Happy Easter!

 Happy Easter, happy spring, happy lots of everything!

I am happy when I am rubber stamping a happy bunny in the country, picking and arranging Lily-of-the-Valley from my garden, admiring my newly bought artwork 'Queen Bee' by Danita and generally being creative whether it be cooking, flower arranging, crafting or pottering around in the greenhouse.  If the sun shines it's a bonus!  I hope you are all having a lovely weekend doing the things you want to do. x

Blues, Pinks and Whites

The garden is looking pretty with its palette of blue, pink and white flowers.  The acid yellows and the bright golden daffodils of early spring have finished blooming and the soft summer colours are coming through.

 Borage is growing rampantly throughout the garden.

 Forget-me-nots are spreading throughout the wild patch.

 Hydrangeas rest their mop heads together.

 Carnations are looking pretty in pink and oh so fragrant too.

 The apple blossom is fading from pink to white.

 Honeysuckle adorns the garage.

 Wisteria fills the air with a beautiful perfume.

 This white shrub provides a backdrop to the hen house.

The lily-of-the-valley is spreading along my garden path.  Beautiful and delicate looking but resilient too.

Edited: Thanks for all your lovely comments.  The beauty of blogging is that I can be selective in what I show!  The wisteria is a wishy washy white and I only have three blooms on it (although they still give off a heady scent).  It was here when I moved in 14 years ago and has never had much to show in the way of blooms.  The lily-of-the-valley was already here too.  It grows north facing next to the garage.  It has never been fed and I regularly pick the blooms when they come through.  I guess the wisteria needs careful pruning in order to flower well and I think it depends on the variety as to how well they do.  The lily-of-the-valley thrives on neglect.  As for the choisya (Mexican orange) it too has a heady scent but it is so large it is in danger of taking over the garden!

A Funny Old Week

This week has been one of highs and lows.  I felt despairing on Wednesday, a day when everything went wrong.  On Thursday everything was good again with four deliveries I had ordered turning up, the latest issues of  three of my favourite magazines had come out in the shops and I planted up loads of things in the greenhouse with my son.

This good feeling was short lived, as in the early hours of Friday morning someone decided to break into my garden and steal a garden waste shredding machine.  They had some other things lined up to take too but for whatever reason, left them behind.

A wild patch has taken over my garden.  I think I will let it be.  I will plant up sunflowers behind them and even throw some more wild flowers into the mix too.  So there it is. My week in a nutshell.  Wild, weird and sometimes wonderful.

After the Sun................

After almost six days of unbroken sunshine, I find myself in a quiet and reflective mood.  By Tuesday the cooler, dull weather had returned and so negativity began to swallow me up.  Like the girl in the picture I feel as though I am in a dark forest and just waiting for the sun to come through again so that I might find a way out.

As the grey skies descend so does my mood.  I almost feel trapped under the dark and heavy cloud.  I know the sunny days will return and I have much to look forward to in the greenhouse.  I have been busy sowing seeds and potting on.  This year I will have strawberries, cherry tomatoes and a garden brimming over with flowers!  That is the plan anyway. 

I have much to be thankful and happy for, I just wish that the moody girl inside me would recognise that.

A Glorious Day

Yesterday was the hottest day of the year so far.  Angel clouds descended over my garden.

 The washing was hung out to dry and the hens roamed happily in their new enclosure.

 I spent some time outside getting to know them again.

 Popcorn is my favourite hen.  She is a bit quirky, like me!

 Gizmo was a bit bored with all the attention I was giving to the chickens.

 He skulked off down the path..........

...............and made himself at home under the hen house nesting box.

Not Just a Tea Towel!

I was recently introduced to this lovely website that sells a huge range of tea towels for every taste and budget.  Looking around the site I couldn't believe how many tea towels there were from linen to cotton and linen union blends.  My usual tea towels are cotton so I thought I would try out some linen ones.

The linen ones need to be soaked prior to use to get out the starch and make them more absorbent.  They are supposed to improve in absorbency over time, after they have been washed several times.

The website contains all the information you need about looking after your tea towels and gives a long list of ideas that you can use them for other than drying the dishes!  These uses include gift wrapping, making into cushions (a Union Jack tea towel on the site would be great for that), making tote bags and dust jackets for books and even giving to a child as a comfort blanket.  I will never view my tea towels as just for drying up with again. Why not pop over to the site and have a look around.  There is even a Royal Wedding tea towel and some great offers in the sale section on aprons.