Author Archives: penny

About penny

I live in Norfolk, England in a cottage on the edge of the Norfolk Broads where it can be peaceful and beautiful, or wet and muddy, or occasionally wild and windswept. With me is husband Tim, Henry the elderly and opinionated tabby cat, and Higgins, the miniature dachshund with a massive personality. You’ll find me chattering on about wool and textiles, knitting and crochet, recipes, books and patterns, exhibitions and shopping and of course, the adventures of a small dog! Planet Penny has a Facebook Page, you can find me on UK Handmade and I am featured on Channel4/4Homes Favourite Craft Blog List.

Off to the Fair…

…the Norwich Bead and Textile Fair that is. A lovely Sunday morning treat. Having said that, I ALWAYS get a headache when I go to these things, I get so overwhelmed with colour, and texture, and wanting to try new things and talking myself out of it … Anyway, we did our usual circuit to check out what was on offer, a coffee to calm down and then spent some money.
I couldn’t resist this fabric…

I seem to have a ‘tea’ thing in my head at the moment,because there was also this button…

(which is much much smaller than that!)

I’ve been wanting to try printing some fabric for a project for ages so I was very happy to find Crafty Notions stand, a range of textile paints called Colourful Thoughts and a nice lady demonstrating exactly how they work so I bought these…

And then, to keep myself occupied in odd moments with a ball of wool, I HAD to have this…

Natural Dye Studio ‘Angel’ baby Alpaca, Cashmere and Silk lace weight. It is SO soft, and came with a free scarf pattern…

It was nice to meet up with old friends, and make new ones. Fellow students from courses at Broadland Art Centre, a bloggy friend, Teena of Kitschen Pink, and Bridget of feltbybridget.com with her lovely felty, woolly stall. Bridget even went home and started her own blog!

Outside in the fresh and rather damp air, were some lovely pieces of floral inspiration. Don’t you just love the colour of these pansies?

I feel a patchwork quilt coming on…

…and in the strange rather stormy overcast light, the euphorbia was almost Dayglo green…

And we found a little bed where the planting was straight off a nineteen thirties printed cotton frock…

And now it’s time to get some work done. I’m still working my way through sorting stuff out of boxes, but I now have a work surface and lots of things to get on with…

Back soon!

P.S. My 100th post is coming up very soon, watch out for another giveaway…!

It’s been…

…a funny old week. Hard to settle to anything while worrying about ash, and aeroplanes, and far flung friends and relations. They have variously been stuck in South Africa, Florida, Las Vegas, Dubai and the middle of the North Sea. So far, Tim is home only twenty four hours late from the gas platform. My newly married nephew and niece-in-law have arrived home from Las Vegas and, no, they didn’t have an Elvis wedding…As far as I can make out the rest are sunning themselves, in a bored fashion, whilst worrying about their undies and waiting for planes. What a palaver…

However, despite the background fretting, life has continued. For Higgins fans, the shock news is he’s a porky little sausage. Sally at the vets has confirmed Tim’s verdict on returning home about his slight rotundity. He has to lose half a kilo, about a pound! Oh that Weightwatchers would tell me that would answer my own problems! For a little dog who LOVES his food, it’s going to be hard. And grapes are toxic! We have to tell granny that in the morning …he goes there every day and shouts at the fruit bowl.

I have been wielding my crochet hook. Penny at Violet White had a tutorial for some lovely teeny tiny flowers and I got completely ‘hooked ‘ on making them. I had so many I had to dream up a home for them, and I really needed a teacosy.

So the tea cosy has grown, without the problems suffered by the vegetable garden, and has been adding a little happiness to tea time…

…and my felt teapot has found a new home in Norwich. A friend has opened a fabulous new coffee shop in St Giles Street also serving Teapig teas (and extremely scrummy and wicked homemade cakes)

So it seemed a pretty good place to put the ‘Tea Time’ teapot on display…

As The Cherryleaf is on the way from the city centre to that wonderful shop, ‘Verandah’ in Upper St Giles Street, it makes a good destination when you’re out for an indulgent day’s shopping.

And then from cherryleaves to cherry blossom. I have three cherry trees in my garden, a source of much delight. At this time of the year there is the anticipation of the froth of white blossom, and then, as the year wears on, the bliss of lying on the hammock slung beneath gazing up into green shade speckled with red bunches of cherries. I couldn’t wait this year and brought in some small branches in order to enjoy their loveliness at close quarters…

There’s lots more to say, and it’s taken me all week to say this much! Must try harder… Enjoy the rest of the weekend…

Out of the Blue

Today I find myself popping out to the garden to gaze up into the perfect, blemish free, china blue of the sky in amazement. Only last week when Higgins and I were out on a walk I had remarked on the fact that over our rural part of Norfolk there must have been 30 to 40 vapour trails in various stages of decay. The Icelandic volcano is causing all sorts of havoc to so many people, so it’s good to record a positive aspect.

The vegetable garden is still a battle ground, and I am losing. I have a sneaky black and tan garden pest, and a second sowing of salad greens with no labels and scraped up rows. I really thought the polytunnel would be a deterent but for a small animal of the low slung persuasion it seems not…

I ‘ve managed to protect the peas and beans with a cobbled together barrier of chicken wire and bamboo which has worked so far so we’ll see…

Things are growing fast. I photographed the rhubarb and the lovage a week apart…

The lovage is at it’s best when young and tender, by the time it reaches its full height of over 6 feet high the leaves are a little tough. I can’t wait for the rhubarb, I love rhubarb and orange crumble…

I’m plodding on in the studio. I have shelves waiting for Tim’s return next week and that will make a huge difference as I can then shift so much bulk. I’m slowly sorting, sorting…so much has got SO muddled, but it’s nice finding old friends and things I had forgotten about.

