Gardening in the sun.

 

We have spent the afternoon gardening and it is begining to show how much we have done.

The flowers are now  beginning to flower; all late because of the late spring.

This heron was my Aunt's pride and joy, she used to repaint it each year and I did at first, but I think it looks better not so white. It seems to  blend in better with the variegated grasses and foxgloves with the look of ageing. Saying that she died in 1990, and she had had it for a few years before that, so it is old!

It was she that brought me up with my grand mother after my mother died when I was two, and I still miss her. She would have loved this garden and would have been so proud of my successes!

When ever she came to stay from Wales, where I had labels on my seeds in the garden, she used to tease me by saying, the labels had grown!

My pots which I do every year and grow most of the flowers from seed. It keeps me busy and happy to see the all the colours. I never have themed colour beds or pots I like all the colours together.

And this is our tiny veg patch. We have another at the top of the garden and of course I grow quite a few plants in the green house. Edging the path are strawberries and they are already ripening.

This bottom end is my herb garden, today we had mint to complement our lamb dinner

And this evening we ate our Sunday tea outside in the sunshine. With our salmon we had our own salad leaves, lettuce and radish DH's favourites. Lots of other veggies to come and hopefully this year I will have avoided blight on my tomatoes. Last year the whole outside plants were affected although we did have a good crop from the green house plants.

I am crocheting at the moment and may be showing soon, although I still have a lot to do to get this project finished.
Happy Days

A beautiful walk

We live within a stone's throw of a 90 acre meadow. Although council owned, of course like a lot of places today it is maintained by volunteers.

It is a beautiful place with wild life, wild flowers and an abundance of blackberries and sloes in the Autumn..

Nell loves to run free there but checks now and then if we are behind her! Today we did hide behind a bush, and she came racing back to find us.

 

This is what we saw today..

 

And a close up.

 

So you can see why we love living here.

Dh took the photos!

 

A happy time and a lovely walk.

 

 

 

 

Hacked email

Hi All

I haven't posted for a while and now I am writing to apologise.. If you have received an odd email from me, it was not me..  My email has been hacked.

I am very sorry if you received anything...I moderate for our local Free Cycle and a lot of spam comes through so I can only think this is why my email have been compromised.

I will be posting about things I have been doing and also my 'give away' to celebrate my 200 followers in the next few days.

Not enough hours in the day to get everything done!!

Happy Days

Saturday evening after an afternoon of gardening

What is nicer than a BBQ after a heavy stint of gardening??

 

DH had been very busy when I was out this morning at my sewing group.. he went out and bought this BBQ so of course he had to try it out?

Did I stop him ??? Oh no, I say and waited to be waited on!

 

We had a very delicious meal of steak, baked potato and salad.. I ate olives and drank home made wine while he played with the new BBQ!
Happy Days!

It must be love!! LOL

Chris xx

Anniversaries of the Heart and Cup cake.

Voila! I have finished another one of my Blackbird Anniversaries of the Heart.

This one has my eldest son's date of birth and his initials.

 

 

I am very pleased with it especially as some of the floss wasn't the set colours but I just matched up the colours.. this because I have a lot of Cresent Colours and Weeks Dye Works that I bought ages ago.

So I now have all three sons completed and next one will be with my daughter's name and dates.

I am doing these in family groups, so this one will be my four children.

 

And this is my cup cake pin cushion. I used some pretty pink colours and bows.

I have seen them with beads dangling but I thought enough is enough!

 

 

I finished it off with a Suffolk puff  ( yoyo ) and a pearly button.

 

It was a very pleasent afternoon sewing.

Hope you too have had enjoyment from some nice things to make.

My next project is going to be some crochet work.

             Chris xx

A super weekend

We have had a super weekend as my DS and DIL have stayed here as they were picking up her son from Heathrow this morning. This is his first trip home from Australia where he went to a new job three months ago.

We have thoroughly enjoyed their company. DH and DS chatted about 'men' things which my hubby loved.

We all sat out in the garden and my DIL was very impressed and has taken some ideas home for their garden.

Aren't these double tulips beautiful?  When they first flowered they were a lime cream colour and as they have grown they have developed into this lovely cream colour.

 

And this auricular was just one or two flowers last year but this year with some tender care and feeding they have burgeon into this beautiful clump!

Today we are relaxing and enjoying sitting around, maybe a walk later in the meadow, which is just up the way for us, to see the bluebells.

Hope your day is a good one too.

Chris xx

Now why did I make these? ( +Some cross stitch progress)

 

 

I don't

need them and probably won't use them but I so loved making them!

Knitted cotton face cloths.

I often get make up on my face cloths, so these are too pretty to spoil with black streaks, but they are lovely and soft.

