Kitchen Update 5

Hello. How are you this hot and humid Tuesday night? My hay fever has been dreadful today, I have sneezed non stop and my eyes are very itchy, and I feel sure the heat and mugginess are not helping. I don't want to complain about the weather though, I do love it when it's warm.

I think this is my last Kitchen Update post, because after today there won't be much more to show you, other than a lovely "ooh look it's all finished!" post sometime in the future when we've settled into the room a bit more and I've faffed around with pictures on the walls.

The extractor fan was fitted. I like the way it balances out the heaviness of the cooker below, but more importantly I like the job it does, especially when we're cooking things like curry or fish.

Our floor - a type of engineered oak suitable for kitchens - was laid, and what a difference it makes.

I already love it; it's warm underfoot, doesn't show every single crumb and spill, and is easy to clean. Most importantly, it adds warmth to a very stark kitchen and colour scheme.

I spent most of last Saturday putting things back into the cupboards. Despite this being a task I was really looking forward to doing, I found it quite annoying and I had a few moments when I didn't think it would all fit in. Probably because we have So Much Stuff. I told John that actually, yes, we did have too many mugs, something he's always moaned about and I've always denied. (That doesn't mean I'm getting rid of any of them, mind.)

We have about the same amount of cupboard and worktop space as before so I had to think really carefully about what I put where. But I realised I keep a lot of things in the kitchen that I don't need to, like empty jam jars and rarely used baking tins for example, so these now live in the garage in a couple of old kitchen cupboards we hung on the wall in there. 

Our new wall cupboards either side of the cooker hold food and drink, while the drawers below hold pans and baking things on one side, crockery and often used things on the other. I like the drawers very much. Nothing can hide at the back. Everything is easily accessible. 

On the other side of the room we have the sink, dishwasher, fridge, bin and more cupboards which hold things like cups, jugs, glasses, bowls, and there is a generous amount of worktop space here. It's a nice sunny spot for preparing food.

Some of my favourite things about the kitchen are:

:: The deep windowsill.

:: The cooker. I just love it. I haven't baked a cake yet (simply because I haven't had time) but we've cooked and cooked. 

:: The sink, wide and deep and big enough to wash up our biggest Le Crueset pan. 

:: The bin. I know, not very glamorous, but I love the way it has two sections and slides away so neatly. Previously, my recycling hung in a carrier bag on the back of the kitchen door, whereas now it has it's own little bin.

The front part of the bin is for general waste and it's so handy to pull it out, take off the lid and scrape things straight into it. 

:: A fridge at eye-level. When you think how often you open a fridge during a day, how frequently you use it, this already makes such a huge difference.

Mainly I love all the light. I love coming downstairs in the morning and walking into the kitchen, not the dark garage, and opening a window, filling the kettle and switching on the radio. It's amazing. Small pleasures.

There are things still to do, the main one being to tile the splashback behind the cooker. We need to order additional shelves for some of the wall cupboards to better use every inch of space inside them.

 We need to paint the skirting boards and touch up the wall paint around them, choose a blind for the window. Small, fiddly jobs that we hope to tackle this weekend. Then we can move the table, chairs and sideboard from their temporary home in the living room back into the dining area. I can't wait. I've squeezed past that sideboard once too often.

I hope you've enjoyed watching our kitchen take shape over the last few weeks. I've certainly enjoyed sharing this project with you. Thank you for your words of encouragement along the way, and your interest. I hope I'll have lots of cooking and baking to share with you soon. 

Starting and Finishing

Thank you so much for all your gardening advice and identification. So then, Crocosmia/Monbretia and possibly Hemerocallis/Day Lillies - I can't wait to see how they look when they flower.  Your knowledge  - and especially the generosity with which you share it - is appreciated. I hadn't thought to net the fruit bushes. Part of me thinks I can't be bothered, but then the thought of making ice cream or curd with the fruit....that does rather change things. I don't know why I didn't think of ice cream as a way to use up the fruit - in fact John was given an ice cream maker for his birthday last year and we only used it a couple of times. Imagine making blackcurrant and liquorice ice cream! Oh yes. There has to be a recipe out there somewhere for that. I'd leaf through my cookery books right now if I could reach them.

