Good Week, Bad Week - W/E 24th May 2026

After a relatively good week last week, this week really wasn't so good. OH got a phone call early on Monday morning, to say that his brother's health was deteriorating and he'd been discharged from hospital once again, but this time for end of life care. Since having a stroke last February, he hadn't really physically recovered his mobility. This had taken a toll on his health and there was little more the doctors could do. We can't say it came as a surprise, but it's not a pleasant thing to hear.

OH and I decided to pack and head up north to stay with OH's mum for a few days and visit him at home and see if there was anything we could do to help. He got home from hospital the day we travelled up, so we paid him a quick visit that night, but I think he was tired with all of the upheaval of being moved back home. We didn't stay long, but it was nice to see him and his partner.

The next day when we visited, he looked a lot more relaxed, but spent most of the time sleeping, which increased as the days passed. We stayed an extra night on Wednesday, as we didn't want to rush off and then regret it, when he was at such a critical stage and sure enough the following morning he passed away, which was very sad.

Thursday, or most of it, was thus spent with his family awaiting the formalities of a palliative nurse visit and the eventual arrival of the undertakers. It was a sad day, but he'd passed very peacefully in the night, which was a blessing.

We set off back to London mid afternoon. Everyone had disbanded and his partner had gone to stay with her family. The journey back was strange. He was the first sibling in our generation to die. You can't help but start to consider your own mortality.  It was good to get home and relax. It had felt like a long week, on tenterhooks. We did, however, feel fortunate to have been there, sad though it was.

Once back home, on Friday, I had to head out of town and do some grocery shopping. I'd only done a very basic shop on Monday morning, locally, to ensure LB had food to eat whilst we were away and by the time we got home, there wasn't much left in the fridge. With a Bank Holiday weekend looming, I needed to stock up, so that we didn't need to worry about shopping over the long weekend.

It was busy on the roads, but not really in the shops. I got what we needed, including a few things for us to have a BBQ over the weekend. I did also drop into the charity shop and bought what I felt was a nice, loose, cool top to wear in the hot weather, as the weather was scorchio, reaching 27 degrees centigrade. The top I bought was in fact a short dress, but I've cut it down to make a top. It cost £3.

When I got back, I did my laundry from our time away and was able to hang it out in the garden on our new line for the first time in probably a couple of years. Very satisfying.

On Saturday morning, I had a nice lie in reading my current book. Eventually, I got up and ready and headed out into the garden.  

It was a hot day, somewhere around 30 degrees centigrade, but it didn't put me off. After being away for 4 days, it was just lovely to spend some time out there. I ended up working in the garden for the entire afternoon, washing plant pots, potting on a few plants, moving things around a little, tidying the greenhouse and sweeping up the decking. 

I was shattered by the time I'd finished, but it was very satisfying to get it done. There will be more pots to wash in a couple of months when all the plants OH has grown for the allotment get put in, but by far the majority got done today and I enjoyed doing it.

LB came in from work later and told us that there had been a big fire two streets away. The whole of our local high street was closed to traffic. Apparently, 60 firefighters were needed to get it under control and her bus was diverted to avoid the scene. Not good. Luckily, I don't think anyone was hurt.

On Sunday morning, OH and I headed out to a car boot sale. I've made a separate post about this. LB was working all day and later we had a visitor in the guise of next door's dog, who was staying overnight with us.

Later on Sunday, we took a stroll down to the allotment. I hadn't been there for a while. I just wanted to see how things were growing and plant out a dahlia that I had in the garden at home. OH wanted to plant out some courgettes and cucumbers. When it cooled off later, we had a BBQ in the garden, which was nice.  A relaxing way to end a pretty awful week really.

A Relatively Normal Week - W/E 17th May 2026

This week started with a lie in with my current book, which I'm really enjoying. I then got ready and ended up going out of town again, to do the weekly shop. It's unusual to do this twice in the space of a few days. 

This time around, I stocked up on a few things that were on offer, to save money in the coming months. I can't buy much more for the pantry shelf, as it is fully stocked, so I bought some meat products instead and froze them. I bought a large pack of mince and split it into 3 portions. We maybe use one a fortnight, so it will keep us going for a while. We don't eat a whole lot of meat, when OH makes a curry, I often prefer a veggie one or we sometimes use Quorn products instead of meat.

