Salty Sam’s Fun Blog for Children
Number 266
Fuchsias
Hello Everyone
At the end of last summer, Auntie Alice was tidying up her house plants and found a baby spider plant and some cuttings to give to Emily.
l am glad to say that Emily’s has been looking after her plants well and they are now flourishing.
Auntie Alice says that Emily must have inherited her green fingers from her!
Actually there are lots of plants you can create from cuttings and not all of them have to be house plants.
Emily thought that she might like to have some plants outside as well as in her bedroom and Auntie Alice suggested that the perfect plants for her might be some fuchsias.
Emily thought it was wonderful that you can get plants for free – as long of course if you have a friend with some plants or cuttings to give you.
When she saw the fuchsias, she thought they were wonderful. She thought they looked like pretty, little ballerinas.
Auntie Alice showed her how to take the cuttings and said that they could stay safe and warm in her green house until they were ready for Emily to take home and put in her own garden.
First, Auntie Alice found some small plastic flower pots.
She used a potting compost with added sand or grit in it.
She explained to Emily that you need to take cuttings from a healthy plant in late spring.
Cut under a leaf node (where the leaves come out of the stalk).
They should be about 10cm long.
Remove the bottom two leaves.
You don’t need hormone rooting powder, but if you can use it, it will probably help.
You shouldn’t let your baby brothers and sisters or pets get near the hormone rooting powder.
You then put the cuttings around the sides of the pot.
And give them a good watering.
You must put a label in the pot with the cuttings.
And then put a polythene bag over the pot to create a mini greenhouse.
These plants like moist air, light shade and mild temperatures and there is part of Emily’s garden by the side wall that will be perfect for them.
A lot of fuchsias are pink, which is Emily’s favourite colour, but they come in lots of other colours as well like red and white and purple.
lf you want to put your fuchsia in a pot, maybe you don’t have flowerbeds where you live, there are a few things you should do to keep it safe over the winter.
ln late summer, make sure the plant has plenty of sunshine falling on it. Feed it with a potassium-high fertilizer like tomato fertilizer.
Put the pot in a frost-free place like a porch or unheated greenhouse before the first frosts of autumn.
Over the winter, only give it enough water to prevent the compost from drying out. Then, when the spring comes, start to feed and water the plant again to encourage more growth.
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And see you again next Fun Friday!
Love and kisses
Salty Sam
www.christina-sinclair.com
Bill and Bob’s Joke of the Week
Bob: Do you know what pigs do when they get sunburnt?
Bill: No, what do pigs do when they get sunburnt?
Bob: They rub on oinkment!
Salty Sam © Christina Sinclair 2015
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Picture Gallery
Fuchsia
THE SALTY SAM NEWS DESK
Meanwhile, this week Bill and Bob were trying an experiment in their vegetable patch.
It isn’t very big, and not having much room in a garden is a problem that a lot of people have, and so they tried to sow two crops on top of each other. Bill and Bob love growing vegetables – they like eating them even more.
They sowed some radish seeds and parsnip seeds together. The radish crop is supposed to be ripe for harvesting while the parsnips are still growing – they will be ready for harvesting much later.
If you ever cook bubble and squeak – for those of you who don’t know what that is, I should tell you…
Bubble and squeak is fried up left-overs like potatoes and sprouts. Anyway, if you ever cook bubble and squeak, be sure to add in some cooked parsnips because they really improve the taste and make it much sweeter.
In their unending enthusiasm to help me with my blog posts, Bill and Bob have made up a quiz using the letters of ‘fuchsia’.
All the answers to the quiz are things that you can find in the garden.
F _ O _ P _ N _
U _ B _ L _
C _ M _ O _ T H _ A _
H _ M _ O _ K
S _ N P _ R _ S _ L
I _ S _ C _ S
A _ B _ U _
Emily has been busy too. She has made a little bowl for her dolls’ house using the method for making a button in Blog Post 261. She thought you would like to see her photographs. You can see them below…
I am sure that you have been seeing the news about Covid-19 on the television lately.
Bill and Bob e-mailed me to see if I was okay and they told me that they were getting very stressed about the news. They said that they were following the advice about hand washing but they were still worried.
I told them that scientists have noticed that children don’t tend to be affected as much as adults and one of the important factors relating to that is that they don’t smoke.
Doctors advise everyone to not smoke.
It is very very important to always look after your immune system; but it is especially important at this time.
It is like making your body into a castle to keep you safe against an invading enemy.
There are easy ways to do this.
You can exercise; even in your own home.
You should eat lots of fresh fruit, especially berries, and veggies – preferably raw when possible.
You can take apple cider vinegar and ginger to boost your immune system. You can hide these in drinks if you think the taste is too strong for you.
Don’t have a lot of sugar in your diet.
Get enough sleep and keep warm.
Don’t stress – because that damages your immune system. If you are constantly watching bad news on television it will stress you out. Go and do something else as a distraction.
Go and play with your pets. Go and watch a DVD or read an interesting book.
Go and do some knitting. There is a lovely knitting pattern on the blog post this week.
Salty Sam says
look after your immune system
NEWSDESK MINIMAKE
DOLLS’ HOUSE BASKET
Emily made her fruit basket in white and red but if you made it in a pale, brown colour, it would look as though it was made out of raffia or wickerwork.
