Monday, April 16, 2012

Weekend Pleasures

The biggest local monthly market was on again thisSaturday and what a lot of pleasure was to be had for a very little financial expenditure.  There was this Queen Elizabeth II silver jubilee brooch (1977), plus a diamante flower to dress up a winter hat and some interesting beads which may be used on another project. 



I have been making a few brooches with old beads and buttons for friends, these could come in very handy on some of those.  Then there was a pink silk scarf for the next crazy quilt with a “second hand rose” theme, and a fondue set for our son who has been muttering away about wanting us to make fondues.  (I suspect that he favours the chocolate sort, rather than the savoury variety.)  Also another piece of pink glass for the collection – really the line must be drawn now and no more pieces added, but this one was so reasonably priced that it cried out to be taken home and put with some sympathetic friends. 


Mr Shoestring found very little to catch his eye but he is still fondling his new Bakelite tape measure so was not despondent. 
In the garden we planted the new michelia (port wine magnolia), and what a wonderful addition it promises to be.  It only had one blossom on it, but the perfume was so strong that I feel sure eventually the whole garden will be flooded with the smell of wine gums when it is in bloom. 
Being on a frugality drive it was time to look around for some plants which could be divided or for self sown seedlings, and there were quite a few.  The most surprising was a lot of tiny cyclamens which had come up very close to this parent plant, so close that there was definitely not going to be room for them all to thrive together.  I wasn’t sure whether they would transplant well but they seem to have survived and be happy in their new homes. The tiny seeds look like small translucent pearls, they are very fragile looking but obviously much tougher than they appear.  Also lots of baby’s tears and a heuchera or two were divided, plus some new geranium cuttings popped in and lots of mystery viola seedlings.  (I always hope they will be my favourite “antique” shades but the basic “Johnny Jump Up” colours seem to be dominant.) 


Then it was time to speed off to Lady Raglan’s for a debriefing following art deco weekend.  More about that soon, I must away to prepare a chocolate fondue.  We have been loving the apple pies made with the "foraged" apples, I will put up a copy of our favourite recipe which we have been perfecting for the last 30 years or so.