Doing nothing - well, almost nothing

I've been learning to do nothing. It's really good for you - I read so in the paper. Although apparently, unless you are dead, you are always doing something. However, doing nothing is supposed to help boost your creativity; your brain needs the 'downtime'; you're more likely to be able to regain your own attention (whatever that means); and being busy isn't always about doing the important things in life. At least I can agree with that final point.

Mind you, I'm still none the wiser as to what 'doing nothing' really entails. For example, does lying in a hammock and reading a book count as doing nothing or do I technically have to put the book down and contemplate the sky? And what about swimming? I mean, apart from keeping count of how many lengths I've done, surely that's downtime for my brain? Or perhaps not? Or perhaps I should just not count the lengths?

Oh let's face it, doing nothing really doesn't come naturally to me. Not if I have to ask so many questions about how to do it!

So, apart from 'indulging' in lots of un-busy swimming and reading, I've also turned my attention to making some presents. Of course, the alternative to making presents is buying them but even I know that shopping cannot possibly be counted as doing nothing, so I'm just hoping that blanket stitching whilst listening to a radio drama is.

Anyway, as a result of my doing nothing, or at least as close to doing nothing as I have so far managed, I have made another of my appliquéd blankets. I'd bought the fabric about six months ago but with a birthday rapidly approaching, it finally made it to the top of the list of projects.

Having not made a blanket for ages I'd forgotten how satisfying and relaxing I find the whole process. And perhaps it's as close as I'll get to doing nothing - after reading and swimming of course!

A crocheted menagerie

My summer of crocheting is going very well indeed, which is just as well since the weather has generally been pretty miserable to date. However, I have found it very easy to while away a cloudy Sunday afternoon catching up on Radio 4 dramas whilst crocheting toy animals.

When I completed my second animal from the Edward's Menagerie collection, I was only planning to make one more. This would have seen all three 2016 babies catered for. Or at least, so I thought. That was until the glamorous grannies in the office caught wind of my new project and a couple more requests came winging my way.

As a result, I've now made three more animal toys, with the last due to meet its new owner tomorrow.

The first bunny proved so popular that it was swiftly followed by a second.

The much awaited elephant then made an appearance.

Followed this week by Winston the Aardvark.

I have one more planned before I will probably be hanging up my crochet hook for a while. Well, that is unless someone else I know happens to announce that they're pregnant! But for now, the weather is improving and it would be wasteful not to dig out the hammock and enjoy the sunshine for a few hours...

Strawberry Pot Secret

Have you ever been challenged by a strawberry pot? I mean the garden plant pot that has holes around the sides so that you can grow plants out of them as well as out of the top.

They always look lovely planted up with cascading plants but I then find them impossible to water. Watering from above invariably results in the water running out the uppermost holes in the side, never reaching the bottom; and the pot is generally too tall for it to be able to be effectively watered from standing it in a saucer of water.

Well, I am happy to now be able to share an ingenious secret watering device for just this sort of pot. It comes in the shape of a disused bit of plastic waste pipe - the sort that runs from the plughole of any domestic sink to the drain. I had salvaged one from my old kitchen before the skip was collected and it was just a few centimetres shorter than my strawberry pot.

First things first, you need to drill a series of small holes into the waste pipe so that it is entirely perforated.

Next, take your empty strawberry pot and line the bottom with gravel to aid drainage and give your pipe something to stand up in. Nestle your now very leaky waste pipe in the centre and fill that with more gravel. It should now be able to stand upright in the centre of your pot.

Now begin to plant up your pot, being careful not to get any soil into the pipe as this will just silt up the gaps between the gravel.

Once fully planted you can water the pot by pouring the water into the pipe. It then gradually seeps out of the holes you drilled into the surrounding soil. Well, that's the theory anyway. Fingers crossed it works!

I've planted my pot up with six different varieties of thyme - Broad Leaved, Orange Scented, Lemon Variegated, Foxley, Silver Posie, and Creeping Red - with some less-hardy parsley and tarragon in the top, which should be easy to replace since it's unlikely to survive the winter.