My garden in June

Well it seems the good weather did continue didn’t it - right the way through June! Though thankfully, even though I was away, no more of my plants have crisped up. The roses though have had a tough time, and after recovering from the crispiness last month came the white fly, and then the black fly - but they’re still going, so it’s no wonder that roses are quickly becoming known as one of the most tolerant and hardy plants.

When we came home it was clear they’d flowered, and I was sorry to have missed those flowers - along with the iris and the yucca in the front border, sigh! Note to self: go on holiday at a different time of year!

I’d also missed my peonies flowering, but at least I still saw some of the petals which had fallen. There’s one bud remaining, but that is steadfastly refusing to flower, no doubt sulking!

Our lavender bushes were clearly not sulking though, they were full of flower and scent, and they gave a hint of what else the garden had to offer. We knew it had been warm while we were away and so I was keen to see how my pots had fared.

But first, the borders seemed to have fared ok, even thrived. I missed seeing the yucca flowers in all its glory, this was all that remained of the fading flowers, so that will have to wait for another year, probably a few in reality.

The crab apples were plentiful and still crab apple-ing, as they do.

And the tomatoes were doing well, there was the hint of a teeny tiny fruit when we got home and over the next few days and weeks with more regular watering, and feeding both plants have produced many trusses of tomatoes. I’m particularly obsessed with the black variety, and the largest of those is currently just a bit larger than a good sized cherry tomato.

The roses were still throwing up buds, and the promise of more flowers - which have been well and truly delivered since we’ve been home. More deadheading is required right now, but I’m hopeful that these will give us enough flowers to be able to enjoy.

My quest to find the perfectly sized standard olive tree started. And in fact it concluded pretty quickly, on only the second garden centre we visited. Up to this point, I never realised how many different sized and shaped olive trees were in garden centres, but I found the size and height that I was after, and after a bit of active demonstrating with various pots and a strong dose of imagination I persuaded MOH it was the perfect one.

He didn’t seem that convinced, but we bought it anyway. Now I realised my issue is having enough soil - and not just bagged compost - for the very large pot it’s destined for. I’ve also been trying to source some of that large, chunky polystyrene to use as drainage, but I haven’t had much joy with that either… yet!

I’ve a trugful of other plants to plant up too - these are mostly herbs and succulents from our short garden centre Olive hunt and some spoils from our day at Gardeners’ World Live, I need to do these really. I even have a pot plan for which goes where, such is the short supply of proper pots right now, and I’m in that place of not knowing where to start. Of course I know the answer, which of course is just to start as that’s the best thing to do.

This is the current status of my sickest bay tree, and it too has made quite a recovery. There’s still some yellow leaves but the diluted tomato feed and some general care and attention, and probably also some sun has done wonders.

Elsewhere the Southern Globe Thistles bought at the Newark Garden Show are starting to form their globes, which I hope will turn blue during the next month or two. And in the last few days I’ve noticed that one of my succulents (bought at last year’s Gardeners’ World Show) is also starting to flower - I’m excited to see what that brings.

The berries on the Rowan tree are starting to turn towards orange from green, and there’s plenty of them too. I’m looking forward to seeing their pops of bright orange again, though I don’t want to wish the summer away.

And yes, the peony bud still hasn’t flowered - and in all honesty, it’s probably not going to now. But what’s almost as fascinating is the pattern and structure of the basal plate where the fallen bloom once was. It’s quite a piece of art, isn’t it?

A quilty update

It’s been a few months since I posted my quilt plans for this year, and so I thought I’d stop and reflect for a moment to see how things were going. In that post I set out six projects I wanted to work on this year, and then added in a final stretch project.

I’ve realised that the ‘stretch project’ to make a quilt a month is dominating my sewing, and so while I’m ‘on target’ (mostly) with that, I haven’t got as close to where I’d like to be with the other projects. So this post is to also help keep myself accountable, and to make sure I change that.

