Latest botanical adventures: growing from seed

hello hello!

I've embarked on a new planty journey- growing from seeds. My lovely flatmate, Laura (link to her bloooog), gave me a herby boxy thing for Christmas, and so I have planted those up and they all seem to be getting along nicely- though the Parsley seeds are yet to poke their heads above ground, they're so far behind the Oregano and Chives, that I'm doubting if I planted them at all...

Chives and Oregano just saying hello, Parsley still covered in cling film

Most excitingly, I bought some Mimosa Pudica seeds from ebay. Also known as the shy plant, a touch-me-not and sleepy plant, here's a fantastic gif that may clue you in as to why it's known by these names:

Honestly this makes me shriek with excitement

(i love the etymology of plant names: in Latin, 'pudica' means shy or bashful)

The seeds are doing well, I received about 50 and have sown them in a mixture of circumstances and conditions. Some with a sandy (more succulent/cacti friendly) soil, some with normal soil (nabbed from the herb box collection), some in terracotta pots, some in plastic. So far- the best results have been my from the smallest experiment, which is annoying. I sowed around 10 seeds in a tiny pot with normal soil, but before this I had sped up the germination process my soaking the seeds in warm/hot water for about half an hour. I then covered the little pot with cling film and placed them in a dark, but warm, spot just to the right of my flat's large storage heater- well they loved that! Within a couple of days the seedling were poking through. During the day, I placed them (still clingfilmed) onto the windowsill to encourage them to get taller, but put them back near the heater at night. They are a week old today, well I planted them a week ago, and looking just darling:

 I've uncovered them now, as they were beginning to touch the wet clingfilm and I was wary that they might get rotten or mouldy. I have already noticed their 'sleepy' nature, though they aren't reacting to seismonaistic movement yet, such as blowing, touching or shaking, they are definitely reacting to light and dark: at night the little sprouts close up as if they've gone to sleep for the evening.  

I think I mentioned before, but for Christmas, I also received Lithop seeds (all the way from China), I have it on good authority that the time for sewing those is coming up, so I'll let you know how that goes, when the times comes. Here's a link to my last post about my adult lithops: My Little Green House.

There you are, you're all caught up with my seedy escapades. Have a good weekend!

dejected do-gooder, dejected hot chocolate

Yesterday I went to stay for the night at my buddy's house in Kingston- to do so I make my way to Waterloo and always pick up a hot drink from one of the numerous food/coffee chain places available on the platform. Yesterday I bought a medium hot chocolate (and a banana because I was slightly hungover and 'nanas are great for perking you up after a night drinking), - anyway, I paid with contactless, grabbed the drink and noticing it was quite small I said, "Is this a medium?" the girl said, "No, because you paid for a small", I thought ahhh never mind, if that's all I paid for,  never mind. I was running late for my train. On the train I found the receipt and I had paid the extra 50p for a medium. So today, as I walked past the cafe chain on my way back home from Kingston I noticed the same girl was there- I told her that I had paid for a medium yesterday and she was really apologetic and gave me the refund and a free hot chocolate. Which was all very embarrassing for me, after living in London for a while you get quite used to being treated like shit by service workers, just I know most customers are arseholes. 

Thing was I'd just finished a really large cup of tea and i had no room in my belly for a large, free hot chocolate. So i thought, "I know, I'll nip outside and give it to a homeless person", it was very cold out today, and there's usually quite a few homeless people outside of major London stations. But not bleeding today, my dress was blowing up in the wind, and I was getting rained on as I marched about trying to find someone to give this ruddy hot chocolate to. Eventually I found a man all wrapped up in blankets with what looked like a broken leg. I knelt down and said "I'm awfully sorry if this is insulting, but would you like this drink? I got it for free and I don't want it", he was said "Thanks darlin', yeah that'd be great", so I gave it to him (promising it "wasn't poisoned", which made it sound like it was poisoned, luckily he laughed), he took one sip and went "No, no, no, I hate hot chocolate, you can have that back- will you go and get me a coffee?". I was a mixture of apologetic and put-out (excellent do-gooder behaviour). I was sorry that I didn't have the drink he liked and put-out that he wanted me to throw away this one and go and buy him a bleading latte. I said sorry- gave him some change and walked off still holding this fricking hot chocolate. At this moment I watched my bus drive off, so then went a stood by the bus stop for 20 minutes trying to hold my dress down with the gale winds and holding this now nearly cold hot chocolate, too anxious to leave the bus stop in case it came during my search for a bin. As the bus pulled up I put the hot chocolate down on the pavement and watched it as the bus and me pulled away. 

Dry flowers

These are a few of the flowers that i picked for my Nan's funeral arrangement. I think these should all dry fairy well. I love the thistle particularly. It's lovely to have them up here in London with me, now is a difficult time to be away from my family.

