Notes from the week

Edition 11

Gosh, it’s been a moment since the last Notes from the week back in November. I want to bring this section back with more regularity, I have so much I want to share with you all! Now that life has settled slightly after moving house, I feel more able to dedicate headspace to the blog and podcast.

I recorded a podcast last week about my blog and podcast goals for the year, one of which was to monetise my work in some way. I want this to be in line with my values, and the principles of Craft & Thrift, namely for sustainability to be at the heart of everything I do here. That’s both sustainability for the Earth (I won’t be doing affiliate links encouraging you to buy things any time soon!) and sustainability for myself (ensuring any monetisation is something I can offer at a high quality and with regularity). In the short-to-medium term, this means I’ve signed up for Buy me a Coffee! If you feel my work is worth a one-off donation, please consider clicking the button below:

Anyway, back to the notes. This week we had the tail end of some very beautiful snow, here in Inverness. It lasted for around a week in total, and our front garden was briefly a magical winter scene. I used the picturesque backdrop to shoot some photos of my Heirloom Quilt cardi, a belated Christmas gift for my mum. You can read about it in detail on last week’s blog.

The snow melted and the last couple of days have been unseasonably warm and sunny. It’s been really nice to get back to running, it was too icy during the week of snow to run on the pavements, and I didn’t manage enough exercise over Christmas (‘twas ever thus, amiright). In a way, for all that the snow was a little bit of an inconvenience at the time, it was nice to be slowly eased into the new year. I found it frustrating, not being able to tick chores off my to do list, but in retrospect, it was nice to have an excuse to cosy up inside with hobbies. I did attempt one trail run, only to quickly realise (after falling literally on my bum) that ice and snow don’t disappear overnight from the higher ground, even if they were all gone in town at the time. Maybe this is the year I finally invest in trail running shoes?

I spent the warmer days outside, finishing off my compost bin and building a potting bench with the remaining scrap wood. I’ll be talking about the bench project on my podcast next week, but essentially it’s made entirely from scraps and remnants. It’s not the prettiest, but it’s definitely functional, and since it lives in the greenhouse, it doesn’t need to be too aesthetically pleasing. I made the mistake of planting out some plants in the milder days before the snow, so I’m waiting to see whether they’ve survived or not. The sempervivum (house leek) looks particularly sad, I think the main plant has rotted sadly, but it has a few baby shoots that I think might be clinging on to life for the moment.

It’s been quite a gardening-heavy week, I’ve spent this afternoon on the sofa with my gardening planner, drawing a rough plan. I want to start thinking about what plants will go where, I’ve got a long list in my notes app of all the different plants I’m inspired to grow but I don’t know enough about them to know which will do well in various parts of the garden. I’ve also been pricing up wood for my next big project - raised beds - so watch this space!

I feel like I say this every time, but I’m forever grateful to be a person with hobbies and interests. Whether I’m stuck inside hiding from the snow, or out and about in the milder weather, I’ve always got something to keep me busy and occupied. A nice, straightforward project this week was making fat balls for the birds, using this guide from Gardener’s World. I bought lard for this project, which absolutely stank. Still, it was worth it to watch the robins visiting the bird feeder.

I’ll leave it there for now, but as ever, thanks for joining me and I’ll speak to you all again next week!