Garden day

We have been having glorious weather lately, but of course work gets in the way of enjoying it. However, I have officially finished with the costumes, so, after work yesterday, it seemed a good idea to tackle the grass! I can hardly call it lawn at the length it had got to! So, out came the mower, and I got the basic mowing done and made a start on the edges. Why is it that my other half doesn't consider edges as part of cutting the grass? I last cut and edged a month ago, and he last cut, but not edged, about two weeks ago. So it was slightly desperate.


Then my Dance teacher arrived to collect her costumes, and brought a surprise. My dear friend arrived with her, and we had a cuppa, and agreed, I would hang on to friend, for supper (very tasty) and she stopped the night. She sat on the grass, while I edged, and then, after supper, we sewed. Penny's hexie pincushion caddies. Together.  It is so satisfying to sit and sew and chat as you go. I supplied fabric, and cereal packet, she supplied company and chat and fun. At midnight we decided to call it a night, but put in another hour sewing this morning, before I had to drop her off to a Christening.
These were her fabric choices. Sorry no photo of the work in progress here, and she has taken it with her to finish. Pretty though.

I used some of the bodice fabric and teapot fabric, as an excerpt from Alice is also being done, so it feels appropriate.

Not finished yet, but perhaps tonight.
















I have done more garden this afternoon, and also found time to do some more bits for the stash bee I sent iff the block, with a promise to sort out the signature block and post later. I used some 12 weight thread, and a topstitch needle. I had not used this weight of thread before, but I really like the effect. I also made a smaller wonky star block for Helen, which I hope she will like. She did say she was happy to have smaller blocks as well as the standard 12.5 " one.
So I will have to post these off now.









Now I need to put in some garden photos for my DD1, so she can see what is going on.

 Bourbon, hiding behind a peony,












 A little scabious, bought half price from the 'sad' bench, and flowers prolifically,

 My climbing hydrangea












And my cheapy clematis with no name. 














 These poppies are glorious

 I cannot remember if this is Niobe, or Rouge Cardinale, another flower is coming, but this is solo at present.



















 Silver wedding, a present from my haunt 3 years ago.

Rhapsody in blue, secretly flowered while I wasn't looking!



Unfortunately, my lily of the valley has quietly flowered and gone over, without my even noticing. I have the dead flower heads showing it has been, in both parts of my garden where it hides.

On a plus note, we have seen evidence of a wren feeding her brood in one part of the garden, so I am very pleased to have spotted her about her business.

And this morning I saw a blackbird, with worm in beak, on the grass. Well, he dropped the worm, and picked it up. He rubbed the worm on the grass. Put worm down, picked worm up, dug in the lawn next to worm, and finally ate the worm. It took him a good five minutes to prepare the worm to a point where he could eat it! Daft bird!