TARRAGON & THYME

I thought I would show you some of the items that I have made to date.I am not an expert at crafts by any means but I have a go. My great-maiden-aunt was a beautiful needlewoman especially when it came to crotchet. I still have some of her beautiful mats that she made. My Nan and my mum were always knitting and sewing as well. Mum used to make all my summer dresses and winter pinafores when I was a child and there was always a jumper on the go for one of us. I think back then people sewed out of necessity because they could not always afford what was in the shops. It also turns out that my mother's real talent lay with embroidery. She had apparently started a tablecloth for her bottom drawer and had ended up leaving it at the family home. Her sister found it and mum told her that she could have it. Aunty packed it away in the drawer and forgot about it. About 20 years ago she found it and she and her daughter then completed the cloth between them and showed it to me. Prior...

Help your urgent help needed. I have an unidentified plant in my herb border which seems to have expanded somewhat. Now bearing in mind I cannot remember what it is (I have lost the label0I wonder if any of you good people are able to give me some kind of idea. I don't know whether it is a useful plant or indeed whether I should be replanting it elsewhere or curbing its growing tendencies or indeed if there is anything I can do with it in the kitchen. Here's hoping.

Well I think I am going to be very hard pressed getting this garden back into shape but am going to attempt to try and negotiate this over the next few weeks or so and try and knock it back into shape so that I can use the garden space and also produce hopefully some food to supplement the shopping bill. So we will have some before and after photographs. I do apologise but I have to start somewhere and not being sure just where to start I am diving in at the deep end as usual. So its sink or swim. Its been a lovely sunny afternoon here today and so fed up of being in the house I decamped with the requisite mug of tea and sat in the garden and started sorting through my seeds. I picked out a few packets of seed I wanted to plant. Then I stripped my mini greenhouse no 1 out and washed up a load of pots before setting too and starting to plant the seeds. I am not sure whether I am being a tad too early or more to the point over-optimistic. I am hoping however that I haven't set th...

Here are some of my most recent finds I paid no more than £5 for each one. I love needlework of any kind.Whoever ever works the piece (no matter what their ability) puts heart and soul and an imprint of themselves into each piece. I have found the following pieces in Charity Shops for minimal amounts and yet the hours and hours of work contained in them you cannot fathom just by looking at the piece. I think I only do because I know how many hours they took. I am very lucky to have found such treasures but I always feel a little sad for the families who have lost these treasures they don't know what they are losing. Sometimes it is more than the picture its the actual art of doing these things. I consider myself extremely lucky Don't you

Spring is certainly in full swing all the trees are starting to sprout their blossom and each time the wind blows it gently scatters their confetti to the ground in gentle flurries. Blossom at the bottom of the garden At the bottom of the garden the Cherry is in full blossom (not that I ever to get many of them as being at work the birds usually beat me to it) that is surrounded by two ballerina apple trees although there does not appear to be much blossom on the apples this year. Is it the same throughout the country. Now is the time for watching for frost as it could impact on the later to come crop like it did round her last year on the sloes and elderberries. Not a good year for them last year. The house 4 doors up has a very large magnolia in the front garden and it looks absolutely exquisite at the moment in full blossom. A swing in the Apple orchard Hip Hip Hooray As I watch the apple blossom gently blow away As i swing high and low And up through the boughs Going faster and...

Happy Easter Everyone. It has been a relatively quiet day today and the weather has been miserable and wet and horrible and my arthritis is complaining bitterly. I understand that the bottom half of the country has had loads of sunshine etc. This I have ascertained from Classic Gold Radio which I listen to quite frequently when cooking in the kitchen. I love the radio. I have had a very busy day today as I have had my main pantry to bits and given it a good old sort out - found some things I had forgotton I had got and sorted out some others to do projects with during the week. So that took quite some time. But I have located the bread flour that I was convinced I had but couldn't find. Then I started cooking Sunday dinner we always tend to have tea late on a Sunday so that we get as much as we can out of the day with being at work all week - we had home prepared and stuffed pork belly roasted (and there was plenty of crackling without any salt)with roast potatoes, squash, an...

Hope you have all had a lovely Easter Sunday and over-indulged on the chocolate side of things too. Chocolate eggs are relatively a new thing to celebrate Easter with the more common eggs being served were paste eggs or hard boiled eggs that were gaily decorated. Or if you were really well off a Faberge egg. The egg the symbol of birth of regrowth - the period that the farmer used to look forward too as the more animals the future of the farm was ensured and his family fed. href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiifmCAd2ZAZiRS-Aa8MR4Rt6WtMyVZt9QfGSrev8G1bvQ8k7KiOTl67JC_Rxv-qxNdvufMJL8vFCdexDfB1CBa30pC_IxLZfkmBbvGWro-u37f_TEW3UoQQ8u444057XEk89L0JG5_iw/s1600-h/BB02-02.jpg"> One of the best presents I could ever receive would be to have some eggs to incubate and then bring on into little chicks. I would love my own chickens Heres to a lovely weekend whether you have religious beliefs or follow your own path is not the important bit it is the celebra...