Just a Little Green.

Joni Mitchell... in the words of the wonderful Emma Thompson in Love Actually, "I love her."

I listen to her music frequently and today the sounds of her sweet voice singing one of my favourites made me look around my home for those signs, that fleeting touch of light or hint of colour that tells us spring is almost here. I looked for 'just a little green'...

and found it here in my kitchen where the soft gold of a variegated lemon thyme kept company with the forest green shoots of a pot of rosemary. I also have a jar holding some stems of rosemary which I got reduced at the supermarket with the intention of getting Isabella to pot them up with me to grow more little plants for our garden. Wrong time of year, but who says you have to follow the rules? Just have fun is a better mantra for me.

I looked through the living room window to see the 'grave' as I call the patch Isabella and Daddy planted last year on a day when I was poorly in bed; it looks awful but is packed with bulbs to provide cutting flowers for the house and so many shoots are now pushing through that I feel a little ashamed of the way I snorted with disgust at the sight of this rectangular patch of earth right in the middle of the lawn.

After all, the patch is always a mess anyway as it is where the paddling pool spends the summer so the children can play in it while Davey and I sit in the courtyard watching as we sip a chilled glass or two on hot days when the sun basks the front of our house with its wonderful light.

There will soon be daffodils and narcissi of all kinds, hyacinths and tulips for me to pick, a whole beautiful rainbow to cheer our little house and add some colour to these grey seemingly endless days and all because of those two scamps who disappeared behind my back with bags full of bargain bulbs...hmm, I'm so very glad they did.

Isabella even added some broad beans which are doing well if a little straggly. I feel so inspired by her' have a go' attitude to things and need to remember it is how I feel about life really. Nothing ventured and all that. She saw some beans, had a thought, acted on it and there you go: plants already thinking about producing a few flowers. There's a lesson there somewhere.

So, thank you dear Joni. I felt tired and fed up with winter's grey light

but then I found just a little green.

Just a little green

Like the colour when the spring is born

So prefect and not far so very far away.... x

A Golden Morn.

How beautiful this weather is: cold, cold, cold with golden light and signs of the coming spring all around. The cold is preferable to rain as far as I'm concerned but mittens are needed for sewing as my fingers get so chilly. The sunrise this morning caught my eye and ceased the school run preparations for just a moment.

It felt so good to bathe for the shortest while in that rich golden light before the icy air chased me back indoors.

I love the almost misty quality of these bronze-burnished branches against that soft blue.

I grabbed the camera on my way out and popped down to one of my old haunts. Penryn River is somewhere I have posted many photos of in the past and it felt time I visited again to capture the early morning light on this pretty spot.

Soft; golden; misty; ethereal...

poetic words drifted through my mind echoing the lazy flight of the river birds as they glided over the frozen banks.

And look just how very frozen those banks were. It always intrigues me to see such hard frost so close to sea water, but look how the sun has gilded the tips of the trees with its Midas touch.

Beautiful Cornwall at her best.

And now I must leave the river and return to work, albeit with a poorly little Isabella and her very chesty cough to keep me company, poor soul.

I hope you enjoyed a Friday morning nostlagia trip along the river banks. x

A Propensity to Procrastinate.

The past week has been a strange mix with each day bringing so many things to work through and time racing past before I have the chance to clear the list. Orders are pouring in more than I remember of other years for January and new designs sit partly finished at the end of my cutting table. As for the dreaded tax return...well, let's not spoil things. As ever, it will get done and the new product range will be completed, photographed, copy written, uploaded....heaven's to Betsy, it makes me feel tired to even think of it!

Of course, my propensity for procrastination comes to the fore at such times with my determination to get out into fresh air calling to me even on somewhat dingy days. A recent promise to take a friend over to the north Cornish coast saw us heading over to Porthtowan and St Agnes, both very lovely in different ways.

Trevaunance Cove was stunning as ever and peering over the cliffs onto jade seas so clear the rocks appeared with each receding wave meant I was able to capture this image. It makes me think of a painting rather than a picture frozen by the camera.

The wide open spaces and clambering cliffs cleared my head and proved the worth of dipping out just occasionally to steal such a day.

The cold weather has been more acceptable to me in terms of sewing lately thanks to a lovely gift from the equally lovely Jane who very sweetly offered to knit me a pair of fingerless mittens after I mentioned how cold my hands were when toting my camera. They also get pretty cold when embroidering as I am hardly moving enough to get myself warm.

The heater pumps out plenty of comfort in my sewing room, but still my fingers get chilly. Jane's thoughtful gift has solved the problem and the pretty shade of spring green makes me smile just to see them.

Thank you so much dear Jane; they are perfect!

And talking of spring, these dainty crocus are lighting up the garden at the moments in clumps which are naturalising more and more each year. Even when the sun is absent they seem to shine and hint of what's around the corner.