On Tuesday, I went to Zumba in the morning, which was good. I then spent the afternoon and evening working on the ironing board cover. I got quite a lot done. It was nice to spend some time sewing again, as I hadn't done any for a week.

Wednesday, I spent most of my time sewing again. I finished the ironing board cover top and pinned the old cover to it, as it was foam backed and some fabric to the back to neaten it off.  I was quite pleased with how it was progressing. It's very colourful compared to the previous one I made. It used up some fabrics that I wouldn't normally use, i.e. pinks. oranges and florals. It's pretty though. 

It was very squally on Wednesday, with intermittent rain and hailstone. I'm not really complaining, as we needed the rain, but I wanted to walk up to the library, to pick up a book I'd reserved and needed to find a break in the weather to do so. The book in question was Robin Wall Kimmerer's 'The Serviceberry'. 

By 4pm the skies had started to clear, so I walked up to collect it. I was really looking forward to reading this, after reading a previous book of hers called 'Braiding Sweetgrass'.  It's a very small book, smaller than I imagined, at just over 100 pages. I had finished my current book that day, so the timing was perfect.

In the evening, whilst watching TV, I finished the ironing board cover, stitching the binding around the edges and adding string to draw it onto the board. It looked nice.  I'll post a picture on my monthly makes post.

On Thursday morning, I started reading the book I'd got from the library. It's good. I then got up and ready for my aerobics class. When I got back, OH and I headed out to B&Q to get a few bits for some DIY he was doing and to put the car through the carwash, as it was very dirty. It looked like a new car once it was washed. We should clean it more often.

Whilst he was looking for some bits he needed, I ventured into the garden centre part of B&Q and found that they had some very reasonably priced floral hanging baskets. They were priced at £16 each or two for £28, which I thought was a very good price. OH ended up buying one for us and one for his mum, which we'll take up to Yorkshire next time we visit. He just needs to fix a bracket to hang it from. I was very happy with this, as a local shop sells them for £40, which is a lot more expensive. They are nice, but not £26 nicer. 

We then dropped into ASDA for him to do a 'man shop' and get some wine, whisky, chocolate and other bits he likes to buy for himself, that I don't buy as part of the weekly shop.  When we came home, I did a bit of banking to pay a couple of bills and then did some sewing using my machine to finish a chair cushion I'm making.

On Friday, having finished two sewing projects this week, I decided to take a break from sewing. I had a lie in and finished reading the library book. It was such a small book, I knew it wouldn't take me long. Late morning, I had a little potter in the garden dead heading. I decided to deadhead the hanging baskets OH had bought the day before, to prolong the flowering. Ours had a family of snails living in it. A couple of adults and several babies.  Needless to say they got evicted and re-housed in various parts of the garden, where they can't do too much damage. I'm hoping I got them all.

After lunch, I decided to walk into our local town centre. It felt good to just get out of the house and go for a walkabout and I rarely go into our local town centre.  I did drop in to a local charity shop on the way and spent £8.50 on four items, one item of clothing, one accessory as a gift and two books, both of which looked really good. When I got home, I started reading one of the books, which is quite compelling.

Saturday, was another day spent at home. OH worked on some jobs outside that needed finishing and he managed to put up the new hanging basket and a new retractible washing line that I'd bought ages ago, which was good. Here's a picture:

I, meanwhile, spent most of the day sewing on my machine working on the shed quilt and then trying my hand at a new small handstitching project.

On Sunday, LB was working and OH was running in our local half marathon event. I got up and ready and headed out to meet him on the finish line. He did well to finish, as he's still nursing an injury. It's a big event with a main stage and entertainment, lots of food stalls and thousands of people. It's a good atmosphere though. We met up with a cycling friend of OH, whose daughter was also running and had a chat, before coming home.

In the afternoon, OH headed out to the pub, to meet another cycling friend who'd also run the event. I stayed home, as I was part way through a job application and wanted to finish it. Not sure I'll get anywhere with it, you can but try.

It's been a relatively normal week this week, not too much going on, but enough to keep me busy and occupied.

I hope you've had a good week.

