Yummy yarn and some AFOs!

When I visited Lizzie a couple of weeks ago, she took me to a lovely little yarn shop she'd discovered.
Lurking in the bargain bin was this yummy yarn. It's not silk or cotton but it's got a beautiful feel to it (splits like mad but you can get past that bit if you try). Any guesses what it's made from?

Anyway, being the patient soul I am, I ditched all other WIPs and UFOs immediately to dive in and have a go. I have a huge dislike of sewing in ends etc so I found a join-as-you-go pattern (yay!) which I adapted to make a wide wrap. My aunty saw it half-finished and snaffled it! I made her a floppy flower brooch to hold it together, and here's my lovely little Mum modelling for me :-) Now all I have to do is make another one for little ol' me.

Here's where the AFOs come in - yes, blogland, I have some Actual Finished Objects. Oh, I'm so proud of myself, lol.

While the camera's out, my aunty asked me to make her a couple of flower brooches, so I had a play and came up with these 2.

Right, off to mess about with the 3 scarves, doilie and almost-done wrap I've made this past week while I've been off work with a horrid virus :-)

A lot of effort for a courgette

Following yesterday's grumpy post, brace yourselves. Look what they've done overnight :-((

I checked under the leaves last night and there was no creature in sight -
overnight something's eaten most of the leaf they started on the day before....

Flower? What flower? I suppose that means no courgette now....

Rooting around in the shed, I found this. This is the last ditch attempt - after this, I give up...

Ta da!. Must be the world's best-protected courgette, surely...

Why I loathe slugs & snails

Well, hmph, and double hmph.
I've been trying for ages to grow things other than flowers in my teensy garden but have always been thwarted by slugs and snails.
Yet again they've attacked and I'm MIFFED to say the least. Look what they've done to my courgette plant (given to me by Lizzie when I visited her a couple of weeks ago) - I mean, it's not like I didn't try to protect it, is it? Top left - all comfy and well-protected in her new home and surrounded by enough shells to put off even the most determined creature. Look what they've done to it in the next 2 pics - grrrrrrrrrrr.
Bottom right - I'm not holding out much hope for my attempt at being green/eco-friendly - seeds I saved from a red pepper ages ago have sprouted into 5 fairly healthy looking little seedlings, and that's my very own egg-shell snail/slug deterrent - shells dutifully washed and saved and ground with a pestle and mortar. Wonder how long the poor little things will last - the dreaded S&S have scoffed my rocket too.

This is where I get even more miffed - I treated myself to a beautiful little plant which was packed with amazing flowers - all different and pretty shades of pinks/creams.

Look what's left of it! They used the corks as stepping stones I think - corks obviously don't bother the horrid things around here.

I'm going to hmph again now - HMPH.

I shall go and carry on with my crochet to soothe my hmphedness and my summer cold - maybe it's the cold that's making me more grumpy than normal, lol.

Long time no blog!

Thought it was about time I updated my blog as my ears are ringing from the nagging from certain persons (begins with "L" and ends with "izzie"). This may be a long post, so brace yourselves :-)

Well, I swanned off to Portugal for a little while in May/June and because they've had such a wet winter/spring all the wildflowers were still out and it was a real pleasure to see. Just after I'd taken these pics, and been crawling about in the "mato" or scrubland, my neighbour was busy strimming all the wildflowers around her house. I accused her of being a flower killer but she pointed out it was because conditions were perfect for snakes to start breeding/hiding/lurking! Glad I didn't know that before I wandered about in my flipflops.

The weather was really weird for the time of year - either cold and windy and we were sitting about in fleeces (in June!?) or it was a heatwave. Very peculiar and I've never seen it like that in all the years we've been going there.

Even this poor "Dama de noite" or night-blooming jasmine was a bit confused - the flowers usually close up tightly during the day. Although the beautiful scent didn't arrive until night, it was very odd seeing the tiny flowers open all day long.

So, whatever the weather, a girl has to get her crochet hook out - it's the law :-)
Our lovely neighbour had been into the house and made it ready for us - we had no idea she was going to do that and I was really touched by her kindness.  She even climbed over the wall to get in because she couldn't get the gates to open.  Anyway, I thought I'd make her something to say thank you so I had a little play about and came up with a little cotton bag/pouch and a beaded bracelet.

 I got a bit carried away with the pouches after that - I think I made 6 or 7 in total although quite what I've done with the rest of them is baffling me at the moment.

Then I got the doilie bug again.  It's really strange because they're not really my cup of tea at all but I find the rhythm of the patterns really relaxing (although very frustrating sometimes and I could speed unpick in the Olympics).  Anyhow, here are a few (the last 2 are, erm, quite large to say the least!) -

And it wouldn't be the same if I didn't do at least one Diabolical Doilie while I was in Portugal, so here you go - not quite as vile as some of them but even so.....

And finally, for now, Liz pointed me in the direction of a Flickr group making African flower hexagons.  Not being one to choose the easy route to anything, I decided I'd make diddy ones (1.25mm hook and size 10 thread).  Haven't quite decided yet what to do with them - think I'll make you wait for that :-)

Right, I'm worn out after all that.  Toodlepip as Liz would say.

P.S Quite why Blogger is NOT putting pics/text where I want them, I don't know.  Anybody else having problems?