April Sunday

The weather has settled to a typical April one, still chilly, with sunshine and showers.

This morning's walk took us across the sunny fields, with definite signs of spring. We know that spring has arrived when blackthorn is in full flower.

This is an owl nesting box. Due to the decline of the traditional farming and many farm barns being converted to homes or holiday cottages, the barn owl's natural nesting places have disappeared.

Now the country people are being encouraged to put up owl nesting boxes, where possible.

If we are lucky, sometimes we can see this beautiful bird after dark, caught in the car headlights, as it glides gracefully across the fields.

The first flowers of the cuckoo flower or lady's smock; or as my grandmother called it - Tears of Virgin Mary.

You can also see more of this pretty spring flower here.

Our walk took us to the "secret pond", as I call it, as not many people know it is there.

The rather ugly spikes of the field horsetail are everywhere.

The garden is also waking up, although a long way to go yet to looking full.

A crab apple tree, planted in the autumn, is now in full bloom.

And inside, this beautiful fuchsia blossom.

Have a wonderful week!

end of March

and summer has returned to spring. Today is gloomy and cold, but still no rain, which we badly need.
I have made most of the wonderful summer weather we enjoyed until yesterday, stitching in the garden as much as I could. The light is so much better outside then any artificial light inside.

I finished another block of the indigo quilt, with more practice of stitching shishas. I enjoy this relaxed style of embroidery,

which is very different from the more controlled style of my silk project.

Still some more work to be done here.

I also managed to knit few more rows of the lace scarf,

and some more hand quilting of the Summer quilt.

Despite the shortage of water, the garden is slowly waking up and there are more and more signs of life.

Even first plum blossoms.

Enjoy your weekend!

March Saturday

Spring? We have summer!

Today's early morning walk, in a lovely warm sunshine, took us past the smell of freshly cut logs

to Parkhill Camp, an Iron Age settlement, about which I wrote before here.

 

There had been a lot of activity here during the winter, some of the large beech trees have been cut down.

It is all still looking very bare here, but in the few weeks time the floor here will look like this, a carpet of bluebells.

For now we are happy to see some wild primroses.

Back at home, while working in the garden, not a meter from the hedge, I realised there was a pair of little eyes watching me.

A mum blackbird, sitting on the nest, in March! She did not mind while I went to get my camera and took a picture.

In the balmy 18C we took some garden furniture out of the winter storage and spent the afternoon relaxing in the sunshine.

A good time to start the next stage of my Indigo quilt.

More of the same tomorrow? I hope so!

I wish you also a wonderful weekend!

Frosty nights, but definitive signs of SPRING in the garden.

sunny Saturday

We had a wonderful spring day today, sunny and warm. It was a real pleasure to spend the afternoon working in the garden, pruning and generally tidying up. The washing on the line was flapping  in the sunshine, simple things in life.......It has been a good day.

My Easter project is now ready for hand quilting and embroidery, which I hope to start tomorrow.

You might remember indigo fabrics I bought from Tiggy Rawling's Indigo Shop in the autumn.
I am now starting to plan the quilt/wall hanging. I keep changing my mind about what exactly I am going to do with it. Initially it was going to be covered in Indian stitching, but I have been looking at some other ethnic embroideries since, so now I think it will end up as a mix of various stitching. In any case, I am prepared for the fact that this is going to be a long project, I hope to get inspired as I go along. For now I am just planning the outline.

I hope tomorrow will be another good day...

lazy weekend

First of all, thank you to all of you who have given me ideas what to make with the block no 5. I should had said that it is 11" square, so sadly a little too large for a pin cushion. I will of course let you know what I have done with it (if anything at all!).
Last week was very hectic for me and I was very glad when Friday evening arrived. All I was capable of was just to veg in the front of the TV.
As we had no special plans for the weekend, I promised myself to have a "lazy" one. And that is what I did, rather I didn't do very much at all. Bliss. The weather looked fantastic looking out of the window, dry and sunny, but outside it is very windy, with a cold north wind howling through the garden, so no pleasure in being out there.


So, besides stitching, what else is there to do on a day like this?

Baking! Rhubarb is in season, so lets make something with it.

 Rhubarb and Custard tart: 

 

served with juices from the cooked rhubarb and some fresh cream

I ventured outside just for long enough to check progress in the garden and to take some pictures.

I think this would make a good stitching subject.

We have had the best of the azaleas, but the poppies are just opening up and the peonies are not going to be far behind, so I hope this wind will stop soon.

The strawberries are doing very well, it will be something for the grandchildren to pick soon, if we'll get some more warm sunshine.

And some more irises:

I wish you all a very good week!