Other People's Gardens - August 2018

I've got real envy of other people's gardens at the moment.

These apples have the most beautiful colour, and so many of them.

And look at these Echinacea!

And while these views don't belong to any garden I'm working in currently, I do have to drive pass them to get to one of my customers.   This is why I love Norfolk!

I tried so hard not to disturb this little fella while working, but he kept making me jump and shriek out!

The strangest things are happening in the garden - this Hebe is flowering again.

Now this was a fab day - I spent a very happy hour or so elbow deep in garden manure, crumbling and making it into a friable texture and then forking it into the existing raised beds.  I love having my hands in dirt!!

Another case of too many plants, not enough garden!

This was a REALLY good job - I came home with armfuls of lavender, persicaria, lychnis.  But more importantly than that ... three cheese scones!

Seeds and Stuff - August 2018

I have just discovered I only took one seeds and stuff photo all month!

To be fair, there wasn't an awful lot worth photographing as the garden was asleep due to lack of rain.  Things are getting better now although there's some strange flowering going on - my Cercis siliquastrum has just started flowering again, six months too early!  I've seen Cyclamen hederifolium flowering.   The Buddleia davidii (butterfly bush) has only just started flowering, much too late for the butterflies to enjoy, as there shouldn't be enough daylight for them to be out and about, although I have seen a few.   The seasons are all a bit to cock at the moment.

Things have started to green up a bit but the garden has been so disappointing this year.   I think I've realised I don't have enough back up water supplies - I have the well in the back garden but I'm just surviving with buckets of water out the front, so I feel I need to get a water butt in place before next summer - apparently this is the way the climate will be going now, so I just need to be more prepared, and perhaps have more drought tolerant plants.

We live and learn - hopefully!

Odds and Sods - August 2018

I've just uploaded all the photos for August's odds and sods post and it seems to be about two things this month - knitting and Finn!

I've had lots of jollies and outings which merit their own posts, but the general stuff has all been about starting my Christmas present knitting!   I clearly need to get out more!

This is the first cowl I have made with my sock yarn - I have decided I'd like to do more craft fairs next year so need to look at presentation of my items.  To that end, I have bought a hundred sheets (I'm not even joking) of craft paper/ card and I love the way it looks on this, although my writing is appalling so I'm hoping that Amanda will be helping me out with her calligraphy skills.

This is a photo of the cowl in progress, on a weekend's break down at Bristol

This scarf has been finished, but still needs the ends darning in and to be packaged up.

This one is mine!   I bought this wool in Knaresborough on the way back from my Northumberland holiday last year as I thought the colours were very reminiscent of the trees that we had seen that week.  I do love a woolly souvenir of a holiday.

Now this is highly unusual - I made myself a jumper!  I haven't done this in years and I thoroughly enjoyed it - not least because it's in an aran yarn which knits up super-quickly, but also I really enjoyed the fair isle aspect of it.   And with double thickness yarn, it's going to be wonderfully warm in the coming months.  I love it!

I've bought myself a dress too  - a yellow cord pinafore.  What's not to love?!  I may need to make myself some more jumpers to wear underneath it!

I love these thin lacy scarves, but I didn't love the making of this one.  It really isn't my colour and the yarn dye came off on my hands while making it.  Not my favourite.

And another cowl.  I've been super busy, but am loving these smaller, portable projects for the times when I don't have time to wrestle with a fair isle pattern!

Did I mention I'm a member of the Chartered Institute of Horticulture?  They'll take anyone!

I went to a craft fair in Chapelfield Gardens in Norwich with Amanda and managed to not buy a single thing!

This is something you don't see every day - a horse queueing up for the Post Office!

I've harvested spuds, tomatoes and courgettes this month from the garden.

And Amanda has finally got the quilt I made her on the bed and it looks fabulous.  She put a photo on Facebook and I seem to have now got a few orders!  Luckily I've set up my own dedicated sewing space in the spare room now, so I might even get to do some more sewing as the nights draw in.

But, as always, it's all about Finn .....