Half term has meandered along in a pleasant enough fashion here. The weather has been a bit cool and wet but hasn't really stopped us doing anything. I did have a moment on Tuesday when I thought that I might actually murder everyone in the house if we didn't all just get out and get some fresh air. You know, bickering kids, restless adults, endless requests to go on the ipad/xbox, that feeling of there being loads to do but none of it appealing so you just go and make another cup of tea. We went out and it rained constantly but we all felt a lot better. Well, I certainly did, and no-one was harmed. We've had some nice trips out to HMS Warrior and The D-Day Museum, and lots of treats like lunches out or coffee and cake, but we need to reign it in a bit for the rest of the month, for the sake of our bank balance and my waist line. On Wednesday night John and I went out for dinner to celebrate his birthday, to a quiet country pub, and the meal was really good but my dessert - orange sorbet - was one of the nicest things I've ever eaten. You see, another reason to get out the ice cream maker.

We've been cooking. The kitchen is almost, almost finished. Yesterday the gas hob was connected and we had the luxury of cooking on gas. We made a stir fry and it was so good to smell the garlic, ginger and chilli frying in the oil, and see all the vegetables and spices lined up ready to be cooked. It's still awkward as nothing is to hand and you have to hunt down a saucepan, then open another box to hunt down a wooden spoon, but it's better than before. I don't think I can even bare to look at the microwave oven again, actually, and it may stay in the garage for the time being. The kitchen floor is being laid today which is the last big, messy job. Tomorrow I can clean out the kitchen (it's still all quite dusty) and start putting things back in the cupboards. Everything - the whole house - needs such a good clean. I think I know what I'll be doing this weekend.

My crafting mojo has returned and I've been spending the evenings working away on various things. I have begun two crocheted projects - a black and white chevron bag for myself, and a longer term project which will be a blanket for Angus, in granny stripes. I really, really want to make myself a bag to carry my yoga mat. I haven't found a pattern I like yet so I might have to do my usual thing of meshing two or three together and trying to make up my own. I also spent a good few hours this morning sorting out all my embroidery threads for a new sampler. Now that tedious job is done I like knowing that the threads and linen are all there, ready and waiting, and I can start the stitching any time.

Garden Notes

I'm so glad the weather was good over the bank holiday weekend. We went into full gardening mode and cut, trimmed, pruned, dug up, planted and re-planted in the garden throughout Sunday and Monday. We did this with very little knowledge of what we were doing and so we'll see how that all looks in a few months. Trips were made to the garden centre and the recycling centre and it was all very satisfying. Today my muscles ache.

It seems like the garden changes so fast at this time of year, especially after rain. Within only a week - and sometimes days - things appear and I wonder if they are weeds or not, and whether I should pull them up or leave them. I'm glad I left the aquilegia, above.

The daffodils and tulips are all over now. They were lovely while they were here though. You never regret planting bulbs, do you? And I always wish I'd planted more, especially more tulips.I am patiently waiting for these to die down and then I might plant some annuals there, just for the colour and to fill up the bare earth.

The red wallflowers and hot pink azalea japonica are both coming to the end of their flowering season and I don't know what will bring colour in that border next as I am still getting to know this garden and can't remember exactly what I planted last year. But I really appreciated the colour they added throughout May. I remember my mum, in the garden centre last autumn, saying buy those wallflowers - just stick them in the ground and forget all about them and you'll have so much colour in the spring. Thank you Mum, good advice.

The two rhododendron bushes have been glorious again. 

They sit either side of our garden and give so much colour at this time of year. 

Even when they start to fade and the petals scatter the ground beneath them they are pretty.

And the bees like them.

The alliums are lovely too, and I wish I'd planted more of them, and in clusters rather than one or two here and there. They look really effective planted in groups. 

These three currant bushes are going great guns and I've no idea why as I've done nothing to them at all.

There is one large redcurrant bush on the left, already full of fruit. I don't really like redcurrants to be honest, I think they are sharp and overrated so goodness knows what I am going to do with all these when they ripen.

The two blackcurrant bushes are also looking promising. Again, I have no idea what to do with these. Jelly? Cordial? 

So, that's what is blooming. I am waiting and seeing with the rest. My hydrangea, planted last year, is looking promising. Not a natural gardener, I am trying to get the hang of bringing colour into the garden throughout the whole summer, not just all in May and then nothing in July or August.

I remain on Hollyhock Watch, marvelling at how tall they are growing and wondering what colour they will be. These must be the most anticipated flower ever.

