Memorandum Monday–Monday 10th October

In an effort to get back to blogging, I am joining in with Sian’s Memorandum Monday.

Mine was a slow weekend.  It started off not with Boot Camp at the gym (as is usual on a Saturday morning), but queueing up at the doctors for my annual flu jab.  So of course, as the weekend wore on, my arm began to get that heavy feeling you get afterwards.  If that’s the worse I get then I am thankful.  A small price to pay for not getting a nasty bout of flu this winter.

There was a short walk to the post office to post some sales from my Etsy shop, followed by our first visit to the new Costa coffee shop in our local parade of shops.  The unanimous verdict is that it is very good!  We had a lovely long facebook call with daughter Lucy, who is working in Connecticut, USA for a few weeks.  She has been helping out at a local fair, ‘seeing the real USA, with tractor pulling and pumpkin competitions’!  They got her directing the traffic!  Not sure that was a good idea seeing as they drive on the other side of the road!

Sunday saw me sewing up a storm!  But, first a dog walk and coffee.

We have put our patio table and chairs  away for the winter, so it’s Sunday morning coffee in the summer house now.

I made some bunting from vintage fabrics to sell on my Etsy shop, and continued with my dress.

I then cut out a skirt with this lovely autumnal fabric.

 

 

 

And then of course, it was a Strictly sort of weekend!  We are loving Strictly Come Dancing, this season.  Some great dancers!

My Garden at the end of September

We’ve had a lovely end to Summer with  a week or so of warm, sunny, dry weather.  I love the low sun at this time of year, turning everything golden.  The only problem is that it is behind a big cypress tree in our neighbour’s garden which throws our garden into shade for much of the day.

 

The border I planted last year has grown and filled out.  It has been quite successful this year with lots of colour.  Less colour at this time of year, but lots of different textures

I have started to replant my pots on the patio for autumn/winter and am filling the greenhouse with the summer flowering perrenials

Finally a fuschia border near the house is really filling out.  I tried to take some photos of the lovely little fairy flowers.

My Garden in July and update on adventures

Oh gosh!  It is rather a long time since I last blogged!  I have been busy with my 2 adventures: puppy and Etsy shop.  I’ve set up a sewing blog to go side by side with my Etsy shop.  It’s here if you want to pop over and have a look.  I’m really pleased with the blog header, but not so pleased with the photos in the blog posts!  I need to get husband to take some better ones.  All I need now is some readers, so I have been avidly commenting on sewing blogs.  If you are interested, there are some great blogs in the side bar.

Anyway, my garden is looking fabulous this year after replanting the south facing border last year:

I’ve managed to do a fair bit of gardening this Summer, even though I generally have a little helper:

 

He is pretty good at ‘helping’ with the housework too!  Here is is having just jumped onto the sofa!

We are taking him out for short walks now and he is very friendly with people and other dogs.  Puppy training classes start tonight, wish us luck!

Sewing wise, I am making a dress from one of my Vintage patterns, a 1969 shift dress.  I’ll show you when it’s finished. 

I am slowly taking photos for Rinda’s scavenger hunt, need to get a move on with this! 

August–Month in Numbers

Welcome to my month in numbers for August.  As usual I am linking up with Julie’s blog. 

It’s been a productive Summer in the garden.  I have harvested 6 different vegetables: beans, chard, tomatoes, cucumbers, courgettes, sweetcorn and beetroot.  My largest cucumber measured 13 inches long, and weighed 1lb 8oz.  My largest tomato (so far) weighed 14oz.

I picked 3 corns and we had them for lunch one Saturday.  They went straight into the pot from the garden, and boy! did they taste sweet!

I visited 2 stunning gardens this month.  Christopher Lloyd’s garden at Great Dixter in East Sussex is somewhere I had always wanted to go:

This last weekend, we visited Charleston House, country home of the Bloomsbury set in the early part of the 20th century.  It is in East Sussex too, just past Lewes.  No photos allowed inside the house, but here’s a few of the garden. 

We loved the inside of the house!  Every piece of furniture had been painted by Vanessa Bell or Duncan Grant.  Such lovely muted colours and designs!  I really want to have a go myself.

There was 1 very large wasps nest that was in our loft.  The wasps were very busy, there must have been thousands in there!  The Pest Control man from the council came to cover it in toxic powder, and now the wasps have gone.  6 wasps escaped into the house, 5 of which were killed by his spray and 1 survived to be let out of the window.

We had 2 rides out on the new bike (Triumph Bonneville). 1 to Charleston above, and 1 to Petworth, a pretty little village in West Sussex that is full of antique shops!  Within a walking distance of half a mile radius there are 24 antique and interior design shops!

 

That’s it from me this month!  Do pop over to Julies blog to have a look at what everyone else has been up to in August,numerically of course!

My Garden in July

What a difference a month makes!  Especially such a sunny warm month.  Here’s my border at the beginning of July.  Still lots of bare earth.

And now at the end of the month.  I have planted out some sunflowers, and they love the hot dry weather!  Look how they have grown!  The blue hisbiscus is beginning to flower.  It has taken over a bit and hidden some plants beneath, so when it finishes flowering I will remove the bottom branches.  My dahlias have begun to bloom, a red Bishop of Llandaff and a gorgeous orange one.  I have not grown dahlias before because of the slug problem, but these were started off in pots and planted out with plenty f slug pellets!

Here’s a couple of photos of our resident Mr Fox.  He loves to sunbathe at the back of the garden!  He likes the old carpet that we put down under the gravel paths!

I am linking up with The Patient Gardeners Weblog for an end of July look at our gardens!

My garden at the end of May

The new border is coming along!  I’ve planted a few more things that Mum has given me.  The weather has been warm and damp, and the slugs have been having a field day!  In particular, they have completely eaten the coreopsis and some cosmos seedlings I put out at the weekend.  I am using slug pellets, but must admit I don’t like using them, in case another animal (bird or frog) eats the dying slug.  YUK!  I hate slugs!

The large shrubs which have been kept when we cleared the border are a blue hibiscus and a philadelphus.

The end of this border is looking very lush.  I do love a dark purple leaf amongst the green.  This is an elder.

And on the other side, these red poppies are stealing the show!

I am linking up with Helen at The Patient Gardener, for a month end look at our gardens.

Garden–New Border Update

Some of the new plants I bought, clockwise from the top:

Cammassia leichtlinii alba

Prunus cistena

Bergenia overture

Berberis thunbergii Area

Allium pinball wizard

Hosta guacomole and heuchera licorice planted in large blue pot

 

I am finding it difficult to get a good photo of the whole border, here’s the best one:

Right down at the bottom of this border – below the holly tree is a foxes den!  I think they have left now that we are doing more work down there.

And finally, some bluebells growing in the path on the other side of the garden: