January 2025

The first line of my January 2024 post started with the words The new year started here with illness, and the same can be said of 2025. The whole family, apart from Eleanor, had been ill over Christmas and for me, Mick, Daniel and Jasmine, the illness continued into the new year. We all had some kind of virus which wasn't quick to leave. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we can enjoy the festive season this year without any bugs spoiling it for us. I'm pleased to say that we're all fully recovered now.

Even though we were still feeling ill, Mick and I had a couple of short walks at Lotherton that first week of the new year. We do what we can to shake off any illness but sometimes that just doesn't work. The temperature had dropped quite a lot as winter, so far, had been quite mild and sure enough, our first snowfall of the year followed on the 5th of January. The photo was taken from one of the bedroom windows, I wasn't going to go out in that. Brrrr.

Our first trip of the year to the coast was on the 19th. We hadn't planned it, we just got up that morning and decided on the spur of the moment to go to Bridlington. It was so cold though, we just had a short walk and didn't even venture onto the beach. It was still a nice drive out, and we got a taste of the sea air.

I've read four books this month.

I'd like to get back to reading more classics again this year so to that end, the first book I read was A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. I read my first Dickens book in 2022, this is my fifth and I've enjoyed every one of them. For me, A Tale of Two Cities is a tale of two halves. I found it quite slow going at first as the scene is set but Dickens is such a great story teller that you're pulled in and once you're invested, it's hard to put down. A brilliant story with twists and turns, and the ending will have you weeping.

I read the first book in the Dr Ruth Galloway series by Elly Griffiths at the back end of last year. The Janus Stone is the second book in the series and for me, even better than the first. There are some great characters in the books, a regular cast, and the two stories I've read so far have definitely held my interest. I'm looking forward to reading more from this series throughout this year.

The Teashop Girls at War is the third book in this series by Elaine Everest. I really enjoyed the first two but because there was a gap of over three years between the second and third books, I'd forgotten the character's backstories, how some of them are related to others and how they all fit into each other's lives. It's a big part of the story and so it was spoilt a little for me as so many names were quite confusing when I couldn't remember who each of them were.

I was given Winter's Wishfall by Ceri Houlbrook as one of my Twelve Days of Christmas 2024 gifts. I often keep any Christmas books to read around Christmas time but I decided I'd read this one right away, after all it's only January and Christmas is still in our minds. A story of magic and mystery, set on an island north of Scotland, which is definitely far-fetched but perfect for the festive season. There's a little romance thrown in for good measure, after all, it wouldn't be Christmas chick lit without the boy meets girl narrative, but the story is more centred around mystery and folklore. A magical read for any Christmas lover.

I love a good puzzle. Do you? For Christmas 2023, Mick bought me the first Murdle puzzle book. This last Christmas he bought me another from the series. There are 100 logic puzzles in the book so I do one per day, that will take me into April. They start out very easy and become more challenging as you go on. I enjoy Wordle, the web based game where players have six attempts to guess a five letter word. I'm usually successful and guess within three or four attempts usually. I also enjoy Globle where players have to guess a country. My geography knowledge isn't all that good but it's definitely improved since playing this game. I also enjoy crosswords. I often attempt an online one but have a book I use too. I think it's important to keep the mind active, my dad was doing crosswords till the day he died and his mind then was a sharp as ever.

One of Eleanor's friends had a baby girl earlier this month, they've called her Owena. I couldn't miss the opportunity of knitting a little something for a new baby and I thought the 50g ball of Pearly Pink Sirdar Snuggly DK I had in stash would be perfect. Unfortunately, I ran out right at the very end but I managed to find an online retailer who had the same dyelot number in stock. You can tell how much of that new ball I used as it still weighs 50g. I bought a pack of pretty sleepsuits to go with the cardigan and the new mum was pleased with the gift.

Here's Jack wearing the Big Bearly Bonnet by Pure Stitches which I knit for him before he was even born. Such a cutie. He's learnt to crawl this month and he's into everything. We need eyes in the back of our heads!

So that's January. Onto February, my least favourite month, I'm just glad it's also the shortest month. I'm looking forward to starting wedding dress shopping with Jasmine, celebrating having a child reaching their 30s (goodness, how old do I feel) and watching Jack continue to reach new milestones. Oh, and knowing that spring is that little bit closer!

