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!

A Bank Holiday Bog!

On Saturday my new (ish) boots and I set off for North Norfolk to see Mum and Dad for lunch and a walk.

After some legendary directions from mum along the lines of:
Mum "Go along the road you came in on"
Me  "I came on the Swaffham Road"
Mum "No, not that one.  Then turn right!" - at this point I had no idea which direction she meant at all, but somehow we ended up at the carpark in Wolferton by the sign that said 'Dersingham Bog'.

When we were kids we used to access the bog from the track along the side of the tip and use it as a short cut to the Station Museum at Wolferton where we played (without permission) on the handcar  (as in 'The Great St Trinian's Train Robbery".

Now the area is managed by Natural England  and contains many rare mosses etc.  It's a bog, not a fen, because it's on acidic soil whereas Fens are on alkaline soil.

We had a lovely walk on the board walk, as walked on by Tony Robinson in his recent programme 'Walking Through History', where the cotton grass was everywhere.

Then we walked around to the Wolferton Cliffs from where we could just see across the wash to Boston and Skegness in Lincolnshire.  Although Wolferton is now several miles inland the cliffs are evidence of its past shoreline location.

There was a beautiful low lying glade, that I couldn't resist scrambling down into

and of course the rhododendrons were stunning as they always are this time of year.

The rest of my weekend has mainly been spent in the garden dodging the showers and repairing a hearth with fire cement (but more about that another time).

I hope you've all enjoyed the long weekend too.

A Reluctant Day Out

Earlier on this week my neighbour knocked on the back door "I'd like to go to the Hadleigh Show on Saturday, do you want to come to with me?" she asked.  Now what was going through my head was "not really, I'd much rather spend the day in the garden, and it's quite expensive isn't it" but what came out of my mouth was "well if it's a nice day it might be quite nice"! Arrangements were made that we'd leave here at 10am if it was nice.

Today dawned, beautifully sunny and by 9.30am it didn't look as though she was even up so I thought I'd got away with it and we wouldn't be going. I started digging compost into my runner bean bed but a few minutes later she appeared and off we went.

I've never been to a country show and I have to admit that, despite my reluctance to be dragged away from my garden, it was really good and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

We saw lots of rural crafts, stonemasons and woodcarvers as well as the willow weaver and spinners.

We watched a stunning falconry display (no photos they were too fast!) and a display of working sheepdogs herding ducks!

This actually wasn't as daft as it sounds and the trainer talked about how he took rescue dogs and trained them by working with their natural instincts and how our energy fields affect animals.

There were donkeys,

sheep of all different sizes and shapes - some native to Suffolk,

and some from further afield (Wensleydale),

as well as cows and a large range of poultry.

There were some super local food producers, I bought some gorgeous blue cheese from Suffolk Farmhouse Cheeses but I have to admit the food tent was too crowded for me to enjoy so I didn't explore it fully.

Desperate for a cup of tea we then headed off to a wonderful local nursery that I frequent quite regulary, The Place for Plants, for a cuppa and some obligatory plant purchasing (not too many in my case as I'm planning to go to my other favourite local nursery, Paugers Plants, next week).

All in all it was a lovely day, and I'm very glad I went, even if I am slightly sun burnt!

A Bank Holiday Walk

We had lovely weather here over the bank holiday so I decided to set off on a walk to Cornard Mere, the Suffolk Wildlife Trust reserve that I'd read about when writing my post on bluebells.  I'd been a little worried that I wouldn't be able to find the footpath but as you can see it was very clear.

The ground was a dry as dust, apparently we get less rainfall here than the Sahara Desert does but we're not classed as a desert as our rain is spread throughout the year.

The website had said to 'take the footpaths to the south and the west to view the reserve' which is what I did.   However 'view' might not quite be the right word.  Every now and then, if I clambered through the nettles I got a tantalising glimpse of the wetland, but it was so over grown I couldn't really 'view' the main mere at all!

(Click on the photo above to enlarge it and you'll just see the main open mere in the background)

At one point there were lots of reeds which must give shelter to many birds and wildlife.

Despite not seeing any water birds, nor indeed hearing the elusive water rail (which was what I really wanted to hear), it was a lovely walk around the edge of the reserve and I did hear and see a chiffchaffs and blackcaps.

Chiffchaff

Time for the return walk, across the field towards the hedges of hawthorn

and the verges of cow parsley.

A nice walk, just not quite what I'd expected - I hope you all had a good bank holiday too.

A Walk Through Bluebells

There's something special about a carpet of bluebells.

Fran and I had nipped over to Arger Fen (part of Suffolk Wildlife Trust) and even on a dull day they were beautiful.

The contrast with the new green growth on the trees was soul lifting.

Some were in areas with other wild flowers, Greater Stitchwort and Yellow Archangel here.

We also saw an Early Purple orchid and heard a chiffchaff, cuckoo and a blackcap.  (The blackcap  warning call was identified thanks to the amazingness of twitter).

Close up bluebells always amaze me with their delicacy.

I've now discovered that I can walk from our country park to another Suffolk Wildlife Trust reserve, Cornard Mere - it has Water Rail, I am rather excited. I'll let you know how I get on.