She's Alive... Beautiful... Finite... Hurting... Worth Dying for

I saw this via Treehugger and thought it was too beautiful and moving to keep to myself.

Holy Marrows Batman!

After all the wet weather it was lovely to have some nice weather again before going back to the day job. I got down the plot today after 2 weeks break and the courgettes had gone a little mad. There were about 4 marrows and a few other courgettes. I picked them all and left a few on the communal table by the gates of the plot as we are never going to eat all of them. Here's our harvest.



We also got some marigolds given to us and they are flowering too. They were a lovely surprise as we weren't even sure they had come up. I'd been cautiously been holding back on weeding the patch were we put them and was very pleased I did as they look stunning. They're like little Sunflowers :)



I also managed to get in a good forage of the local charity shops and vintage emporium on Friday and got some real treasures. I picked up a book on Marc Chagall, which I'd been after for ages, a CD of the Theatre of Hate Live, 2 strings of beads (one of which feels like pearls) and a dog collar with loads of cool charms on it.

Heres the beads. The blue ones are glass and have a really nice finish to them which looks a little like petrol.



Finally, I was very sad to hear that Amy Winehouse had died. I think she's the 3rd female singer I like to have left us this year (Ari Up from the Slits and Polystyrene from X-ray Spex). Well, she has left a great legacy of great lyrics and catchy songs.

Back from Cornwall

We arrived back yesterday night after a wonderful week camping in Bodmin in Cornwall. We stayed at South Penquite Farm, which is where we stayed last time and had a lovely time. The site is a working farm with lots of eco friendly features, like the solar heated showers. The weather was a bit iffy and wet for some of the week but we had a wonderful and relaxing time in spite of it :)

We paid a return visit to Restormal Castle in Lostwithniel on the first full day and then visited Looe in the afternoon. The castle was amazing and it was so nice to see it in the sunshine.



The next day we went to the Lost Gardens of Heligan just outside St Austell. The Gardens are absolutely enormous and it took us a whole day to explore and we still didn't get to see everything. We picked a great day to visit too as it scorching hot and the trees and gardens made for some cool shady spots.

The Jungle


The Fruit & Veg Gardens






We then went to St Ives the following day and had a good day checking out the latest collections at the Tate Gallery and then going onto the Barbara Hepworth Gallery. I wasn't overly taken with anything at the Tate but loved Barbara Hepworths' work. I wasn't familiar with her before the day so it was really interesting.

We also visited Bodmin town for a spot of shopping and visited Boscastle on our last full day. The weather was a bit of the blowy side so we had a wander round the Museum of Witchcraft. It was fasinating and well worth a visit.

Boscastle

Nice Smells

I've been down the plot today and harvested some courgettes, some more raspberries and some oregano. As the courgettes are probably going to start coming thick and fast I've already stuck two in a Vegi Goulash, that's doing its thing in the oven as I type :) Its smells yum!

I have also been getting to grips with the scanner and have uploaded a couple more pics to my art shop. I've now got the original of the pencil sketch I did of Ari Up from the Slits and another abstract. I've also learnt some new tips from my bf so I can edit the pics in Gimp so that they're okay for Folksy. Folksy like pics to be square and I was having some problems cropping my pics square so I have now learnt how to add a boarder so that Folksy can crop them without loosing any of the pic.

I've also been beevering away making more jewellery. I wanted to make my neice something for her birthday, so I made some pretty earrings which incorporate some Carnelian beads I'd bought for the occasion :) Carnelian and Ruby are apparently her two birthstones and Ruby is a little out of my budget so I went with Carnelian. Like a twit though, I didn't take any pics before sending them! Doh. I also made a ruby red heart pendant. I have a few other goodies to send but I had to wait till one arrived in the post before sending so that will go in the post tomorrow.

Update from the Plot

I've just got back from a couple of hours down the plot and it was lovely. I'm completely knackered and stung both arms on stinging nettles but it was worth it. There was loads growing and I was able to harvest a lettuce and loads of raspberries :)

By request of my mum here are some pics from the plot :)

Raspberries


Lettuce


Something had been having a good nibble of one of our lettuces so I figured we'd better getting eating them too.

Sweetcorn


Only about half the sweetcorn I planted survived and they are all looking a bit small, but I'm sure they'll be fine. I might try planting them in regular pots next year instead of peat pots to see if that's were the problem is.

Potatoes


Onions


And courgettes


We also have tomatoes and chillis growing at home so it won't be long before we're nomming loads of tasty dinners :)