First a huge Thank You to Kate who is stepping down (at least for a while) from organising this monthly round up of scrappy projects. It is so sad to see you go. But Welcome to Kjerstin who has volunteered to carry on the good work.
My project for this month was inspired by watching a YouTube video from ‘The Last Homely House’ by another Kate who, like our own Kate Chiconi, is a quilter and all round creative. Her lovely gentle tales from her home in Northumberland in the North East of England are enjoyable and inspiring. In a recent one she was making simple fabric boxes from scrap fabric adorned with trimmings from her collection. You can watch her here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHF55l18AWk I couldn’t resist making one! And a big thank you too to Anne Lawson who blogs here on wordpress as Anne Lawson Art for introducing me to Kate’s channel.
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You can find the other makers by following the links below.
Firstly my daughter asked for some more bunting, this time for her garden at school. She is a Learning Support Assistant in a primary school and works with the children who are recognised as having special needs of one kind or another, even if they have no official diagnosis, and struggle with the demands of school. She takes small groups out of class to give both them and the teachers and other pupils a break and tries to help them learn the skills they lack and manage the school system better. She has spent years learning about the issues they face and finding ways to enable them to cope. I am so proud of her and help her whenever I can. So when she asked for some bunting for the sensory garden she is creating around the hut which is her HQ I was happy to rummage through my box of scrap fabric and jar of tape.
The second make was for myself. I was tired of having a heap of gardening clothes on the bedroom floor looking untidy. Washing them every day is unnecessary but putting them in the wardrobe with the other unworn ones just gets everything dirty. So I have been keeping an eye out for a suitable basket when I go shopping. Then I was looking in my yarn stash for something and spotted 3 balls of chunky in blue shades. A circular base and straight sides so no pattern needed and I kept going until all the yarn was used. (And yes, the floor needs vacuuming and the room redecorating – they are on my lists!)
Here are the links for everyone who joins ScrapHappy from time to time (they may not post every time, but their blogs are still worth looking at)
It feels ages since I did an update on the garden but a lot has been happening. To set the scene my land covers about 3 acres on a steep sloping, South facing site is SW Wales UK. At the bottom is a stream / small river which begins about a mile away and ends about 3 miles downstream where it joins another and loses its own name. My Eastern boundary is close to the road and to the North is a field belonging to my neighbour’s farm. The plot narrows from the road end and beyond the sheds and veg patch it is left as self-seeded woodland which runs seamlessly into woodland planted by the owner of the farm above me about 25 years ago. I have his permission to walk the dogs through it. We had our land terraced and the very rough diagram below shows what goes on which level. Over the last 12 or 13 years I have been planting trees in the abandoned field(s) over the stream. The trees I have used are self-seeds dug up out of my garden or donated by others who have weeded them out of their patches, plus some apple trees I have grown from pips. Everything here is done on a shoestring using recycled materials whenever possible! Let’s take a walk.
From the house we climb a steep path along my East boundary to the veg patch. Some of you will remember that the wooden raised beds my late husband, John, built were rotting and falling apart. They were also infested with all the nasties – nettles, bindweed, couch grass.. So I decided to dig out the soil and sieve it to remove all the roots, then put down a thick layer of cardboard and make new beds using firewood lengths from the woods as edges. And because John’s beds were too wide for me to reach the middle comfortably they would be narrower. I like organic shapes and branches are rarely straight so they would be curvy.
This is the bed nearest the gate into the veg patch. I wanted flowers in this part of the garden as well as veg so this bed is for flowers and back left is a bench and table so we can sit and rest in the shade with something pretty to look at. The column of fencing mesh is for sweet peas and a rose grown from a cutting from my neighbour’s garden. This bed was created this year so everything is very small still!
The beds built last year look much more verdant. The tall yellow flowers are kale which self seeds all over the place. Unless it is bullying another plant I let it stay. The leaves are very useful all winter and it keeps the soil covered and active. In Spring the buds are useful as an alternative to broccoli and go on producing for several weeks. Then I let the floers open and only clear the plants when I need their space for something else. that way they self-seed and of we go again. In amongst them are perennials and other selfseeders. The wire frame by the blue water pipe has already been cleared and fed and broad beans are growing up it. The water pipe is for dire emergencies only – I use rainwater from butts unless we have a very long drought.
