Leaving flowers and a crocheted throw

For the past few weeks the house has been full of flowers and it’s been lovely. I’ve appreciated their bright colours and the scent and the thoughtfulness from my former colleagues. They were beginning to go past their best, as cut flowers do, but it was good to have them at their best for a good two weeks before we came away. It struck me as I was removing some of the blooms that hadn’t lasted quite so well that the colours were very similar to the crocheted blanket I was close to finishing. And so that became my challenge - to finish, or almost finish - the throw before the flowers completely went.

My aim was to photograph them together. And I did.

The crocheted throw is in the very loosest terms ‘finished’. It’s finished in that I’ve used up all of the Yarn Advent box from last December, and the two additional skeins that I’d bought to offer some consistency through the project. I knew this was always going to be a colourful blanket, and I wasn’t wrong was I?!

But what I didn’t know at the time -and couldn’t have known as the Yarn Advent is 24 individual small skeins where the colour is a surprise - is how well they would match my leaving flowers, but they do, don’t they?

So this blanket will now forever be known as my leaving flowers throw, and nothing could make me happier.

I’ve still to completely finish the throw by sewing in the ends, and I may add a couple more rows to enlarge it a little - though I’ll need to keep the colours bright, but I’ve a feeling that will be easy enough. And what a great unplanned memory to have of my leaving my job flowers.

My garden in April

This month the garden has really come back to life, and that’s meant there’s been plenty for us to do and to admire too. I’ve been raving about my tulips throughout the month, and thanking organised me for getting them sorted in the autumn. And because I’ve been raving about them so much - rightly because they’ve been brilliant - I’ll be sharing them in all their glory in a separate post. So it’s safe, this is a tulip-free zone.

While the predominant colour in our garden remains green, this month we’ve been through the full spectrum of colours from the blues, whites and pale pinks of the bluebells, to the yellow of the forsythia and kerria and the gorgeous reds and pinks of the hellebore, acer and more recently the weigela - which as you can see is just getting set to burst into flower.

The deepest red of the hellebore was also very welcome - we have dusky pink varieties at the back of our garden, which do a really good job of self-seeding and keeping themselves going (long may that continue). This one was one we brought back from my MIL’s garden, and so it was great to see it flourish and flower in its new spot, and for it to reward us with such beauty.

We continued to tackle jobs around the garden, with the greenhouse getting a light tidy to match that of the shed last month. And like the shed I’m sure it’ll fill up again real soon!

The berries on the fatsia were - and are still going strong - they’ve since darkened and reduced, no doubt the local bird population making good use of them. The zingy lime green euphorbias brought a welcome zing of colour, which was set off really well against the rusting black iron pot behind them.

Elsewhere in the garden, the yellow pom pom plant which has moved in from next door was full of blooms and at the back of the garden the cherry tree had its blossom on show too - that seemed early, but I’m not sure it is, it’s just that the weather hasn’t been where it would usually be up until now. There were some lovely days this month, but very little rain and most days were a tad overcast.

But nature is intent and consistent in doing its thing. I think every year I’m amazed by this and how nature just knows. The ferns too are fascinating to observe as they unfurl (though not in real time), and it’s especially good when my iPhone picks up the furriness of their stems.

MOH has spent many hours on his knees this month, chip, chip, chipping out the old grout before regrouting the patio and fixing the slab that wobbled a bit as you walked across it. It looks great and I know he’s pleased with it too - and it should last for a good few years yet.

We have watched our neighbour’s camellia bushes flower and fade, we know ours is always late to the party - but April is pretty late, especially considering it looks as if the four plants in adjacent gardens are very similar. One (not ours obviously) has the audacity to flower at Christmas some years, and yet here we are waiting for ours - but when it does, it’s definitely worth the wait.

Another of my favourites is our peonies, and while they flower they flop a lot and the ants take over. I was keen to avoid that this year, as once this happens I’m less keen on bringing them into the house, and so I had a plan. It seems that I’ve lost a plant over winter, which is a shame but the remaining two were doing well and were already quite tall. I thought I might have missed my chance, but decided to go ahead anyway. And so, my two remaining peonies are now in pots and staked, staked much earlier than before - and easier to achieve too thanks to the pots. I’ve been very lucky as they have both continued to grow with no obvious ill effects from moving at such a late stage, whether or not I get any flowers this year (and whether or not they’ll stay upright for longer) remains to be seen, but hopefully I’m in with a chance.

We’ve had one more new addition to our garden this month, and that’s this lovely acer. It’s another plant that MOH has brought back from his family home, and one that needed a bit of ‘surgery’ so that it would fit in the car along with everything else. This was trickier than it should have been as the majority of garden tools had already been moved or given away, but I found some old secateurs that were just about up to the job. I also had to put it into a temporary smaller pot for the journey, so while we were hopeful it would survive, we knew we were taking a chance.

It’s thrived. And I’m so happy. It lasted in its temporary pot for a short while, and then has moved to a much larger, more permanent pot. Strangely one that for the past year or so hasn’t really had much of a purpose - but now it does. The acer is sitting proudly on our patio, which means it gets some sun for part of the day, and it’s doing really well.

Phew. Nature really isn wonderful isn’t it?

A posh lunch out

Last Saturday MOH and I got our glad rags on and headed out for a posh lunch, we even put proper shoes on. Mine weren’t quite the heels I once would have worn out, but small steps and all that. As it turned out, it was a good test for the wedding we’re off to later this month, so that’s all good.

Lunch was at Gravetye Manor in West Sussex, and yes, we were back - it’s been a while, but it remains one of our favourite places. It’s not somewhere we go often and is definitely in the treat category, which makes it all the more enjoyable. The attention to detail is phenomenal, and nothing is overlooked. This small table decoration in the lounge is a great example of that - a yellow tulip, and leaves and flowers from a strawberry plant shows how simple can also be effective.

The menu cover picks up the detail of the image panels on the walls around the restaurant, and the view over the garden is absolutely stunning.

And the food. Well, I even managed to remember to take pictures before I started to eat. This was my starter of asparagus, it looks a picture and the taste was sublime. I followed this with hogget and wild garlic and finished with the intriguing fennel, honey and lime - which was nothing like you’d expect, or I’d be able to recreate. All of it was absolutely delicious, and it was great to see more dishes around the table as between our table we managed a good selection from the menu for each course.

The yellow tulips, along with gorse and the purple-blue irises formed another stylish but not dominating table centre.

As it was such a glorious day we opted to have coffee in the garden, which was full of spring flowers - and clearly is well looked after.

There’s plenty of grounds to explore, but after a good lunch and in our finery, a walk to the walled kitchen garden was all we were up for. But even so, the route there was calming and enticing. It was slightly further than I remembered, and previously I’d done this in heels, but we got to the iron gate and let ourselves in.

It’s another huge space, and needs to be as the produce from the garden is used in the kitchen - but what a space.

We headed back towards the restaurant taking a different route, one stepped and easier to navigate, but definitely no less colourful only to be greeted back at the stone porch by the cheeriest pots of fully in bloom tulips. They definitely make your heart sing, don’t they?

Throughout the public spaces there were large arrangements of flowers, all of which we’d seen growing in the gardens. We stopped for a picture making use of one of the large mirrors, and we just about snuck in alongside one of the large displays - so here’s us wearing flowers, in amongst the flowers.

We might not be back for a while, but I’m pretty certain we’ll be back at some point.