WALL WONDERFULS

These little stitches are finally hanging on her wall, which is actually their wall. The themes of wool, butter, chickens and apples seem more fitting than back when I stitched them. These days, she works with wool in new ways (finger-knitting now a favourite pass-time), there are chickens to tend now, she enjoys to bake independently (within reason and with butter of course) and, well, the apple trees are on their way! So, she's got it all covered :).

And there's more Wee Wonderfuls stitching underway here now....such sweet designs! Who knows when they'll be framed but they are underway. For the above, I went with a nearby custom framing place in the end as I was unable to source the stitcky backing fabric I've heard of friends using in Canada, which apparently helps a great deal when self-framing embroidery...perhaps next time.

enjoying our 'lid-potatoes'

Can you see the potato-bags in the first photo above? We're out of garden beds (the soil in the ground has too high a percentage of clay to risk planting precious vegies in) and since it's unlikely they'll be built in the next few weeks and I was desperate to plant potatoes, I used potato-bags courtesy of Diggers. I planted nine tubers of Nicola and hope for a good crop.

On the potato front we recently discovered the beauty of 'lid-potatoes' thanks to Milly, Molly, Mandy who enjoyed them with 'little-friend-Susan' in the chapter we read the night before we settled down in front of the fire to enjoy some - the perfect Sunday night dinner. So simple; bake whole, washed potatoes, slice a 'lid' off one end, scoop out the insides (or what you can without breaking the potato skin) and mash the contents with whatever you please (we chose butter, salt and pepper just like M.M.M with a little grated cheese on top). Thanks Millicent! (a.k.a M.M.M), my Mum will be so happy to hear that I've embraced another way to enjoy the good old 'spud'. In a conversation with my Mum last year sometime, I made the mistake of mentioning that we rarely buy potatoes and she was appalled, along with her Irish heritage!

On a related front, the next round of seedlings are growing like crazy. Winter and spring, you should be goooood! (touch wood).