Round and round the garden......

 

 

One of my favourite flowers is Alchemilla mollis - Lady's Mantle.

It is such a good, useful garden plant with its acid yellow tiny flowers and beautiful distinctly shaped leaves, freely self seeding but not invasive, and complimentary to so many other plants - especially roses and geraniums, and any blue or purple flowers such as these Campanula Glomerata - it is also perfect as a cut flower, its delicate florets of tiny yellowy lime green flowers looking good with those same flowers it is a companion to in the garden.

  I love the way raindrops and early morning dew drops sit whole and unbroken like drops of molten glass on the leaves

a small campanula peeping through amongst the ferns - this was only planted a few weeks ago and has settled in well

 

a rusty green glass lantern - I love lanterns and have sadly even got a Pinterest board just for images of lanterns - there is something magical about a garden at night lit by lanterns, adding a touch of magic and excitement, a hint of  mystery and the unknown, a taste of the east and the Orient - atleast thats how they appear to me - must be something from my childhood that gives me those associations.

 

the roses have been wonderful this year because of  all the rain - this beautiful orange red bud has yet to open

 

another favourite garden flower - Lychnis Coronaria - some say it can be hard to place this in a garden, but to me as long as there is a generous clump of it then it seems to work well in many situations, and is easily moved if necessary, the pale greeny grey downy foliage perfectly offsetting the brilliant deep pink of the flowers.

It looks great mixed with fresh yellowy green foliage too - see a few photos on

 

beautiful palest of pink rosebuds

 

a clump of lychnis coronaria

 

more lychnis peeping through the yellow lime green leaves of a Hibiscus
(and can you spot the stone meerkat?!!!! The previous owners left many interesting stone statues behind, some classic and attractive, others quirky including this meerkat and a swan!  And I think we have a little fishing gnome hidden away near the top of the pond!)

 

better late than never - newly planted hanging baskets filled with pastel coloured petunias and trailing blue and white lobelia - these should look good in a few weeks time I hope. I cannot believe how late I am in planting them, but I didnt have the urge until this morning.

 

a few geraniums newly planted too

 

I have been so impressed with these little violas which have been flowering profusely in the shade, in pots either side of the back door, for a couple of months now

 

 

what a colour combination - mauve and orange!

 

 

I haven't seen so many rosebuds and flowers on this rose since we moved here - this rose must love the rain we've had - these are all on one stem.

 

There are five or six stems currently like this, and more to come

 

Homegrown herbs on the kitchen window sill - here I have Oregano.....

 

and Basil ........
And Coriander, but that is starting to run to seed now   - I must sow another batch.

The foxgloves have been glorious this year too - am loving this one growing up in front of the red leaved shrub (I must check up what it is called) and the ferns too are prolific at the moment.

I love the tiny unfurling fronds.

I still have more garden photos to share, as well as recipes to share, as Bella has been busy in the kitchen since her exams are over.

Wishing you all a Happy week.

Flowers for a Friday

 

Well my dears, I fear I have very little to share with you today as I have had a week of doing nothing but decorating the living room from dawn 'til dusk ( or so it feels ), punctuated only by the ordinary day to day routines of school run, shopping and basic housework.


 

foxgloves

So my mind feels quite numb and empty, but I am thrilled with the transformation taking place indoors.

 

I have done away at last ( hooray!!)  with dark mustardy gold on the walls, here from when we moved in nearly two years ago, and replaced it with brilliant bright white!

I toyed with the idea of choosing from the multitude of lovely whites out there ( too much choice on the Farrow and Ball colour card alone without all the other shades of white out there) and tried a tester pot or two, but in the end settled for a good plain honest white, and the difference is wonderful to behold ( to me and my family anyway!) - I never cease to be amazed by the change a coat or two of paint can make.



campanula glomerata


As I haven't picked up the camera all week I shall share "before" and "afters" in due course.

 

So just a short post today sharing a few garden photos taken last week and some flowers picked for the house

 

creamy white rose


 

irises, roses, geraniums (cranesbills) and campanula glomerata

 

rhodedendron
 

 

No sewing this week, no gardening, no nothing other than me, the paintbrush, the roller and an endless playing of some soothing Correlli on the CD player.

 

But I did sew two cushions last weekend in a lovely vintage floral linen for an order, complete with vintage buttons.

 

And my day was made last week when lovely Amanda at Crafty in the Med awarded me the Sunshine Award - Thank you Amanda, it certainly bought some sunshine into my day that was otherwise sadly lacking here in the UK!

Hoping some sunshine comes your way this weekend!

 

Vintage Finds

 

I hit the Flea market early this morning and came away with a couple of pretty pieces of china, a load of mixed linen and crochet, some vintage cotton reels and some gorgeous mother of pearl buckles.

 

a beautiful hand painted plate (Tuscan English Bone China)

 

a lovely 50s Burleigh Ware vase with simple yellow and black sunflower and black leaf design

 

 

love the yellow inside

 

and lots of lovely white work, lace trimmed cotton, linen and lawn,

 

 

 

lots of pretty embroidered pieces, mostly hand embroidered

 

some quirky kitchen linens

 

 

a beautiful crochet table cloth

 

a pair of hand embroidered tray clothes with London monuments - Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament on this one

 

 

several pretty cross stitched traycloths

 

 

gorgeous white work - the above is beautifully done on delicate lawn

 

 

Westminster Abbey I think

 

All the linens and crochet pieces I got for £10 the lot, which I thought was pretty good - there are well over 50 pieces.

I also picked up a generous length of rose pink/peach braid

 some sweet little vintage mother of pearl buckles

and some vintage threads on wooden reels

Still on a thrifty theme, earlier in the week I had a trawl round the numerous charity shops in our closest town with a friend, and found three pretty blouses for the grand sum of £8.50

a pretty white cotton Boden blouse with drawn thread work detail

a sweet little white blouse printed with strawberries  ( brings back memories of when I was very little girl, and my favourite "strawberry" dress, very similar to this fabric)

and a pale khaki 3/4 length sleeved linen blouse

And finally, thought I'd just show you the new house sign I painted yesterday onto a piece of wood we found left here when we moved in - perfect for a house sign.

I sanded it first then painted it in Annie Sloan's Chalk paint "Versailles "(sadly it was too badly water stained to leave natural). I then made a simple template using Wordart in Word, (using Harrington as the font), made a mirror image of it, then transferred it to the wood and painted over it.

Just needs a few coats of varnish then hopefully a handy husband to fix some stakes to the back so it can be put in the front garden at the end of the drive.

Just another job for the weekend!

Wishing you all a very Happy Weekend!