blackbird

Love this time of year! Gorgeous long sunny days, usually not too hot or dry, and the rest of a hopefully long lazy summer stretched out ahead. Thanks to good Spring weather, the garden is absolutely bursting with blossom and fresh green shoots and looking it's very best at the moment - thankfully seducing my DH into developing his green fingers for a change this year ... and he's loving it!

After a massive clear out of wild blackberries and weeds in late April and a back-breaking digging over, (even proudly adding a sprinkle of home-made compost!), the vegetable boxes have been planted with red cabbages, beans, lettuces and shallots, and elsewhere herbs and tomatoes have been squeezed in to borders and potatoes stacked in stray buckets and tubs. Previous years' tayberries, blueberries and strawberries are plumping up once again - in fact, everything's shaping up nicely for those yummy summer muffins, salads and ices.

From top to bottom, left to right: tayberries, pyracanthus, peony, monarch,
lavendar, foxglove, smokebush and a mixed herb bed

Top left: cabbages and beans. Top right: blueberries.
Of course this all prettry tantilizing for rabbits, Sugar and Spice (bottom)

We're also busy preparing for holidays. Not our own exactly, but our two girls are are both off on separate school trips to Normandy and Somerset at the end of the month and I've been inundated with kit-lists, wish-lists and post-it notes everywhere reminding me about timings, schedules, emergency contacts, medical consent, diet sheets etc etc

And I'm trying really hard not to increase my burgeoning yarn stash at the moment or start another shawl. Instead I'm trying to finish my works-in-progress and planning ahead for Autumn / Christmas gifts - if you knew how unorganised I am you would understand. The good news is though that I have finished the lovely Clapotis this weekend thanks to a very very long day at the girls' music centre's annual garden party picnicing on strawberries and cream and listening to those very talented children performing a succession of soothing classics - my favourite was the cello quartet playing Pachelbel's Canon - sigh, a blissful afternoon.

Finished Measurements: Approx 60 x 12(-20) inches, unblocked
Materials: Skein Queen Elegance in Plumcious, DK, 2 skeins (200g)
Needles: I used 4mm which was smaller than pattern suggested.
Pattern: Clapotis by Kate Gilbert