My top 10 posts of 2023

This year there’s been challenges putting this post together, but I think I’m there. The challenges are, obviously, my blog name change but also an update to Google Analytics earlier in the year which I knew about, but hadn’t really engaged with. But I have now, my head’s still spinning!

Anyway, it’s good to be able to carry on with my annual tradition at looking which posts from the past year which have been the most popular and those that have been around a while longer that continue to bring in the views.

But let’s start with my most popular posts from 2023, not surprisingly the first three relate to the giveaways I hosted:

1 Win a pair of tickets to BBC Gardeners' World Live on Sunday 18 June

I was proud to partner with Gardeners World to host this both this giveaway and the one for the Spring Fair, which is number three on this year’s list. It was great to go along and see the show, though as you’ll see further down in this post that brought about its own challenges.

2 Eight new cards for Spring - and a giveaway for UK postal addresses

This giveaway came about as I was sent a duplicate box of cards which the Card Boys were keen for me to share with someone who would enjoy them. And so I shared more about the box and held a giveaway and I was really pleased that one of my regular readers won them.

3 Win a pair of tickets to BBC Gardeners' World Spring Fair on Sunday 30 April

This was the first giveaway of the year, and my first time attending the Spring Fair. We had a great time at the fair and exploring Beaulieu - another first visit for me. With everything else that’s been going on this year - especially our house move - I don’t think I’ve shared as many posts from there, or our visit to the area generally, as I originally planned

4 Welcome to Bosworth Life

I’m pleased this post - where I share my new blog name and the reasoning behind it - is high on the list, especially as before we moved I had no intention of changing this space very much at all. But moving house changed all that.

We’ve done a lot since we moved in last July, and we’ve some more to do and sort out and I look forward to sharing here how we’re making our new house our home. Moving really was the right thing for us to do, so I’m glad we were able to make it happen, though it wasn’t the easiest thing I’ve ever done!

5 Making an autumn wreath

By October I was keen to get out and meet people around Newark, and for me craft workshops and groups have provided a way to do that, and even better is that I also left with a wreath or two along the way. I’ve never had an autumn wreath before, but I’m up for having a wreath on my door all year round now.

6 Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and me

After finally getting myself to the doctors about my numb hands, doing the exercises set by the physio and not really seeing much of an improvement I was referred to a specialist. Things really started to move then after being able to take advantage of a cancellation spot - for both my initial appointment, and later for my op. It was quite a whirlwind and completely unknown, though I soon discovered quite a few people that had experienced it and some that had also had the op. Knowing what I know now, I wouldn’t have been quite so worried and I’ll definitely have the op on my left hand when that’s offered.

7 My garden in August

As we settled in to our new house it was my garden that I shared with you first, and so it’s not a real surprise that one of those first posts has made the list. For a new build house we have a pretty established, and pretty decent, garden. There’s also so much more that we can do with it, and we have some plans, but first we’re enjoying what it does have and seeing how that works with the light and the space, and you can look forward to much more of the same this year.

8 Some of my highlights from Gardeners' World Live

This year we went up to Gardeners’ World Live for the Press Preview the day before the show opened, and it was brilliant. I mean, you get to see all the same things you would see on a show day, but with much fewer people about. In fact in the marquee it looked quite different as I hadn’t realised the aisles between exhibitors was quite so wide - the next day when they were full I would have easily believed you if you told me they’d been narrowed!

Anyway, navigating the show with a dodgy arm (the show was about two weeks after my Carpal Tunnel op!) was much easier than I expected. We travelled light and MOH carried the bags (he’s a keeper!) and we spent a good couple of days wandering around the NEC soaking up all the garden inspiration.

9 Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and me - a post-op update

A month after my operation I shared an update sharing how I’d got on including my fears ahead of the operation. The bandage was something else, they said be prepared for a large bandage - clearly I needed to do more preparation, as this wasn’t what I was expecting at all. And thankfully my fingers are less oompah-loompah like too.

Seriously though, my hand is fine. In fact it’s much better than it was before - the tingling and regular numbness are a thing of the past. If you’re down to have a CST op and are concerned, believe what people tell you, there’s really little to worry about.

10 Pepping up the grey

I’ve a lot more time to dedicate to crafts now that we’ve moved and we’ve both given up work, and that’s a good thing. Though moving house also meant I was faced with my many work in progresses (WIPs) - I’m pretty sure they’ll be more on those in another post, but needless to say I need to start working my way through them and finishing them off.

I’ve made a good start as the grey blanket which didn’t make my heart sing, is now finished - and while I didn’t entirely stick to my plan, it’s finished. In the end I only added the yellow granny squares, and I’m using the various pink, orange and red granny squares to make myself a cardigan. Er, so actually, the net number of WIPs remains the same - perhaps not the progress I thought it was initially then.

It’s interesting to see that you have also picked up and read many of my more significant posts throughout the year, 2023 was definitely a big year for me.

So onto the second list

This list is posts created at any time but viewed in 2022, the year in brackets is the year it was originally posted - and it’s often very similar to the previous year. For whatever reason these posts continue to attract views, and it’s good to see some of the old favourites remaining on the list, though there have been a few changes this year.

1. Sean Murray's Great Chelsea Garden Challenge (2017)

2. Filling our gabion baskets (2017)

3. My IKEA hack: HOL storage table to laundry basket (2015)

4. Win a pair of tickets to BBC Gardeners' World Live on Sunday 18 June (2023)

5. In the Orangery at Belton House (2022)

6. Let's talk Edwardian house decoration (2017)

7. Vibrant interiors at Belton House (2022)

8. Planting a strawberry border (2016)

9. The Chinese Streamside Garden at RHS Bridgewater (2021)

10. Storing logs in our gabion baskets (2017)

It’s good to see some of my more recent posts appearing on the list above - and my posts sharing our visits to Belton always do well, I need to get myself over there more!

