Kitty's Quilt and Me, Cat Fight, 25th May 2009

It was wet and miserable again this morning, so I decided I'd better stay in and finish off Kitty's wall hanging. Sam goes into hospital for her cesarean on Wednesday! It took me much longer than I expected. Now I only have to sew on the ribbons to hang it from. I'll do that at Sam's to make sure they're the right length. So Jim and I went into the garden to take some photos of me and the quilted wall hanging. It had stopped raining by then and the sun was shining! My hair looks a bit bizarre, a bit like a hat! Ah well, some of these will make you laugh:







I'm there somewhere!


















Shirley Temple!




















'Hold it to the side' says Jim
















'Now the other side' I like this one best! So silly...














Here's the quilted wall hanging itself. Do click on it to enlarge it. I'm not a seamstress so forgive the wiggly bits of sewing!

We did get into the garden when the sun shone. Jim did lots of pricking out of all his seedlings. He has so many to do:







He built this bit of staging today to give himself a work station for doing his seedlings and potting on.

















Cheeky face! The hat is midge protection and the coat - well, it was a bit windy and cool as it was early evening










While we were out in the garden, the cats were messing about nearby, as usual. They started fighting and I captured these rather amusing shots of them:





First, they were eyeing each other up













Then Sandy pounced! Look at both their tales!












Then Sandy made a quick retreat. Look at BlackJack's face. He looks like a black panther!








Lastly, the iris I took yesterday is now fully out, and another one:





They are so pretty and there are more to come.














While Jim potted, I finished the snake rose bed, it is now all edged and tomorrow I'll put some compost along it to keep the weeds down and hopefully improve our clay soil. I also did the largest arboretum bed, edging it and weeding too. Only the small rhododendron bed left to do. I might take a photo of it then. We have been midged out this afternoon. I suppose it's the combination of the wet and then the warmth. I am already sporting about 10 bites! They do spoil our gardening at times. I stirred up the bonfire to try and send them away but that didn't really work either. How can such tiny things cause such chaos? I suppose fleas are the same in their way.

Oh, I almost forgot. The postman brought me a parcel today from Mary's Goat Farm! I saw that Mary make soap from the goat milk and it looked and sounded wonderful, so I ordered some. This is what I ordered:

4 oz lavender goat milk lotion
lavender goat milk soap
sandalwood blend goat milk soap
lily of the valley goat milk soap
patchouli blend goat milk soap
rose blend goat milk soap

It all turned up in the parcel and is just wonderful. The smells are fabulous and I can't wait to try the first one. I've already used the lotion - I love lavender so I knew I'd love it. This is Mary's website:

http://www.anniesgoathill.com/
This is the blog: http://www.anniesgoathill.blogspot.com/


I'm so excited about the imminent birth of Kitty. Poor Sam has huge swollen feet so I'm sure she'll be glad to get rid of the heavy lump she's carrying! I wonder how Jack will be with her. I'm sure he'll be just fine and love her to bits, he's that sort of a lad.

That's it for today. A good day all in all.

Saturday 2nd May 2009, Gentle Slopes, Filling Cow Holes

Well that's a funny title, isn't it? I've had a strange day. I've been feeling a bit 'other worldly' and couldn't really settle to anything, so I've been a bit of a butterfly.

Kitty's Wall Hanging

I tried to take photos of my wall hanging but it flapped in the breeze rather a lot! I am going to back it and put batting in the middle so it feels soft for Kitty to touch. Here are some shots:


I thought it was a good idea to hang it on the line outside in the natural light, but it was rather too windy! If you click on it and enlarge it, you can see the individual squares in more detail.

















Bottom left, I'm rather partial to my sheep!













The green giraffe is the central 'tile'. These rows haven't been sewn yet.














This is the top left.












There's another, smaller sheep in the right square!










I have yet to add some more embellishments, buttons, etc. I have to finish it by May 13th, when I'm off to the UK for Jack's birthday.

Today's Joiner

I took today's joiner from the bottom of the road going down to the arboretum.



I'm sorry it's so small, I can't seem to make it any bigger without it not downloading for me. If you click on it, you can see it properly! From the left, the arboretum, the road up to the meadow, the living willow fence, rough field and willows beyond, smaller living willow fence, broken gateway (the builders broke it and will repair it), barn next to house. I've had a word with Leatherdykeuk about making these and hopefully my next attempt will be larger!

BlackJack follows me about as usual

As I was trying to photograph the quilt, BlackJack was getting under my feet as usual! Later, as I stood taking photos, he ran up one of the old willow trees:


















He looks like a sawn in half cat here!











Can you see he is meowing for me to get him down? As cats go, he's pretty useless!









The War Zone:

There was a fuchsia about in the centre of this, which I removed yesterday (swinging a mattock) so today I have achieved the gentle slope I was after on the right hand side, alas, not on the left
I shall seed this tomorrow (grass seed) if it's not too windy. Had I tried today, I'd have seeded the field next door!








It's looking a bit better but I still have large bomb holes!








Cow Holes

All the top area of the vegetable plot, where we have a mini orchard is full of cow holes, from when that herd of cows and a huge bull rampaged around the land. I have been having fires out here for ages, so cleared away all the debris left and underneath was a huge pile of ash. I used that to fill as many of the cow holes as I could! It took ages and there are still loads left but I ran out of ash.

The Judas Tree

Alas, I don't think the Judas tree is going to flower after all. The buds look just the same size and several of them are on the ground beneath the tree. We think maybe the bull finches have had them or maybe it's been too cold to develop them properly. This is today:



I think they'll probably all drop off now, it's been too long









The Orchard

I had a walk down to the orchard, it's so beautiful and peaceful there. The apple blossom is now coming out, it's very late. The crab apple is covered:





















This blossom is on a fairly new tree that we have planted. It's so pretty. I liked the pattern this made.













The first bluebells are just opening around the edge of the orchard. I love them.
















There is a big patch of wild garlic underneath one of the old apple trees. It smells amazing, especially if you tread on it








A single wild garlic flower










At the bottom of the Orchard is a small wood of mostly Aspens, with one horse chestnut, a couple of rowan trees, some buddleia and a small oak tree. The oak leaves are just coming out:



It isn't a 'common' English oak but I'm afraid I don't know what sort it is as it was already there when we arrived







Cold Frames

I have the unenviable job of looking after all Jim's seedlings in the 2 cold frames. So far so good, I'd say:





























Vegetable Plot


It's a bit hard to see, but there's carrots, peas, lettuce, spring onions, onions and a couple of rows of gladioli coming up by the fence. Being willow, the fence is starting to grow!

Can you see that patch of purple behind the fence? That's honesty. Honestly, it is!





I think that's more than enough for today.
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