Sunshine

and showers, of course, it being a bank holiday weekend. 'Tis pretty much compulsory for rain on a holiday.

I didn't manage to keep up with the knitting bloggy a day thing, as I expected work pretty much took over and my evenings became 'come home, ring mum, have a bit of a cry about how utterly dire my job is, have a glass of wine, potter about and have a long hot bath'. And I don't usually drink at all during the week, and rarely at weekends, so that sums up how rubbish things are. Hey ho.

But let's move on to lighter and brighter things.
Such as the aforementioned sunshine! I am British therefore an eccentric obsession with the weather is natural - so far this morning we have sunshine, after a crappy rainy grey day yesterday. I open my bedroom curtains and see this:

,

it reaches above my house, and because my garden is so teenytiny is pretty much fills it! The smell is incredible, very sweet - I love this tree.

No idea what sort of tree it is, and every year I resolve to find out and then promptly forget. It's a tree. And it blossoms.

All manner of wondrous things are going on in my little garden. The flimsy excuse for a greenhouse that I love is doing really well. This is lettuce and either peas or beans, I can't be bothered to nip out and check the label. Strange bedfellows in terms of size, but they both seem happy enough so far. The lettuce can be transplanted in a few days, and live next to my radishes in this wondrous thing:

How much do I love this, despite its flimsiness? A portable raised bed! I have carrots, spring onions, lettuce and radish to go in here, with some herbs and marigolds to keep the bugs away. I have another one but ran out of compost (will nip to good old Wilko tomorrow after the gym and get a couple of sacks home in a taxi), the second one is going to be for chard, beetroot, possibly some of my peas and whatever else I plant. The peas and beans have deep bag planters, and I have some new potatoes already planted in their patio bags, Not that I have a patio you understand.

I love my garden.

Incredibly some knitting is being done too! It's far too long since I picked up my needles. I have had a hell of a job getting hold of enough Rowan Silk aran in this shade of pink, to be able to make Old Mill Hoodie, which I have had queued since it came out on Ravelry. Thankfully I managed to get 7 more balls on ebay, and wonder of wonders they are the same dye lot. I suspect I might end up having to buy a couple of balls as there isn't much metrage to it. It is a delight to use, utterly gorgeous and I love the colour. And the jacket (which I am hoping will make a nice spring chuck it on kind of jacket) is ridiculously easy so far.

Soothing knitting, can't beat it.

Over on Ravelry I ran a 'Craft a Day for the Month of May' swap, and was totally posilt by my lovely friend Martha. This huge bundle of fantastic crafty goodness arrived on Wednesday, and I am thrilled with all of it - I would never have poicked up the hemp book, yet the jewellery designs are gorgeous and I can't wait to have a play. And I have not used (or seen) water soluble oil pastels before either, so that's going to be today's mission. I also received a very generous package from my friend Darlene, which included some precut watercolour paper artists trading card blanks - so Craft a Day in May is sorted for day one!

And I will leave you with this. I love the pound shops - 90% junk, 10% treasure / bargains. I usually stock up on Nicky Clarke hair products (so do the girls who work there! I get my hair cut there and their products are excellent but pricy, so I bought 3 or 4 of everything when the pound shop had it in).

But sometimes (usually) there is that rogue item that falls into your basket, that thing that you couldn't resist because it was 'only a pound' (the IKEA effect) but quite simply has absolutely no use whatsoever.

So here it is.

The Pointless Poundshop Purchase of the Week, a regular feature.

Yes, a camper van candle. What can I say - it's pink and it's pretty!