Off and away ...

... on a big aeroplane. Ooh er! 

See you anon. 

(Sft you'll be so proud of me.)

In the garden

Weeded early (well fairly early) this morning after a healthy, sorry, hearty bacon butty breakfast. It was cooler and I managed to weed half the veggie garden and a little bit of the front where the flowers are. We have these yellow poppies but the one that caught my eye this morning was ...

this lovely pink poppy. It's huge, probably about 8 inches across.

Another pink flower was this peony.

Both those pinks are in my current blanket.

Did you know - you can get 6 different arrangements from 3 colours?

One last flower I particularly like is this black aquilegia which I think is called Aquilegia vulgaris var. stellata Black Barlow.

The Poppy Flower Fairy is not in my book but here is the poem for the Red Poppy.

We were all of us scarlet, and counted as
weeds,
When we grew in fields with the corn;
Now, fall from your pepper-pots with the corn;
seeds,
And lovelier things shall be born!

You shall sleep in the soil, and awaken next
year;
Your buds shall burst open; behold!
Soft-tinted and silken, shall petals appear,
And then into Poppies unfold--

Like daintiest ladies, who dance and are gay,
All frilly and pretty to see!
So I shake out the ripe little seeds, and I say:
"Go, sleep, and awaken like me!"

It ain't half hot, mum

It was too hot to go outside today ...

so we stayed indoors in the cooler parts of the house ...

where the sun wasn't streaming in through the windows.

It was cooler ...

in the shade of the ferns.

It ain't half hot but we're not complaining!

I love the voice of Don Estelle.

Good bad, good bad

"Well, things went good, things went bad."

The good - I've sewn in the ends but not cut them off yet!

The bad - I'm going to have to pull back about 10 rows because I've gone wrong. Can you spot the mistake? Of course you can. 

Oh Joy!

Half way there

I really should weave in the ends as I go along.

It's quite relaxing Granny zig-zagging.

Bargains

I couldn't pass up these two small quilts at just £2 each from the Charity Shop. They are for my friend who wanted a quilt for her caravan.

They had to pass quality inspection first.

They had a really nice, wavy edging on them which I shall have to study so I can use it on my next blanket.

Strange poem

I knew the first verse but I didn't know the others.

If All the World Were Paper

"If all the world were paper

And all the sea were ink,

If all the trees were bread and cheese

What would we do for drink?

If all the world were sand O,

Oh then what should we lack O,

if as they say there were no clay

How should we take Tobacco?

If all our vessels ran-a,

If none but had a crack-a,

If Spanish apes ate all the grapes

How should we do for sack-a?

If all the world were men

And men lived all in trenches,

And there were none but we alone,

How should we do for wenches?

If friars had no bald pates

Nor nuns had no dark cloisters,

If all the seas were beans and peas

How should we do for oysters?

If there had been no projects

Nor none that did great wrongs,

If fiddlers shall turn players all

How should we do for songs?

If all things were eternal

And nothing their end bringing,

If this should be, then how should we

Here make an end of singing? 

Anonymous Americas

 Strange poem and does Anonymous Americas means the poet, who we don't know the name of, came from the Americas?

Killing three birds with one stone

Oh my, new wool! This is for my Summer granny blanket for a double bed, based on Lucy at Attic 24's Summer Garden granny square and her Granny Stripe colours with the inspiration for the design from According to Matt's blanket here. Nothing original here on this one!

While using the wool I just had to do a few more Granny roses ...

... and another King for my Christmas Nativity. (See the Nativity label posts.)

The puss cats weren't helping but still had to be in on the act.

I'll call him Gaspar, I think. He seems to be lifting one side of his mouth up, doesn't he. I can do that.

You win some, you lose some

Growing well in the sun

Growing not so well in the shade

Not growing - dead!

 Slugs and snails really like mange-tout!

A favourite book of mine ours was this one.

Poor Odo travelled the garden meeting various creatures and was really sad because he wasn't beautiful and he couldn't do all the things that others could do. "I can't do anything," he thought. "How unhappy I am."

It wasn't until Odo had a conversation with a slug that he realised ...

... that he did have something to be proud of.

We all have some worth.

It's a shame that Odo and his slug friend like the same food that I do! Never mind there's enough to go round.

You win some, you lose some.

Welcome, new follower, thank you for popping by.

Lily of the Valley

These flowers grow in a very narrow shady border by the side of the house. They spread like mad and provide a lovely colour combination of green and white.



Lily of the Valley is sometimes called Ladders to Heaven. You don't have to climb them to enjoy their beautiful scent.

Who needs an air freshener in the loo when there is Lily
of the Valley around?

Do you mind if I add you to my list?

Welcome new follower and the answer is -

"Of course I don't mind"

And now we have - 

One hundred and eighty!

I wonder how our Bloggy Blankets are going on (or not)? It would be great if we had 180 there aswell. Fostermummy - how's it going? And Mrs. T. - did you pass on the first square?

Granny Zig-Zag

I think this is going to be a granny zig-zag not a granny ripple.

The wools are all 'new to me' but unwanted by others and are different textures and weights - rather an odd combination of colours but I copied was inspired by this creation.

I can't remember where I found this picture - if it's yours
please comment and I will link to you or remove the
picture if you prefer.

The pattern is by Elizabeth Ham and instructions can be found on a video here with written instructions here. If you Google 'granny ripple' there are lots of different patterns that can be made using different coloured stripes. I liked the little white flower stripe that was made in this particular ripple.

This one is lovely aswell.

A BIG welcome to my new followers and thank you for your suggestions on what to do with my BIG crochet hook!

That's a big one!

DD must have heard it was my unbirthday because she bought me a present. Woowee! What a whopper!

It looks enormous next to my others.

There's more, there's more. She had bought me another present.

*******

Woowee! Now that's a big one!

Hmmm! Should I start another project? What on earth do you make with a 20mm crochet hook?

Thank you for your comments yesterday. Here and here is more info about the Lords and Ladies plant.

Lords and Ladies

These wayside flowers pop up all around the garden in Spring. They are not the most beautiful of flowers but they remind me of my original Flower Fairies book.

I only have the Autumn poem in my new Flower Fairies book with the Autumn berry picture.  I can't find the Spring poem anywhere on the internet, I'm afraid.

A very warm welcome to my new follower.

CS Bargains

I rarely buy new shoes.

These, from Next, were only £3.50.

These, from Faith, were the same price and were my favourite flip floppy kind.

I rarely buy new wool but, heigh ho, I did!

It must be my unbirthday.

Down came the raindrops

On a cloudy day,

Wetting all the pavements,

Washing dirt away,

Waking little brown buds,

Thirsty seeds aswell.

Right into the blades of grass the tiny raindrops fell.

Pitter patter, pit, pat this is how they came.

Pitter patter, pit, pat let us do the same.

Pitter patter, pit, pat, children tho' we be, 

Giver of the gentle rain,

We bring ourselves to Thee.

Carey Bonner

Rain didn't stop us enjoying ourselves and we dried ourselves off in the cafe with a piping hot bowl of soup.

See here for an earlier walk.