Sunday is gardening day!

We had some really fine weather over the last two days and my flame tulips opened right up. I’ve been watching them growing from my sun-lounge and couldn’t wait to see them open up. Here they are in all their splendour.

and the camellia bush is flowering early this year. That’s a bonus. There are lots of flowers on it and such a joy to see.

and before I forget, the butterflies are out and about too. I just managed to catch this one sunning its wings in the sunshine. It’s a peacock – gorgeous, aren’t they.

Have you seen any butterflies recently?

Today is Mothers’ Day in England. We are earlier than most places. I consider myself very lucky today. I have had two visits and a phone call.

Thinking of my own mother, who died in 1992, I remember a very Dutch lady who loved her tulips. So here is a toast to my mum and her tulips.

Is there a flower that you associate with your own mother? If so, which one comes to mind?

Oma

 

 

My grandson Dylan, update

My grandson Dylan is into super heroes, especially Spiderman. Here he is in his spiderman sunglasses. Looks the part doesn’t he!

We haven’t seen him too much lately because he’s been going to Nursery. Don’t they grow up quickly!

ChildhoodChildhood, sweet and sunny childhood, With its careless, thoughtless air, Like the verdant, tangled wildwood, Wants the training hand of care.See it springing all around us — Glad to know, and quick to learn; Asking questions that confound us; Teaching lessons in its turn. Who loves not its joyous revel, Leaping lightly on the lawn, Up the knoll, along the level, Free and graceful as a fawn? Let it revel; it is nature Giving to the little dears Strength of limb, and healthful features, For the toil of coming years. He who checks a child with terror, Stops its play, and stills its song, Not alone commits an error, But a great and moral wrong. Give it play, and never fear it — Active life is no defect; Never, never break its spirit — Curb it only to direct. Would you dam the flowing river, Thinking it would cease to flow? Onward it must go forever — Better teach it where to go. Childhood is a fountain welling, Trace its channel in the sand, And its currents, spreading, swelling, Will revive the withered land. Childhood is the vernal season; Trim and train the tender shoot; Love is to the coming reason, As the blossom to the fruit. Tender twigs are bent and folded — Art to nature beauty lends; Childhood easily is moulded; Manhood breaks, but seldom bends. David Bates

I hope this Wednesday brings you joy 🙂

 

Oma

Strip Patchwork

Yesterday I posted about the scrap patchwork. What I chose to do was the strip or string patchwork, which is the same thing really but a bit more structured. I chose to do that because I had so many bits and pieces left over from the American themed quilt I made for Larry. For those of you who wouldn’t know where to start with this type of patchwork and for those of you who just like watching ‘How to do…’ videos, here is a good one from Missouri Quilts:

I intend to make mine into a table runner but I may just keep going with it till it gets a bit bigger. I’ll post again when I’ve made some progress.

 

Oma

 

My Patchwork Club

Every Monday afternoon for ‘so many’ sessions, I go to my Patchwork Club.  It is held in a church hall and some of the money collected each week goes towards the church funds. I think it’s a lovely idea, don’t you. It gives the chance for we ladies of a certain age and younger (also one or two men) to come along and chat, make new friends and sew in a nice environment.  It does get a bit noisy sometimes.

We make lots of nice things, which we can use afterwards or give away as presents. During this latest session, the theme has been on ‘scrap patchwork’, which basically means using up all the scraps of fabric that are lurking in your basket, or large cardboard box or whatever. Here is an example of scrap patchwork:

I liked this next one best. I liked the way the stripes gave opportunities for lots of different colour schemes. In this example, half of the square was plain cream coloured calico but for mine I chose the purples and pinks.

I tried to crop the pictures a bit in Picasa, but it wasn’t playing the game so please just look at the centre of the pictures to get the gist of the different arrangements. They are displayed on a large board at the club to give us all inspiration.

The next picture shows scrapping but using bird pictures in the centres of some of the squares. It’s so pretty and such a good use of those little bits and pieces:

The cushion cover in the last pictures is lovely, isn’t it?  The lady who made is is currently away suffering from shingles, poor thing. I hope she gets well soon.

I have made enough squares now for a table runner and this afternoon I am hoping to sew some of them together.

Oma

Busy Hands

While I was in America, I introduced Larry to rug making. I didn’t know if he would like it, but he certainly did. We started him off with the rug of the deer, see above. It’s now hanging on his bedroom wall, right above his bed and looks wonderful, don’t you think?

After making about five other rugs of varying sizes whilst he was waiting to come over here, he decided to design one for himself. This is it below and I think he’s done a great job of it too. He plotted out the chart in Excel and then ordered the back-cloth and the yarns to make it. It took a while because it is very thick and luxurious, but now he has something he can be truly proud of.

I’ll be showing you some more crafty items that Larry has made. He really is very talented.

Meanwhile I progress with my patchwork. Here are some squares I made recently. When joined together they will be a table runner.

I chose pinks and purples because I had quite a few bits and pieces of fabric left over from making the quilt for Larry’s bed.

Here is the quilt:

The picture turned out a bit dark, but you get the idea, and here are the squares I’m making:

So we keep ourselves busy. Busy hands don’t get into trouble, do they!

Have a lovely Sunday 🙂

Oma

A Walk Along The Canal Side – bliss.

