Some Colour and a Farewell

I have been crafting and stitching but not much to show on here.  Mainly City & Guilds and Christmas things.

After the terrible weather we have been having just lately, it was a wonderful surprise to wake up to a bright blue sky this morning.  As John and I were wandering around picking up the mess the neighbours fireworks left for us, I thought I would take a few photos of colour still left in the garden.  I thought you may like a wander around the back garden of the House household too. 

You can't fault some colours.  This is beautiful when the leaves are just opening as well as before they drop.

Cercis canadensis Forest Pansy

Our last Hollyhock for this year.

A little moth eaten but still fabulous markings and quite a few buds still to come.

Alstromeria

One of natures stranger creations as it's the only one in it's class and known as a living fossil.  I just loved the contrast with the sky.

I'm not sure if there is anything more yellow out there at the moment. 

Ginkgo biloba

A few of the roses still just hanging in there.

Rosa Dizzy Heights

Rosa Little Rambler

Rosa Markham Pink

Rosa Summer Wine

A view up to Tully Dew 2 with the Symphoricarpus albus (Snowberry) behind that had totally swamped everything in its path, (including TD2), and had to be hacked back.

Cotoneaster tree

The Trains with their winter clip done.

We've yet to have flowers on our Tulip Tree but it's still a baby at about 10 years old.  We always hope each year.  The leaves are rather lovely too though.

Liriodendron tulipifera

A close up of Tully Dew 2.  We dug up the old concrete grass roller and I found the bird bath top in the compost pile when we moved in.  The little gnome just needed a perch.

Cox's Orange Pippin.

We had a little crop of summer figs this year and the bush has a fabulous second crop.  Unfortunately they won't last the winter here.  Food for the birds anyway.

Ficus Brown Turkey

Spiraea, Geranium 'Anne Thomson' and Rosa 'Kent'.

We kept an eye out for the Spindle Ermine Moth this spring and sprayed a couple of the spindle bushes that had it.  This one managed to avoid being eaten away and has made it through to dropping its vivid orange seeds from the bright pink cases.

Euonomus 

I don't think I have ever seen the Pheasant Berry so heavily laden as this year.

Leycesteria formosa

Geum in Pheasant's Tail grass

This vine was a wedding gift from Elsa and it's really enjoying itself on the pergola.  Huge amounts of grapes this year, still not ripe enough for wine but we are over run with grape jelly so they will stay on the vine for the birds.

Vitis vinifera Aglianico

And we had another cat farewell this week.  Foxy our sorrel Somali hung on for as long as he could after his accident with a car in 2007.  At that time he had both hips broken, a broken pelvis and tail and a complete gastric shut-down.  The vets had him in for two weeks and eventually we were allowed to bring him home after his insides started working again.  He never really fully recovered the ability to totally absorb food again and steadily lost weight until last week when we thought he wasn't benefiting from a good quality of life any more.  14 years old is still a good innings and now he's terrorising the mice somewhere with Izzy. 

Foxy helping Elsa on the computer.

Wenlo Foxtrot 27.11.97 - 04.11.2011

Ally Pally

On Friday, 21 of my sewing ladies, Elsa and I travelled up to London to the Knitting and Stitching show at Alexandra Palace.  It was a first for me and I was very pleased to go especially in a group on a coach as I wouldn't have to face driving in a city, abandoning John or the horrendous train journey.  I don't do cities very well and London has always struck fear and dread into me.

We were quite early and made our way into the relatively quiet side halls that were filling fast.

Plenty of stands to visit and people to watch.  I even managed a sneaky pic of Elsa!! (The blonde in the foreground :-) ).

                                      

There were plenty of exhibition stands...

Many of which we could not take photos of.

The work at this exhibition was very fine and must have been laborious.  This is a section of the arc of a circle seen in the whole cloth below.

We met with Dale and Ian Rollerson from The Thread Studio, Perth, Australia.  (We're both rugby fans and Dale is a New Zealander in Australia so plenty to follow at the moment!!)

I wasn't sure about this one!

But I loved these knitted cranes!

I'm very pleased we made it and didn't spend too ferociously.  We also met with Liz from the Cotton Patch and talked about extras for the longarm.  The amount of catering at Ally Pally was superb and the venue itself is rather magificent, worth a visit just for the views over London.

  

Meanwhile back at home the grape vine in the courtyard has been slowly turning colour.  These leaves have been shielding the study from the afternoon sun all summer, when it shone, and the grapes have fed the blackbirds superbly.

And Chris found this happy chappie when he was shifting all the logs after a delivery on Saturday.

Have a wonderful week!

.

Mists and Mellow Fruitfulness

We have been visited by this little fellow over the past week or so clearing up the fallen bird seed.

