pottering about at home...

In true *J* style he fished out my Mother's Day card from the bottom of his school bag this morning. In true Mum style I told him how lovely it was... and he quietly turned it round 90 degrees and smiled sympathetically at me. Oops. Just in case you're wondering, it's brown tissue paper branches with tissue paper blossom on a watercolour background. Branches work anyway up don't they?

I love my little jam pots. I come from a family who 'decant' everything into something nicer for the table, and I like the rustic look so these will be used the next time we sit down to a weekend breakfast of chunky toast and jam. These are quite common at the Antique Centre where I sell my furniture but I've never come across them in a charity shop before. They're not marked and are probably a cheap take on Tremar pottery.

It's been gloriously sunny here today and I've been outside a little despite developing a bit of a heady cold. *E* has always had a corner of the garden ever since she could walk. Last year she enjoyed pottering about in her corner but noted that she started a few things off too late. Her sunflowers didn't peak until October so it was agonising waiting all summer for them to bloom. This year she raided the bird seed for sunflower seeds and started some off early. I wasn't sure about the quality of bird seeds but sure enough they have sprouted. I think her upcycled fat ball tub cloche helped protect them from some of the freezing nights we've had.

These will be potted on of course, they can't go straight in the ground here because we have a Springer Spaniel who thinks he can help with the pruning. It's our fault for heaping praise upon him when he helped out with a bonfire one evening by bringing all loose branches to the fire and dropping them. He does this with each and every bonfire now even if the branches are still attached to trees.

I'm still getting used to only having two animals to feed every day. When we had four it felt like a more major part of my day. I'd love to have chickens but I'm not great with birds full stop, and the fields have plenty of foxes roaming about. I wouldn't want to wake up one morning to a massacre!