Flowers!

This week has been interesting for me. After a long enforced rest brought about by sickness, I returned to work. Great for self esteem and bank account, but a bit of a shock to the system if I'm honest. Glad to report it felt much easier by the end of the week. The unfortunate side effect of actually having a job (of sorts - I'm self employed and book work where and when I can) is that I don't have so much time for crafting and blogging. The horror! Because M and I have relatively little time together, we have decided to make the weekends count by making an effort to go out. Today was gardening day.

As I have said previously, we are lucky enough to have an allotment rented from our council, and M works incredibly hard to put veg on the table. Up until recently we have shared the plot with friends, but now work the whole area. M has allowed me a raised bed to plant flowers, the idea being that we don't have a sunny garden at home in which to grow things I like, and it will help to encourage the bees. Above are pics of todays work, and below are stock images of the flowers I have planted. If you have never smelled chocolate cosmos, it is a revelation. Gorgeous. We have two types of lavender for cakes and scented pillows etc, marigolds for colour and edibilty and other bits for pure prettiness. There is a good range of foliage for year round interest (they seem to say that a lot on gardening programmes) and I think they all have long flowering periods so we'll have colour all summer. Next to the plot we have a home-constructed obelisk with sweet peas, and a small bush made up of lemon balm and oregano. M has also planted sunflowers along the end of the plot which will look lovely. I wonder if he'll let me grow a globe artichoke... (they're huge but pretty AND edible)

So, we have down the middle:
Gaillardia 'Goblin'
Liatris spicata 'Kobold' - otherwise known as a 'Gay Feather' (tee hee)
Euphorbia martinii

Lavenders in 2 corners:
Lavendula 'Blue Star'
Lavendula 'Fathead' (tee hee again)

Other larger plants:
Cosmos 'Chocolate'
Petunia 'Littletunia Ultra Purple'
Marigold 'French'

Small filling/trailing plants:
Brachycombe 'Blue Champion'
Bacopa 'White'


Lastly, on the allotment front, our little patio apple tree is doing rather splendidly this year:



Apart from finishing one sock, I've not got much more to report on the craft front. Photos only permitted when I have two! We have discovered via Radio 4 that there will be a vintage design festival at Goodwood next month. Check out the website - 'tis FABULOUS. We have booked a day ticket for the Saturday and can't wait. Now to plan outfits for the occasion. Mmm...