Thanks for being here over the past year, and for bearing with me sharing this post which appeals to my inner nerd.

Making an autumn wreath

A few weeks ago I saw a post on Facebook by The Flower Fairy here in Newark offering workshops to create an autumn wreath, and I thought why not.

I’ve tried Christmas wreaths before, with mixed results - they look ok on the table, and ok on the door for a while, but not as good as those in the shops created by professionals. So I signed up before first making sure the workshops could accommodate a novice.

The first step was to fill the wreath ring with moss, which isn’t something I’d done previously - and after a trim it looked ok - and still round!

Lucinda had provided all the materials for the workshop, including tons (probably not literally) of stems in a range of greens, oranges and whites to create the wreaths. The next step was to break these larger stems into more manageable sections, and end up with smaller pieces to create bunches to add to the mossy ring. As well as these there were rosehips, chinese lanterns, crab apples and grasses. I opted for the first two, knowing that I could use the crab apples and grasses from my own garden if I wanted to top up my wreath, or even make another at some point!

I spent the evening wiring small bunches of plants onto the mossy ring, while chatting to the women alongside me. It seems that I was so busy making my wreath that I didn’t take any more photos until it was done.

And I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out.

I purposely chose not to make it symmetrical, as nature rarely is, and I like the natural look.

I’d not used moss on a florist ring before, and each bunch was secured by winding wire around the stems, using a single length for the whole way round - which seemed much easier than I remembered. Arriving home I put my newest treasured possession safely in the garage so that I could work out how to hang it the next day.

Of course, we didn’t have the right sized hook and nor did we really want to put anything too permanent on our new door, either of them. I knew that I’d be hanging this on our back door, which is the door we use - we rarely use our front door, and so wouldn’t get to admire my handiwork hardly at all.

If you look closely at the photo you can see a dark strip over the top of the door - that’s a very clever wreath door hanger, which hooks easily over the top of the door. The wreath fits into the hook, but I’ve also used the ribbon to tie it on so it’s a little bit more secure - hopefully!

I’m so pleased with it that I’ve already bought some florists wire and some large wire rings (I already had some small ones) - all I need when I’m ready to make another is some moss and some greenery. I’ve already been eyeing up the plants in our border and I’ll be keeping a keen eye on the hedgerows when we’re out walking.

But in the meantime, I’m going to indulge myself with a few more detailed pictures of the one that’s hanging on the door.

Pepping up the grey

One of the things about moving house is that it unearths your unfinished projects, or as I prefer to call them works in progress. And it seems I have quite a few, so I’m going to tackle that, but only when they call me so that finishing them doesn’t become a chore. That may mean picking them up for a bit, and then leaving them for a bit more - which many of you will realise is pretty much my crafting approach anyway! However many of those I’ve rediscovered, like this variegated grey throw, are so close to being finished, but for one reason or another (and in most cases it’s the making up) they’ve been stored away for another day.

This one I’d carefully laid out and decided on how to place the variegated grey outer squares. And I still like that, so that’s good. But, well, it’s quite grey isn’t it? And the greyness doesn’t really sing to me - the work is good, but it’s still quite grey.

The pattern, and what originally attracted me to it, was based on Portuguese tiles with vibrant blues and yellows. I’ve no idea now why I decided to go grey, so I’ve decided to pep it up by adding some colour.

It seems by go to colours for adding colour are pinks, oranges and yellows - and I’ve nothing against using them all together.

I remembered that I also had a bag of small yellow granny squares that I was also planning on using up somehow. I’d thought about making them into a mat for my new drawers (more on that another day), but it didn’t feel right. But they are right for this project though.

I thought my adding some colour could work something like this, with an inner round of yellow and further colour added on the outside with yet to be made squares - as you can see this is very much a thought in progress type blog post.

I soon realised though that I’d need to amend this slightly so that the grey outer border didn’t have gaps. My revised plan now looked something like this in my head:

By laying out the actual squares on the floor I worked out I only needed to make about 10 or so more yellow squares, which were the result of what now seems to be very productive lunch breaks while I was working. I’d take my lunch and the wool and hook I kept in my desk drawer and find a bench to sit outside if I didn’t have other plans, and quickly created a pile of small yellow grannies, which I’d bring home a few at a time.

And so while working on creating the extra yellow squares needed I also started to sew the grey and yellow squares together, still thinking how to incorporate the red, pink and orange wool I’d pulled out. Plain granny squares are easy, but can be a bit dull. I didn’t want full size squares though as I thought having them offset (because of the yellow cross border) would make me twitch.

Then I remembered the vintage sweethearts blanket, which I’d made great inroads on sewing together before we’d moved (but haven’t picked it up since!) and remembered there were some mid-sized squares there which could work.

And I think they could, so once I’d completed the additional yellow squares I started on these.

I’ve chosen three different designs for the pink squares, above is the first design - I’ve already started on the second one, but I couldn’t resist a peek at what the pepped up throw might look like.

It’s feeling a lot less grey, which feels good!

This is also the first time I’ve picked up a crochet hook since my Carpal Tunnel surgery at the start of June - and no ill effects, and that feels good too. Especially as I have the wool for a new knitting project on the way, more on that another day - but needless to say it was love at first sight!

But for now I’m enjoying less grey.