Hello June!

Well we’re in the last month of the first half of the year and the weather is still amazing. Sadly the restrictions have been lifted and a mad exodus to my beautiful county of Dorset has lead to some disgusting human behaviour which honestly makes me feel sick to the core. I cannot believe the selfishness, stupidity and utter inability to grasp the whole thing by some people. I will keep my inner anxiety to myself and stay away from all those usual haunts we take the dogs to for now and hopefully they will forgive us in the end! We are lucky to have a large garden and local walks for them though.

This week I have started the Wordsworth Cuckoo crewelwork piece. It’s a nice size to sit in the garden with. That’s a 10 inch hoop and it doesn’t go much beyond it.

I also finally finished the Fair Isle! Really quite pleased with it but in future I will check that the yarn isn’t 4ply!

Just as I was starting to get on with Autumn Plaid I saw a shark and a mermaid and thought oooo Christmas! They’re blankets for the Littles so they’ve been added to the table. Here is the begining of the Mermaid tail I started in the garden while enjoying the shade.

It’s a pattern from Black Sheep Wools in a nice chunky Stylecraft on 6mm so my fingers are happy! The shark I’ve had to wing a bit but will show you that when I get going on it.

In the summer we virtually live outside even cooking most meals on the BBQs. We have a big family cooking size one, and little travel gas one we take away with us but you can still get a couple of good sized steaks and some vegetables on it and the charcoal one which cooks meat beautifully but we are reluctant to use when everything is so dry. (Another thing Dorset and the New Forest just over the border in Hampshire has suffered from is horrific fires from disposable BBQs from selfish people.)

Outside the back door we have a little veranda which faces north and is lovely and shady and we spend most meal times there. It’s not huge but enough for us and the dogs, this is first thing for breakfast.

I made a little dangle this week to hang with a few other bits we have in there like lamps from Morocco and a cart wheel and loads of beach finds.

It has a nice view back up the garden across the garage apron and the Swifts, Swallows and House Martins zoom all around the area and in and out of the garage, great fun to watch.

Last year I bought some Louisiana Iris to grow. I don’t have a proper pond, well there’s a tiny one for wildlife at the top of the garden but it is really tiny, so I planted these in a large copper bowl with aquatic soil and pea gravel.

At first there were some lovely decorative stones around the rhizomes but they didn’t like that so we had to take them out. There’s just a fine layer of shingle now, which according to the guy I bought them from they need, and it also stops the birds digging around when they use it as a bath! The first flower to open is Charlotte’s Tutu.

They are extremely hungry plants and I’m hoping we can get them through another winter, they’re evergreen, and see even better flowers next year. The one front right above did suffer a bit.

I like it when the table has a finish on it and a couple of darker in progress this week blues too!

We’re forecast rain tomorrow which will be a nice change! I hope you’re having a good week.