Blue Skies and Hard Work!

A week of blue sky brings out the gardener in me. I have not done anything in the garden since October so although bitterley cold it was good to get out there and make a start. We have cleared all the roses from the bed at the front of the house as they were past their best and becoming deseased. This week I was able to plant 9 shrubs in their place. (You cannot plant new rose bushes in the same place you have had old ones or they will take up the deseases of the old ones)

We have also cleared out and dug over my herb bed. Herbs do get straggly and woody and it is best to start again every few years. I have had ornamental herbs as well as culinary ones but decided this time to plant only the herbs that I regularly use. It will be a little while yet before a good selection will be available but the ground is all ready for when they are. I also used some of this space to plant 2 minature rose bushes. One of these is called Golden Wedding so you can guess which celebration that was bought for.

So good to get the laundry out blowing in the wind too after months of tumble drying.

Another achievement for me this week. I have managed to finish reading Vanity Fair.

768 pages in such tiny print. I have some DVD/Book sets of a number of the classics and having watched the 3 hour DVD while resting with a cold mid-December I was inspired to read the book. Two and a half months later I have finished it. I always have a number of books on the go at once so just kept this for reading in bed.

Although I have most of the old classics it is years since I read one of them. I was so taken with the quality of writing and how clever these old writers were. This particular author William Makepeace Thackeray impressed me with how he writes about the same situation from the viewpoint of different characters.

William Thackeray's hilarious and biting satire exposes the greed and vanity behind the elegance of early 19th-century society. Two girls leave school with very different ambitions - wealthy Amelia Sedley wants nothing more than to marry her childhood sweetheart, but low born orphan Becky Sharp is determined to claw her way up the social ladder by whatever means necessary. The dramatic events of the Napoleonic Wars throw their plans into turmoil, but cunning and ruthless Becky soon turns the carnage of Waterloo to her advantage. In Becky Sharp Thackeray has created one of the most enduring heroines of all time, as relevant and recognisable today as she has ever been. (From the cover)

And we have some weekend baking. Indulging again. I have had several baking sessions this week as I am one of a number making cakes for the afternoon tea that will be served at a friends wedding in a couple of weeks after the ceremony before people move on to the reception venue.

Here we see Peanut Butter and White Belgium Chocolate Blondies. A recipe from Rachael Allen's book.

Last but not least, having given up knitting, passing on all my needles and patterns etc., I wanted a hat to cover my ears when out walking in this very cold weather we have been having. Hence the production of an Aphgan style hat! I do not care what I look like I want warm ears.