Basking In The Sunshine

It's been a glorious weekend here in Suffolk, the sun has shone, the birds have sung and the bees have buzzed and today, in just 2 minutes in the front garden, I spied these:

small tortoiseshell butterflies enjoying the lavender.

And then I turned round and saw this male common blue damselfly on the hydrangea. 

If you look carefully in this photo you can see him feeding on the nectar.

And then Lady Emma Hamilton rose wanted her photo taken too, as she was looking so stunning against the clear blue sky!

Apologies for not visiting many of your blogs this week - blogger is playing up and will only show me 1 person's last post instead of the entire list it always used to give me. I'm hoping normal service will be resumed soon otherwise I'll have to import you all into bloglovin!

A 150 year Skirt

When I went to London in April I bought this fabric from John Lewis to make a reversible skirt as I'd been inspired by Gina's.

I bought it not realising it was part of their 150 year celebration prints.  The yellow fabric is in the Cummersdale print which dates back to their founding year in 1864 and was originally a furnishing fabric, whereas the Bricks print on the right was originally a 1950s dress fabric.

I used the Viola skirt pattern from Sew Me Something, and despite a few problems with the fit (it seemed to grow and be much bigger than me!), I'm pleased with the finished result.

It can be worn either with the yellow skirt on top,

or with some clever turning, with just the longer skirt showing.

I reversed the buttons too, yellow on bricks, 

and bricks on yellow

I won't tell you how long it took me to get the pattern on the yellow buttons all centred the same but it was a long time even for my perfectionist nature!

I was going to wear it to work this week, but I had scabby knees from gardening so I'm hoping to wear it next week instead!

I've also just bought another of their 150 year prints, daisy chain, to make a blouse from,

but not just yet as the sun is shining and the garden needs my attention :-)

Springing into Summer

It's that time of year where, if one isn't careful, the garden goes from cottage garden prettiness to exuberant overgrown chaos almost overnight.

Old, unknown variety, Iris Siberica nestles in with Clematis Montana Broughton Star,

Rosa Charles De Mills hangs over from the back of the bed, wafting its delightful scent into the path.

Red Valarium grows amongst self seeded aquilegia and through the blue potato vine (solanum crispum)

and Oriental poppy Patty's Plum has opened in all her glory.

The Cornus Sousa is spectacular this year (even if it is about 6 feet above my head!)

and the frogs are often found having a group sun bathe on the rocks around the pond.

This robin has been following me around as I weed

and the Generous Gardener Rose has almost covered the arch by the back door.

I really love this time of year in the garden, even if though the flipping slugs do keep eating my plants!