Another Open Garden Scheme Visit - Sunday 10th May 2026

On Sunday this last weekend, OH and I ventured to the car boot sale and on the way back we decided to go to another Open Garden. This garden was a private garden, located on the Northern edge of London. It was close to where I studied horticulture at a local horticultural college. It had once been a chicken farm, but the current owners had created a beautiful garden with a woodland area and vegetable patch.

We began by wandering around the garden. It had some amazing mature trees. Here are a few photos:

This was one of several large oak trees. Absolutely magestic.

A beautiful willow tree.

A huge eucalyptus.

A pine tree with beautiful cones.

In amongst some of the trees grew beautiful flowers such as this climbing rose 

and some beautiful clematis.

There was a lovely little woodland walk too, complete with a slightly overgrown tree house.

In other areas of the garden were this beautiful wisteria, lovely peonies and roses and other bushes that caught my eye.

You could tell that this garden belonged to a real plantswoman. It was the kind of garden that I love. 

There were also chickens 

an orchard, a greenhouse and a vegetable garden, which I didn't photograph, as it was sadly a bit overgrown. I guess with a garden this size, you can't always get everything done in time for an open day, it's such a huge undertaking and it's still early in the gardening year. 

We stopped off in the barn for a cup of tea and cake.  There was plenty to choose from on this occasion. We also stopped off at the plant stall where we went a bit mad and bought around 7 plants for £12. 

Here's a picture of the ones we came away with, some of which were in very big pots and were a complete bargain:

There was a large white anenome, a large pot of acanthus, a valerian plant, feverfew, a couple of daisies and a new to me small blue geranium. I also met the lady who owned the garden and she was lovely and told  me a bit more about the plants and what they needed. I'm hoping that I can get them to thrive in my garden. 

It was a lovely visit and we enjoyed wandering through the garden. Very inspiring.

Do you ever visit any Open Garden events? I'm hoping to get to more yet, before the end of the summer.

Monthly Clothing Purchases - April 2026

After purchasing quite a few items of clothing in March, I went into April thinking that I wouldn't be buying any clothes whatsoever, as I didn't really have the budget for it. However, things did ease up budget wise by mid month and I did find myself buying a few things here and there on my travels.

The first item I bought, was from the car boot sale, where I found this lovely navy linen/viscose dress for just £4. Whilst I don't really need new clothes for the autumn/winter months, I'm always looking out for cool, loose fitting clothing to wear in the summer, when the weather gets hot, ideally, dresses and tops in natural fibres and this dress fitted the bill and was a good price. I wore it for the first time this weekend and it is really comfortable and flattering.

After Easter, we went away for a couple of days to Yorkshire to visit family, and as always, I had a little mooch in a few charity shops there, as they tend to offer different things to here in London, and prices are usually good. I found a new oversized black t-shirt for £1.25 to wear to the gym, which was actually needed, as I only have a couple that I wear constantly.

I then found this emerald green knitted vest cardigan, which is a little snug, but I really liked it. It cost £2.50 and is acrylic, I think, although there are no labels in it. 

I also found this 100% linen Tahari striped sleeveless dress in a charity shop for £5. It's nice and loose and is an expensive brand, so this was hard to leave behind and again should be nice and cool to wear this summer. Please excuse the creases, I took it out of the washing basket to photograph it. I will need to wear a vest under this, as the armholes are big and I don't want my bra showing.

When I got back from Yorkshire, I also made a visit to my favourite charity shop here in London and bought a few things to wear over the summer. The first was this khaki linen/viscose playsuit for £5. It's quite oversized, but doesn't look too big on, it's nice and loose and casual for summer wear. I also bought a brand new with tags linen/cotton striped M&S shirt for £7, which will also be nice to wear in the summer. I may shorten it, but I haven't decided yet.

For £2, I bought a pair of cotton knee length shorts for walking in, for when OH and I start tackling The Wolds Way in Yorkshire and I bought a pair of loose fitting knee length viscose cullottes for £2, which should also be nice and comfortable to wear on hot days.

Finally, a couple of weeks later, I did buy one more item of clothing from the charity shop, when I dropped in to take a donation. It was this pair of loose wide legged summer pants, which cost £3. They are polyester, which I try to avoid, but they are nice and light for the summer months. I'll give them a try and if I find them uncomfortable due to the fabric content, I will re-donate them.

