In a Dish on Monday

My daughter and her family (Miss E, Master R, Little Miss M and Mr.M) went on holiday last week. To welcome them home I made this little cameo, which is photographed in my hall before I took it to their house.

Joining Cathy for her worldwide garden party held every Monday over at Rambling in the Garden.

I used hebe, hazel, primrose, succulents and this flower spike from a laurel

A few empty snail shells were put in the corner as Little Miss M loves snails – when she was 2 she collected them and made houses for them.

In the early 1990s I worked at Dansel , a bespoke woodworking Gallery. If you are ever in Dorset it is well worth a visit. It was a wonderful place to work and very tempting. I am lucky enough to have a few pieces from those days. Each piece was signed by the maker. The mirror frame was made by Simon Teed.

The sycamore bowl was made by Peter Dalby in 1992. It holds Angel Cards, which were created as part of the Transformation Game at the Findhorn Foundation in Scotland.

If you would like me to pick a card for you, let me know in the comments.

The picture you can see in the mirror is a piece of felt I made at a workshop run by Di Pattinson a few years ago.

I can highly recommend her workshops.

The piece was immediately pinned to a canvas painted with acrylic paint mixed with sand and there it sits – I always intended to do more to it but now I think I like it as it is. I could fix the pins at the back with Sugru.The diamond weaving hanging below it was made for me by Miss E for my birthday. She knows my favourite colours! Orange and pink together always a winner!

Maybe, I could fix it on to the painting ……. hmmmm ….. ….

I’ll leave for a while….. I think I like it ….. what do you think?

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Vase on Monday: Spring is on its way.

Hazel catkins and bay leaves, with houseplants of the week, three tardy hyacinth bulbs – still beautiful though. They promised to flower at Christmas!

All four containers are charity shop finds.

Such a challenge to photograph things well in the gloom, some days it never really gets light at all. I’ve had to ‘brighten’ these pictures quite a bit.

I love the way catkins start as tight little bundles and gradually shake themselves out into fluffy chenille. They will stay looking good for weeks so that one can enjoy spring green leaves bursting forth before very long.

The Bay tree was here when I came to the garden, it has elegantly long thin leaves, smells divine and is currently smothered in buds

Joining in with Cathy at Rambling in the Garden for her weekly International Vase party.

I joined the party in May and it is fun looking back at all the vases. I can’t seem to make a photo montage here so I have made my own Vase on Monday Pinterest page. It’s great to see them all together.

For a heady visual feast go to Google images for In a Vase on Monday and see so many of the other fabulous vases

GGorrrrrRRRRggggeeeeooouuSSSsssssssssss!

and also joining in with An English Girl Rambles

and

Cee’s Odd Ball Photo challenge

I played with this in iPhoto and used the ‘Fade’ filter – I’m pleased with the soft pinkish glow.

I think it might have been my Granny growing hyacinths in these special glass jars that turned me on to the magic of gardening as a child – the white roots in water with the light shining through never lose their magic…

…and in black and white:

Can you remember what first sparked your interest in gardening?

Vase on Monday: red, white and green

Cotoneaster berries and parsley in the Vase this Monday.

Houseplant of the week – white cyclamen grown from seed. It is my houseplant of the week because it is flowering away even though it is stuck on a north-facing bathroom windowsill and reaching up for light.

Joining in with Cathy’s merry band of gardeners at Rambling in the Garden where you can see many beautiful vases from around the world and her charming touch of MAGIC!

I hope you will forgive the poor quality of my photo but the days are so dark here at the moment! and I did not have time to play around and perfect it. Better a poor photo than no photo I thought. I do so love joining in with this meme, I didn’t want to miss it.

The Father Christmas wooden doll has been our family for about 30 years now, given to my daughter by the man himself in her Xmas stocking.

This is about as festive as it is going to get around here, over many years I’ve gradually become almost phobic about the wasteful excesses of Christmas.

CJ At Above the River puts it so much better than I could: 

I’m finding the constant media urgings to get more stuff for Christmas combined with news from the climate change conference an indigestible mixture. I never like the wilder excesses of the festive season. Mountains of packaging, wrapping, plastic that will be in landfill before we know it, rubbishy stuff imported from thousands of miles away. I honestly hate it. I try very hard not to contribute to that bit of the festive season, but I know I’m part of the problem. In my kitchen there is packaging that I didn’t want, didn’t ask for. Gifts that aren’t made in this country. Christmas cards with their toxic inks and wasteful production processes. The planet can’t support it all.

I’m trying very hard to be smaller about everything this year though. More ethically sourced gifts. Food with less packaging. Locally produced things. I don’t mean to cast a shadow over it all, just to think aloud a bit. Over-consumption is nauseating, the shops are making me feel anxious and claustrophobic at the moment. I wish I had a big badge that said, “I’m opting out”. Just some simple gifts for the children, a nice meal, some food with friends. A bit of greenery from the back lane, vegetables from the allotment or a local farm. 

CJ writes so beautifully, her posts as so full of warmth and humour, many have responded to her post with their thoughts and I must say it gives me hope for the planet that there seems to be so many of like-mind … in blogland anyway!

I do hope you are all having a happy, healthy stress-free December.

A Vase on Monday – Loosestrife, Burdock and Marigold

 

 

Joining in with Cathy’s Vase on Monday, here is a celebration of self-sown purple loosestrife and marigolds with a purple blue and pink lace-cap hydrangea, sitting on a stretch of crochet that is waiting, oh so patiently, to be sewn into a cushion cover.

with some added self-sown burdock
the burdock is the tall, large-leaved plant in the centre of the picture below, just after I pruned off its spreading side branches

I do not yet know what to do with a large gravel area at the front of my house and have allowed things to self-seed and added a few pots. It has been a wonderous mass of plants and teems with life. The burdock has been a top bug hotel hosting zillions of blackfly, ladybirds, ants, tincy spiders, shield beetles and probably hundreds of others I haven’t spotted.

I have been fascinated watching it through the seasons

SPRING

EARLY SUMMER

and now LATE SUMMER

Joining in with Cee’s ‘Flower of the day’.

And playing around with a new ‘effect’ I found on my camera ……

I see more Doodle shapes – I can see I’m going to have fun with that camera setting.

The corner to corner crochet  as it will look as a cushion to sit next to the Society6 cushions, which are made from photographs of my machine embroidery printed onto fabric.