Veg Plotting

I do love a foliage wreath on our front door, and as a result I've accumulated an enormous stash of decorative bits over the years saved 'just in case for later', to include: a straw ring; tons of cones; various baubles; ribbons; and other bits and bobs. They've threatened to jump out of the basket on the top shelf of my study for quite a while now, so it was high time I did something with them instead. The result now adorns our front door to welcome us home; it's all from my saved bits, plus a crochet sleeve added to the straw ring for protection and for easier decoration. I'm quite pleased with the result and NAH particularly likes the jingling of the added bells whenever we open or close the door. I even had enough left over to make a smaller wreath for indoors - this one is on the door into my craft room/study. - with another crocheted sleeve to hide the wirework circle I'd stashed away in the cupboard... ... and then there are the fused glass stars I ma...

It's the final day of this year's National Tree Week today and I want to celebrate the tree which stopped me in my tracks recently. At other times this has been a very big week for me, having organised and helped to plant thousands of trees in south Wales as part of an Earthwatch project in the 1990s. Those days feel like they're part of another life, but it's good to be reminded how important trees still are to me, simply by just being there.  The pictured tree is towards the end of my walk into town and I must have walked past it hundreds of times, but for once I saw it properly for the first time. It was just as the different combinations of colour from green through yellow and orange to red were at their finest which helped to catch my undivided attention. It's not the tallest specimen in the world, but wow, it really helps to soften the brutalist concrete of the shops behind it. Then I looked at the leaves more closely, and realised it's a liquidambar aka...