I Don't Like Gardening...

It's amazing how creative I can be when it comes to making excuses not to do the gardening.  Mostly I rely on the weather to back me up - it's too wet, too windy, too cold, too hot.  This week has been a gloriously hot and sunny one and guilt about the garden has finally caught up with me.  The flower beds are full of willow herb, moss and grass, so some action was needed.

My usual excuse for it being too hot might be worth a try but the guilt won in the end.  So this week I've been out in the garden having a good tidy up and do you know what, I've really enjoyed it!

I made a point of starting early before the sun was too scorching and I was surprised at how much progress I was able to make each day.  Just goes to show what you can do if you make an effort.

The garden is looking so much tidier and weed free.  The flower beds, now stripped of the weeds, don't look as green as they were, so there are a few gaps that look a bit bare.  But on the whole it's been very satisfying.  I don't have much in bloom at the moment but here's a few photos of what there is.

I don't think I'll ever be a true gardener, but my fingers do feel just a touch greener this week.

How Did That Get There?

A conversation -

Husband - what's that plant that's growing in the garden, I thought at first it was a starfish? (He isn't very knowledgeable about plants).

Me - what plant?

Husband - the one growing on the back lawn.

Me - that'll be a weed.

Husband - the one growing in the grass - the orange one.

Me - we haven't got any orange plants growing in the grass, we only have weeds.

Husband - there's definitely an orange plant growing in the grass, the shape of a starfish.

Me - I'll go and have a look myself!

And what do you know, it is a starfish!!!!

We only live two minutes walk away from the beach, but I'm sure it would take a starfish a lot longer to walk the distance.

Presumably a seagull has lost his tasty snack.

Happy New Year!

The trip to London has been made and it was successful.  We postponed going until Monday because of the issues with Petticoat Lane market.  We stayed Sunday night in Northampton with my sister, so only had a relatively short drive into London from there.

Grace and her boyfriend, Rob, joined us at Eve's flat, so there was plenty of help to unload the car and carry everything up the stairs.

Today is her first day in work, so fingers crossed she has an enjoyable time.

Even though we were only away from home a day and a half it feels a lot longer.  So today is going to be a planning and getting organised day.

I must admit that I always regard the first day of September as a sort of New Year.  The academic year has been a major part of the rhythm of our lives for so long. Not only in terms of the girls education, but also because my husband works in a university.  So despite the fact that my daughters are now in full time employment, the academic year is still significant.

I love new beginnings, and as my husband said, now that Eve has moved down to London, this is the start of the rest of our lives.

I have no big plans at the moment, but little plans are just as much fun.  There are lots of crafty things I want to get done as well as new things I want to try.  I don't know about you, but I find that knitting and crocheting are such easy projects to pick up and put down, that I tend to focus on them.  Other crafts like embroidery, patchwork, dressmaking etc, tend to be put on the list of things to do but are never prioritised.

So for the month of September, I have decided that this will be a "no knitting" month.  By that I mean no knitting and no crocheting in any form for the whole month.  No exceptions!  The idea is that I will have time for all the other things I want or need to do.  They will no longer be good intentions, but will finally become a reality.

So I have a new embroidery project in mind (more on that in the next post), I'd like to have a go at spinning, English paper piecing, more dress making and a whole load of other crafty things.  I'd like to enhance my juggling skills - it's great for improving your concentration levels!  I'd also like to devote some time to beautifying the garden, maybe with some drastic landscaping changes for next year.  I have been following Daffy Suburbia's summer diary and I have been so impressed with the way she organises her garden that I feel very inspired to do more than just potter around.

So today I will devote some time to thinking about what I want to achieve this month - I have high hopes but trying to keep it realistic!

I have one finished object to show you before all the baskets of knitting and crocheting projects are put out of sight for the month.  It's my Circles of the Sun cushion cover.

The CAL organised by Tatsiana was such fun.  Here are the nine different blocks we used.