The soil in the beds is not very deep although I hope to add more branches and build up the soil as time goes on. Meanwhile anything needing depth such as these Jerusalem Artichokes goes in these huge (240litre) pots which John bought many years ago. He bought them from a wholesaler who supplied Garden centers and landscaping firms so we had, I think, 20! It seemed a big outlay at the time but I am so glad I have them!
Just beyond where you could see in the picture of the new beds are the greenhouses – three 20ft x 10ft ones end to end. The first is set up as a propagating house with a heated bench on the right (now turned off but useful in early Spring) and a hanging bench on the left which makes life hard for slugs and snails to reach my baby seedlings. It developed a distinct list this year and I need to improve the design by next year. It has to be removable so that I can grow things like tomatoes in the big tubs you can see underneath.
The other 2 house a mixture of raised beds (which are also rotting and need to be dug out) and pots. The third has a pond which is home to toads and is being overtaken by Flag Iris. From L to R Strawberries for an early crop before the outside ones come, Apricots, the pond and underneath a big tub of Mashua which I am trying for the first time this year and seems to be happy.
These two beds beyond the greenhouses have been weeded ready for planting and it is wonderful to se how little of the nasty stuff has come back.
The path runs on from the veg patch to my boundary and curves back down to the stream before climbing again to the sheds. The lower part is a glorious carpet of bluebells in early May.
A fork in the path leads down to the area below the house next to the stream and there is the little wooden bridge (which you see as the featured image on every post) over to the new woodland which I am planting in memory of John. The land is just as steep as on my side so cannot be worked by tractor or other machinery. The farmer is my age and has effectively retired allowing more and more of his fields to go wild. I started planting it as woodland just over the bridge and have just kept going! The apple trees in the first section are now beginning to flower and fruit. One is doing particularly well. Because they are from seed they will be all new varieties and most will be ‘spitters’ but there may be some nice ones and the birds and small mammals are less fussy than us humans. When I cut off bits of soft fruit bushes or decorative shrubs for any reason I put them in pots as cuttings and I found rather a lot had rooted so I am planting them between the trees. The birds will enjoy the fruit and when the trees get big they will shade out most of the shrubs, perhaps leaving a few by the path where there will still be light. Top R is a blackcurrant.
I hope you have enjoyed your walk. Time now for tea and cake! Where would you like to sit? In the Sitooterie? On the Deck? Or maybe a picnic somewhere else? Let me know in the comments.
(The roof and chimney in the photo of the deck are Laura’s cabin )
Scrap Happy is a collection of posts on the 15th of each month showing items made from scrap and is curated by Kate. Not everyone posts every month but all the blogs are worth a look.
My contribution this month is a very simple one. Long before the Welsh Government introduced payment for single use plastic bags from shops I had my own fabric shopping bags. Inevitably over the years they become stained and battered so new ones are needed. I had bought some fabric from The Snail of Happiness (https://www.thesnailofhappiness.com) a few years ago so it was already remnants and in one sense scrap. I made a couple of aprons but had some left so double scrappy. Although I will make it reversible the plain side looked, well, rather plain! So I used some bits of embroidery thread from my jar to do some slow stitching. Now I just need to sew it all together.
Yesterday was Eid (the Muslim festival at the end of Ramadan so important to my son), The Spring Equinox which is called Ostara in pagan / celtic circles, and it happened to be my daughter-in-law’s Birthday too. And after a mild but endlessly soggy Winter the sun has put in an appearance with chilly nights but warm sunny days. What better excuse to celebrate.
A while back I had picked up a leaflet in one of the shops about some walking trails round the town. The Civic Society puts Blue Plaques up on buildings where important people lived or significant events happened in the town’s history. The leaflet has them all numbered and marked on a map with a legend describing the person or event and their significance in the town’s story. I was surprised how many there were! I walk along with my shopping list but rarely stop to look beyond the shop windows or admire the architecture. Lindy and I decided that following the trails would be a fun way to learn more.
We started with Trail A (yellow dots on the map) and plaque No 1 which was at The Carmarthen School of Art near the Parish Church and took in 2 streets which run, more or less parallel, to the Guildhall Square. Some of the places were not easy to spot! No7 was almost hidden behind a tangle of power cables and No 4 was on a hotel which is set well back from the street with only a narrow drive through to it. The description told us that this was the place where the Gorsedd of Bards became part of the National Eisteddfod and that there was a circle of stones to commemorate the event – we found them eventually round the back of the carpark! No 5 nearly defeated us, not because it was hidden away but because we hadn’t remembered that a pedestrianised area was still part of King Street so thought we had missed it – hence the triumphant picture!
