Sunny garden days!

It's been so wonderfully hot and sunny lately we can't stay out of the garden!

Unfortunately that usually means it gets worse before it gets better! Somehow every single pot with dead twigs gets dragged out from behind the greenhouse to be prodded and probed. Is anything alive in there besides vine weevils? A few sad bulbs? Or can we reclaim the beautiful pot for one of the three-hundred plants we seem to have acquired over the last few weeks!

Of course, it really is very hot so we usually end up making the yard clean and tidy first because that's the coolest place.

Don't get me wrong, I love sunny weather. It just makes me want to start things in the morning that I can't finish unless I want to frazzle to a crisp!

Beccy

Mostly sunny, shiny days around Yorkshire…

Millgate House in Richmond, Parcevall Hall near Pately Bridge, Skipton Castle, Beningbrough Hall near York, Cayton Bay, Scarborough, Tholthorpe.

Beccy

A walk in the woods…

Saturday was a stunningly sunny and warm day so we got out of the house and went for a walk in the woods. This little nature reserve is a stone’s throw from my house and is lovely this time of year. There are huge old rhododendrons and azaleas so now is the best time to go.

Although there are paths, it’s a bit more exciting to go off-piste and find your own way around. Every so often you get glimpses of amazingly green and fresh farmland through the trees and (slightly spookily) you can hear sheep but not see any.

Every so often the wood opens out to a pond or a clearing. I love woods like this, managed but not over-managed. And although there were lots of other people around it’s very easy to lose yourself so you feel like the only ones for miles.

The birdsong is constant too – although they keep themselves well hidden you can hear them all the time.

This tree is the only one in the whole wood that has writing scratched into it, it goes all around the trunk and fairly high too. It’s quite lovely and romantic really.

A rare photo of me - in case you’re wandering, I was falling out of a tree. I like climbing!

Beccy

Easter trees…

Hey, am I the only one who’s never heard of Easter trees? We were in a charity shop and saw a little box filled with tiny Easter related ornaments, wondering why vintage cake decorations would have little hangers on them. The lady in the shop said they were Easter tree decorations, and are quite common around Europe.

Well, it turns out that it really is quite a common thing, just not in my house – check out this Google search!

This is our little bit of spring brought into the house for Easter, complete with our version of a tree. Mum grabbed some white acrylic paint, a branch and some moss and stuck it all in a cute green bucket we got from a floristry supplies shop. Finished with a red gingham ribbon and the decorations, I think it looks quite Eastery!

Here are a few lovely Easter trees I found around the web, I particularly like the top one with the birds… some ideas for next year!

http://rosalineandmore.blogspot.com

www.mabelslog.com

www.photoblog.nbcnews.com

Happy Easter everyone!

Beccy

Crocheted periwinkles…

…and other assorted flowers.

I got the book 100 Flowers to Knit and Crochet by Lesley Stanfield for Christmas and it’s so full of eyecandy you’ll want to make them all! If only I had the time.

See what I mean? Here are the few I’ve made so far using scraps of stylecraft special dk.

I haven’t got a clue what I’m going to do with them, at the moment they’re adorning the mantelpiece but they might find their way onto bags or crocheted cushions or made into brooches. More likely I’ll use them on my next granny blanket though.

Have any of you got this book?

Beccy