It’s not all bad though, I have made some gorgeous quilts and my confidence and skill levels are increasing. So much so that there’s a further surprise and addition to my sewing repertoire which I’m expecting to post later this week!

So how am I doing?

1 The teal flying geese

To say this one is still percolating would be a lie, it’s on the back burner. It’s still on my To Do list but not close to the top yet.

2 The mystery block a month

I’m doing much better at this one, and even though I’m working to a more relaxed timetable being a month behind the pattern releases it’s going well. I knew being away last month would scupper my plans a little, but I’m ok with that.

• January: Log cabin block

• February: Vintage star block

• March: Heart block

• April: Friendship star block

I’ve yet to start the May block, and the June block has already been released but I think with a gentler timescale for these few months I should be ok. Hopefully that’s true, and not famous last words!

3 The jeans and pyjamas

I thought that this would be the one I’d start the soonest. I’ve even got as far as sorting out some jeans to use, and the pyjama fabrics from my stash. I’ve recently added another pair of pyjama bottoms to that pile as I realised that the waistband was wearing out through use!

Other than that though I’ve yet to start this one, but I still think this one will happen this year.

4 The Essex linen kisses

I have made progress here - yay! Earlier in the year I’d cut the colourful, patterned scraps into 3 inch squares and even sourced and bought a darker grey Essex linen fabric for the background. Of course that’s not just plain, it’s got a gold tinge to it so the quilt will be rather special I think.

Last week, when I realised I wasn’t making progress on ‘my’ quilts just the stretch project this was the one I turned to, so I was right when I predicted that I thought this would be the one to start first.

I started to play with the layout one evening, aiming to have the colours wash from neutrals through to the much more brightly coloured fabrics. And it wasn’t as easy as I thought, but I ended up with a layout I liked.

I thought I’d better start sewing before I forgot my carefully laid plans, and pinning strategy. And the next day, before long I was able to lay out the blocks something close to my original plan.

I’m really pleased with this - and pleased it’s worked out just as I imagined in my head!

Clearly it’s not the largest quilt in the world, but with some sashing and borders it will, I hope, be large enough to be our go to picnic blanket, and one that’s way more stylish than our current rug.

Watch this space on this one!

5 My floral fancy

This one remains on the craft mat in the corner of my craft room. It’s still beautiful and mostly the pieces are still in the place they should be, but not much progress here.

I’m still collecting grey materials to extend the quilt, and have bought myself a sizzix machine and templates so I can cut out more flowers and leaves for the extended quilt.

I’d like to think I would have picked this one up before now if I hadn’t changed my sewing machine, but I know that my new machine will be make this one much easier to work on.

6 My English Paper Piecing (EPP) blue diamonds

This was always going to be my slow burning hand sewing project, and it is just that. I’ve added some more to the pile of completed blocks, and I’ll continue to do that over the next few months. Hopefully with a bit more speed than at present.

And the ‘stretch’ project

This one is the one that’s been getting all the attention and delivering all the results. Partly because it has a monthly schedule, and because I’m using it to burn through my stash (albeit slowly) and to build my skills and confidence.

All of these quilts will be donated to charity, so far there’s these:

• Flying Geese kit quilt

• Noughts and crosses

• A log cabin log cabin

• A mostly repurposed vintage star

• Four pink hearts and a hug

• The Friendly Bee.

And there is more to come, but I don’t want these to be my sole quilt outputs this year - so I need to work out that balance, alongside normal life too. It’s still going to be a busy rest of the year, and hopefully a productive one too.

Stay tuned…

This June...

At the end May we were away flying to Chicago from Heathrow just after the Bank holiday, and my plan was to stay off socials pretty much, which with the time difference was a good call. It meant that in the run up to our break I was busy getting ahead of myself and scheduling blog posts for the duration of our trip. Staying off socials meant that I didn’t want to include details of the trip in my May update, but I’m happy to do that now.