The mauve one was knitted from the corner.

Here is the pattern I did.

Cast on 4 stitches

Row 1. k 2, yon, k2 (5 sts)

Row 2. K

Row 3. K2, yon, K1, yon, k2 (7sts)

Row 4. K

Row 5 K2.yon,k3, yon,k2 (9sts)

Row 6 K

Carry on like this increasing 2 sts on each row until you have knitted as much as you want.

Then reverse the process.

Knit 2 yon sl 1, k1. p sl s o, k to last 4 stitches cast off 2 and yon k2

next row k3 cast off 1 (by slipping a st and passing it over the next k st) k to last 5 sts,

cast off 2 and knit 3

Till you only have 4 stitches left.

Cast off

I did a row of  hd crochet and then a picot stitch in two colours

 

The other two are knitted in waffle stitch

Cast on 53

K first 3 rows in seed stitch

Pattern

Row 1 seed stitch 3, then k to last three seed st 3

Row 2. Seed stitch 3, p to last 3 stitches, seed stitch 3

Row 3. Seed stitch 3, p2, k1, repeat to last 3, seed stitch 3

Row 4. Seed st 3, k2, p1, repeat to last 3, seed stitch 3

These 4 rows form the pattern.

Knit in pattern  as much as you want then finish with 3 rows of seed stitch.

A pretty and easy pattern

I used Dk cotton and size 8 needles (Old measurement I don't know the new)

( Seed st is k1, p1, k1, p1 across row, then next row p1, k1, p1 and so on)

 

 

And some cross stitch progress.

My Welcome Cat.

I have got to the cat and all the colour changes are not proving easy, but I like this so shall carry on

And some progress on my Chatelaine.

Convent's Herbal Garden

I will finish this altho' some of the speciality stitches needed a practice before I attempted them on the fabric, but I thought this is mine so what I do will be fine!

I have decided this is a more winter stitching project so it will be put in the bottom of my basket till the summer is over!

Happy Days, the sun has been glorious here the last few days and we have sat in the garden for breakfast. This morning we were serenaded by a wren, such a tiny little bird but such a sweet song.
We watched the blue tits flying to and fro so we guess the eggs have hatched and the little ones are keeping them busy. They can lay between 7 and 15 eggs!! Cor!! Fancy having 15 kids all at a time !!LOL

Keep calm and keep crafting, and pop a prayer in between those stitches!

 

Chris xx

I love my garden!

We have widened my south facing herbacious border and I am happily filling it with plants. The tulips are just coming into flower while the daffodils are just fading.

The blossom is my damson tree which is always loaded with fruit.

The flowering  tree furtherest away is an amelanchier, very pretty in spring.

My little slate corner

The north side full of wild primroses, cowslips and the red camelia given to me by a friend for my 60th Birthday

And some patio pots, the tulips are my DH's a present from his GD whose name is Tulip!

And there is a pink camelia there, a present from my daughter for my 70th birthday.

And a closer pic of my alpine pots.

I made these up new this year as my others had became over grown.

The gravel and pebbles I already had but all the plants are new.

The shells are from a friend who lives in Portugal and there is  a small one there from Australia.

I love this garden, it keeps us both busy.. not shown is our small veg plot, dug over ready for the plants that I have grown in the green house and conservatory. As soon as the threat of frost has past it will be full of beans, courgettes, sweet corn, squash, beetroot and potatoes. I will have tomatoes grown in pots, carrots, and lettuce.. once the beans are finished there will be room for the cabbage.
We are very fortunate that we have several super garden centres near to us, so lots of choice and tea and cake in the afternoons!!LOL

Chris x

A knitted summer cardigan

I seem to have been so busy I haven't posted for weeks, most unlike me.. but the warmer weather has drawn me to the garden.

 

In the evenings I have knitted this from the yarn I bought in Porthcawl

It had so many stitches a because of my larger size!!

So I must get back to my diet if only to be able to knit with less stitches

 

 

It was a nice pattern to follow just 4 rows with a purl inbetween. I enjoyed knitting it, knitting is so relaxing.

Now that spring has truly arrived, it's wonderful!

Hope your weather is good too

 

Chris xx

 

Putting on my dancing shoes!!!

 

I came back from Australia and had a spurt on this LHN design called

 

'Nature's Beauty.'

An easy design to do and pretty as well. I have several LHN designs and like to stitch these as well as some of my larger projects.

Just watch this space!

 

I see my followers have topped 200 wow,

I shall be doing a Givaway to mark this occasion!

Thank you all for your lovely comments and encouragement, especially for my Chatelaine design which I am still stitching.

 

Chris xx