo shows the quilt stuffed into the machine. I work by a large window but it's raining today and very dark so I have one small light on the window sill behind the large one you can see which is also a magnifier. So I am buzzing along and it's going well. No, this is not a show quilt or anything like that, I am simply making a warmer one for the bed and wanted to try out the Mathilda's wool for that reason.

I am using the new thread I bought recently at the Quilt Museum in York.  I could not find Aurifil 50 but did find some Aurifil MAKO NE 40/2 and it seems fine. The lighter multi coloured pink one is for the bobbin and the orangey multi one is for the top of the quilt. I adjusted the tension for quite a long time as I did want the back of the quilt to look good. I am trying to make sure that each time I quilt I improve so I  tried each setting out before I started. Luckily because I use the Bernina 1260 for my machine embroidery I have two bobbin cases, a normal one and one for adjusting with the little screw. So I played with this one until I had the tension just so. Then I loosened off the top tension to 3.5 and that seems to be that. I am using a Schmetz quilting needle no 75/11 and it seems fine too. I did try a titanium coated Organ  no 11 at first but it was not as good. I will post some more when it progresses.

Period Costume

I love period costumes and have had a lot of fun over the years producing various efforts for the Kendal Torchlight Procession and other opportunities which came my way including making some costumes when I was at university so I was pleased to find a blog which has period costumes as its theme. Here it is http://periodwardrobe.wordpress.com/ I hope you enjoy it.

Meanwhile the dress in the photo is one I made whilst taking my post grad teaching certificate in Lancaster and its a replica of a dress from 1827 in grey taffeta. I was in my garden amongst the foxgloves and had just recovered from a serious operation so I had made the dress to help with my recovery. It took me a week of very intensive sewing to complete. I still have the dress and have been known to wear it to the odd party where I pretend to be Jane Austen!

The original dress is in The Wade Collection at Snowshill Manor near Broadway, Gloucestershire and is owned by the National Trust  http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-findaplace/w-snowshillmanor.htm

I wish I could see it but I have never had the chance to go there so all my research was based on a Janet Arnold book called Patterns of Fashion volume 2. It is made from lighter grey silk tafetta than the copy and has oversleeves in pale rose gauze also it has eleven triangular shapes at the bottom of the hem where my copy has only seven and they are larger. Somehow I could not bring myself to completely copy the original so I changed it ever so slightly. The dress would have come to just above the ankle in those days and also had a padded hem, it should have been worn with neat pumps with cross over satin ties.

Bella rolling on the lawn

Bella has been rolling on the lawn where we had taken the tent down. I think the hedgehog might have left some scent on the lawn. See my other blog post here http://keswickrambles.blogspot.com/2010/07/bella-loves-to-chase.html  Anyway, she rolls in something which she sniffs first! Lucky for us it is not discernable to the naked human eye!

Tomorrow we go to Cannich near Inverness it's a long journey for us and we need to pack the car with the tent and stuff tonight so we can have an early start.  Our aim is to go up at least three Munros which are on our ever decreasing list :-)

Not enough room to swing a cat....

We ventured briefly into the world of vw campervans only to discover their greatest fault which is no room. When you consider their are two of us + Bella the Border Terrier (who has a thing about comfort) and that we will often be in very wet mountain boots and rucksacks etc you begin to wonder where it will all go??? Not on the seat which turns into a bed..nor on the sparse cupboards or the very limited floorspace..

So the answer was simple Carry On Camping!.. But with a bit more style perhaps? Read into that the fact that for once we both decided it might be a good idea to be able to stand up in the thing instead of crawling about all the time and we thought having a sit on our new camping chairs in the outer 'lounge' might be rather jolly too.

http://www.vango.co.uk/tents/aruba-400.html

Luckily as we live in the adventure capitol of the UK (Keswick) we found a team of real experts who happily showed us the latest in tent technology. So if you need advise about a tent go here http://www.thetentteam.co.uk/

So this delightful, large, roomy and Border Terrier friendly edifice sits as I write in the back garden and will shortly be packed up and taken to our next adventure in Scotland next week. When I get back I will let you know how it behaved itself.......and, more importantly, if Bella approved.

Good News - Bad News

The good news is that after searching for days on the internet, I think I have finally found a campervan converter who has a van that might suit us. We decided to look for a van after our camping trip in May to Tyndrum in Scotland when it was soooooo cold the tent froze over for 4 nights running, this caused us so much discomfort that we thought it was time to go for a little luxury in our lives, hence the van idea.

The photo above is of one of their conversions and it looks superb. We needed a firm who were not too far away and I found them in Bolton Lancashire and this is their site. http://www.leisuredrive.co.uk/

I will get DH to contact them tomorrow and see what he can glean.

The bad news is that I am itching like mad at the mo. No it's not midges again, I have broken out in a rash of very small itchy spots on my hands, arms, back and even my face......It started yesterday morning so I rang the surgery and was re located to Q Doc or whatever it is.....The nurse was very patient and asked me loads of questions but simply said I had either a viral infection or had an allergic reaction to something. In either case I was to take some anti histamine. Well I have bought some and I am doing as she said but the itching is miserable and more spots arrived today....It's worse than midge bites because at least you know what they are and what causes them.....The trouble is that they are distracting my attention from other jobs and so hence the internet hunt for a campervan, it took my mind off them for a while. I hope they go away soon.

Meanwhile on a happier note I was sent this photo of a view from the pool by DD in Palm Springs, I wish I could be in it and soothing my bumps........