USA baby

We flew to Chicago spending four nights there exploring both the city and the nature it offered. My highlights here were the boardwalks by the Lincoln Park Zoo, trying (and being beaten) by a Chicago Deep Dish pizza in the city of its name, and a fabulous birthday meal at Gibson’s Chicago Steakhouse. Next we took an Amtrak train across to Seattle, this epic adventure took 2 days and 2 nights, and while it wasn’t exactly luxury it was a great experience.

We spent four nights in Seattle - my best moment was our visit to the Dale Chihuly exhibition and gardens in the grounds of the Space Needle, truly, truly amazing. I’ve so many more pictures to share from this, and the whole trip, but here’s a teaser:

And Canada too

Then we were back on the Amtrak, this time taking a much shorter journey across the border to Vancouver for another four nights. Here we met up with MOH’s cousin and her family; we haven’t seen them for far too many years and it was great to spend time with them. There was lunch, brunch and another lunch out and a seaplane trip for some, and a good old natter and catch up for others.

We stayed in English Bay, a very chill part of Vancouver which was even busier than usual as a lot of Canadians seemed to be staying home rather than heading over the border this year, and the high unexpected temperatures. Luckily we’d packed for all eventualities, but we were close to running out of our more summery clothes - which is far better than not having the opportunity to wear them at all.

We celebrated our eighteenth wedding anniversary while in Vancouver, and to mark the occasion we hired bikes and did a couple of laps around Stanley Park. A couple of laps was unintentional, but we hadn’t realised that the path was one way, so once we’d found the Totem Poles we decided to just go around again. That worked out well as we realised when we stopped just how warm it was - and don’t worry, I’d hired an e-bike so it really was fine by me.

Actually the e-bike worked out well - picture the Canadian equivalent of a Boris bike and you’re close to the model I had, and even that meant I enjoyed the ride much more than on a manual bike, so it’s something I’m seriously considering now we’re home.

Hot, hot, hot

It seems the unexpected heat came home with us as we walked back into a heatwave when we got off the plane at Heathrow, and there’s been another one this past weekend. It has been very warm, and uncomfortable - but strangely very windy too.

That first weekend we were back we headed off to Gardeners’ World Live in Birmingham (#Ad - I was invited to and provided with a pair of tickets for the show) visiting on the last day of the show for the first time. Given the scarcity of public transport options here on a Sunday morning I drove there in my new car - my first long drive, and that was great as it really gave me the opportunity to get used to it. Which seems a strange thing to say as although it’s the same make and model as my previous car, this one’s a hybrid - and I must say, I’m loving the petrol consumption and efficiency.

Wildly blissful

I’ve also spent the last week on the month at home alone, and it’s been bliss. I’ve had things planned in most days and I’ve kept myself busy, even starting my Essex Linen kisses quilt - more on that tomorrow. MOH has spent the week in Ireland cycling parts of the Wild Atlantic Way with some of his cycling buddies, and while the timing has been a bit of ‘everything all at once’, to be honest I’m surprised they managed to make it happen at all.

The weather there was more in keeping with what you’d imagine from a route with wild in its name, with temperatures a good ten degrees below those here. He told me that everything he took was damp, and needs drying out, so you can imagine how much I was looking forward to that when he got home!

In more mundane news, I’ve got the right sized olive tree for my large pot - but I don’t think I have enough soil to fill the pot, and so far nothing has come of my post in the local Facebook groups, so it’s likely that we’ll be off to the garden centre again soon.

Post-holiday food shopping really is dull, though the offer on a favourite Rose wine sweetened the trip a little. The heat pump was serviced, and a small leak was eliminated. MOH’s been to see a chiropractor, which seems to be doing the trick, I’ve had my annual health check - and passed (I think!), and treated myself to a luxurious 90 minute massage, and I’ve been along to a new-to-me DanceFit class, as sadly while I was away my regular Zumba class ended. I’m very sad about that.

But the best thing about being back?

Finally, a decent cup of tea, how I missed a cuppa while I was away!

If you want to read my previous monthly updates in my ‘This is’ series you’re very welcome.