I thought I would have a quick tour around the garden to see what else is out there. Everything seems to be fruiting prolifically. Are we in for another harsh winter?

Sloes on the Blackthorn, the first to flower and very nice in gin, Hawthorn and heavily weighted Elder.

Some keys. Ash, Sycamore and the Tree of Heaven.

A couple of slightly tamer shrubs, Cotoneaster and Pyracantha. The Blackbirds devour the Pyracantha so fast!

And a few for us. Hazel nuts, apples and pears.

These three were wedding presents three years ago. Brown Turkey fig, what we thought was grape Aglianico but they are supposed to be black and these seem to be staying white. It’s the first year we have let them fruit so we shall see. At the bottom is black grape Brant.

And on my return I found this outside the study door. Well he is rather plump!

September

September certainly has started with a heavy dew but the sun is shining and it looks lovely outside. This month we have the Autumnal equinox another mid point or quarter day. Lots of blessings and dancing with Morris men, hobby horses, fools, and if you’re in Cumbria, the World Gurning Championship!


I love September for its fruit picking and making pickles and jams. It’s usually the time I make the Christmas cake so it can mature. I’ve made so many over the past couple of years, and John has make sure they were very well tested a long way before Christmas, I’m having a break this year. Unless I can sneakily make one and hide it when he isn’t around!

We have been lighting the fires already, it has not been a nice August weather wise. John has bought in a pallet of straw logs from Fuel Britannia  and we have been amazed at how well they burn. They have to be ‘imported’ from the Isle of Wight so the delivery charge is a bit steep but if more farmers were to invest in the machinery to compress the waste straw, they would be on to a winner. One of my biggest hates is round bales in the fields left to rot. The only bigger hate is round plastic covered bales! There seems to be a move back towards rectangular ones around here now but they are huge. I can’t ever see anyone flinging one of them down from a loft to clean a stable! Perhaps bio fuel will help save us from more plastic blobs in the fields too.

Elsa and Mike leave tomorrow. We’ve had a lovely week and a bit together. Lots of sewing too. She is ready to finish her Irish Chain at her home and I have been pottering. The Jenny BOM is ready for quilting, just waiting for the wadding from Ali, I have sorted a couple of other projects that need doing soonish and I finished the little silk covered journal cover below. That is both back and front to show the beading and it takes a A6 notepad.

We are having some brickwork on the front of the house put right and a chimney removed so the scaffolding is up and there are strange noises very early in the morning. We’ve also talked about the replacing of the cat room on the side of the house with something a little more substantial that will become my workroom/studio/hideyhole!! Can’t wait!

Today is the start of the Great Dorset Steam Fair a couple of miles away. We are going along in the afternoon for something to do. I’m not a huge fan of it. It’s the largest of its kind, a vast sea of steam engines, vintage lorries, heavy horses, beer tents, bands, fairgrounds and the roads have been blocked for a week and it takes just as long afterwards for them all to go again. That and the Bank Holiday and we’ve been almost housebound.

There is a website called OPAL (Open Air Laboratories) if anyone is interested. It’s a place where you can take part in surveys that help the British Natural History Museum and several universities gather information about where we live. I think the next one is hedge sweeping this month to see what lives in them. Why not register or download the pack and join in.

Yesterday my new toy arrived, a Dremel Versitip.  I'm looking forward to finding out what I can do with it.  This morning I am going to cut the corner triangles for the Jinny Beyer quilt, something I have been putting off but feel OK with doing now. Hopefully this one will be on our bed before Christmas!  Don't watch this space though...

Summertime Blues

Don't get me wrong, I do love Summer but there comes a point when I realise I'm wandering around in the evenings waiting for the 'evening' to start. 

In the beginning it's lovely to take handwork out into the garden but then other things start accumulating that need time in the sewing room.  It can be quite warm up there and it seems wrong to be indoors when the sun is still shining (not so much just lately though, but it is still daylight!).  Even the garden, though looking good, does not have the excitement it does at the start of the year when everything is fresh and new.

Stepped bed to the terrace.

I know I love Autumn the most and cooler days.  I like the crisp smell that happens about the end of October and the lighting of the fires.  I like the fact that evening comes at a respectable part of the day and lasts all night! Perhaps it's because quilt making suggests warmth, cosy, home, time and effort spent making something. 

I have a very valid wish this year that September takes it's time arriving and, just this year I will hang onto summer for as long as possible but I still find high summer a bit of a burden.

I followed Narelle who commented in my last post back to her blog, boy does she churn some stuff out!  She has joined a group that does a Friday Night Sew-in, read about it HERE .  I thought why not, what else do I do on a Friday night!  It's amazing where you end up when you start following threads of info on this internet thing!