A passage to India, by Lauren Slater

Gosh that sounds like a novel, doesn't it?
Well it's not, it's better: one of my oldest, bestest, and loveliest friends, Lauren Slater, has set up a Kickstarter for her final major fashion project for her Fashion Design degree which she studies at Westminster University.

I could try to tell you about it, but Lauren herself does a much better job than I could, here is a section copied from the Kickstarter page:

"A Passage To India // The Collection
A Passage To India is my final major project during my Fashion Design BA Hons at Westminster University in
London. The project is the creation of a six look womenswear collection.

The collection has been inspired by turn of the 20th century menswear fashion and draped traditional Indian silhouettes and named after the novel by E.M Forster. Initially inspired by the upcoming film by Wes Anderson (The Grand Budapest Hotel) the collection finds its details in tasseled keys of vintage hotel rooms, hotel workers uniforms from the 1920s and the drapes of bed sheets. 

The collection will be mainly handmade and entirely created in London, supporting British fabric suppliers and haberdasheries and the british fashion industry. 
Your donations will also help to get the collection to the Westminster Fashion graduate catwalk show in May!"

Lauren is a fantastic designer, illustrator and person- please help her realise this fantastic project by donating to her campaign!

Here is a link to the Kickstarter: A Passage To India // Fashion Design Final Collection, and here is the supporting video:

these are not resolutions:

moisturise your body, fi
-I don't have the softest skin. My body type renders me bumpy and stretched, utterly unlike every lovely lady on the first few pages of any magazine, or in the lovely sun flared photos on 'summer' or 'shred' blogs, which is fine, I've learnt to embrace this stuff, and not to berate myself for not meeting standards of beauty that I didn't set... But I could be softer, or smoother, I'm never sure which word I'm after of those two. So I plan on buttering myself up, after showers and before bed, like a lovely pork shoulder, yum.

speak to your family more, fi
-We had a tough christmas and New Year. Shortly before Christmas, after years of them struggling with their conditions (dementia, bi-polar, rheumatoid arthritis, pride), and my mum struggling to keep them above water; both my grandparents went into a local residential home. Then, on the 6th of January, my nanny became very suddenly poorly with pneumonia, and died less than 24 hours after being admitted into hospital. I love my nan a lot, she was stubborn and quite blunt, but fiercely loyal, generous and we could natter endlessly. Losing her has been awful. And as so often happens with death, it brought the rest of us together. I have a small family, my dad is an only child, and my mum only has one brother. So time spent with my cousins and brothers is special. I miss my nan already.


cook soup, fi
-It's easy to work out why, isn't it? Soup is cheap, warming, easy, flavoursome, packed with goodness and you can make loads at once.

do more stuff to your face, fi
-Since moving to London, I've had spots. As anyone who lives here knows, London air is dirty: you only have to blow your nose after a tube-heavy weekend to see the black evidence in your tissue. Lucky as a teenager, I was spot-free, so this sudden peppering of a few spots has caught me unarmed, I honestly don't know how to care for my skin. Perhaps the Devon coastal air is magical, but I've never had a face care routine. I've always just sort of shampooed my face while i did my hair in the shower? I know that's bad. I've not moisturised either. 'You definitely brought this upon yourself, girl'-- Oh I know.... I've always just let my face and body sort itself, it's not like w're born with anti-ageing night cream and a razor in our hands is it? Anyway, I've bought some face masks, an exfoliator, and a vitamin e moisturiser from Body Shop in their 40% off sale. Who knows if it'll help? I can but try, eh?

send more post, fi
-Send to family, send to friends. I love getting post, but these days it's mainly my impulse bids on ebay that deliver any post through my letter box. My mum is a great letter writer, keeping in touch with many of her friends that way, and she's taught me to do the same with cards, send thank yous, and happy birthdays... but as the internet replaces a lot of things, I think letter writing has gotten a bit lost. I don't resolve to write letters, but maybe write a bit more inside the cards and on the post cards that I will send this year.

go see movies, fi
-I love the pictures, it's one of my favourite things to do, but I've gone less in the last couple of years. So... I'm thinking... a film a month? I'm excited for Spike Jonze's 'Her', with the lovely Joaquin Phoenix, 'August: Osage County',  and Steve McQueens's 'Twelve Years and Slave' (going to see this with my 'American Fictions' class). Most of all, I am excited for the new Wes Anderson 'The Grand Budapest Hotel', which you can just tell is a Wes Anderson film from the name and poster alone, I think.











shoot more film, fi
I've had a ridiculously unlucky time with my film camera lately- last year I developed fourteen rolls of film, three of which turned out to be blank, which meant bye bye to my visit to the eden project with Rhiannon, and cheerio to my day on Dartmoor with Rachel . I think the film tore as I wound it on early on in the roll-  two out of the three blank rolls had maybe one or two photos on, but nothing on the rest of the roll. This is a mixture of me not loading it as carefully as I could- with the old and often expired film I use (which I love- so no preaching). And then, the shutter stuck on my trusty OM10 just before Christmas. I have since bought a replacement (old camera bodies are cheap enough on ebay, it's the lenses that cost a few bob), and this fucker just developed only half a roll- which was bizaar- as it was really sporadic on the negatives... like 1- 4 were fine, then 5-20 were blank, then the rest of the roll came as shadows and light. I'll get another one from a more reputable seller, perhaps. ANYWAY- this year I'd like to shoot more film. To quantify it, I'm thinking 2 rolls of film a month, starting February.