Crochet 40 chains into 2 lengths of yarn.
Use one chain for the base and one for the sides.
Leave yourself long lengths of yarn to use for sewing up when you finish the crocheting.
Curl your finished work around and sew across the spiral again and again using a yarn needle until the base becomes solid and holds together well.
Then curl the other chain up around the sides of the bowl and sew in place as you go.
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Hobby Time
lf you don’t have a garden to grow fuchsias in, you can make your own little indoor display of flowers with flowers called African Violets.
This is how you look after them…
African violets like to be kept on the dry side. lf you have a plant pot sitting on a saucer, pour away any excess water that drains through the pot.
They don’t like baking hot sun but can tolerate early morning and late afternoon sun so put them on an east or west-facing window sill rather than a south-facing one.
They like to be fed with a high potassium feed like tomato feed diluted to half strength every two weeks from March to October and they will flower for you for nine or more months.
They can’t stand frost but can take quite cool temperatures so you can keep them in a porch even through the winter months as long as their compost is not too wet.
And they come in an array of colours – whites, pinks and purples.
lt’s the Weekend!
HOW TO MAKE A COLLECTlON OF CATS
Cats come in all colours – not as many as fuchsias perhaps.
These cats are all white, but if you prefer, you can make yours in other colours.
It is a cat’s job to be impossibly infuriating and totally endearing at the same time. These cats are really cute.
These kittens are in the basket from Blog Post 216.
You can use bottle tops to draw two circles on some squared paper.
Elongate the body and cut a square and two half squares on the diagonal out at the top to make cat ear shapes.
These kittens are 5cm high and 2½cm wide.
Cut 2 pieces of felt for each kitten.
The tails of the kittens are made by crocheting 10 chains into a length of yarn.
TO MAKE UP
Embroider eyes into one piece of felt and sew the tail into the base of the other piece using French knots in embroidery thread (wrap the thread around your needle 3 times).
Sew around the sides and base.
Lightly stuff and sew along the base of the kitten or leave open if you want to use your kitten as a pen top.
KNITTED CAT KEY RING
Of course you don’t have to make this cat into a key ring – you can just keep it as a toy to play with.
EARS (KNIT TWO)
These ears are made in garter stitch
Using 4mm knitting needles and white dk yarn cast on 2 stitches
Knit 1 row
Increase 1 stitch at the beginning of the next 2 rows of garter stitch (4 sts)
Knit 1 row
Decrease 1 stitch at the beginning of the next 2 rows of garter stitch (2 sts)
Knit 2 together
Cast off
Fold the diamond you have made over and sew along the two top edges to make triangular ears – leave the ends of the yarn to use to sew the ears onto the head.
CAT BODY (KNIT ONE)
Using 4mm knitting needles and white dk yarn cast on 20 stitches
Knit 24 rows of stocking stitch
Don’t cast off – instead run a length of yarn through the stitches so that you can take them off your needle
CAT LEGS (KNIT TWO)
Using 4mm knitting needles and white dk yarn cast on 10 stitches
Knit 12 rows of stocking stitch
Don’t cast off – instead run a length of yarn through the stitches so that you can take them off your needle
CAT ARMS (KNIT TWO)
Using 4mm knitting needles and white dk yarn cast on 8 stitches
Knit 8 rows of stocking stitch
Don’t cast off – instead run a length of yarn through the stitches so that you can take them off your needle
TO MAKE UP
- Sew up the centre back seam of the body right sides together and turn body right way out
- Sew up the bottom seam wrong sides together
- Sew up the leg inside seams with right sides together
- Turn the legs the right way out and pull in the ends of the feet and slip the yarn up the back seam to the back of the ankle and secure into the back seam
- Bind yarn tightly around the bottom of the legs to make ankles
- Lightly stuff the legs and sew the tops onto the bottom of the body by laying the legs onto the stomach and sewing from behind (place the leg seams facing each other)
- Sew up the under arm seams with right sides together
- Turn the arms the right way out
- Bind yarn tightly around the arms to make wrists in the same way that the ankles were made
- Lightly stuff the arms and sew the tops onto the sides of the body by laying the arms onto the chest and sewing from behind
- Stuff the body and pull in the top of the head to close it up then take the yarn down the back seam and secure into the back seam at shoulder level
- Bind some yarn tightly around the body twice above the arms to make a neck
- Sew the ears into place
- Sew the eyes onto the front of the face using green dk yarn – make the eyes with French knots (wind the yarn around the needle three times)
- Give your cat a collar or bow with coloured yarn
- Crochet 10 chains into three strand of yarn and sew this tail into place
- If you are making your cat into a decoration for a bag or key ring, sew the chain to the top of the head
TIP
When you sew up the seams take the yarn to the outside of the knitting ready to make the ankles, wrists and neck
Please note that the material on this blog is for personal use and for use in classrooms only.
It is a copyright infringement and, therefore, illegal under international law to sell items made with these patterns.
Use of the toys and projects is at your own risk.
©Christina Sinclair Designs 2015
Answers to the News Desk Quiz
F R O G P O N D
U M B E L S
C O M P O S T H E A P
H A M M O C K
S U N P A R A S O L
I N S E C T S
A R B O U R
Umbels are flowers that are shaped like umbrellas
An arbour
For an Embroidery Stitches Chart
Check out Blog Post 3
A hammock
