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Okay so its raining, well it is April. I have just realised that I have been a victim today, so I need to snap out of it, nobody cares about a sad sack. So I've decided to decorate the loft room. Like the garden I want to stamp my mark on the house, so everything that was here before us has to go, well maybe not everything..
I've been inspired by this old patchwork remnent and mainly from a room we loved in Santa Monica, which was like a marshmallow dream.
............ The Channel Road Inn~Santa Monica.....................

I have already made white linen curtains and gathered various period accessories to link the new loft room with our 1920s house. I have an old table which I'm hoping will look ok with some elbow grease and a lick of paint, so thats my indoor project whilst it rains and I cant get into the garden.
I had considered making a quilt for the loft, however it is nice to buy new things once and a while! I am going to attempt some cushions made with Cath Kidston 'cut flower' fabric which I think will compliment the colours of the patchwork chair; but also, we have a red retro lamp base which has never found a home, so I'm hoping it will all work.

hoodwinked

I fear I have been a traitor to my resident blackbird family. Once more I have become a worm producing machine for BB( not a health issue). I began to suspect when the 'whack-bird' came swooping down on BB and chased him round the garden screeching. So it seems I've been merrily fattening up a clutch of foreign blackbirds under the watchful eye of the whack- bird. Its no wonder then that he is so vocal. Oh the politics of garden birds. Speak of the devil!

So now I'm wondering just who is my grape buddy? BB or W-B?

toasted

So here is the latest of my many hearts, I'm actually quite pleased with the finish and the blanket stitch, I now really need to make a lot more. I do have a hankering to start another patchwork quilt of hexagonal origin, its just the thought of cutting all those hexagons!!

I got toasted by the sun today, will I never learn!

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I inherited a lot of the plants in my garden when we moved here 2 years ago I have tried to live with them, however the previous owner had a penchant for yellow and red which is not a trend I enjoy at all. No matter what I do I'm always unsatisfied with certain aspects of the garden and cant help thinking I have a garden from the 70s! So I've decided to change what I dont like especially shrubs that I would never have bought myself. As you've probably realised I prefer purples/pinks/greens and I am gradually changing over 'Rome wasnt built in a day' as they say.
Today I have bought a green dogwood, a green hosta and a lovely strawberry coloured foxglove, which I have had before. These are mainly for the shady side of the garden.


Honesty

heart to heart

It has come to my attention that this blog has gone a bit gardeny, I suppose this is a good representation of my life and a gives an idea of how sunny its been, obviously I'm in the garden when skies are blue.

So thought I should throw in the odd creative project to keep up the interest of crafty types, not that anyones reading this but me! This door hanger is a proto-type of a range I'm making for girls doors/bedroom/keepsake, using the hand embroidered names shown in a previous post.
I have made one, I'm just deliberating on the stitch/thread to hide the seam. Watch this space...








Thought I'd digress a little more on my friend BB. I first made friends with BB when I happened to be digging out the shady border when the chicks were in the nest. The faster I dug up the worms the faster he became at returning, like a dog with a bone! Not suprising the worm hole soon dried up and I had to tell him no more! The most recent joint venture we share is a grape thrown out the window which is swiftly scooped up and eaten under a shrub (eaten by BB and not me! hehe).

Maybe I should make a softie of BB (toy)?

country living

Thought I would add my favourite magazine which has a garden special. So I'm off to the garden much to the annoyance of my garden blackbird. I shall expect to be dive bombed as its that time of year again when he turns kamikaze with his loud whack whack oop cries!!

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One of my honesty plants that I grew last year (biennial) is flowering. This weedy looking plant is mainly grown for its seed heads which are formed into a papery disc with its seeds suspended. I like this plant because it evokes a childhood memory for me, playing in the garden of a beautiful thatched cottage which is only a stones throw from where I live now.

feels like summer

Today has been the perfect day for pottering, the sun is shining, the birds are singing and the 'washing has dried lovely' as mother would say!


I have sown sweetcorn, tomatoes, aubergines and a mystery seed which I'm hoping is an aquilegia collected from my old garden, which is a very pretty pink.
I have also finished planting the potatoes so I shall be eagerly waiting the first leaves to break through the earth.


Onions and leeks have also been sown outside today, hopefullly I will get
a good crop this year as I have heard that onion prices are set to rise due to poor crops last year.

angelique

This is the first fully opened tulip which I planted last autumn. It could all most be mistaken for a peony!

My seeds arrived yesterday and the poppy seeds were promtly scattered in the garden. I'm hoping that the craze of birds flocking in the afternoon does not mean that this was in vain!!

Today I sowed the hollyhocks indoors and potted up garlic chives and agastache. Glad we got that kitchen table. I have also sown direct in the garden, mange tout, radish and spinach.

first rhubarb

I've picked the first rhubarb today, so teeth at the ready! Anyone who has eaten rhubarb will know that strange feeling like the enamel being stripped from your teeth!! I'm the young stems shouldnt be as strong though!

cold snap

I have managed to plant some early potatoes today. All 5 are safely tucked up in bed!!
I was worried that the lettuce seeds I sowed last month may have been destroyed buy the snow, panic over they're still growing. Although like last year those naughty birds have been distributing them around the garden with gay abandon.
The indoor seedlings are coming along ok, I have potted the geraniums up now so hopefully they shall romp away.

Looks like everything has survived this cold snap thank goodness, the sun is out and long may it continue!

I've bought some cottage garden hollyhock seeds and wild poppy seeds off some chap on ebay, hopefully they will be great!

snow

I do believe I was wrong about the arrival of spring!!

watching and waiting

blossom on my new tree
first leaf on the silver birch
nesting wrens
the arrival of my arbour
outdoor seedlings
potato planting

spring

Well spring is well and truly here! I have cut the grass for the first time this year, better late than never. My tulips that I planted last autumn are almost flowering and forgotten perennials are waking up. The usual moving of plants (my trademark!) has already begun, afterall gardening is about painting a picture. Maybe I'm just a control freak, if a plant is irking me its got to move!!
The picture below is my fruit patch, cant believe how the rhubarb has grown already. Rhubarb crumble this weekend!