Grey, rainy day - but hey.........

For her husband's birthday recently, my middle daughter commissioned a drawing of their three children from a local artist (and friend of daughter!).  I think it's great - she's really captured them -

  

(The three of them are in this pic from Christmas - Archie and Max with glasses and Ruby in front) -

 

 

More info on the artist - Emmie Tallboys - HERE  Her painting work is very striking -

 

 

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Pretty foul day here today - grey and rainy - so disappointing after a gorgeous sunny day yesterday. Oh well, garden getting a good watering I guess!

 

 

We've got an ugly fence on one side of the garden, so I've been putting in evergreens there, to try and cover it - 

 

 

I'm not a huge fan of Ceanothus, but it's flowering now - and will hopefully disguise the fence over winter -

 

 

- and the bees love it -

 

 

Lots of apples on the trees at the moment - hope they survive this year -

 

 

Well, better get something done I guess!

 

 

"The Audience" NT Live

 

Went to see The Audience tonight at our local cinema - NT Live broadcast of the West End play, with Helen Mirren as The Queen meeting the (so far!) 12 Prime Ministers of her reign. SUPERB!!   Catch it if you can..................

Rain and flowers and a ladybird.........

Had quite a bit of rain here today - but it's made the garden look quite fresh

 

Can't wait for these Cerinthe to flower - I haven't grown them before, but admired them in a garden I visited -

Nothing prettier than rain on Alchemilla -

 

Clematis all appearing -

 

 

 

 

 

Been quite busy recently amassing stuff for my stall at the Hereford Castle Green Summer Fair (June 29th). Can barely get into the front room! -

Pleased with these vintage airers I got at an auction this week - always useful to display cloths on -

 

Well, better get something done!  Have a good week.

 

Eve and the apple................?

At a Flea Market this week (in a £1 tray!), I picked up this little leather pouch, with a metal apple inside -

 

The chap selling it reckoned it was a bookmark - seems unlikely, as it would simply slip out. Any ideas?  It's about 6cm square.

 

At our previous house, we didn't have much joy with growing foxgloves, so lovely this week, to see some flourishing here -

 

 

Lots of flowers starting to appear now in the garden - it's such a lovely time of year, isn't it? (Though, as I took these photos, it started to cloud over - boo!!)

 

 

 

 

Tilly's first shoes! -

 

 

And the cupboard from the last post?  I got Mr VTT to put it up - and we'll live with it there for a while - I'm enjoying fiddling with putting different things on it, anyway! -

 

And it 'goes with' the little herb cupboard on the other wall -

 

 

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And, after all that triviality, don't forget the Big If London event on Sat June 8th Enough food for everyone 

 

 "Together we will build a breathtaking field of flowers, with 2 million petals representing the 2 million children that die from hunger every year. We'll create an iconic image showing that we can change this - that there can be enough food in the world for everyone.Thousands of volunteers will have been working to plant a quarter of a million flowers in the shape of an enormous cooking pot, held by human hands. But the pot will be empty. On the day of our rally, come and make your own flower and plant it in the empty space - filling the cooking pot with food to remind G8 leaders that we can make 2013 the beginning of the end of hunger"

 

Template for making flowers  -HERE

 

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Beast Quest, a Birthday, Blooms, and 'But should it go there?'........

Beast Quest? 

If you're a parent / grandparent / teacher of young boys, you may well have heard of the Beast Quest books - INFO HERE  Well, two of my grandsons, Archie and Max, are really into these books and were thrilled this week to see the books 'come alive' at Hay Festival. And Archie (on the far left) won the Beast Quest bingo! - 

A Birthday? 

Tilly was 1 this week!

 

Lots of help from cousins in playing with new toys! -

 

 

"Fresh fruit?"  "Pah! - more choc cake!" -

Blooms? 

Lots of flowers emerged over the sunny Bank Holiday weekend (they're now slowly drowning in heavy rain :(  )

 

And I recovered a stool, in rose material - somewhat prettier than the brown material it had -

'But should it go there?'  -

We have a large blank wall in the kitchen - and from time to time we think about putting something there. I myself have in mind a long clean white floating shelf on which I artfully display........... anyway, enough of that idle fancy. Today I found this shelf unit and I'm wondering if it would look right on the blank wall. What do you think?

 

(The brown shelves are just propping it there, obviously!)