Lindy decided to take a photo of me at each one which sometimes meant standing on the other side of the road and waiting for a gap in the traffic, sometimes standing in the road and persuading drivers to pause so she could take her photo and meanwhile I was standing under the plaque pointing or whatever and trying to keep a smile but not a grimace on my face! We gave quite a few passers by a giggle!
Some of the plaques marked men who were ‘the usual suspects’ – men who were well educated and designed lovely building like this English Baptist Chapel, ran businesses (there were a lot of printers and publishers), politicians or were pillars of society.
The two I liked best were No 2 and No 8 – the two women recorded. I will quote from the leaflet
No8. Hannah White
Hannah White established a printing and book selling business with her husband in the early 19th century. Following her husband’s death in 1818 Hannah traded at 50 King Street for over 40 years. The business was known as H White & Sons and, as well as the printing works and booksellers, they were also home to a stationery department, reading room and library. Hannah was one of the pioneering women in the Welsh print trade and a leading businesswoman of the early nineteenth century whose family became leaders of civic and commercial life in the town.
No 2 Dorothea Bate.
Dorothea Bate was born in 1878. She had no formal education but seems to have been fascinated by nature and wildlife. In 1898 she went to the Natural History Museum in London and asked for work. Although she was so young and unqualified she was the first woman to be employed as a scientist by the Museum. She became a world-renowned expert in the field of archaeozoology. The focus of her research was the reasons for change and adaptation among different species. She did this by studying fossils all over the world. She had a keen interest in climate change. Dorothea was one of the most prominent scientists of her generation and continued her work until her death in 1948.
Now there are two role models to follow!
By the time we had finished trail A we were at the Guildhall Square and it was lunchtime so we went to Tea Traders, an independent cafe, for a delicious lunch and pots of tea. We sat outside in the sun and enjoyed choosing from the tea menu which fills a side of A4 helped by the very knowledgable owner. The place deserves a post of its own but for now this is where I will stop. We plan to do Trails B and C another time and have added some more places we passed to our list of future ‘explores’.
When we designed the plot here and had it terraced we planted the top area with fruit trees as an orchard. One of the Permaculture ideas is that you try to keep things that need a lot of attention near the house and those you visit only at certain times of year further away. The path up tom the top is very steep which doesn’t normally matter but this winter has been very wet so when Laura and I started clearing around the trees ready for giving them manure to feed them, and a cardboard mulch to make picking easier in the Autumn, we found ourselves slipping and sliding on the mud. It got so dangerous that we had to stop – especially as carrying trugs of muck and armfuls of cardboard made everything harder. So I decided we needed to make the steepest parts of the slope into steps.
The fence pins are being used for at least the third time. John originally bought them to hold up stock fencing to grow peas over. I then used them to fence round some young trees to stop them being accidentally mown down. And now they are holding back the risers. The wood is a mix of offcuts and some lengths Danny used to make a former to steam bend handles round – hence the holes for pegs.
The second is complete serendipity. In one of the winter storms a piece of an ornamental tree in the lower garden broke off. I tidied it all up and put the twigs on a slow rot pile by the stream which will eventually raise the bank there a bit. To my amazement the twigs flowered! So I cut some and brought them into the kitchen.
Apologies for the poor quality of the photos – it is grey and raining (again!) so the light is very poor.
Scrap Happy is curated by Kate to showcase any project that keeps scrap from being thrown away. My fellow scrapsters are
I have been watching Youtube videos from Snapdragon Life and in one of the old ones Jane explained that her auto-immune condition, and the medication which helps her manage it, mean that she needs to start the day slowly so she lies in bed doing some simple knitting until she feels ready to get up. Ever since I was pregnant with my first child (now aged 50!) I have taken a mug of tea back to bed in the mornings before getting dressed and starting the day and since John died I have read whilst sipping. But the idea of knitting appealed to me. Not a jumper or anything else large and complicated which would need too much concentration and be difficult to handle in bed but a small simple project.
