yes I love nature....

....so much I have the little dongle widget me bob up there that you can click on to say that you love nature too.

Here is a lovely seasonal nature pic to prove it.

seed job

Ok, once I've finished faffing about with pretending to be 'a stylish person' I have to look through all the seeds and see which will need to be planted soon. I usually end up missing the time and then it's too late. I want to start the aubergines early this year.

Is it already too late?

I need this...

gardensupplies.co.uk seems to be the cheapest I could find it and it's back in stock as of this week. I am so very much ready for pay day now.

I am a chictopian

Ha ha ha.

I came across chictopia.

I like it, it's funny. Everyone is so posey. But yet I can't help but look through. Seeing as a lot of this blog is about clothes I think I'm alright to be on chictopia, no?

Apparently this is the person most like me...

...hmmmm, we will see.

gardening nature

I have been working on a plan for a new garden for the park where I work. This is a nice picture of the park in the recent snow, isn't it lovely?

There is an area on the other side of the church that is a bit wilder and more natural and is supposed to have a meadow but the contractors didn't sow it. Because of this I am allowed to use this are for "community projects". So I have been planning a garden of sorts that is to resemble a native hedge or woodland edge, where everything there is edible or useful to people in some way. To be honest this does count most things in, but with this focus there is an extra oomph and ahh. And it means that it all has to be considered properly.

I'm going to do something similar to this, on a smaller scale, on the allotment. I have no way of knowing if we will be able to do it in the park.

Here is a snippet of my plan for the plants.

I'm quite proud of my cobbled together design work on this, all done in power point as I have no other programme to use. And the background images used to colour the symbols are all photos taken on site. No clip art here.

I was thinking a lot about how community gardening projects, especially those done by artists, are rubbish. They are really dishonest. I'm hoping that this addresses that. I wrote a bit for the plan to try and explain about this diplomatically.

With community focused growing and gardening projects becoming increasing popular it seems that there is a call for public green space to be presented in a form that can enable people to interact with spaces, not only in the creation of areas but also to take a more proactive view of the way that they can continue to use the provision. The ‘keep off the grass’ type of garden can be replace with a space that can be explored and used. Project such as What if-VACANT_LOT and Fritz Haeg’s edible estates have focused on the provision of a garden space for local people to be able to grow their own food. Whilst anything that encourages people to get interested in plants and nature is to be commended I feel that the energy in these projects is misdirected. I appreciate that seeing a tomato growing on the bush or pulling a carrot from the ground is exciting and goes a long way to educate about the food we eat, but it is misleading to suggest that these projects will feed the community or necessarily make a green space into a lovely environment. 
These projects are also very work intensive in the long run, vegetables will need to be replanted and tended. These plants have been bred to be grown in this way, tended on an allotment or kitchen garden, to get larger quantities of food. To my mind this type of planting is not suitable for community projects where a garden is needed that can develop over time without constant attention, provide aesthetic pleasure for most/all of the year and work in conjunction with the LBAP. 
With this in mind I think that the choice of plants is what can enable a garden or planted area to go beyond just being some nice flowers and interesting leaves, into a garden that can excite interest, be used to facilitate education and foster an understanding of how plants and the natural world are valuable to our everyday lives. For this garden I have chosen only plants that grow wild in the UK, to be useful to biodiversity, and plants that are edible or useful to humans. This focus on useful Plants means that a conversation can be started around the plants used, people will be able to see leaves, flowers and fruit that they recognise, others that can be wondered about what they might be used for. This type of planting will be able to create connections between what grows wild and plants that we use. 
These plants should be suitable to grow in the site suggested without the need for much care and tending. The plants should naturalise the area, spreading, self seeding and competing for space. These plants should grow into a natural garden that should not need large amounts of ongoing care. 
The plants chosen will also increase the variety of habitat and the availability of food for birds and insects and within the project there will be the potential to further increase habitats with the installation of log piles, ground cover and bird boxes etc. The project should directly address targets in the LBAP.

LBAP is the local biodiversity action plan, by the way.

Hopefully that explains it. I just think its crap how arty folk come along and take a cheap swipe using some courgette plants and think that is good enough.
It's kinda nice but it's not good enough.

With gardening hand in hand with nature in mind, there was an interesting programme on the radio. Part of radio 4's 'nature' series. Personally I consider this type of thing a no brainer and all will be encouraged to visit our garden. Apart from the squirrels, whom I hate for their rudeness. The programme talks about the forum for gardening with wildlife in mind and they have a manifesto that I'm whole heartedly embracing.
Download it and read it now.

nice anthropologie

One of my friends on facebook posted her status as 'wants everything from Anthropologie. Anyone got a spare million quid they wanna lend me?'. I looked it up as I did not know what she was talking about. It appears that it is the shop I kind  of looked at on the way past when ralph and I ventured into town to buy christmas presents and failed. Since I always decide I hate town and everyone about and in the shops and never find anything I like, I've stopped going. I don't see the new shops.
Thank goodness for the online world.


So, as far as anthropologie goes I think it is good. There are definitely things that I do not like, some things are too twee and too nice and tidy. 

I like these...

Without me knowing, as I only saw it after I had opened both bits, the shirt and the skirt here have been styled together on the site. I'm so on trend with my thinking.

japan clothes

I got a kimono for christmas from ralph. It came in the post recently.
He got the lovely packaging.
It was all wrapped up in a nice paper case and had a little note and an origami crane too.

I dont really have anywhere nice to take a photo of it but her is an attempt when I tried it on the other day.

Here is the picture from ebay...

I haven't worked out how I'm going to wear it. Maybe it's for when it's warmer too as I'm pretty bulky with the woollies underneath.

In looking up how you put the kimono on I found some other things.
I like the hakama that is like a skirt or wide trousers I think. I like the structure.
The miko shrine maidens wear them and look very nice. These pictures are from flickr.