I made two of each, for the front and back, crocheted the two pieces together, then added the border as an edging.

This is the back view

Such good fun.  You can see full details of this project on my Ravelry page, here.

The Dancing Bees shawl that I mentioned in my last blog post has been put away, whilst I think about it.  Thank you for all your comments and encouragement.  I think a month away from it will do me good and hopefully I'll return to knitting it in a more positive frame of mind.

Thank you also for all your good wishes for Eve.  I have passed them on to her and she is very appreciative.

So, I seem to have rambled on for long enough.  Now I need to get off and get organised.  Bye for now.

Inspiring Colours

This year, I've learnt to love my garden more.  It still needs a lot more attention than I am likely to give it, but nevertheless, it manages quite well with the little attention it gets and I'm pleasantly surprised by the persistence of the plants to bloom and continue growing.

I'm hoping to spend some time over the next few weeks planning ahead and thinking how I can improve things for next year.  In the meantime, here are some pictures of the beautiful colours I'm enjoying in my garden at the moment.

Yes, I'm feeling quite inspired to devote more time to my little patch of loveliness.  Hopefully the feeling will last through to next year.

A Garden Snippet

The weather is horrible, up here in the north west of England.  It's very windy, lots of showers and decidedly cool.  It's just not summer.

This being the case, and the fact that I am a fair weather gardener, I haven't ventured out much.  Far better to sit in and knit.

I did pop out recently, to take some photos.  In my garden I have two honeysuckle bushes.  Unfortunately, they are very disappointing in terms of  the flowers they produce - small and unscented.  But once the flowers have finished, the bushes are adorned with thousands of bright red berries.  Lovely and shiny.

Once they have ripened they are a favourite treat for the blackbirds.  I can watch them pecking away at the berries as I sit in the warmth and comfort of the house with my knitting.

If the weather ever improves I will do some gardening - but not today.

Edible Gardening - a beginning

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, I'm not really a gardener.  Once I'm out in the garden, I quite enjoy pottering around, but the weather has to be just so before I'll venture out.

So I don't tend to devote a great deal of time to gardening.  But I do like to read gardening posts on other people's blogs.  I find them very inspiring and some of the pictures are so beautiful.

I have a great deal of admiration for anyone who grows their own veg, that seems like a lot of devotion and hard work to me.  But last month I was reading a post on Lorraine's blog, Mama's Mercantile, and saw she was growing lettuce in pots by her door for easy picking.  I like this idea (thank you Lorraine).  I thought even I could do this.  It doesn't require undue effort and it would be a good place to start.

So I bought a cheap packet of mixed salad seeds - no idea what's in it - and sprinkled them in the pot.  And much to my amazement, I have some salad leaves ready for picking.

This may not seem much, but to me it's wonderful.  A beginning.  Next summer I may expand into lettuce, who knows, I may eventually have a proper vegetable patch!  But for now, one step at a time, I'm enjoying being able to pick some edibles fresh from the garden.

Garden Highlights!

I do so love looking at pictures of beautiful gardens.  Quite a number of the bloggers I follow are keen gardeners and I can only look on with envy at the pictures of their gardens and the flowers and vegetables they produce.  Clearly a lot of hard work and plenty of love goes into creating these gardens.

My garden and I have a love / hate relationship.  I hate the thought of having to shift myself and get out and do some gardening, but once I'm out there I quite enjoy the work and sometimes there are bits of my garden I actually love.

So, as the sun was shining yesterday, and I was in a joyous mood, I snapped some pics of my garden to share with you.  Most of my garden has arisen from self-seeding and the occasional success story.  My plant knowledge is very limited, so if you can identify any of the mysterious flowers, I'd love to hear from you.

So here we go, this first one I know is phlox, possibly creeping!

The wisteria is almost done.  It's only a small one, but I'm very proud of all the flowers it produced every year.

These lovely little yellow flowers on this shrub are just opening and there are lots of buds so soon it should be covered in yellowness!

