the green gal

My weekend

Did you enjoy the long weekend? Hopefully the sun was shining where you are and you could soak up some vitamin D! My weekend was lovely, busy and varied, just how I like it. The hubbie and I took a little trip down memory lane wandering around the patch of London we lived in for nearly a decade, had a chat with a lovely bunch of calves who've moved in to a field on our regular dog walk, made a start on planting some vegetable seeds as well as a hanging basket and enjoyed some doggie cuddles. I also did a load of preparation for Pulse, the trade show at Earls Court that I'm exhibiting at from next Sunday. My brother is getting married two days earlier (in a whole other part of the country) so I need to be super organised way in advance!

Hope your week has gotten off to a great start!

My weekend

There was some pondering and musing and tea drinking but on the whole my weekend was quite active. I was so glad to see the sunshine I walked into my local town for a change, enjoyed some lovely dog walks with the hubbie and we turned our neglected, weedy garden into a neat, ready to plant space. I'm wondering if we're a bit late with planting our veg but it's been so very cold I didn't think anything would survive the frost! Have you been sowing seeds and do you think I should just get on with it?! Any advice is very welcome!

Lovely links

This week's favourite blog posts are all on a DIY theme, after all, you can't eat chocolate for ALL of the long Easter weekend, can you?!

I love this cute and stylish DIY animal jar by Torie Jayne, it's an update on a previous tutorial using pastel shades.

I've never had cherry limeade so I figured I may as well start with this grown-up version by Blacksburg Belle! I also think it might make me feel summery while it's still freezing cold outside.

I've read several egg decorating blog posts this week but I like this one from How About Orange particularly because of the use of decals.

And to keep those pretty eggs warm how about a tutorial for making little egg cosies from Patchwork Harmony?

Finally, a lovely post about starting off sweet peas by Yvestown, I'm finding it hard to believe it'll ever be warm enough to grow flowers and veggies but I live in hope! And I'd love to see sweet peas brightening up my garden.

Happy Easter, everyone, see you next week!

My weekend

I got lots of non-work 'stuff' done this weekend. Like many self-employed, small business owners, I can get absorbed in my work so I find myself with no time to do chores and jobs around the house. But then they build up over time and nag at the back of my brain until I just need to get on and do them! So, this weekend, as well as the usual chores, I did some gardening including transplanting leeks, and sorted through the mess that is my wardrobe. After filling four carrier bags of shoes and clothes for recycling and another four bags of clothes and, er, bags, for the charity shop I have a much tidier wardrobe. It feels like I've created a bit more space in my head too. I wanted to get some jobs done before Christmas really starts to kick in and I feel like I can concentrate better now that I've got them out of the way. Perhaps the weather is making me want to do the autumn version of a spring clean!

Above is a snap of some personalised fabric bunting I made for a friend this weekend. I haven't sewn in quite a while so it felt good to flex my creative muscles in a different area. She's giving the bunting to a relative as a gift so I just hope they all like it! 

My weekend

A certain little dog wandered into shot of my Pimm's

I know it wasn't a scorcher across the whole of the UK but blimey it was hot in my little corner of the country! I'm not great with the heat so I kept moving around the house, studio and garden trying to find a coolish spot to work in. The combination of blazing sunshine and torrential downpours has been good for the remaining veggie plants in my garden. We've finally been able to eat our homegrown tomatoes and green beans, and the pumpkin plant is coming along a treat! And what are we to do with our flourishing mint plant? Why, make Pimm's to go with it of course!

Lovely Monday

They smell as lovely as they look, but you'll have to take my word for it! I was inspired by a picture I saw on instagram posted by the lovely Clara of @thecornerhouse (that's her instagram name) to pop into my garden and pick a few flowers. I don't usually think to bring flowers from the garden into the house, partly because there aren't that many of them and partly because they die so quickly when cut. But I'm glad I did because they look so pretty! There are roses, honeysuckle, lavender, white campion (I think) and chive flowers in this little posy.

And if you'd like to see any more of my piccies on instagram my username is @thegreengal :)

How many foods can you grow in one small garden?

That's what we shall discover this year! This year we have decided to try growing a wider variety of vegetables but all in tiny amounts. Because of the rubbish weather we've had in our patch of the UK we're really behind in our planting so, a couple of evenings ago, we took a trip to the garden centre, and then got busy! (That's my studio at the far end and our dog, Georgie, not posing for the picture.)

So, we have a courgette plant, a pumpkin plant and a few French beans in stack of tyres. Usually potatoes grow in these but we've decided to try something else this year. In the two beds we have salad leaves, spinach, carrots, parsnips, red onions, salad onions and leeks. There are a variety of tomatoes in three pots, plus spare carrot plants went into an old watering can. Two hanging baskets hold strawberry plants and lots of herbs are in various containers too! 

