Seeds and Stuff - July 2016

July's been a strange month - I've had hardly any foxgloves this year in flower, although there are lots of plants in the garden.  And I haven't had any poppies at all.  Most odd.

This is Auntie June's hebe - and it's enormous now, taller than me!  It doesn't flower for very long, but it's beautiful when it does.  And the leaves are so interesting, that I can live with it not flowering all year!

I wish I could lay claim to these cornflowers, but I can't - I saw them up at Taverham Garden Centre recently and really must grow them next year.  Cornflower seeds are on my plant shopping list.

I do have some rather lovely solar lights adorning my pergola now, and they look beautiful with this teapot bird feeder.

And this is my solar lantern which Amanda gave me, and which is also beautiful.

The garden overall is looking gorgeous - I received some fabulous plants and planters for my birthday, so I'm busy trying to reorganise the garden to make room.  Finally, that awful camellia is going to come out!

Odds and Sods - July 2016

Well, here we are, well over halfway through the year now and it's showing no signs of slowing down. 

And July has been a belter - I've had another hospital visit, but everything's ok and no need to go back for five years now - hurrah!  I've been to a 40th birthday party and I've had a significant birthday (and party) of my own too - post to follow!  I've popped down to Surrey to spend a lovely day with Mary, Tim and Sara - again, I'll cover that in another post.  I've been to Tracey and Justin's wedding and had the most wonderful day sharing it with them. Mum, Amanda and I have been to Felbrigg for a flower festival at the church and I've spent a day with Rachel, shopping and lunching in Bury St Edmunds. 

 I've had various trips out with friends for lunch, cinema trips, coffees, etc.  I've been to Southwold for a day as I was desperate to go and look at the sea, and I've been up to Sheringham to have lunch with Rat, Pam and Amanda. 

 Oh, and I've been to see Jenny Eclair at the Holt Festival. 

 

I've bottled up this year's batch of beech leaf noyau, and am very pleased to see huge blackberries ripening in my garden so am excited about making blackberry  brandy this year.

I've got a brand new  blanket on my spare bed, courtesy of Mum - it's stunning!

Talking of beds, I've been bed buying (where there was more than a bit of pissing about) with Amanda!

And here's my boy on my bed - this is the face I wake up to each morning ...

I've made Andy some cushion covers for the caravan.

And I'm clearly having a mid life crisis as I've had my hair coloured!  This was a brand new experience for me and not at all traumatic.  I'm thinking tattoo and nose piercing next! 

 Phew!

Sheringham Post EU Referendum

On 23 June 2016, Britain voted to leave the EU - an historic day for the UK, and not one that we all want to remember.  Not all of us voted for this, but we have to live with the consequences.

On 24 June 2016, when the results were in - and I caught up with them on Breakfast TV at 6.00 am, having stayed up until 2.00 am the previous day to try and gauge what was going on - I have to admit to being in a state of shock and wanted to go somewhere far away from TV and news.  Totally spur of the moment decision to go to the seaside at Sheringham for some quiet reflection.

Really nothing else to say about the whole thing, but here are the photos ...

Tada! "The Good, The Bad and The Not Ugly At All" Poncho

When I first saw the pattern for this poncho, I thought it was something out of a Spaghetti Western!

It certainly looked a bit like a horse blanket, if nothing else!  I guess it was the colour that had been used - I thought it would look lovely in a cream, or denim, or burnt orange, colour.  However, I needed a holiday project - I was just about to head off to Grange over Sands for a week - and didn't want to spend any of my hard earned holiday spends on wool, so had a rummage through my wool stash to see what I had in the required quantity and found some Woodlander that I bought at Wisbech market last year.

 I wasn't sure if it was going to work because it was a random wool, and the poncho was already heavily patterned and would look perfect in a block colour.  However, in the spirit of adventure, befitting a Clint Eastwood film, I decided to take a chance.  And am so glad I did.

 The random colours are beautiful - I think it's because you get defined stripes with Woodlander.  Some random wools are soooooooo random, that you don't get any stripes at all, not enough yarn in any one colour.  This works perfectly.

 And here's the finished item .....

This was made as an experiment really, but, as soon as my friend Tracy saw it, she wanted it, so it's now adorning her!  I've been asked to make another couple, in cream and in Stylecraft Tomato, a beautiful burnt orange colour, and I'm looking forward to seeing what it looks like in the block colours.  And I'm still trying to decide what colour I want mine in as well!

Seeds and Stuff - June 2016

June this year was memorable for the amount of rain we've had!  So the garden is a bit weird - it's been very green but not an awful lot of colour yet.  I've had no poppies at all, the foxgloves have all been a bit lanky with not too many flowers and the aquilegias were very disappointing.  The roses, however, have been beautiful.

While the foxgloves have been a bit sparse, they have, of course, been beautiful and still remain one of my most favourite garden plants.

The lavender has done very well this year and there are constantly bees buzzing around.

Earlier this year, there were predictions of a horrendous slug and snail problem - I'm not sure if all the rain has made things worse, but it's been awful.  And because I have a bit of a phobia with slugs, I haven't been spending as much time in the garden as usual, because of them.  The upside of the slug problem is the amount of frogs in my garden hopping around and munching them all up!

I found this little fella in one of my plant pots - it was the right way up when I found it, so this frog must have a huge leap on him!  I turned the pot on its side so he could get out and spent a traumatic few moments trying to entice him out without Finn getting him.  Finn is just curious, I know he won't hurt them, although he does like to have a good sniff.

The garden, on the whole, is looking good this year although I just wish there was a bit more colour.

And I'm really not sure what this is about, but Finn has taken to laying underneath the hydrangea and has dug himself a little hole to lay in.  Weirdo!

Odds and Sods - June 2016

June has been busy (so has July which is why I'm posting this so late!) with lots of days out and about - and which has mostly been covered by other posts.

At the beginning of June, Mum and I went to Spalding to a Quilting Show which has really inspired us to get cracking with our patchwork. 

Amanda and I have done a number of weekend and evening walks - we now have fitbits which, essentially, are high-tech pedometers, measuring steps walked, distance achieved and calories burned.  Since we got them at the beginning of June, we have set ourselves a target of walking a thousand miles in a year - so far, we've both done over 120 each so are making good progress. 

I've had a few girlie meet ups - lunch with the Ladies Wot Lunch club; coffee and cake with girlfriends; a hen do - crikey, that was an experience and one which I gained extra points for, for managing to do completely sober! 

Finn has had a smart new haircut. 

We've had a camping trip with Andy down near Heathrow. And, because I had a week off work and came back early (to vote on whether the UK stays in the EU - and I'm not making any more comment on that because I'm still in shock), I decided to prolong my holiday week off as long as possible by an impromptu trip up to Sheringham to go and look at the sea.

My year is not showing any signs of letting up yet!