Separation

Separated out the Roma tomatoes and potted up the ( sweet peas )

I now have three four nasturtiums showing, and at least one seedling in each of the calendula seed-compartments -- I clearly planted a lot more than six! And the corn-flowers that I sowed from the worryingly tiny packet of seed I managed to save last summer, are coming up, to my relief.

The 'official' coriander is finally germinating, in addition to all the seeds that apparently found their way into the compost ;-)

( Chillies )

I remember that I was originally advised to take up growing seeds as a means of therapy -- a form of creative activity, I suppose, and a way of paying heed to something outside one's own needs. And I definitely find annuals more interesting than having a low-maintenance house plant just sitting in the corner Keeping Me In Touch With Nature, as advised for hospitals and corporate buildings. But it occurs to me that, characteristically, far from being calmed and soothed by my plants I simply adopt them as another sort of constant worry :-(

( Corn-camomile and feverfew )

Buttonholes are hard

I had steeled myself to finally get round to sewing on a replacement collar button ( Read more... )

before I could repair the button I had first to reinforce the edges of the buttonhole.

( Read more... )

After a lot of effort and working back over the existing lumpy doubled section I eventually managed to create a reasonably neat and workable result, but it certainly would not pass any Savile Row standards.

(click to enlarge)

( Read more... )

Most people, of course, simply use the 'buttonholer' on their sewing machine and cut down the centre of the resulting rectangle -- although this leaves a raw edge between the rows of stitching it generally wears away in use in any case -- but since I don't have that option on my hundred-year-old machine I need to do the earlier tailoring techniques that physically enclose the cut edge, whether by knotting thread over it or by encasing it in a fold of cloth.... But really, using button-hole stitch is the harder of the two!

I Can Do It!

I was smitten by a sudden active desire to attempt the Soviet Twenty Years After sequel during a spare half-hour, and found to my great relief that I can actually understand it -- I can't make out all the dialogue, and certainly not the song lyrics, but I can understand what is going on in every scene, and in fact rather more clearly than I could in the case of my first hearing of the fourth sequel :-)
Possibly because there hasn't been quite so much uncanonical activity in between, and there are fewer characters to deal with -- but I frankly can't remember what canonically happens at the start of Dumas "Twenty Years After", save that I'm pretty sure it doesn't involve d'Artagnan getting into a tavern brawl after overhearing talk of someone wanting to kill "d'Herblay" (upon which he conveniently ejaculates "Aramis!" for the benefit of the audience, since that name was not mentioned anywhere in the original film ;-)( Read more... )

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( Swede and Apple Bake )

( Brown Bread Mist )