G Freden

Today I brought my houseplants back inside from my south facing patio, at the end of their summer holiday;  they went out in May:  spider plants, aloes and a small umbrella palm.  Last year I put out my alocasia too, but it got sunburned and has only just grown back some leaves, a year later;  I didn't want to risk my devil's ivy either though perhaps it would have been ok, as the umbrella palm was.  But everyone is back inside, looking fresh and healthy, and it's nice to see some green in the house again.  

Interestingly, I don't water my aloes at all:  they get rained on when I put them outside for summer;  they go out there with very flat leaves and come back very plump, ready for another dry winter.

Nancy, mine were about 60 cm square, and I did a double fold hem (which was pretty narrow).  I hemmed most of them by hand I think, but it would be quicker by machine.

I took up running again last year after a long period, including recovering from a pelvic injury during pregnancy (which took several years).  I listen to my body and don't push it, as it is still meant to be fun!  I'm happy to think of myself as a runner again:  I can run the same paths at our country park (albeit a bit more slowly) and remember my old running buddy (Beauty the dog) and how much fun we had together.

Still going?

Your photo doesn't load for me, but I recently resized a neckline to make it smaller.  First I removed the bias binding (neckband) with a seam ripper (tedious);  I ironed this to be ready to reattach at the end.  Then I carefully folded very small pleats at regular intervals around the front and back neckline, securing each one with a pin--about five pleats each in the front and back, maybe about 1/4" each.  I then sewed closely around the neckline, securing the pleats;  and finally reattached the bias binding, which was now about four or five inches too long.  It was a pretty easy fix and didn't take too long.  It could have been done by hand too, very neatly.

My spring sown onions didn't do very well this year (but I've never been very successful anyway), with the exception of two that got transplanted in to a container with cherry tomatoes--I speculate these had extra good soil/compost and extra watering, resulting in my only two big bulbs.

I'm trying autumn sown ones this year too, with a specific variety I can't remember!  But it's supposed to do well over winter, though the seed company suggests saving half for spring sowing just in case the autumn sowing fails.  I may put some of them in the containers and some in the ground and see how it goes;  and I've saved half the seed, as prompted.

Regarding oil, what about lard, tallow, etc?  Our main cooking fat is tallow which we render ourselves from fat our local butcher gives us.  His family raises the beef and pork that he sells in his shop.

I hope you don't mind me asking what might be a dumb question, but the last time I clicked on a kickstarter (it might have been one of Paul's actually), which was a couple years ago I guess, the only way to pay was via an Amazon account, am I remembering correctly?  I hope I'm wrong here, but I seem to remember that was the reason I didn't support that kickstarter:  I don't have an Amazon account (nor do I want one).

The pigeons picked off most of my cherry and plum blossoms, so I got very little fruit set on my trees;  however, what little there was on my cherry tree I draped with a tablecloth and some napkins, just as they were starting to turn yellow/orange.  I don't think the birds could even see the fruit (clipped the cloths on with clothes pegs), but they definitely couldn't reach it.

Just wondering, as a consolation prize, can you chop up the corn stalks to feed the chickens (quick internet search says maybe)?  I understand larger livestock like them.  Rats ate my corn one year too, though luckily I noticed in time to save some of it.