Post Comment Love 22 - 25 August

Hello there, and welcome to this week’s #PoCoLo - a relaxed, friendly linky which I co-host with Suzanne, where you can link any blog post published in the last week. We know you’ll find some great posts to read, and maybe some new-to-you blogs too, so do pop over and visit some of the posts linked, comment and share some of that love. It’s a bank holiday weekend here in the UK so the linky will stay open until 11pm on Monday

Please don’t link up posts which are older as they will be removed, and if you see older posts are linked then please don’t feel that it’s necessary to comment on those. If you were here last week it was great to have you along, if you’re new here we’re pleased you’ve joined us.

This week we’ve finally made great strides in getting the garage sorted, and by we, I mean the Royal ‘we’ - we’re (and that’s me) almost close to ordering some racking which will help both in the shorter term and longer term to get organised and to finally get things out of boxes. Neither of us can wait.

It was also the week that the air base a few villages along held their Family Day, and once again we benefitted from a spectacular air show above our own house. I was pleased to see the Red Arrows back this year, and especially pleased when I looked at the photos I snapped. There’s a couple of great ones despite the clouds, including the one below.

Have a great week.

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Gardening in 2050?

* I was invited to this year’s Gardeners’ World Live and provided with a pair of tickets to the show, therefore all my posts will be marked as 'Ad’ though as usual my views and opinions are very much my own.

As I stepped into the shed, which was the entrance to this garden, I knew I was going to like it. They say first impressions count, and this to do list (who doesn’t love a list?!) and mix of vintage items, along with the humour had me hooked. Entering through a shed was definitely a point of difference so hats off to the garden’s designer Vivien Mosely, and of course to The Botanical Gardener who brought the design to life.

The garden offers a glimpse into the future, so the blurb said.

It’s set in 25 years time, where water resources are limited and the landscape is parched. Which unfortunately may be a realistic outlook if this summer and it’s four heatwaves (so far) are anything to go by, unless we get better at capturing water, as there was certainly plenty of it about in the first few months of the year.

But also, 2050 is 25 years away - surely 2050 is in a future space age, not within actual reach. We can all remember 25 years in the past (well, if we’re old enough to) and often it’s forty years ago that feels like it was much closer.

But anyway back to the garden.

2050 is a garden that invites visitors to consider how gardening will change, and what plant species we can plant in our gardens today that will also thrive in the future. And my own increasing addiction to succulents isn’t lost on me either, here they’re used in a stunning and dramatic way to replace the ‘lost’ water.

By using derelict artefacts and features evoking a sense of nostalgia the garden reminds us that we don’t miss the water until the well runs dry, but also that we can create something beautiful as we adapt to the changing climate.

There’s definitely something to think about there, and how we adapt our planting now, whether we do that consciously, or sub-consciously as the garden centres change their offering looking towards the longer-term.

And this garden shows, it can still be beautiful and attractive. I’m not one for a water feature in the garden, but a fountain of succulents, now that would be something else wouldn’t it?

While at the show I was keen to eye up seating areas, especially those that might be on gravel. And this one delivered all of that. It’s something I’d been thinking about for our garden here - though I’m not sure if the gravel would work in reality. It’d be like walking across lego once you’d kicked back and kicked off your flip flops wouldn’t it?

I like the architectural detail around the sunken seating area, and spent quite a while thinking if a sunken area could work in our garden. Then I realised it would probably annoy me, and make me feel constrained, and that along with the prospect of finding much builder’s rubble consigned the idea for our garden to history!

But it doesn’t make me love this garden any less, what do you think?

* With thanks to Gardeners’ World for inviting me to Gardeners’ World Live, it was quite a show! I’ll be sharing more from my visit to this year’s show throughout the year - I hope you enjoy them as much as I did the show.

A useful velvet box pouch

I’ve recently bought myself a new ‘for workshops’ sewing machine (more on that another time) and as it’s primary use is ‘on the go’ I wanted to make sure it was easy to transport, so bought a sewing machine bag to carry it in. After the first time taking my new machine out, I realised that I needed a pouch to house the foot pedal and cables - I know, what were the odds of me needing another pouch?!

I wanted something relatively soft as this pouch will live in the ‘throat’ of the machine - the gap between the needle and the main part of the sewing machine on the right hand side. You’ll not be surprised to learn that I’ve kept various furnishing fabric samples over the years, and it was these I had in mind for this boxy pouch.

I’ve not made a boxy pouch before, and I didn’t have a pattern but I reckoned, how hard can it be?

I laid out the materials which I planned to use - the velvet ones are from upholstery samples when we were considering a velvet sofa in our previous home, and the patterned samples are from the large footstool we now have in our bedroom. It seems I know what colours I like, which is a good thing as they all are a similar tone and all work together.

When I had the fabrics sewn together - and had cursed my idea for using velvet without using the walking foot on my sewing machine - I checked again that the foot pedal would fit. It would probably be tight, but we were good.

I wanted a jazzy lining and so the navy flower burst material which came in a scrap pack I bought online was perfect. There was a fair bit of that too, which is always a bonus when it’s a fabric you like, but I did need to join it - but as that would be inside, that wasn’t an issue.

With the lining and outer materials attached and turned through, I edged the cross outline. After this I decided that it would probably work best to assemble the pouch with hand sewing. That would save any more arguments with the sewing machine, and the velvet and would also mean that I had as much space as possible to fit the pedal into the pouch, which after all is what it was all about. I didn’t mind if some of the lining showed on the outside either.

A toning brown popper completed the ad-hoc boxy pouch. I think it’s looking pretty dapper, as well as functional and practical, and gives me my own unique addition to my ‘to go’ sewing machine bag.

And it really wasn’t that hard at all.