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 leftI 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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