The 2025 Growing Season

I don't grow many things from seed these days, it's just as easy, and often cheaper, to buy small plants and grow them on, but it's fun waiting for germination and watching the subsequent growth so I do still start a few things off each spring. I used to have an allotment so when the growing year started, my greenhouse and every available indoor windowsill used to be covered with seedlings. These days I'm down to a seed tray or two.

I had a bad growing year last year. The tomato seeds were very slow to germinate and hardly put on any growth so I ended up buying a couple of plants from a local nursery. Even these didn't do very well and I hardly harvested any tomatoes at all. This year I'm going back to my favourite Maskotka, a trailing bush variety which produces medium to large cherry tomatoes. I've never found anything to beat the taste of these.

When we had the allotment, Mick's favourite thing to both grow and eat were climbing beans. He does love a wigwam structure on which to grow climbing plants, so I'm going to leave it up to him this year to grow these Blue Lake climbing French beans.

I grew mahogany coloured sunflowers last year, I'm not sure why as I've always preferred the traditional yellow variety and no, my opinion didn't change. Whilst looking through my seed box the other day I came across a packet of sunflower seeds my niece gave out at her wedding back in 2021. I forgot all about them so I hope they're still viable. Her mum and her auntie grew all her wedding flowers and these sunflower seeds came from their gardens so it will be fun to see if they'll still grow.

Of course, I'll be buying plenty of plants too but I think these are the only things I'll be growing from seed, unless I see something else which takes my fancy. How about you? Do you buy plants or do you grow from seed, or like me, a bit of both?

Twelve Days Of Christmas 2024

This is my eleventh post of this kind. For eleven years now, my friend Lisa and I have been swapping twelve small gifts at Christmas, one to be opened on each of the Twelve Days of Christmas.

These are the gifts I received from Lisa this year.

A closer look.

A tote bag with the cutest Christmas design, dogs and cats in antlers and elf hats, love it! A festive glass storage jar with a Christmas tree topper, very handy to store the Christmas sweeties. Inside were some chocolate sprouts, yum. A felt decoration kit to make a sprout, I shall definitely make this to hang on the Christmas tree. Some reindeer paper hankies and a tube of Manuka honey hand cream, both needed in this cold weather.

Lisa knows how much I love piggies and yes, I gave a little squeal when I opened the piggy spatula which had been wrapped with some gingerbread men sprinkles. A lovely festive bowl had been wrapped with a Kinder snowman. A pretty apron and oven glove and some gingerbread men food bag clips, I'm all set to rustle up something lovely in the kitchen.

A gorgeous pen set and a set of birthday cards. We usually give each other a book in the swap, this year's is Winter's Wishfall by Ceri Houlbrook, an author I haven't come across before. I look forward to reading that. There's always a couple of edible gifts too, this year Lisa has spoilt me with some dark chocolate florentines and some spiced fruit crumble biscuits, they both sound delicious. Now that I've posted about them I can dig in.

Didn't I do well. Such a lovely set of gifts. Thank you Lisa, I love everything.

These are the gifts I sent to Lisa.

A closer look.

Who doesn't love a selection box at Christmas, especially Cadburys. That little campervan tin is filled with shortbread, yum. A Falala decoration, very festive. When I saw the Twelve Days of Christmas bauble I knew I had to buy that for our little swap. The tin is one I bought to put the bauble inside for transportation so that it didn't get broken, I'm sure Lisa will find a use for it.

I know Lisa meal plans so I thought this meal planner would come in handy. A bee print apron. Some Christmas themed silicone cookie stamps, (I liked those so much that I bought myself some too) and I bought some gingerbread mix to go with those. A scented soap in a cute tin.

A little needle felting kit to make a bunny. I've been saying I'm going to try needle felting for years now, I've even got a kit to try it. Perhaps Lisa will beat me to it. The book I included in this year's swap is Christmas at Serenity Bay by Helen Bridgett. I know Lisa's busy making scrapbooks at the moment and including photos of her travels so I thought the alphabet stamp set might come in handy. A pack of cute little hedgehog cards, they're blank so they're perfect for a number of uses.

Another fun swap. I look out for the gifts throughout the year and pick them up as I see them, it makes it easier than shopping for twelve gifts all at once. It's always fun to open a gift each day right up to Twelfth Night. Thanks again, Lisa.