back then..

Right..I'm off.

It's time for a blog break.

Back soon with lots of fun things, the quilt reveal

and possibly something a little continental!

kiss kiss

fresh air friday

 Is it me or are Fridays coming round too fast?

Its a crazy hot day here today.

But I realise after a trip to Somerset last weekend,

not everyone has had this dry spell.

I have been praying for rain,

whilst they have been praying for sun!

Anyways above is a santolina or a cotton lavender,

I love it!

 The lawn really is very brown already,

I'm just wondering how things would grow

with a downpour of lovely rain!

My goal is to cover the ugly fences with greenery.

 The next two blooms were grown from seed last year,

purchased online from real gardens.

Above is lychnis coronaria,

a good one for dry gardens.

 And this one is the well known

knautia macedonica,

which the bees love.

 On the shady side I have two astrantias

this one is claret.

 All this sun has been great for lots of plants this year

including this peony.

 My favourite geranium of the moment has also

popped open this week.

Ann Folkard.

 Another sun lover is this white rose,

though it tends to suffer from droop,

because the blooms are so huge!

 Although gardening has slowed down now,

there is still lots to do.

Like tying in a new climbing rose,

this one is 'new dawn',

and should be a pretty pale pink.

 I've also visited an NGS garden,

called White Barn near Ringwood,

It's a stunner, they are open every Wednesday,

if you live in Hampshire it's well worth a visit,

truly inspirational.

I cant publish any pictures I took,

for their privacy, but I did buy the campanula from them,

which is a tiny part of what their garden looked like.

Did I mention they have over 200 clematis?!

Hmmm what else have I been doing??

Have a super weekend all,

don't forget the suncream!

Ps. I dreamt last night that Monty Don (British gardening presenter)
came to my garden,

and he was thinning my apples.

(which I've already done!!)

Lets see tonight if he does any thinning of apples,

how spooky would that be!!

patchwork cushion

 Just a quickie post to show my latest creation.

Mary this is what I was working on
when we were emailing each other.

This cushion is a present for distant relations in Canada.

I have no idea what their taste is so I tried to keep

the colour scheme fairly neutral.

(I have robbed the white stars from another project!)

I did use a pink vintage fabric that to me looks like
maple leaves.

My parents are visiting them so my Mum asked me to make them something!

It's paper pieced and bound like a quilt,

which I think ties it together nicely.

This is my first ever cushion with buttons,

so I'm pretty proud,

even if it did take me all day!

ps. just to let you know I shall be taking a blog brake for most of June,

don't forget me!

pps. Hello to Rachel's Mum, 

Thanks for reading my blog and glad to keep you entertained!

ppps. Nearly flipped out last week trying to change my blog layout.
There's a lesson, don't try and fix things if you don't know what you're doing!
Big phew!!!!!!!!!!!!!