June and ....

July came and went, I spent some my time playing with my new camera, taking images of the flowers in the garden.

And Betsy, she's not always a willing model!

A walk in Epping Forest and a lovely lunch.....

More flowers in the garden, sadly this Lupin didn't last very long, it was so tempting to the slugs and snails!

We made another visit to Lanzarote, after many visits to the island we decided we should visit the Cactus Garden, these are just a few of the photo's. I did get a bit carried away, I've limited myself to only posting three images, but those textures!...

More of the island and yes the sea was that colour!

Then a weekend in Shropshire and a visit to Powis Castle and I even added more wool to my stash, oh dear!

And we are in the first week of August already, this year is scooting through.

Courgette or Marrow????????

How did I miss this little fella in the vegetable patch? Well to be honest I did see it was getting big but I was picking courgettes that were smaller, I thought I must come back and pick it soon! But two days later there was no missing it as it started to burst out of the fence around the raised vegetable bed.... It took two of us to remove it from the grasp of the plant!

I left it sitting on the table in the garden to show the rest of the family on Sunday when they came for dinner, it caused a bit of a stir (we lead a quiet life, so it doesn't take much).  We discussed was it now a Marrow or  an overgrown / neglected courgette, we couldn't decide that one, what do you think? While I was putting the finishing touches to dinner and yes, we did have regular sized courgettes and very nice they were too, it was weighed 8lb 11oz.  James my very imaginative son said he thought that when it was cut open we might find a family of Borrowers living in it, we didn't! Becky and James could not be persuaded to take a chunk home with them, Rachel came to the rescue and took a reasonable amount.

Tonight we are having a vegetable curry for dinner and yes it includes an amount of courgette, tomorrow I'm cooking stuffed courgette and Friday who knows? Any ideas of what to do with it would be gratefully received (only clean suggestions thank you)! I still have nearly 4lbs of the thing left and of course while I'm using this up the rest of the little blighters are growing away on the plant, boy am I glad that only one plant survived the raid of the slugs and snails earlier in the year!

It's All About The Flowers

The garden looks really lovely now theres been a balanced amount of rain and sun. I'm not mentioning the  bits of the garden or plants that Betsy's pulled up or eaten. Is it weird we still have  Narcissus flowering? I'm sure that everything in the garden shouldn't  be flowering at the same time, it is so who am I to complain.

Wednesday at the City and Guilds class we did samples of fabric painting I was really pleased with the way the paint spread on the silk fabric. I found the silk tucked  in a draw in my work room, it must have been leftover from Rachel's college days.  Lots of possibilities for this fabric, I wish now I'd spent more time on the green background painting. The blue sample wasn't quite so good, needs some work done I think. I'm probably going to over print with a block I have, just need the time to play now.

Catch up!!!

The Material Girls exhibition at Craft Arena has been and gone, the work got some good comments and  the 'Liberation of the Heart' hanging looked as though it was meant to be there, despite not being made for that exhibition it fitted in very well and I was relieved to get it back. There are lots of exciting things in the pipeline for The Material Girls, we'll  be exhibiting the 'Articulated Materials-Bridging Waters' work at three venues, more about that in future posts. I've still a way to go to get my work completed, as I have a helper with me ALL of the time, but things are getting a lot easier with Betsy.

I went to the Knit and Stitch with my sister in law, it was her birthday treat from me,  we had brunch which was very nice and saved stopping for lunch! Michelle enjoyed it and bought herself a new pattern book and some wool to knit a scarf. This year I spent very little and came away with money still in my purse? First time ever, I usually spend my cash and then hit the credit cards!

Last Friday I met up with some of the Essex ERTF members at another members home, we were having a meeting to follow up on a sketching day we had on a very hot and sunny day in August at Southend on Sea.

After  a lot of chatting and some delicious cake that our lovely hostess provided, our sketch books were produced and we discussed how we were developing our ideas, I'd only managed to progress with the designs, others had developed onto stitching, felting and printing. It was a day I really enjoyed I hope that we continue with this project, it's definitely the sort of thing I need to move my work on, I also like to see the way others work ( that's because I'm nosy). Rachel took the day off work and puppy sat, Betsy has been left for a few hours but I think Rachel wanted an excuse to look after her without us around and as she was coming home for the weekend anyway.......

The garden situation, well it's no longer looking so great, nothing to do with the weather! Betsy has dug up, chewed or trampled her way through most of the flowers ( No Photo's sorry) The vegetables are almost over I have some parsnips, swede and celeriac still growing. I did have a glut of tomatoes so made lots of sauce which is in the freezer and three large kilner jars of chutney, last time I made chutney I used it in curries and it added a depth to them, so I'm looking forward to that. I also have a supply of onions which should last until well into the new year. I would call that a successful year, well for me anyway, not sure if it will be so good next year. We need to find a way of  keeping  Betsy off the veggie patch!

