A story of a stool

When I visited France in April, when my blog went on hiatus. One of the many things we did was look in the antique shops. We found many beautiful items; but I was after one thing in particular. A stool for my spinning wheel. All the shops we looked in had nothing suitable.

It just so happened we were on our way back to the uk, we passed a tiny antique shop in a small village. I can't remember the name of it. We wasn't sure that it was open. So we stopped and poked our head round the door and the shop owner said he would open especially for us. 

His store was really something. It was dark and dingy and mostly filled with rusted farm equipment. But tucked away in a corner I spotted a small stool, we pulled it out and found a beautifully turned spinning wheel stool! The guy had forgotten he even had it and so I offered €10 for it and he accepted.

This is the stool before I had done any work on it. It was covered in a horrible varnish and I spent ages sanding it all off my hand. I then used some home made beeswax polish on it and gave it a good buff and it turned out lovely. I am still unsure what wood it is made from but it does look like oak.

The stool now sits pride of place behind my spinning wheel. I am so pleased with it.

Also, a bonus picture taken on the way home yesterday 

Gratitude Sunday

                          

Joining Taryn in celebrating Gratitude Sunday.

Getting there slowly.

Yesterday I finished setting up my grow beds. Just waiting for my brassicas to be delivered now. Should come early August, which is next week. For the time being I have put my marigolds in there which one day I hoped to turn into wool dye.

 

I also have two very sad looking winter green plants. That I started a while back now the slugs have gotten to them many times so I am unsure how they are still alive.

Been picking more of these beauties. White alpine strawberries or "white soul" can't recommend this variety enough.

Also noticed this this today. Couple more days in the sun and it should be ready.

A lot can change

In so little time. Nearly three months has past since my last pot. But so much has changed. I got a new job, which I am thoroughly enjoying. I have moved from a rental, into my own house which I partially own. So this means I have much more growing room for my plants.

Currently I am using my conservatory as a greenhouse as my garden doesn't have one. My chilli plants and tomatoes I brought from my previous house are doing great in their new home. The scorching heartache that Britain has been having for the past fortnight is helping dramatically. But it does mean watering everything twice a day. You can see from the photo below how scorched the grass is!

                                 

One of my many raised beds, I have another one yet to build and am hoping to buy some more in the future. The soil quality is really poor where I live. It is very heavy and clay-y. So instead of trying to improve the soil I decided to start from the beginning. I rad somewhere on the Internet, that lining the raised beds with cardboard helps to prevent weeds and stain moisture so I decided to give that ago.

I have a ton of winter brassica plants on order, due to arrive at the beginning of August and also my wall flower towers which I will put tomatoes, strawberries and herbs in next year. 

My current strawberry plants are in their first year and sadly, I have only picked around 5 of the red type. I also planted white ones, which are a small alpine variety (I forgot the name), they are incredibly tasty and will definitely plant more. I must have picked around 20-30 tiny tasty yumminesses. 

I have also a mature plum tree at the bottoms of the garden, I am not sure what variety they are but they are purple. I can't wait for them in a few weeks time.