On the mostly shady side of the garden we have our wild flower patch (throw a few packets of wild flower seeds onto soil and this is the result). I'm not great at identifying flowers but I think we have poppies, buttercups, pink campion and nettles, among other pretties. We keep the nettles because they provide aphids for insects to chomp on, plus I might try making nettle tea this year. We also added lavender, chive, mint and borage plants a few years ago which are happily mixed in with the wild flowers. And I can tell you the bees and butterflies LOVE this patch! Which is one of the reasons we planted it, but my word, they can't get enough of the lavender and borage!

I dream of having a big enough garden for chickens but this will do for the moment. Are you growing any food this year? Perhaps you have some top tips you can share, would love to hear if you do!

Do you know your wildlife?

Before the weather went weird and snow started falling around the UK I was enjoying seeing various wildlife visit my little garden. I don't seem to be able to fill up the bird feeder fast enough and lots of bees have been methodically working their way through the plants that have started to flower. My first butterfly of the year fluttered by me on a dog walk last week, making me disproportionately happy!

So, it got me thinking about identifying the different creatures visiting my neighbourhood and I've found a few websites which can help me, and you, do this. 

Butterfly Conservation's website has heaps of info on moths and butterflies plus tips on how you can help the winged creatures, as well as their identifier.

Then there is the splendid RSPB website with their very nifty bird identifier, as well as lots of info about the bird you can also listen to their call.

I've been mistaking wasps for honey bees so I've already found Bumblee Conservation Trust's identifying section on their site v useful. Check out the gardening for bees advice too, lots of lovely plants that will look great in your windowbox or garden will help out the declining population at the same time. 

Who knew there are so many different types of ladybird? Not me! I came across this ladybird picture sheet from the UK Ladybird Survey, courtesy of a tweet by Brigit Strawbridge, a champion of taking care of the environment and everyone who shares it.  

I hope you found these links useful, wildlife watching might make a fun activity to do with (or without) the kids over the Easter weekend…

Marvellous Milly-Molly-Mandy

Do you know of Milly-Molly-Mandy? Have you read the adventures of the little girl in the striped dress who lives in The Nice White Cottage with the Thatched Roof? As a child I read lots of the Milly-Molly-Mandy stories that Joyce Lankester Brisley wrote and illustrated, and still feel the influence of it today.

Milly-Molly-Mandy lives an idyllic life from a bygone era where the height of enjoyment is fishing in a stream, blackberrying in the woods, camping in tents made from sheets and chairs, and eating picnics of bread and butter with her best friends little-friend-Susan and Billy Blunt. The illustrated map of her English village at the start of the book was enough to hook me as a young reader.

I think that reading books like Milly-Molly-Mandy, The Family From One End Street, Ballet Shoes, pretty much everything Enid Blyton ever wrote and, of course, Anne of Green Gables, gave me my love of vintage, nostalgia and a longing for an idyllic, old-fashioned life living in a thatched cottage with chickens and a big vegetable garden. I do live in a lovely little cottage with a very little veg patch but I fell in love with Milly-Molly-Mandy's house several decades ago and dream of a thatched roof with a gable or two.

Written in the 1920s you could think that the Milly-Molly-Mandy stories bear no relation to life today and perhaps they don't. But if you, like me, find any excuse to hang up the bunting, like tea made in a pot, consider swapping the laptop for the typewriter on occasion, are fond of wearing a pinny and dream of a simpler life, you'll love Milly-Molly-Mandy, whatever your age. The gorgeous illustrations fit the beautifully written stories perfectly. In fact, I'm going to read all 38 stories in my omnibus book right now…

Five lovely things 6

How are you all, lovely blog readers? Hope you've all had a lovely week and are looking forward to an even lovelier weekend.

So to this week's five lovely things. No1 is that I'm so pleased the warm weather has provoked the rose bush in my garden into action, it's SO pretty when it blooms, just hope it lasts for a few more weeks…

Is there a way to find out what type of rose this is? Or is it just generic cream rose?

At No2 is spending time last weekend with three of my nieces and nephews, they're such gorgeous little people and always make me smile with their adorableness.

As promised, here is the lovely iPad case I ordered for my hand-me-down iPad, my lovely thing No3. Made by Tillymoss on etsy, it's perfectly made and I love how the retro prints contrast with the technology it's keeping cosy inside.

When the iPad is slid fully inside there is a loop that fastens over the button keeping the iPad snug and safe

I am thrilled to have gained three new stockists for the green gables products this week so that's at No4. More about them to come…

And lastly at No5 is that Mollie Makes magazine is finally out, yay! There's been a lot of buzz about it and it absolutely lives up to the hype. I stayed up last night to read it cover to cover, it's as if the editorial team held a focus group in my head, found out what would make an ideal creative living magazine for me, and then went back to their office and produced it! The opening page has four – I suppose you could call them mission statements – and they totally match up to my ethos. Love, love, love Mollie Makes, I urge you to find a copy or get the digital version here.