Broad Beans

My little Almanac also tells me I can sow broad beans under glass so I’ve now done that.

I love broad beans so I was eager to start them early to lengthen the growing season. I know a lot of people don’t like then but grown yourself and picked young, they’re delicious.

I’ve sown two types, one I got from the market sold to me by the 1/2 pint and a dwarf variety I got on Line. I’ve never sown them this early before so we shall see what happens.

I did have company while I was doing it 🙂

A small issue that happened yesterday because of all the rain we’ve had. Fortunately this doesn’t happen often!

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New Year, New Start

Even in this early part of January I am encouraged by the new season and the beauty of the world around us. I have just bought this little book which is a real treat.

I don’t really need encouraging to start sowing seeds but this little book has encouraged me. I’ve spent the whole of Christmas and New Year with a nasty cough and cold and this little book has helped a lot. Do you know you can start sowing seeds in a unheated greenhouse or cold frame now! 🙂 I’ve started sorting my seeds and have taken advise from my little book.

I’ve never done well with Sweet Peas, but there’s always a first time. I needed long pots but not having enough toilet roll tubes I decided to make some. You can get tutorials on line.

I had two half started packets so I used them all up. Let’s see what happens

I’ve laid a piece of bubble wrap over them as a bit of insulation in case there’s a nasty frost.

 

Digger Wasps

It appears we have a nest of digger wasps, no don’t everyone panic! The soil is super sandy, so Ideal for the little blighters.

As we should be protecting our wild life, like a good eco warrior I have put an old gate in front of them so they won’t be disturbed.

I’ve got a bit of a warm feeling because they’ve chosen our garden 🙂

Eco Cleaning

After my last post I felt motivated to take some action. I looked on line for eco products I could start introducing to my home. Not to go mad, but to order as needed. An online shop called Peace With The Wild looked good, so I placed a small order and with only £3.40 postage, it encouraged me more. I ordered loofer scouring pads, a coconut husk scraper for pans, a stick deodorant and some toilet cleaning powder. It was delivered in two days!

Our toilets are a real test for this toilet cleaner (which I’ve decanted for upstairs and downstairs) as we have very hard water which causes scale and staining, so it’s got to be good! I will report on the progress.

I plan to order more eco products as I run out of my other products. 🙂

Single Use Plastic Bags

I recently had a revelation after looking at the recycling corner in my kitchen – just how many plastic bags I had, even though I usually remember my cloth bags when I go shopping! I’m sure we all occasionally acquire one for some reason or another, but I thought this was ridiculous. I then realised most of the bags were from loaves of bread! Well, maybe we shouldn’t eat so much bread for a start but I was quite overwhelmed for a moment. I remembered from seeing on TV they are the sort of bags that get sent overseas and can just be left in piles with nothing being done about them and nobody taking responsibility. It’s made me think I must do something!

It’s very difficult because bread is very convenient in our busy lives. Bread is one of those things that you buy at a convenient moment and it’s so difficult to change your habit… but I’m now going to try. Our local baker in Fakenham will give you a paper bag for your bread if you ask. While that does mean I might need to make a special trip, we do in fact go into town from time to time and so could manage it. I bought some today, so lets see how I get on. 🙂

My other problem is that I need to eat GF bread because I have an intolerance to wheat. I know that there is a bakers in another village that bakes their own but it means a drive. I could make my own I suppose but I haven’t found a good recipe yet. Any ideas?!

New Side Table

I’m delighted with what I’ve just made. I’ve made a side table for the lounge out of  vintage chemists box.

I found this box in the loft of our last house when we were moving and so decided to bring it with us. We’ve been using it to store sketch books and journals until now when we had a need for a new side table.

I’m really happy with it 🙂

Brightening Things Up (cont.)

Here’s an update on the fire place in our lounge.

It’s still not finished but we love it. Thanks to chalk paint we’ve been able to cover up the dark tiles very easily.

Here’s a reminder of what it looked like before.

An amazing transformation I think! 🙂

A New Rockery

For a very long tome there had been a pile of large logs on our front drive which Mr O. was intending to deal with but never got round to it. I came up with a solution for the problem……

…….we now have a rockery! I added some rockery stones to the log pile without disturbing little families which will have made there home in the warm and damp. I now am gradually adding some plants, so now as I drive up to my house it puts a smile on my face! 🙂

Brightening things up

We’ve been suffering with a dark fireplace ever since we have moved into our house fourteen years ago. We are having a new carpet, so it’s time for a change. I would like the room to be a little bit lighter and therefore feel a bit more spacious.

It’s amazing what a pot of chalk paint does to start the ball rolling!

It’s like a breath of fresh air

The carpet arrives on Wednesday so I’ll keep you posted on how things go 🙂

 

Seeds

Oh yes, it’s that time of year when I review my seeds and start planning what I’m going to sow. I just get itchy fingers, only put off by the cold weather!

I had some packets left from last year and bought a couple of magazines which had free seeds with them so I have a good amount of seed to go on with. All I need is some winter sunshine to get me out to prepare for sowing! 🙂