I think I'm good now for summer clothing, although I will always look out for nice loose fitting summer dresses, if they are flattering and made of natural fibres. One can't have too many of these when you are in your dress era, which I am currently. I have subsequently got my summer wardrobe out, in order to remind myself of what I actually have already, so I don't just keep buying more. 

So in total, I spent £31.75 this month on clothing, which again, is well over my £20 monthly thrifting limit, but once again, I have no regrets, as hopefully, I'll have a few more things to choose from when it comes to deciding what to wear on hot summer days (assuming we get some).

Did you buy or make any clothing this month?

A Bank Holiday Outing, A Cinema Trip and Another Garden Visit W/E 10th May 2026

This week started on Bank Holiday Monday with a trip to Lidl to do a weekly shop. We had run out of most things and I couldn't avoid it any longer. I have to say, that I'm disappointed that they have stopped their Lidl plus coupon scheme. I believe it finished today. I later found out that they are replacing it with a significantly less generous points scheme, just like all the other supermarkets. I will miss the 10% off voucher each month when you spend £250, as it did save me some money.  It's a sign of the times I guess. It may affect my loyalty, as I may go elsewhere for some items.

The shopping trip was okay, but was at our local store, which I don't enjoy visiting. I find that some customers there can be very rude, hence why I prefer to shop out of town, but I won't drive out on a Bank Holiday or the weekend, as there is way too much traffic.

Anyway, following the shop, OH and I visited an Open Garden Scheme garden, which was a lovely way to spend the afternoon. I've posted separately about this.

On Tuesday, I was booked in for Zumba as usual, which was good. I didn't do a lot in the afternoon. I just had a chill one at home doing a bit of sewing on the ironing board cover.

Wednesday, was a much better day. I was very tired though, as I didn't sleep hardly at all on Tuesday night. I had a bit of a lie in reading a new to me book by Winifred Holtby, who hailed from East Yorkshire, where I grew up. I have enjoyed a couple of her books previously, including Land of Green Ginger and her infamous South Riding. This one is called The Crowded Street and I think is partly autobiographical, which makes it particularly interesting.

 After lunch, LB had booked us tickets to see The Devil Wears Prada 2 at our local independent cinema. It worked out at £3 each for a mid week matinee, as she is a member, which is very reasonable, She buys the tickets and I buy the drinks and popcorn. The film was funny. I enjoyed it. I thought it was going to be much worse, but it was better than I thought, if a little cheesy.

On the way home, we both dropped into a local charity shop that I haven't visited for a month or so. I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening working on the ironing board patchwork, which is coming along nicely. OH was out cycling, but when he got back, we caught up on an episode of Race Across the World before heading to bed. Thankfully, I slept like a log.

On Thursday I headed off to Aerobics which was good. When I got back, I did a bit of pottering in the garden, tidying up a few of my favourite plants and potting on some seedlings I'd sown a few weeks ago. I'm growing some white borage and I can't wait for it to get bigger, as I saw some in the garden we visited at the weekend. I'm going to put some in the garden and some at the allotment.

Friday, was the first day of the week when I could head out and do a bit of shopping for things I didn't get when I shopped locally over the Bank Holiday weekend. It was mostly household/toiletry stuff that I'd run out of. I enjoyed just getting out of town and doing something different.

On Saturday, I'd agreed to have next door's dog again, as they were going to a wedding. He was good company, as OH was cycling again and LB working. We went on a nice walk and then chilled at home. I potted on another couple of houseplants that needed it, as I'd bought some more houseplant compost. I don't think I need to pot on any more for a while now.

OH came home for a few hours, he'd had a bit of a crash in his race and hurt himself, not too badly, but he was quite grazed. He got changed and went out again a bit later, to meet some cycling buddies for a drink. I wasn't bothered about going and stayed home.

Sunday, OH was feeling recovered enough to head out to the car boot sale in the morning. I didn't buy much. There was very little I wanted or needed. On the way home, we stopped off at another Open Garden. This one was a huge garden built on agricultural land. I may make a separate post about our visit. We ended up buying about 7 or 8 plants for £12. Some of them were quite mature specimens in big pots. They will go well in my new border in the garden. I couldn't believe how inexpensive they were. I was really happy. We stopped for cake and a cup of tea and then headed home. It made for a lovely day out and brought the week to a nice end.

I hope you've had a good week.

