The good old summer time..... UK style!

Wednesday was beautiful - a perfect summer's day.  I took the opportunity to walk through the fields and by the river.  The fields are ready for the hay harvest - full of buttercups and flowering grasses.  The river is in flower too.

In the evening we decided to walk by a local reservoir (The Alwen).  The sun was low in the sky and the shadows long.

The lovely sunset boded well for the following day.

British farmers know they must "make hay while the sun shines" and as we drove home there were tractors pulling hay wagons around almost every bend.

However, true to form we woke on Thursday to leaden skies and a steady downpour that lasted the whole day.  The garden is soggy and dripping but its good for the veg and the field crops.  I do hope all the cut hay was safely gathered in.

And the wet day gave me a chance to get my rather neglected stamps out.  I'm ashamed to say there are a number of sets that have hardly seen ink since their purchase.  I finished 12 covered notepads for my stall at the next fair and felt much better about them.

Today is a better day, though the sun has stayed stubbornly hidden behind the clouds.  We can but hope for a sunny weekend.

Edit:  For Simone, I made a little "how to make" for these pads here some time ago.  Don't know if the pads are still available though as when I revisited Tesco to buy some more they had been reduced to 10p each - so I bought the lot!!!! :o)

On the longest day......

..........what will you be doing today?  Here's what I'm hoping to achieve before bedtime.....

A walk round the garden after the monsoon rainstorm last night.......

I've already done this - the bees are still busy in and out of the foxgloves and pink opium poppies are looking wet but so pretty. 

The scent of the garden, and especially the white clematis, is wonderful after the rain.

Complete a few more rounds of the mandala rug I'm hooking in t-shirt yarn.  I found this great pattern from Marinke here.  After many fruitless searches for suitable t-shirts in charity shops I was SO excited to find I could actually buy it on ebay.  

Get a few more items finished for craft fairs I'm attending in July and August.

Add a few more inspirational pins to my boards, get this post finished for my blog and I'd really like to get round a few of my favourite bloggers and leave a comment!

And a few things I'd LIKE to squeeze in..... a browse through some of my fav magazines, both old and new, and read another chapter of ....

Then of course there are the boring things I just have to get done today, such as washing up all those dishes in the sink since last night, hoover the carpet as there are so many bits coming in on our shoes and paws after the rain, cook something for our lunch, hang up all those clean clothes I've just thrown on my bed, and TIDY UP MY CRAFT DESK so I don't have to work in a space just six inches square!

And finally I need to have a little quality time with Titch before I fall asleep in the chair tonight!

Remembering Dad on Father's day

We all love this photo of my Dad taken in the 1970s by the River Dwyfor at Llanystumdwy near Criccieth.  Dad towed our little caravan to the Lleyn Peninsular every year and the four of us - Dad, Mum, me and my young son, hoped for good weather.  I remember lots of rain but the photographs prove there was lots of sunshine too.  

I love too this poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox as it sums up my Dad very nicely - though he didn't have boys he was always "chum and comrade" to his four daughters.  He was often a comedian too and then we would exclaim "Oh Father!"

Father

He never made a fortune, or a noise
In the world where men are seeking after fame;
But he had a healthy brood of girls and boys
Who loved the very ground on which he trod.
They thought him just little short of God;
Oh you should have heard the way they said his name –
‘Father.’

There seemed to be a loving little prayer
In their voices, even when they called him ‘Dad.’
Though the man was never heard of anywhere,
As a hero, yet somehow understood
He was doing well his part and making good;
And you knew it, by the way his children had
Of saying ‘Father.’

He gave them neither eminence nor wealth,
But he gave them blood untainted with a vice,
And opulence of undiluted health.
He was honest, and unpurchable and kind;
He was clean in heart, and body, and in mind.
So he made them heirs to riches without price –
This father.

He never preached or scolded; and the rod –
Well, he used it as a turning pole in play.
But he showed the tender sympathy of God.
To his children in their troubles, and their joys.
He was always chum and comrade with his boys,
And his daughters – oh, you ought to hear them say
‘Father.’


Now I think of all achievements ‘tis the least
To perpetuate the species; it is done
By the insect and the serpent, and the beast.
But the man who keeps his body, and his thought,
Worth bestowing on an offspring love-begot,
Then the highest earthly glory he was won,
When in pride a grown-up daughter or a son
Says ‘That’s Father.’

Saffron's Garland

A rainy day and a chance to finish the garland I've been making for a work colleague's new baby daughter, Saffron.  Daddy is a chef so its a very appropriate name - and very pretty too.  I haven't yet found a way to photograph garlands satisfactorily but a lull in the heavy showers gave me a chance to hang the garland outside in the yew tree. 

I used the Die-namics Baby Onesie die - we called them babygrows in my day - and spelt out the baby's name in a saffron yellow polka dot print using alphabet dies.  Strung on thick cotton pink and white bakers twine and spaced with natural wooden beads, this was a fairly quick project once I'd decided what to make - so I don't know why its taken me so long to get it finished!

Tatting re-purposed

Here's the prefect way to re-purpose those pretty crochet doilies you can't help buying when ever they turn up in charity shops - or is that just me!  However these two beauties are tatted not crocheted and are just the right size to keep those pesky flying beasties out of my favourite vintage Portmeirion mug.  The tatting is so fine it was difficult to sew the beads on without it showing so I just looked out some crochet thread of the same gauge, knotted them on and the thread ends just seem to blend into the tatting.  (Must try tatting one day!)



This is the very last bottle of 2012 Elderflower Cordial I'd squirreled away at the back of the cupboard, but as its almost time to make the 2013 batch I don't mind breaking into it.  As far as I'm concerned there is nothing more refreshing on a hot summer day than homemade cordial with ice.  I've a mind to try rhubarb this year too as this recipe from Sarah Raven looks as easy as my elderflower.........

even with the "help" of my beautiful Titch!

Coronation Day

Its a long long time since I've posted a scrapbook page.  Here's one I created for the Queen's jubilee last year.  That darkened room in our house in Rhyl, filled with our parents' friends, is an image imprinted on my brain....... they say it rained on the day, 2nd June 1953, so I expect we didn't want to play outside.  And of course after that we had a television set and could watch Andy Pandy, The Flowerpot Men, Rag Tag and Bobtail and The Woodentops in our own house!

Fab Foam

I made decorated this old mirror for my niece's birthday last year and apparently her soon-to-be-7 year old daughter has had her eye on it for her newly decorated bedroom.  So I've been asked to create something similar for the birthday girl.  I found this plain heart shaped mirror at our local bargain basement shop and thought I could do something with it.  I thought craft foam would be more substantial than cardstock or felt and the colours are very girly.  I cut lots of roses using the Die-namics tiny roses die set and some leaves, butterflies and hearts from various other sets.  I used foam sticky pads to attach them.  Hope she likes it. 

May Remembered

Here we are again at the beginning of another month and the year half over already!!  There don't seem to be many makes on my scrapbook page this month but I have been beavering away with my crochet hook most evenings - there just doesn't seem to be much to show for it!