It's almost a month since my last post for MillCottageRetro during which we have had some warm sunny weather (like now) and some colder damper weather - I think I prefer the former as it enables me to do what I enjoy - potter about in the garden and read in the fresh air listening to the sounds of nature. I have sewn some Sweet William seeds and pricked about half out for planting out next year and have also potted up some little seedlings that have started to appear in the garden in the hope that they will survive until next year in the greenhouse - I think that they are lychnis that have self-seeded in the wildlife area. We have had no further trips since my last post but I think that we have now left it too late as the coronovirus infections start to rise again. We had hoped to see my daughter as her birthday is at the end of October but she is currently living in Greater Manchester which is something of a covid hotspot at the moment.
I have been busy listing new items, and my husband discovered some boxes of kitchenalia and glass vases, in the garage, that used to be my mother-in-law's - it's amazing what keeps appearing in there. I have taken many photographs so will be ready to add them to Etsy in the coming week or so. Below are some items that I have already recently added.
I have also spotted a couple of things on Etsy recently which I have bought for myself: firstly a small sized Hornsea muramic dish as designed by John Clappison with the enamel circles on the base which has joined the three I already have and which live on the chest of drawers in the bedroom. Then I spotted an art deco confectionery tin decorated with butterflies which goes nicely with one I purchase earleir in the year which features pansies.
We have recently discovered (via our cctv cameras) that we have a nocturnal hedgehog visitor to the garden, so my husband has made a hog hotel from pieces of wood which he had in the garden and I have begun to put out hog biscuits in the vicinity so that it will be more sure to reach its required weight before winter. If the hedgehog isn't big enough to hibernate it will most probably die, so I am trying to give it a helping hand. So far the biscuits look like a popular choice but the visitor hasn't moved into the hotel yet, but if he already has a good home that is perfectly fine. Soon, I will be ordering some suet balls which help the birds get through the colder months of the year. We still have quite a variety of avian garden vistors but the swifts have gone - I miss their screaming in the evenings - though we have acquired a pair of dunnock (though a common bird, I haven't seen them visiting the feeders this year) and a wren family, which quite likely were responsible for the nest that my husband found on his old David Brown tractor at the upper part of the garden.
Postscript: since I started this post last week the weather has become much colder and we have actually switched on the central heating which has been off since March or April. In the next day or two I shall have to check our FIT reading - we have fourteen (?) solar panels in the garden which produce electricity for us during the sunnier months and the surplus goes into the grid. It is the latter meter that I have to check to submit the reading. To give you some idea, the reading for the last quarter brought in just over £400 but it was an unusually sunny spring here. Now there is just the two of us, we don't use half as much electricity as before, and I always try to hang the washing out on the line when possible as the tumble drier (along with the washing machine) are two of the guilty culprits as far as energy consumption goes.
Anyway, I will stop now and hope you have a healthy and peaceful couple of weeks,
Best wishes, Julie
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