I made yet another coat for Franklin. This is the third!
First and
second coats here.
I sewed this coat from my own pattern, based loosely on a coat he already owns. It's made of a wool/tencel blend suiting material, with a 100% cotton lining and 100% wool interlining.
The lining and interlining are quilted together to make it a nice warm coat. I also gave it welt pockets (I'm an expert at them now!). It has flaws, but I'm very pleased with it; I think it's the best coat of the three, design-wise. I especially like the hood!
Things are slowing down in the garden; we've had a few sunny days and plenty of rain. Star flowers at the moment are my blood red dahlias, above; and my mallow, below. This mallow is in my strawberry bed, protected from hungry chickens--they go mad for it! It's edible to people too, but just tastes like a leaf to me.
We've finished the last of the runner beans--I managed to get one big bag in the freezer, but the way we eat veg, it'll last two meals at most! Tomatoes are still coming, both indoors and out, but not every day. Kale is looking and tasting fantastic, and the broccoli has put out a final effort; there are about a dozen more turnips ready to eat, and about the same amount of leeks.
All in all, I haven't been able to produce 100% of our veg this year. I would estimate it's been around 50%, so sadly I didn't achieve my goal yet again! Looking back, part of it was seed failure (the carrots, beets, and onions simply failed to appear), and part of it was just bad luck: chickens broke into newly sprouted seedbeds on more than one occasion and scratched up the lot, and quite a few of the rain-loving plants I have come to rely on struggled in the unexpectedly hot and sunny summer! However, even though I didn't meet my goal, it's still been a successful growing year, and I've found my new methods of gardening, including polyculture and chop and drop, have paid off in both high yields and big, tasty vegetables. It's also meant less work for me!
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