Last week Betsy was a bit of a nightmare she suddenly decided that she would wake up at 5 am, not good for me! But things have improved this week, she seems to have settled down again and we are into a routine that seems to suit us all. Last week I started taking her to training classes and she now behaves better when we are out walking. Not that she was badly behaved before it's just that she barked at every one we met and every dog, she just wants to play and be friends with everyone and sadly not everyone wants to be friends with her! She has also stopped barking every time she is in the garden and my neighbour is out there, so life is calmer, well for the moment anyway. We have also been taking her to puppy socialisation classes at the vets, she meets other pups of about the same age but not the same size in the group there are two Rottweiler's, Betsy is not afraid to play with them and she stands her ground which is a bit scary for us. There is so much conflicting advice out there, the dog trainer says we shouldn't do both, the vets say we should, Rachel has a friend who is a dog trainer and she says its good to do both. I've decided to ignore everyone and do what I think is best for us, Betsy enjoys playing with the other pups and  there is only one more session to go, we will carry on! Betsy is developing  a lovely character she loves to have the last word, something that I think is a mini schnauzer thing. She does something  I can only describe as grumble. If she barks and I tell her to stop, she'll stop barking but carry on with this low grumbling, she does it at the training class and everyone thinks it's really funny. Now I only have to stop her weeing on the floor and we've cracked it!! Thankfully we have no carpets only a couple of small rugs easily replaced when this stops, it does stop doesn't it???

My Garden Today

 The garden is  looking good despite the summer weather doing it's best to sabotage my efforts, in this part of the country there's either a complete lack of rain or a deluge and very little sun.

 The dahlias are doing well I think it's the 3rd year I grew them from seed and still have 3 plants in the garden, I don't do anything to them except dead head them on a regular basis!

 Can't remember what these are called but I grew them from seed too and they come up every year. Are they Sweet Williams?

 The wild life  seems to be doing well too, this Red Admiral fluttered into the garden landed on the flower then took a liking to my jeans, I tried to get a photo but by the time I'd got it in focus it had flown off again!

 I'm into brighter colours in the garden this year and tried to introduce oranges and yellow's instead of the pinks, blues and lilac's that I've had for years.

 After fluttering around the flowers and not landing long enough for a good photo the butterfly posed for ages on the marrow plant, the antennae are fascinating (click on the image to enlarge). I swear it sat there for so long, I got fed up and I fluttered off!

 These  Sunflowers are not exactly where I would have positioned them in the garden but I didn't plant them, they appeared with a few others around the garden, it seemed a shame to pull them up so I've left them. I suppose they were planted by the birds, at least they fit in with the colour theme!

 The vegetable garden is doing well too!

Marrow

Tomato

Swiss Chard

Swede

Chilli

 The tomatoes are doing well they are hanging like grapes, I've removed most of the leaves hoping that if the sun does shine they get as much light as possible to ripen them. I get two or three red ones every day, but I think I may have to dig out a recipe for 'Green Chutney', a few years ago when we were in Virginia we had fried green tomatoes, maybe I'll find a recipe for that as well, it was delicious and as 'Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe' is one of my favourite films I had to give them a try.

And the plastic bags, well I been dyeing  fabric and  I might use the bags! Well that's a tour around my garden on the 1st September I wonder what it'll look like on the 30th?

Cropping!

A visitor to the veggie patch, he or she (anyone know how you tell?) seems to like the onion patch, I prefer the grasshopper to the slugs and snails that seem to like the whole garden........

We enjoyed a good crop of blueberries at the weekend this was the second large bowl I've collected, Dave made a cage to protect them from the wood pigeons they seemed to take a fancy to them.

This was the crop for Saturday, lettuce to go with lunch, peas, beans our own potatoes and roasted beetroot with stuffed marrow. The marrows are prolific so I need to find another recipe for marrow any ideas?

Today some of The Material Girls met at my house, I feel inspired to get on with the next project sorry, I cant show you much, but here's a taster of my initial ideas, needs refining and tweaking, but its getting there!

And the disasters on the home front well, the ceiling has dried out and it looks as though it will need re-plastering. No flying ants have appeared but if they do I'll be waiting with the ant powder, horrid things.
I've a trip to London planned later in the week with Rachel it's my belated Mother's Day present (belated because I had a bad back), but I'll post about it later in the week.

Feast

Yesterday afternoon we went to the 'Feast and Fayre' at Horndon on the Hill, James and Becky's brother in law, Jon played his guitar and sang. It was lovely sitting in the sun and watching the world go by, as the fayre wound down we strolled through the village to Jon's parents house for a BBQ. Sadly the cheesecake didn't make it, it cracked across the top and I wanted to make a good impression, well you do don't you? (note to self, need to practise) It was a dash to the supermarket yesterday morning and the purchase of strawberries, cream and meringues and an Eton Mess was taken to the BBQ,  it went down very well! We still have the cheesecake in our fridge, would you like a slice?

This afternoon I took time out and sat on a sunbed in the garden and read a book...... not me at all, there's always something else to do. Well, I deserved a treat I had spent the morning deadheading, and weeding, I was serenaded  by a blackbird that sang almost continually from mid day until 4pm without a break it was beautiful, what with that and a perfect blue sky, a great day.  A few photos of my garden taken this afternoon.

Thalictrum 'Elin'

Bottle Brush

Why the image above has a line through it I don't know, it must be a blogger thing. I've uploaded it on flickr without any problems. http://www.flickr.com/photos/77belle/5873691182/

Aubergine

Beetroot

Marrow

The marrow will be tomorrow's dinner, the little veg patch is doing well. Last week we emptied the first bag of early potatoes, it is enough for us for a week, the spinach and chard is providing enough for us with enough to give some away. As for the lettuce I've given some to my neighbour a few times and Dave took some to his Dad today. During the week we'll also be eating peas and courgettes, I can't believe how much a little patch provides. Oh yes, on Friday we had a bowl of blueberries after dinner, brilliant, next year I'm going to try growing strawberries.