A National Open Gardens Scheme Visit

On Bank Holiday Monday, we decided to head out in the afternoon and visit a local garden that was opening for charity as part of the National Open Gardens Scheme. The garden in question was a small community garden and woodland in another part of the London borough where we live, but that we'd never visited before. I'd read about the garden in our local Open Gardens brochure and it looked interesting.

OH and I got on our bikes and cycled over to the garden. It probably took 15 minutes or so. We were really pleasantly surprised when we got there. The garden is wedged between housing and a local children's playground and you wouldn't necessarily know it was there.

It is a partly walled garden and much of it is divided up into tiny plots for local people to grow vegetables or flowers. It was really interesting to walk around and see the different plots and plants growing. Here are a few pictures:

The site also had a wildlife pond with yellow iris 

and a woodland area you could walk around with an interesting mix of trees and native plants.

In the woodland area, there was also an apiary where they had their own bee hives.

There was a jazz quartet playing on the day, which was very entertaining, a plant stall where I bought a

couple of plants and a community building where your could get a cup of tea/coffee (no cake for us, unfortunately, as they'd sold out). Their resident fox even came out for a special appearance.

He didn't seem at all timid and was wandering around amongst the visitors, until he got bored and went off to sleep.

It was a lovely way to spend a couple of hours on a Bank Holiday Monday. It cost us each £5 to visit, plus the cost of the tea/coffee, which was very minimal, but it was worth it as it went to a great cause and gave us lots of gardening inspiration for the allotment and the garden at home. I'm always amazed to visit these sort of gardens in London, which you might otherwise not get to experience.

I'm hoping that we'll get to visit more local gardens participating in this scheme over the summer, as it's a nice way to spend an afternoon, and I'm inherently nosey about other people's gardens too!

Monthly Makes - April 2026

This month hasn't been a particularly productive one on the making front. It started well enough, with my making progress with a scrappy quilt for the shed. I got the quilt top done over Easter weekend, along with making lots more fabric yarn for another rug.

We then went away for a few days to Yorkshire and when we got back, I progressed to sandwiching the quilt and started to machine quilt a few rows, but I ran into some difficulties, due mainly to the thickness of the quilt and gave up after a few rows. I haven't picked it up since. Here's a picture of where I'm at with it currently:

(Spot the rainbow from the crystal I have hanging in the window)

There is no hurry for this quilt. I'd like to get it completed by the autumn, so that it can be used when the weather gets cooler, but if I don't, it's not a problem.

Throughout the first couple of weeks of the month, I did steadily progress with my Kingsize hexi quilt. I'm still filling in the edges, but am slowly getting there. It was a bigger job than I thought. I would like to finish this project by the end of this year too, as I've been working on it for several years now. I'm not sure what I'm going to use as backing fabric. I may have to buy a flat sheet in a plain colour, either navy or dark green, as there's so many prints and colours on the top, that I think it needs something simple on the back.

I did also work on some denim cushion covers for our garden chairs in the first part of the month. I got the tops finished and cut some denim for the backs and then bought some zips, but it was the day after I'd bought these that I had my back injury and was in so much discomfort that I couldn't easily sit for long enough to sew and besides, the discomfort made it very difficult to focus, so I didn't do any sewing at all for well over a week.

Eventually the pain subsided and I was able to sit and tack the zips in place, but due to needing to do some cleaning for a visitor (who didn't come) it was once again left. I did, however, manage to machine stitch the zips in place and then stitch around both covers on 1st May. Not strictly within the month, but close enough.

I was pretty happy with how they turned out. I kept the design using different denims very simple, so that I'd have a realistic chance of finishing them. Here's a picture of one of them on one of our garden chairs:

The only other project I've worked on this month was to start making another ironing board cover for a second ironing board I have. I began making it with large denim hexis, but then decided that the fabric was too thick for an ironing board cover, so I'm now making it into a cushion cover for my chair at the kitchen table. I've finished the top now, just need a zip and then to sew it all together. Here's a picture:

Moving into May, I haven't really got any big plans for making anything special. I will probably complete the denim hexi cushion cover, keep working on the hexi quilt and shed quilt and I will probably start to make the additional ironing board cover. I'm pretty sure that other new projects might surface too, but we'll have to wait and see.

I hope you've had a productive month if you're a maker.