Here is a lady archer...

I looked trough lots of pages of google images to find some pictures but couldn't see many I liked the look of. Sorry about that.

I found a crazy big online marketplace, rakuten, for japanese things. I really want these corduroy tabi socks. They come in lots of spot on colours. Corduroy.

Look at the lovely sock lady!

This shop has literally too much to look at. I also can't quite work out how they do the shipping to england. I spent an evening looking through the tabi and went all funny and had to go to bed with sore eyes.

Ok, I just found a nice hakama on that shop but no picture of it being worn.

Here we go, Although I think I'd like to wear the skirt lower.

sockupdate

I have been knitting away and having lots of fun. It's addictive.

I like the purl stitches.

So here is a photo of the sock so far...

And the shot with the cats, there is always at least one there when I want to photograph the knitting.

The pattern is not as exciting as I had hoped but I think that is because I have done ribbing all down the cuff. The foot bit is starting to look better. So far It has all gone to the plan apart from having to turn the cuff inside out when I got to the heel as it seems I had been knitting on the wrong side. I had lots of fun doing the heel, it is actually magic.

moccasin

I thought that moccasins were a bit sick but I saw these with the bows and same colour stitching on etsy and I think I like them. Not in black though. I like the green colour.

Also, the name 'darlingtonia moccasin' is somewhat endearing. Although I can't explain that.

no bear lush

I'm a bit sad about lush. The changed the shop at liverpool st and it seems a bit less good.

We bought some stuff for presents and spent over £20 and got a go with the lucky dip (or a free giftbox, but lucky dip seemed a more fun idea). When choosing the presents it seemed there was a lot less bubble bars, which is what I'm most fond of, a bit dull to choose things. I assumed this was just to make space for all the christmas stuff. But I looked on the website and there's hardly any nice ones. Owh.

Ok, when I looked through them all I found four that I like. But I remember it being a really tough choice of which ones to get last time I stocked up. And one of these is in the retro section. Boo hoo.

bathos
amandopondo
french kiss
marzibain

Also, the lucky dip was not so exciting. We got two soaps and Ultralight moisturiser. This link wasn't working, says it might have sold out, so I cant read all about it. But it looks like it will be good. I just thought it was a bit rubbish to put something so skin specific into a lucky dip bag. And this being the money item that makes up the value to "about £20 worth" which was what the lovely shop assistant said (not the over eager assistant that interrupted me to ask ralph "has anyone ever told you that you look like jesus?"). And soap is a bit crap, even if it is really nice soap it's not the same as any of the other things they could put in. Bah.

Next year I am going to queue up at liverpool st station on the day after boxing day to get a hat box. And elbow the lady that thinks she deserves two cause she missed one at the covent garden shop the day before. Nasty lady. (The lovely shop assistant told us that story).

oskar socks

The opal sock wool I ordered came, along with some nice bamboo dpns (oooh, knitting jarjon).

It seems after all the trawling the websites I possible bought the two most similar looking patterns. The balls look exactly the same.

'Oskar the dreamer' butterfly and emil who I think might be a lemur, it calls him 'attentive emil'.

I have started knitting with oskar, following silver's tutorial. It seems that according to this the new dpns I bought are too small, although they were recommended on the wool shop, so I guess it's a looser pattern. Luckily I had some the correct size from before, when I did not understand what to do with them.

It took me three goes to cast on right.

I'm on my way now, doing knit 2 purl 2.

Here it is...

I can't help but think it looks quite small. I have followed the instructions so lets just hope it's how it's meant to be. 

And here is the potential sock with an alternative appropriate animal...

frontier metal kitchen

Ralph found this. With just a little less stainless steel this would be spot on for the homestead. Maybe proper wood veneer and slate, I think. And a dark ceiling. And a chunkier tap. And no microwave.

warm hands hopefully

The gloves I finally bought arrived today. Good timing. Great. I'm excited about trying them out.

from leatherandsheepskin.com

knitted cardi = global nomad

I saw the term 'global nomad' on a fashion website as a heading for one of those collage-y pages on 'trends'. I liked this and was interested and I like the things on that page but when I looked a bit more I couldn't find anything much that wasn't whack. I think it's one of those terms that gets applied to people that wear kaftans and gladiator sandals.

I thought though, again, that I'd like a more global nomadic edge to my wardrobe. I looked a bit for some bedouin/arabic things but couldn't really find anything other than cheap looking novelties.

Oh, for a woolly winter hooded djellaba, in some kind of fine stripe.

Obviously I had a bit of a look at kenzo and did a big huff.

I really like long knitted cardigans, I have a very good one from gap last year. I got some in this year's gap sale too but they are not quite as good as my old one, a little bit less sophisticated. My old one is a lovely grey with a slight marl with a wide shawl collar. It is knitted with a waffley knit and has one low button. It looks a little japanese with wide sleeves and the collar. I would like a knitted dress. I would really like gold velvet trousers, if that is what they are.

Also, I would like these, they are a bit like the kenzo things in the last two pictures. They are from asos.

 I found a few other bits and pieces that I like too. yoox.com is a nasty ugly website so I tend not to look at it when it comes up. I found this on there though...

This picture is from the heimstone website, they have an archive of past collections. Can't rembember exactly but I think these are from autumn/winter 08. Lots of nice things.

I seem to have found a world of boutiques selling interesting clothes. They are all quite exciting, I guess I'm excited because I hate going in those kind of shops so I have not really seen this stuff before. I don't really like the idea of being a twenty-something that spends that kind of money in that kind of faggy shop.
I'm going to sit at home and buy it in the online sales.

Here's some more.

people tree They have nice things but are a bit half and half.

etro

henrik vibskov

beyond the valley