The holly bush still has plentiful berries on it.

This purple flower is lovely and I've managed to get in established in another part of the garden - or quite possibly it did it itself!

I have a mass of columbines, possibly an epidemic!  They have definitely self-seeded.

I love the colour of this one, a gorgeous deep purple.

The foxgloves, another self-seeder, are just starting to open.  I've got plenty of them this year.

And finally, my very happy gardening event.  The plant (camelia?) my friend gave me as a birthday present many years ago, has flowered for the first time.  What joy!

So that's that.  I think I'll quit while I'm ahead!  Bye for now.

In the Garden

The sun came out yesterday afternoon and it was lovely and warm, so I made it out into the garden.

Once I get started I quite enjoy the tidying up and prettifying of the garden - I just find it difficult to get started!

Anyway, there's lots to be done to tidy it up but I was cheered to find some splashes of colour.  If I edit out the messy bits I thought I could share some of the more pleasanter parts of the garden.

The final flourish of daffodils.

My Mother-in-law's hydrangea, I thought I had killed off last year, is still with us.

Grape hyacinths and tulips about to bloom.

Lovely red berries on the holly Bush.

The plum tree I bought from Asda for £5 is growing some leaves.  Fingers crossed for plums next year.

Some purple flowers!

Little beauties hidden by the bluebell leaves.

Bulging buds on the wisteria.

And a lovely peacock butterfly.

There's hope for the garden yet, so long as the weather holds fair, I'm happy to get out there.

Sunny Days and Happy Knitting

What sunny days we have had lately, very cold, but lovely clear blue sunny skies.  I ventured out into the garden for the first time this year and had an enjoyable time pottering around tidying up and marvelling at the multitude of tiny shoots bursting through the soil, getting ready to fill the garden with colour, despite my uselessness as a gardener.  Isn't nature wonderful?

I won't show you any pictures of the garden - it's not something I'm good at, I just about manage to keep it tidy [2015 Resolution - do more gardening!].  Instead I'll bring you up-to-date with my WIPs.
 
When I'm having a crafting session, I like to sit on the floor, on my lovely floor cushions and spread everything out around me.  I like to alternate between the various WIPs so that I feel I've made some progress on all of them.

I've been working on my crochet blocks for the BAM CAL 2015.  I'll do a separate post on this month's blocks shortly, but I also made three more small squares to add to the January blocks.

I decided to do two colourways and do two of each so that the four small squares would be the equivalent of one of the big ones.

I'm still working on the Miette cardigan.

I'm on the sleeves now.  I've been having to use DPNs but my preferred method of knitting in the round is to use two long circular needles.  I only had one circular in the size I needed until yesterday when I popped into town and bought another one - should move along a bit quicker now.

Finally I'm making another bear.

Grace bought me the Mrs Bakery Bear pattern for Christmas and then she bought the Mr Bakery Bear for herself.  She sent me a copy so we're both making him.

Grace has finished hers (which is called Rufus) and is just waiting for me to show her how to do the cabling for the sweater.

I've only got one arm and the sewing together to do.  I should get his shorts done before I see Grace, so we can have a nice knitting session together working on the sweater.

In return for showing her how to cable, she is going to show me how to do Kitchener stitch properly.  For some reason I can't get my head round it - I understand the logic, but can't quite pull it off.  I love it when we have our knit and natter sessions.

I'm at that lovely stage now where I can see the finish for the two knitting projects, so I'm already thinking ahead and browsing new patterns on Ravelry.  The sun is still shining and the knitting is good.  I hope you are enjoying your day.  See you soon.

Despite My Worst Efforts

Sometimes, just sometimes, when the sun is shining and the camera is angled in the right direction, the garden looks beautiful and colourful...

...despite my appalling skills as a gardener.

Inspiration - Beech Tree

Beautiful, cloudless, blue skies.

The pinky leaves on the beech tree almost ready to open.

What a lovely combination - just makes me inspired to knit it all up.