In a Vase on Monday: Pink, White and Grey

The colour combination that is floating my creative boat at the moment is pink, white and grey.

In the vases (two jam jars and an old Victorian ink pot) are Stacchys, a white perennial wallflower with a delicious scent, red campions and a pink geranium.

The crocheted doily is from a pattern by Zoya Matyushenko – oh I do love her patterns – but oh boy! you do have to concentrate very hard when making them. This one is Birgitta and has yet to be blocked. I am thinking of putting it on a wire hoop to hang on the wall.

I used a 3mm hook and Junaluna gradient yarn, which is a 3ply cotton and not the easiest to work with, but it looks fabulous and it so wonderfully soft, it would be gorgeous for a shawl.

I am joining Cathy as she gathers lilacs from her gardentoday, with lots of other locked down gardeners from all over the world – and what a wonderfully colourful lot we all are, to be sure.

In a Vase on Monday

I was standing at the kitchen sink wondering what to put in a vase today and saw these 3 right in front of me on my windowsill – odd bits and pieces, picked up at various times as I wander round the garden and a cutting from a succulent house plant.

On the left, in a Chive vase, is a perennial white wallflower, grown from seed harvested from a friend’s garden. The scent at dusk is divine.

My sister and I were amazed and delighted to be photographed for the Chelsea Flower show magazine and website when we were on the Chive Stand in 2016

I didn’t take the name of the photographer, so I can’t credit her, but she took the photo because our colours matched the stand.  🙂

Oh, that was such a special day. A day on which I was so excited to meet Dorris!

The feather is from the guinea fowl who often visit from a neighbour across the field.

One on my roof one frosty morning in March

Strange creatures! Making strange noises ……..

and there is a pigeon nesting in my bay tree, constantly cooing all day

Sparrows are nesting in the cotoneaster and under the tiles on my garage roof, twiitering away …….

I have had to get the tinsel out to stop them from eating my salad leaves

April and May are my favourite months in garden

It is all very sensual and sexy out there!

This year I am missing the Brompton Stocks and wallflowers which provided so much colour last year, but my new long border (see the the beginnings of it here) still gives me huge amounts of pleasure as it wakes up in the warmer weather.

I am joining Cathy and her happy band of gardeners from around the world for this week’s In a Vase on Monday, pop along over there for a mass of floral delights.

Also joining in with Cee’s Flower of the Day with my very favourite scented Iris, smelling so sweetly of pear drops

Stick your nose in here!

Happy Easter Vase on Monday

Happy Easter Monday Everyone!

What a blessing a garden is at any time, but most particularly at this staying-at-home time. I give huge thanks every day.

And look who I discovered in mine yesterday, a very welcome resident

I put the photo onto our family WhatsApp group for the children to guess what it is and to give him or her a name. At his second guess, Big Bro got it right and decided it was a male called Walley.

Having found this description on the internet:

“The slow–worm is much smaller than a snake and has smooth, golden-grey skin. Males are paler in colour and sometimes sport blue spots, while females are larger, with dark sides and a dark stripe down the back.

Average lifespan: up to 20 years

Length: 40-50cm”

I think it might be a female, although it doesn’t have a stripe down its back. Amazed to see that they can live up to 20 years.

I am very happy to see her, but wish she would eat more slugs as I am finding masses of the little blighters munching away at my irises and hostas.

My daughter and her children brought me a wonderful food box full of delicious goodies from a local vegetarian cafe called ‘Feed The Soul‘

The box included some delicious cakes, and drinks, boxed mixed salad meals and chia pudding – health in a box YumYum!!!

The children had picked the flowers for me from their field of scented narcissi. My daughter calls herself a beginner gardener and you can follow her progress on her Instagram Page – @newgatenarcissi

You might like to see the fun we had with the narcissi last year – here

This year is different.

How are you doing during this time of lockdown?

So far, I’m loving it. It feels like a gift to me. Time for quiet crafting and gardening with very few interruptions.

I feel extremely fortunate that I have a garden and neighbours who wander past and stop for a chat every now and then. They are all at home, so a close feeling of community is building like never before. It feels like it must have felt about 100 years ago. Everyone working in their gardens or on DIY projects – there seems to be always a power tool whirring away somewhere in the village.

My daughter lives just across the field from me, so she can come over with the children and we can have a catch up across the lawn.

It would feel very different if any of my children were in danger, out there on the front line. Or if any of my family or close friends contracted the virus. But for now the best thing I can do is stay at home alone and I am more than happy with that.

I do hope you found a satisfying way to celebrate Easter and wish you and your families and friends all the very best in the weeks and months to come.

Joining Cathy at Rambling in the Garden for In a Vase on Monday

and

Cee’s Flower of the Day

 

Stay Safe

Stay at Home

Amelan Cheer!

Joining Cathy and gardeners in the UK, America, Australia, Italy and elsewhere and popping a few blooms from our gardens into a Vase on Monday. (link later)

Amelanchier, pulmonaria and cerinthe in glass vases. The dinky one on the right is a discarded Victorian ink pot I found in my garden about 45 years ago when I lived in an old thatched cottage at White Horse Farm.

The leaves of the amelanchier are a rusty brown so, of course, they reminded me of the rusty wire my star of son-in-law gave me.

Those of us with gardens are the lucky ones in these lockdown days. I am so grateful and thoroughly enjoying immersing myself in mine.

Looking up through the amelanchier at a blue sky tells me that Spring has sprung

I have transplanted some strawberries into one of my waist-high beds

and sown some salad leaves in the other one

The tinsel is to keep the pesky sparrows away – will it work I wonder?

A beautiful pink anemone has appeared in the garden, I can’t remember where I got it from, but I just love it

Can you see the little white crab spider

A spider that does not make a web – fascinating.

I hope you are able to enjoy a garden or park, or at least have a walk that takes you past other gardens.

Also joining Cee’s Flower of the Day.

In a Vase on Monday

I love this meme

but life gets in the way sometimes – the last few months have been ridiculously complicated with family stuff to sort out – nothing bad – just a lot!

Being creative is my way of coping, but I don’t seem to have enough free time and head space to write about it.

Today I put a posy together to take to a friend.

I splashed across my puddle of a garden to see what blooms I could find.

Hebe, cerinthe, daffs, viburnum and pulmonaria.

All popped into a little glass mustard jar. My friend placed them in the middle of the table while six of us who have known each other since our teenage years had lunch together. What a happy oasis in a crowded time, and glancing at these little flowers every so often gave me such a feeling of joy and calm.

Joining Cathy and her happy band of gardeners from around the world.

In a Vase on Monday: Garrya Elliptica

Garrya Elliptica is such an elegant shrub and I have put it with some over-wintering cerinthe in a pottery vase bought about 45 years ago from Honiton Pottery in Devon.

The little blue square pot is a vase from Chive and it sits on a piece of burnt wood I found on the beach. I have scrubbed it and waxed it and to me it is a fine piece of sculpture.

Joining Cathy as she Rambles in her Garden for In a Vase on Monday.

 

Anemones in November

Those little buds from my 11.11 vase have just decided to open.

Sometimes we push ourselves forward in the wrong season, we do not shine so brightly, we are much smaller than we could be, but still we insist on flowering.

Will they flower again in Spring, I wonder, or will they have exhausted themselves.

Joining Cathy for In a Vase on Monday