garden stuff · summer

growth

We’ve still been having a very mixed bag weather-wise here. Not only have the alternate showers of rain and spells of sun been good for all the wildflowers, they’ve also been great for the garden and my little herb wall that I planted earlier in the year has really filled in. It’s actually become a bit of a herb jungle and I need to get snipping and drying some shoots. A month ago it looked like this…

and now it looks like this…

Fruit is doing well too. Strawberries…

Raspberries…

and apples…

…are all swelling nicely and I am looking forward to a good harvest later in the year (if I can keep the slugs at bay – there seems to be an army of them this year!)

crafts & knitting

Midsummers day mittens

The fact that I’m just finishing off my second pair of mittens this month must be a measure of what a rubbish summer we’re having so far. My hands really feel the cold, so popping on a pair of mittens for pottering around the garden in the late evening has been necessary of late and somehow the butterfly mittens that I finished last week are a little too pretty to wear for picking snails off of my cabbages, so I thought I’d make a more utilitarian pair.

Luckily these mittens are really snuggly and they knitted up really quickly. I only started them on friday evening and this morning I’m just sewing on the finishing touch buttons.

The pattern is Welted Fingerless Gloves from Churchmouse Yarns and Teas and I’ve knitted it with 3.75mm needles and Cascade 220 wool in ‘pear’ (full details on ravelry).ย  I originally choose this yarn as one of the colours for the misty afghan but it somehow didn’t fit and I’m glad now because I think this is my new favourite colour and I’m pondering what else to make in it.

Despite the fact that I’m very pleased with my new mittens, I really hope that I’ll not need them this week – it would be really nice to actually have a summer before the autumn comes around!

countryside · general stuff · summer

walking in fields of red

The recent bouts of alternating rain and sunshine have resulted in an explosion of local wildflowers. Today I went for a walk through this amazing field of poppies that’s just up the road from us, red as far as the eye can see. It’s such a shame that they will all have withered away in another week or two and this will just be a green field again. Still, they’re lovely right now and seeing them has made me happy.

Hope you have a happy week where you are.