I’m still finding time to be a bit creative, bearing in mind the ‘Twenty Minuter’ message. I’ve needle-felted a couple more little birds…

…but when I tried to make a pale pink one it stubbornly insisted on being a pig…

My Tabby Cat and Goldfish now have a shelf to sit on…

Henry and friends donated the whiskers, otherwise he’s solid Merino wool…as is the Blue-haired Lady.

Just as well I’ve recorded the positive side of grounding all aircraft, Tim’s trip back from the ‘office’ next week involves a helicopter so who knows when he’ll get back…

Comfort Eating

It might be sunny but it’s cold, so I’m sitting here at the laptop with a weather eye (and nose) on what is going in the kitchen. Something warming is called for, Leek and Potato soup and the only man to ask is Mr Slater. The Kitchen Diaries is a lovely book for people who grow their own veggies (or aspire to like me) It doesn’t really have set recipes, Nigel tends to wander into the kitchen with a handful of ingredients and say ‘What am I going to do with this lot?’ and I often cook this way anyway, so I’m not too fazed by not having exactly the same ingredients.

I have 2 leeks not three, no butter so a glug of olive oil to soften them for twenty minutes. I’ve just added three peeled and diced potatoes to cook for five minutes before adding about three quartes of a litre of chicken stock, salt and ground black pepper and the magic ingredient, a Parmesan rind to simmer for 40 minutes. Now, Nigel Slater has multiple Parmesan rinds lurking in his fridge and I only generate them one at a time but even that is enough to add a gorgeous richness and depth to the end result. At the end, remove the rind and scrape any gooey melted cheese into the soup, blend till smooth (Nigel throws in chopped fresh parsley at this stage but I don’t have any…hmm, maybe I’ll try sorrel?) check the seasoning, reheat and serve with grated Parmesan.

Oh dear, just checked the timer, another twenty minutes to go and I’m starving…but eventually…

I used a few leaves of lovage in the end, not much as it has quite a strong celery flavour but really added to the depth of flavour. I just added a chunk of homemade sunflower seed bread and feel nicely replete …

And now, the washing up…

Mixed Greens

A short post, typed through gritted teeth…can you type through gritted teeth? When I was young, and naughty (which of course was a very rare occurrence) my mother would say despairingly “I could give you away with half a pound of tea!”

So, puppy, anyone? Very nice tea, Clipper, organic. Very naughty dog though. No-one with any sense would want him, however good the tea.

The crime? Well it’s gardening related. Over at Purple Podded Peas Celia has some excellent staff, Undergardeners par excellence. Weeding, hoeing, pest clearance, manure…they are the business!

Here? Well, the Head Gardener is happy to put in an appearance…

…but is pretty laid back these days.

The Undergardener?

Over enthusiastic and won’t take instruction. Has been given a verbal warning.

After two afternoons spent tidying and clearing the vegetable garden and hoiking the weeds out of the raised beds out came the seed packets to see what I could get going in the one bed I’d had the cover on for a couple of weeks to warm up the soil. I sowed half a bed, salad leaves, chives, spring onions, red spring onions, radishes, carrots…and in pots sowed basil, dill and coriander. Tired by then,and thirsty, I popped in for a well deserved cuppa and came out to…chaos…

The Undergardener had heaved himself on his stumpy little legs over the sleeper which formed the bed, and into the nice, soft, fluffy compost and it’s neat rows of seeds and, well, I don’t know…disco dancing? mining? fossil hunting?

No more neat rows…no more labels…even the labels in the pots had been taken out and chewed…I won’t know if it’s basil, or dill, or coriander until they’ve grown big enough to taste…

So that’s why Higgins is lying in his bed looking worried about the packet of tea. But do you know? In the end my Mum didn’t give me away either….

…and BREATHE…

I feel as if I’ve been holding my breath for months, waiting for this moment. Waiting to open the doors and windows, to let in the sun and fresh air, to wander in and out without a coat…and here we are at last. I don’t want a ‘barbecue summer’, well, not one that will barbecue me, but pleasant warmth, sunshine and light, and just enough rain for the garden (only falling at night please, if we’re having a fantasy lets get it right).

I’m scuttling about a bit at the moment. A little bit of gardening, a little bit of sorting fabrics and yarns, some sewing, some knitting, symptoms of a butterfly brain. So excuse me if this post is a bit like that, I’ll settle down soon.

Firstly, the garden. You’ll excuse me if I don’t take you round the vegetable patch just yet. It needs a little more attention before I show it to visitors. Too many old bean canes and dead flowerpots. I do have lovely raised beds which I talked about in this post, and I have extravagantly enlisted the help of a gardening guru to make it look good enough for a photo shoot.

The wild plum is just bursting into bloom and I love the ‘spottiness’ of the buds just before they open. We started on the last of the wild plum jam on Sunday on warm scones.

In a couple of days it will just be a froth of blossom.

The forsythia is doing it’s thing, quite a bit later this year. Every summer I look at this unprepossessing nondescript shrub filling up the border and nearly give it it’s marching orders, and every spring I forgive it.

There are assorted daffodils…

…and other, less assertive, little lovelies hiding their light under the bushes…

Meanwhile, back in the studio, there is a very different tree…

The little red bird is feeling a trifle lonely now that his pink friend has flown off to live with Elizabeth, I must get felting again.

…and then there is the knitting…

Quite big knitting as Higgins will demonstrate…

The ball has a history – which I’ll tell you about another time – but it’s just had a colour revamp before going off to our local Farmers Market tomorrow where the Knit and Stitch group are hoping to spread the knitting bug, (whilst spoiling ourselves with coffee and and the delicious, and very naughty, bacon rolls.

So, before that happens I must don my wellies and gardening gloves and head back out to the vegetable garden and absorb a little sunshine…