I have planted a ridiculous number of marigolds, given to me by my mum and dad. They had hundreds, it looked like a canabbis farm in their conservatory. I have planted them in pots and the border and scattered slug pellets liberally. 

I'm also really curious to see what these two spiky-leaved planted below might do. I wonder if they are some kind of iris? I have no idea what kind or what colour though.

Luckily we can cheat and add instant colour to our gardens by going to the garden centre and buying stuff. John and I pulled up two dying conifer trees that a previous owner had planted directly under the living room window (trees! under a window!) and replaced them with hydrangeas. I know it all looks a bit sparse and sad right now (and try not to look at the upvc - hard, I know) but in a couple of years I hope they will all mesh in together and provide colour and a screen for that awful expanse of blinding white plastic.

I have tarted up my pots front and back, and wait for it all to flower and look lovely.

I always spend time on the containers by the front step. 

The entrance to our house doesn't exactly exude charm and, one day, I'd love to replace the upvc door and window with bricks and a wooden front door. A nice one, a modern one, which I'd paint a really good colour - I wouldn't go all faux-Victorian or country or anything like that - but there has to be a way to make the door to a 1960's house look good. 

Here it is. This photo reminds me why I've never shared photos of our front door here before. 

 Fingers crossed, those plants will add so much colour that no-one will notice anything else.

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Sorry, that was a really long post. I always think I've got nothing to say here and then I sit down to write and witter on and on. It's cold and wet today which, given that it's half term and the kids are really annoying me, is very irritating, but I am thinking of my gardening friends CJ and Leanne and reminding myself that at least it means I don't have to water the garden.

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In other new, my laptop is on it's way out (cue frantic backing up of all photos and documents onto the external hard drive) but I think my crafting mojo has returned.

Kitchen Update 4

Thank you for the compliments you paid my napkins, and more importantly for your supportive words about my misplaced crafting mojo. It will return, it always does. I am actually feeling quite chipper tonight. I went on a very long and hilly run with my sister this morning and I felt so good about it afterwards, felt a real sense of achievement. It was my first run in about six weeks and I was worried about how my fitness might have suffered, what with all the crap I've been eating lately, but it was good. Hard, but good. I know I will be very sore tomorrow but it felt great to move and stretch my muscles and feel alive. The weather was lovely and the everything so green and pretty. I took this photo when we got to the top of the hill.

I'm also upbeat because tomorrow we break up from school for a week long half term holiday. We have no plans, just a list of house and garden jobs, but John has most of the week off and I'm looking forward to some family time and some lazy mornings.

It's been a few weeks since I showed you any progress in the kitchen but I have been snapping away here and there, recording the developments, and have some here to show you tonight. 

The worktops were fitted. It's really hard to see what they look like in a photo but they are grey quartz and flecked with a lovely sparkle which catches the light.

The cupboards and doors still wear their protective plastic coating and will do until the floor is down and the last of the dusty jobs are over.

The tap was fitted and we now have hot and cold running water, and a plumbed in dishwasher. Amazing! An integrated dishwasher would've looked better but we only bought that one you see above a year ago and there's absolutely nothing wrong with it, so it stays.

The cooker is in it's place. I'm really happy about the amount of worktop we have either side, which I hope will make baking and food preparation much easier than before. 

Various panels and covers and whatnot still need to be attached to the front and top of the cooker but we can do that later. The kitchen fitters are coming back tomorrow to connect the electrical supply to the cooker and also to fit the extractor fan that will sit above it. We opted for a "dual fuel" cooker - gas hob and electric oven - and so we still need to arrange for a gas person to come out and connect the hob.

We finished all the painting, including the grey dining room wall and the radiator. (We had radiator paint mixed in the same shade as the wall, Valspar Empirical Grey.) My hope is that, once the furniture and pictures are back in the room, the radiator will kind of disappear.

And then the most exciting thing ever happened - the overhead light was fitted. 

Deliberately positioned low, it will hang over the table and gives off the softest light. No angles. I think it it one of the lovliest things I have ever seen or owned and it makes me smile every time I see it. 

The last job is the flooring, which we hope will be laid next week. Then, I can take off all the plastic layers, clean the room, wipe out the cupboards and drawers and, with the radio on, slowly potter about putting all our things in their new home.