Another London Visit

It was back up to London on the train yesterday for our daughter's ceremony at Inner Temple when she was one of many to be formally Called to the Bar.  A lovely day, despite the heat, it was pretty special to see her achieve what she set her heart on several years ago.

Some of the wonderful old buildings around the Inns of Court

Later we strolled back along the Embankment and across Waterloo Bridge to catch the train home and I thought London looked lovely in the evening sun.

I love this Baobab tree at the Southbank Centre.  More about it  Here.

Back home today I could hear the combine harvester in the nearby field and went to watch while it made it's way up and down.  It's amazing how quickly everything dries out after just a few sunny days!

I've got a few family things on in the next week or two, and of course the Olympics! so might not be around so much, but hopefully will have the quilt and the crochet blanket finished when I'm back.

See you soon

xxx

This Week

With the garden being such a soggy mess recently,  I've been having a tidy up in my workroom instead.  I decided to tackle my pile of vintage linens and sorted them into piles of  "good - maybe sell" , "good - keep" and "pretty but stained or not very useful" .   There were a few embroidered tray cloths etc that I've been meaning to use for something so together with some bits of napkins, tea towels and various bits of linen they are being turned into a quilt.  I'm loving the pale Scandinavian look.  Not my normal colours but I think they all work well together, and it feels wonderfully soft. 

Just need to decide on the binding now and finish it off.  Not the easiest thing to photograph in a gloomy room!

There was a bit of blue sky this week and the hollyhocks looked very bright and cheerful.

The clouds last night looked lovely, but back to the grey gloom again this morning:(  Summer is supposed to be on it's way soon.  Finger's crossed!

Garden Wildlife

Hello, and thank you for all your kind comments on my last post :) 

Having been stuck indoors for ages, I was going to tackle the jungle of weeds in the veg plot today but got side tracked by the wildlife in the garden and went back in for my camera instead!  Everything is so wet it's no fun weeding and getting covered in mud :(

Butterfly numbers are down this year, but I noticed this Ringlet one on the daisies.  Apparently they are happy with damp shady places, which explains a lot!

Lots of bumble bees

I think this is a solitary bee.  I've seen a few holes in the ground where they've made nests.

Hoverflies

And a grasshopper.  Really odd looking creatures close up!

Not forgetting these pests!  Lottie used to catch them now and again, but they seem to out smart her and stay just far enough away to be safe now!

Enjoy the rest of the weekend

xx

1 Year Blogiversary

I can't believe it's been a whole year since I took the plunge and started my little blog.  I didn't know who would want to read about my rather unexciting life of gardening, crochet and sewing,  but I've since been inspired by a whole new world of lovely creative, generous people and look forward every day to seeing what you've been up to. 

I hope I can keep finding new things to share with you.  In the meantime here's a round up of some of my favourite photo's,  one from each month of the last year.

And a lovely bunch of sweet peas from the garden.  Just because!

xxx

This Week in the Garden

Well,  I hate going on about the weather.  I'm sure you're all as fed up with it as me, but it must be bad if there's big slugs in our garden.  We NEVER get slugs but I found a few munching on my newly planted Cavolo Nero, broccoli and cauli's :(   I won't use pellets because of Lottie, but how do you dispose of the revolting things?

Other damp casualties are the courgettes that are growing well, but a lot of the fruits are going mouldy before picking.  Same with the squashes that are looking very sorry for themselves

Still, it's not all doom and gloom.  I've picked some courgettes along with lots of mangetout peas and broad beans.  Some of the strawberries were mouldy, but most were ok.  And the raspberries are doing really well.  We had some yesterday with some lemon tart and cream and they were delicious.

Something else that's loving the weather is the mint in the tub by the back door. If we get a dry day (haha!) I'm going to chop it back and try freezing it in portions, otherwise it'll go all leggy and start to flower.

The sweet peas are starting to flower, along with the hollyhocks and I picked my first dahlia flower, but it had been chewed by something, so not very photogenic!

The runner beans (Polestar) are looking pretty and the French beans (Cosse Violette) are finally growing well, though they have really struggled this year.

Finally, some flowers from the garden to brighten your day!

Have a good weekend!

xxx