A walk along the canal side is always going to bring joy. Last Thursday, the weather turned bright and cheerful, so we set off to walk beside the water to enliven our spirit and enjoy the softness of feeling that being beside water always brings. Come with me as I walk and listen to the sounds of Spring.

The is the Grand Union Canal.

What is life without music?

Music has played a very large part in my life – for pleasure and for work. Since I’ve now upgraded this blog, I can at last share with you my favourite plays.

I want you to enjoy this clip from Estas Tonne. I wonder how many times you will play it over? Once maybe? or perhaps endlessly, like I do.

I am a European and very much keen on passion in music. For me Estas Tonne has it all and I am quite hooked.

See what you think…

When should I plant out my geranium (pelargonium) cuttings?

Back last August, I took lots of geranium cuttings.  So what has happened to them since, you may be wondering. Well they are doing just fine thank you. The smallest ones have been on my window sill all winter and now they are bursting to go outside. Since we could still have frosts at night, I am waiting till April to plant them out and meantime I am enjoying the daffodils in the border first. You can see how big the cuttings are in the first picture above.

The rest of the plants, which I had in the back garden last summer, were brought in in October before the first frosts arrived. They have been sunning themselves in the ‘den’ at the back of the cottage all winter. Now they are getting a bit leggy and want to go outside, but first they must be hardened off. I shall be doing that soon.

Geraniums, or to give them their proper name, pelargoniums, are easy to grow and quick to propagate so they are ideal for beginners to gardening and for me because there is such a high success rate. I like to make sure that I get a continuity of colour each year so I take care, when propagating, to get an equal number of red, white, pink and peach plants. Each year it seems that one or other does better than the rest and, of course, I am always on the look out for new colours. I would love to have a blue one, but blue is not the most prolific colour in the plant world.

Like the primrose, the geranium is not particularly attractive to bees for pollinating. The primrose (which I wrote about yesterday) relies on small insects to spread its seeds and the geraniums need a bit of help from me!

This is one of the pink ones, which is longing to get outside. It’s such a delicate colour, isn’t it.

Millie thinks I’m mad, messing about with plants all the time; you can tell from her expression while she is watching me:

So today it is fine and sunny outside and so I may go out and poggle about with the fork! First I have to think about something for dinner?

What are you having for dinner today?

Oma

The Humble Primrose

I have just upgraded my blog to Premium because I ran out of space so now I return with some pictures of the lovely primroses and primulas, which have been growing in my cottage garden just lately. The first picture shows the humble primrose, although it is quite spectacular really especially after our wet and miserable winter. The next pictures are primulas, which have been cultivated by the growers from the original primrose into large blooms with brighter colours. I am not showing here today the other two members of the family, namely the Primula veris (the cowslip) or the Primular auricula (the auricula).

‘The Primula genus belongs to the Primulaceae family. In general terms, it is a genus of about 400 species, some of which hybridize very easily. They are deciduous winter-green plants, some of which are only half-hardy. All are perennial and produce flowers (often on long stems, sometimes on short ones) from central rosettes of low basal leaves.

The primrose (the Latin name P. vulgaris means ‘common’; sometimes this species is called P. acaulis, meaning ‘with stem’) is one of the first spring flowers to bloom and is a plant that is found throughout Europe.  It is a native perennial in Britain, found in woods, grassy areas and hedge banks.’

From Flower Wisdom by Katherine Kear

My Memoirs – My granddad Fred Mills, circa 1922.

I am writing these memoirs for my three sons. I hope they read them one day and find them interesting.

In the picture are: on back row, my Nanna Ethel Mills and my Granddad Fred Mills.

On the front row, from left to right are my Uncle Bert, My Dad, also called Fred Mills like his father, aged about three and my Auntie Connie who is thirteen years older than my dad.

They are enjoying a day at the seaside, but I don’t know where the picture was taken.

I recently came upon some information about my Granddad Fred and would like to share it with you below. It is an entry on page 239 from the Journal of the Great War, 1914 – 1918.

‘MILLS, F., Gunner, Royal Garrison Artillery.

He joined in June 1916 and in the following year was sent to France.  In this theatre of war he fought in many engagements, including the Battle of the Somme, and during his service overseas he was stationed at Etaples for some time.  He was discharged in May 1918 on account of service and holds the General Service and Victory Medals.’

His address is given as 71 Salisbury Road, Luton, Bedfordshire, England.

Looking at the picture above, it is almost inconceivable to me that World War II ever took place.  How could the world ever go down that route again?? My dad, so small and innocent in the picture, went on to fight the Germans in Holland, but that is another story and not for this post.

I remember my Granddad with great fondness. He was very kind. He smoked a pipe and as a child I loved to watch him filling his pipe and lighting it. In later years it was one of the few pleasure in life left to him because he suffered very badly from rheumatoid arthritis (the scourge of my family) and endured much pain for many years. Eventually he could no longer climb the steep stairs in his house to get to bed so a bed was made up for him in the front room at Salisbury Road.

On the day that he died my mother was visiting. He was lying on his bed when she arrived. He sat up, in his vest and raised his arms above his head, which was something he hadn’t done for years! ‘Look, I can move my arms’ he said with joy. Later that day, he died.