Lottie torch Tia

Tia looking out of the window and my reflection. I have had my hair cut since this was taken.

On Sunday we saw the Olympic torch

We should have stayed on the main road to get a better view.  The children in the crowd seemed more excited over the free mini bottles of Coca Cola that were being given away. Just about sums up the whole proceedings really!

Biddle and Gardener Bunny inspect the lettuce

Birds and feeders

Two of the feeders have now been replaced with ones with squirrel guards and the hedge has been trimmed. I can't keep up, like maps and encyclopaedia before they are published they are out of date!


Tia always finds a comfy sleeping place:

A pile of cloths for the allotment

Butterflies and bounty

Today is my sister's birthday -Happy Birthday Angela- so at last I am able to post photographs of my most recent project. Angela had mentioned that she needed something for the wall of her newly decorated bedroom. Among my many magazines I found a copy of Popular Patchwork June 2009 which feature a butterfly wall hanging. I reduced the size of one butterfly by half and created something of my own.

 Each butterfly has different colour spots on the wings

 Most of the fabric I found in my stash

 I sewed small butterflies on both the front and back of the hanging.
The flowers and butterflies were blanket stitched by hand. I find this quite  soothing once I have established a rhythm.








Earlier this week I went to the allotment with John and took some photographs. Everything is really growing due to the wet weather we have had.

The potatoes with be ready soon

 These cabbages have grown quite a bit since I last saw them

 There are teeny raspberries on the new plants

 Plenty of tomato plants in pots

More lettuce than we know what to do with.

And our first peas which were put in a stir fry.

Nature

Towards the end of the spell of warm weather I went to put some paper in the recycling bin and found this little chap

He was pecking at the pieces of seed that had fallen from the upstairs fat-ball feeder. He made no attempt to fly off so I went and found him some bird food of his own. He stayed for quite a while and there was a bit of a scare when Magic walked past the house. he let me get quite near to him and made a warning sound when I got too close. He did flutter inside the front door but I managed to shoo him back out and down the steps. He was a very fine bird with feathery legs so I could not see if he was ringed. I left him to his own devices and when I checked sometime later he had gone. I worried later that I should have provided him with some water as well as the food.




The weather has changed for the worst and we have had over 50mm of rain in the first seven days of June. However there is more colour in the garden now.

Nine out of ten of the irises have come up.








And the plants in the tiered planter have grown a lot since I put them in.

The hosta is the best it has ever been I think.







Although most of the tomato plants are growing at the allotment we have two here.