As a child my favourite Aunt and her husband had one of the early Dormobiles and travelled around Europe every Summer in it. On the beds were blankets made of knitted squares in lots of different colours made by Aunty Nan and she always took some yarn and needles with her on those trips and made more squares which she stitched together over winter and gave to charity. I loved the tales of adventure and discovery she told of their trips.
My Dad was a keen beekeeper and over each Summer we went with him on visits organised by the Beekeepers Association to members’ apiaries. One was in a field where a couple kept their bees and spent their summers living in a re-purposed railway guards van. I have no idea if they went ‘home’ when the weather was bad or where they spent their winters! They, too, had blankets of knitted squares on their beds. I loved their spirit of adventure and the idea of living in a small cosy space.
So two couples who, to my young eyes, lived lives of adventure and unconventionality connected by their choice of bedcovering – no wonder I also love blankets made of knitted squares or granny squares! Periodically I have made a few squares when I have wanted to knit but inspiration has been slow to arrive. I have a large collection of small balls of leftover yarn. So for the last few weeks I have been knitting simple 6 inch squares in the morning and have found it a lovely way to start the day. This is my collection, old and new, so far.
Check out the blogs of the other members of the group for more inspiration.
Today is February 1st and in the UK that is Imbolc, the first festival of the year, half way between the Winter Solstice (Yule), and the Spring Equinox, Ostara. Now I am no expert on all of this but from my reading so far and my previous knowledge and experience I can see that it is the very beginning of Spring.
At a Solstice the day length is changing very slowly. With careful measurement, probably originally by marking each day where the sun rose and set, the date could be determined. But for most of us there is quite a long period when it feels as if the days stay the same length. The endless long ones of high Summer and the endless dreary short ones of Winter.
Graph from Google
Given that the weather in Winter here in SW Wales is cold or wet (or both!) most of the time it makes sense to stay indoors and in fact the ground is often too wet and muddy to do much outside. Even if I put on waterproofs and go and do some tree work or make something in the workshop the days are short so time by the fire is relatively long. Until artificial light became commonplace not much could be done indoors after dark either! So this was a time to think, dream and plan.
But now the days are getting noticeably longer and work can start on those projects planned in the dark; dreams can begin to be manifest into reality. It is all very slow. The days are still short, the weather not great but energy is rising. I can feel myself wanting to start things.
Outside I can see nature stirring. The first snowdrops are blooming by the entrance to my drive, the hazel catkins are lengthening and opening and the daffodils have come up; some even have flower buds. Impatient, I bought a bunch of daffodils in the supermarket for the kitchen.
The days don’t only start to get noticeably longer at this time of year, the strength of the light increases and traditionally that showed up all the cobwebs and grime which had accumulated indoors. So Spring cleaning was in order which was also a good use of time when there was little to do on the land. Of course now we have electric lights we can see the cobwebs any day. But I was interested to see how many adverts there are around at the moment for cleaning products and equipment – it seems we still get the urge to clean our homes and ‘clear the decks’! I am not a fan of housework and I reckon that adult spiders bring their youngsters to this house to practice their web-building skills! I would quite like to be unable to see them for a few more weeks each year!
For me it feels too early to Spring Clean anyway because whilst I could wash curtains and such like getting them dry would be difficult. I need to wait for ‘March winds’! But I have started re-decorating the kitchen. The hand made solid wood worktops have worn in places and need re-oiling. And there were a number of mouldy patches from condensation damp which refused to come clean any more. I have taken the chance to change the colour from a rather insipid pale green to dark. I am doing one section at a time to minimise disruption.
And I have started to paint the outside walls whilst the scaffolding is up. There has been only one day so far when it was dry but not too cold but I spent all day on the job and got quite a bit done. To avoid hauling paint cans and tools up the ladders I opened the bedroom window wide (it is one of those tilt and turn ones) and got out onto the scaffolding that way! The front and the gable ends are staying reddish brown but the back was magnolia because it is very gloomy out there. I thought I had bought another can of the same but when I opened it it was a pale grey. My mistake not checking that the label on the can matched that on the shelf. I couldn’t be bothered driving 20 miles to change it and losing an afternoon of fine weather so grey it is.
Tomorrow looks like another decent day and Laura should be with me in the afternoon so we should be able to finish all the bits that we need the scaffolding for. The areas which we can reach from the ground can be done later if needs be.
So 2 projects beginning. First shoots of the new plans.
Going Batty in Wales 