Of course, a little sunshine does make them even more beautiful.

Ahh, I can't wait to be in my garden, pottering around and smelling the earth again. In the meantime, it's back to the sewing room and I really will do my tax return tomorrow...maybe...

A Propensity to Procrastinate - there's a book there surely! x

Hips and Hens and Happy Colours.

Billowy, blustery winds have scattered the wild rose hips from the branches festooning the camellia outside our bedroom window covering the path in scarlet globes which we inevitably squish in our race to the car for the school run. I can't quite decide if it is pretty or a bizarre rendering of a gothic autumn wedding where the aisle has spatters of blood strewn in place of flowers!

The remaining hips glisten in the weak sunlight that washes the scene after the rain and makes me want to race outside to gather them for the freezer before they all disappear, but work must come first and there are already bags full from last year's harvest which I haven't yet used. So many ideas, so little accomplished it seems. Ah well, the birds make use of them whatever I do.

Little Isabella has appointed herself the task of collecting the eggs on her return from school. We have struck a deal: eggs can be collected but only after changing out of the school uniform. Never has this been done with such speed. How a little bribery goes a long way (though egg collecting is an odd one even I will admit, when sweets would be a more usual inducement)!

The hens seem to have a particular fondness for Isabella and they spend a good deal of time together in all weathers, Isabella in her gardening coat and wellies, the hens generally sodden. Glancing out of the kitchen window I can usually see her wheeling them around in her little wheelbarrow and checking the nest box for the day's layings which she pops into her pockets in the same manner as I do. I am of course notorious for forgetting this fact as I get sidetracked by a bit of weeding, the familiar sound of a cracking egg making me wince at the thought of the mess I will have to clean out. Bella is far more focused!

The Michaelmas daisies are flowering profusely and a haze of purple, lilac and mauve sways in the breeze. A bunch picked for the house enables me to enjoy them for longer than my trips to feed the poultry allow; the constant dodging of heavy showers isn't exactly conducive to a slow perusal of our extremely tired looking borders.

My search for a knitting pattern carries on. I have a few ideas in mind from Ravelry, but can't seem to settle to one in particular. I have toyed with Breakwater and even finally have the right needle sizes and yet I still prevaricate. I do love my new circular needle set though - just look at the beautiful colours. Who needs to actually 'do' anything with them! Hmm, you do Pip as that would be an incredible waste of money otherwise. On with the search...

Till next time x

Berry tea Cosy by Me!

So the holidays are here at last and we seem to have upped the workload even more here at Poltisko Farm (which it isn't but we can dream - a farm that is). I am busily sewing together orders and samples and working on price lists for the flurry of people who have requested them; in the meantime Mr Davey and I also decided now was as good a time as any to tackle the house which is truly lacking in the ahh factor while overflowing in the yucky factor. More of that another time though. For today berries and cherries are what's on my mind - remember these?

and these?

Well these gorgeous jewel-like fruits from our garden inspired this latest addition to my Berries Range ... may I introduce my Berry Tea Cosy.

The design is worked in freehand and hand embroidery

with a little applique (of course).

And so when I see berries

and cherries

I see a Berry Tea Cosy!

Seem to be thinking a lot about tea lately... x

The Holiday So Far.

Lots of cooking. I made a huge vat of chicken stock for the freezer using about four carcasses from roast dinners. I love making stock and just freeze the bones until I have time to do something with them. Add plenty of veg and herbs to make a delicious basis for loads of meals. The smell is always so comforting as it gently cooks away.

Last night Elias made fresh pasta and we coated it with a pesto style sauce of freshly picked nettles (try it - it's delicious), garlic and olive oil. So yummy and so very good for you. There are so many ways to use these otherwise pesky plants.

Bowls and vases billowing with beautiful lilac, the heady scent perfuming the house and adding a drowsy feel to an already drowsy holiday.

Piles of scones, soft and pillowy with lashings of homemade tayberry jam and (Cornish) cream.

Trips out in Mermaid where we get views of the town from a different perspective. I love the fact that the river winds through Falmouth and shopping involves pretty views such as these.

We took the boat and headed off up the Helford River to Tremayne Quay where camping is in the depths of the woods with no facilities, just driftwood for campfires and nothing but woods and fields all around.

We rowed past Frenchman's Creek and thought of the novel. How lucky we are that this pretty, tranquil spot is so close.

The racket of the dawn chorus woke us early and we headed back out to catch the tide.

It was chilly this early in the day, but the promise of hot sun was in the air. There is something so special about being the only people out on the water in the quiet of the early morning.

We stopped off at Durgan, a very pretty little village on the Helford where Isabella ran in and out of the rockpools.

Isn't it beautiful?

Well that's it for now - a brief post for once - as I am heading off for another day on the beach. Have fun x