These aren't resolutions, they're not going to change my life considerably... but I want to do them... for reasons.

#JoulesLovesRugby!

A week or two ago, I was lucky enough to go to a blogger event hosted by Joules at Bath Rugby's training ground.

I'm from the South West, so it was very strange getting on the south western train at Paddington, seeing all the familiar stations go by, but alighting at Bath! We were greeted by the lovely Christmas lights of Bath, but unfortunately did not have time to go and explore the lovely, famous christmas market. Next year, Bath, next year!

Once we arrived at the beautifully renovated and gothic, Farleigh House, we were met with the offer of tea, which always puts me in the best of moods, so I knew it'd be a good day.

 We chatted and played a fun little speed dating (rather, getting-to-know dating) game with the fresh-off-the-pitch rugby players. The players I met were Roko, Dominic and Guy, they definitely did tell me which positions on the pitch they played, but I definitely can't remember... However, of these things, I am sure: Dominic was at least 6'5", Roko served in the army (and was full of secrets about his fellow players), and Guy had thighs that you'd be hard pushed to get your arms around! They were very friendly and it was lovely of them to meet with us, especially straight from training.

Then it was time for some snaps in front of the building, and once we'd said cheerio to the sleep-eyed ruggers, we headed back to the train station.

I met a myriad of delightful bloggers, but spoke most with the lovely Megan (aka Briar Rose), and the delightful Sally (aka Queenie and the Dew).

Left: me and Megan

Right: me and Sally swinging our Joules bags

Sally is absolutely lovely, and I know a couple of you reading this were pointed my way by her, please get comfy, I'll stick 'kettle on.

Hope everyones's Christmas preparations are going swimmingly. I've just arrived home in Devon, so I'm about to get merry and dress the tree. Pictures to come!

If you fancy looking like a proper lovely sporty person, take a look at Joules' fab men's and women's polo shirts. 

My Little Greenhouse

For my 22nd birthday last October just gone, I only wanted one thing. But it was a tricky-to-find/ even-harder-to-get-shipped thing, naturally. I wanted a little greenhouse/terrarium to keep some of the Lithops that I have collected over this last year in.

I found one; hand made, beautiful, small- everything I could've asked for! Here's a link to it- though bare in mind, if you order one, due to the nature of gorgeous handmade goods, yours may differ slightly from mine.

Here is a couple of recent pictures of the little 11cm tall terrarium, housing various species of Lithops (also known as living stones) and succulents.

I love the hinged roof, I love the size and I am so impressed with the quality. As you can see I've chosen the black patina (the edging between the glass panels) as opposed to the copper finish, but both are so beautiful. In fact I am so impressed with this little addition to my plant family, that I've started to investigate copper foiling classes in London, so that I might create my own little greenhouses. There is a surprising amount of workshops and courses available, but I will let the Christmas attack on my bank balance subside before I book anything.

(cue me pushing my glasses up my nose, and getting all green fingered nerdy on yo' ass)

The species shown here are as follows:  the largest Lithop is (I think) an 'Aucampiae', and the three brainy looking ones are 'Julii. fouscous' ('focous' basically means 'brown', as mine is the brown variety). The little greeny pink things aren't Lithops at all, they're succulents known as 'baby toes', which is apt as that's exactly what they feel and look like. Their scientific name is: 'Fenestraria', the windows on the top of each little stem allows for photosynthesis. Baby Toes are ridiculously easy to care for and absolutely beautiful to look at, though you must be careful when handling (in my case, stroking them) or repotting them, as they tend to show injuries a few days after the actual damage has occurred. 

These plants have been in the terrarium for 2 months now, and seem to be doing wonderfully. The bottom of the box allows me to witness the growth of a healthy root system, which I will post a picture of soon, as it is exquisite! 

On hotter days (my windowsill gets full sun from 8am til 11am), I have to prop the roof open ever-so slightly. I usually use a small paintbrush or hair grip. This prevents condensation, which can lead to mould, which would be disastrous for these tough, but young, plants.

If you'd like to know anything else about keeping succulents or living stones, drop a comment below or email me: fifi.nicholls@gmail.com.

Thanks to my lovely mum for getting this beautiful birthday gift for me.