What a Lovely Week - and it's only Wednesday!

I've had a few days off this week and they've been really lovely days too.  One day was spent with a friend doing some family/local history research in Essex and then yesterday I was interviewed on Radio Suffolk about The Treasure Tree.  This is a business I'm involved with where we create animated stories and interactive resources for primary aged children.  If you want to hear the interview you can listen to it here until the 31.07.12, it starts at 1:34. 

I was really nervous waiting for the interview and couldn't bring myself to listen to it until tonight - but I have to say I'm quite pleased with how it turned out :-)

As it was a really hot day we decided to have a Treasure Tree outing after the interview.  We went here, some of you might recognise it?

It's Aldeburgh, on the Suffolk coast, one of my very favourite places.

I loved this old boat on the beach, with its peeling paint and rusty metal.

How plants can grow in the shingle always amazes me, there's no soil there at all.

 The red valerian looked stunning against the summer sky.

It was a beautiful evening and after we'd sipped gin and tonics in the hotel garden overlooking the sea, we had a lovely meal at The Wentworth Hotel.

Today has been less glamorous, but still lovely, as I decided to tackle my shed which looked like this at 9am this morning:

But several bin bags later (mainly of flower pots I have to admit!) it now looks like this:

As well as being able to see the floor and reach the shredder, I now have a drawer full of every different size of nails and screws that you could ever imagine, so if you ever need one you know where to come!

Raindrops Are Still Falling

It seems as though every time I go out in the garden at the moment I get wet.  If it's not actually raining then the masses of jungle-like plant growth soaks me as I pass.  So far I've sheltered in the greenhouse, next door's shed and yesterday in next door's chicken house!

But raindrops on plants do look beautiful:

Sweetpea Cupani

Agapanthus

The agapanthus was bought new this year to replace one I lost over the winter.  It was sold as a white one, but is looking suspiciously blue!

Rosocea

But every so often the sun comes out, albeit briefly:

Clematis Blue Angel and Rosa Felicia

White Lightning Passion Flower

And when it does the plants seem to smile and sing 'look at me!'

I gather summer is supposed to arrive here in East Anglia at the weekend - I hope so!

Look What I Won!

Back in June (on my birthday actually!) I commented on a post on The Cottage Smallholder blog about a luxury hamper from Hampergifts.  This entered me into a draw to win it, which I then promptly forgot about. You can imagine how surprised I was a week later to receive a tweet from Fiona saying I'd won it!

A few days later I came home to find a delivery card saying that a parcel was waiting for me round the corner at my local post office.  As at this stage I assumed that the waiting parcel was an order of Mary Portas knickers that I was waiting for from Libertys not this very large box, so I walked round to pick it up.

After staggering home I unpacked it.

Carefully packed inside were all kinds of goodies:  jams, chocolates, nibbles, pickles, biscuits, etc etc.  And china plates, mugs and proper cutlery.

I had some help with the unpacking

But eventually they left it alone so I could get a decent photo!

Where had they gone? 

To play with the packaging of course!

Thanks Fiona for a lovely prize -I'm imagining using it in some lovely weather later on this summer!

A Four Year Wait

For the four years since I moved here, I've been wondering what this plant was that I inherited.

It's planted next to my pond, in dry shade, and the leaves have appeared each year.   Every year I've hoped that a flower might appear - and today I spotted one!

 

It's some kind of arum I'm sure, but beyond that I don't know.  Maybe one of you will know, but even if I never know its exact name I'll still like it!

Also looking stunning today was Clematis Romantika growing through the rose Adelaide d'Orleans.

 Let's hope we all get to enjoy some more sunshine this weekend.

Hope you all have good weekends - I'll be back soon to show you what I won in a blog draw a few weeks ago.

A Holey Cuff.

A few weeks ago I was intrigued by a cuff that Iz showed on her blog that she'd made on water soluble fabric so I decided to buy the book she'd mentioned (Dissolvable Delights by Maggie Grey) and have a go myself. 

I used a thread pack from Stef Francis and randomly machine stitched velour ribbon onto the surface, wrapped pipe cleaners with a rayon ribbon and stitched them on before adding beads, lots of beads (far more than I'd intended!)

Ready to have the background fabric dissolved.

It was a nervous experience dissolving the fabric as I wasn't sure it would all hold together, I was half expecting a pile of bits in the bottom of the bowl, but all was ok.

After dissolving the background fabric.

I think it probably should have had more pipe cleaners on it going across the short way as it hasn't held its shape brilliantly, but I'm quite pleased with it as a first attempt stitching on dissolvable fabric

As well as being unique it reflects my fascination with holes and the shapes they create (I'm not sure what that says about me though!).

Who'd have thought that pipe cleaners could end up so pretty!

Foxy Ladies

There are certain flowers that a garden has to have in my opinion and foxgloves are one of them.  When I moved here I brought some seeds with me that I'd saved the previous year in my old garden.  Today the sun came out and those foxy ladies were zinging in the warmth.

Some are quite dark, with very dark stems

Some are pink with a paler pink speckled throat

Some are pink with a yellow speckled throat

And some are a total pure white, no speckles at all.

They're all self sown from those seeds I scattered 4 years ago - a lovely assortment of colours.

Essential plants in my cottage garden - I wonder what plants you have to have in your gardens?

Birthdays, Messes and Little Plays

Did you celebrate this weekend?  It was my birthday and I'd like to thank the nation for providing me with a weekend of bunting, pageants, concerts and flypasts - I'm sure the Queen doesn't mind sharing her jubilee with my birthday!  Three of the aircraft from the flypast flew right over my house this afternoon, they must have been on their way to line up. 

I don't really do big celebrations for birthdays, but I had a lovely meal on Sunday with some friends (whose husband also has the same birthday as me) and they bought me this little Victorian stool - isn't it just gorgeous? 

It's for sitting on down by the pond, so I don't have to sit on the mossy rock anymore (not the most comfortable of seats and often slightly damp!).

I had coffee on it on my birthday morning whilst watching the tadpoles - they have tiny back legs now.

But I'm afraid that for much of the rest of the weekend I've been ensconced in my study, as it had become rather untidy (that could possibly be a rather large understatement) and I couldn't actually work or sew in the space that was left!  This was it before I started to tidy up on Sunday afternoon (I do wish I was naturally tidy and that mess didn't accumulate around me!):

This was it by Monday afternoon (that awful "I wish I'd never started this" stage):

And this is it now - finished, and very organised!:

By throwing out loads of old paperwork I managed to clear enough space to put all my fabric on the shelves and not in piles on the floor.  It also gave me the chance to go through all the fabric I was fortunate enough to acquire via a friend of a friend on twitter the other week (but more of that another time).

Part of the reason for the tidy up was that I bought these Amy Butler fabrics from John Lewis on Saturday.

and now I actually have the space to make them into a dress and a skirt.

But I'd hate you to think that I've just been tidying - I've also been playing.  With this little lady, and her brother and sister.

Don't panic she's not mine, my neighbour breeds Abyssinian cats, and they need to get used to being handled and played with before they can be sold - it's a tough job, but someone has to do it!