Garden tales- May progress

SecondhandSusie posts monthly about her garden progress and I thought it would be a good record for me to do the same as I try to work in my new garden. Last summer, I shared a few posts about my garden as part of #30dayswild so I thought I'd share.

My Mum came over yesterday and brought some runner-bean seedlings she'd germinated for me- they're grown from my runner beans from last year so my own seeds! I loved her use of egg boxes, cardboard coffee cups and an old meat tray for transportation.

 And here are the Dwarf French Beans I have germinated myself in the kitchen.

 I had to share this. When we were working, I heard my tame blackbird giving a rendition of his favourite tune. I looked up and saw this weird phenomenon!  It's a halo or a sun dog I think!

 And I couldn't resist a picture of my little musician.

I planted some radish seeds in a planter on the patio.  I'll plant another batch in a few weeks.

 We found this metal bucket in the 2nd shed and I planted some rocket seeds in it.  I hope the bucket might deter the slugs/snails.

 At the start of the day, Mum put together a Rotavator from Grandad's house which took a while and during the process, I met my neighbours opposite who I saw in their garden- I asked if we could borrow a spanner as I couldn't find one. I was delighted to see a Goldfinch in my front garden! Alas, the camera was out the back.

Meanwhile, I began to clear the large patch of nettles near the top of my garden and also the wealth of ivy all over the fence and all over the bed.

 Here's the patch by the end of the day.

 There's still a large amount to go despite my hard work.   The trouble is, there is a large amount behind the holly bush and some hideous shrub that consists of evil spikes!

 Once the Rotavator was put together, Mum started to go over and extend the earth in this bed at the back of the garden.  She also removed most of a rose bush. We'd cleared most of the bed before but it was good to get it clear.

 My dwarf beans were planted here firmly surrounded by slug pellets. The little swines demolished my dwarf beans last year.

 And here are the runner beans as well as two tomato plants we picked up in Poundland.

One great surprise was the fact that my landlord had cleared the shed in the middle of the garden. I had assumed that it was still full of things but it was beautifully clear!  We decided to make use of the potting bench.

Mum had brought me some tomato plant seedlings and then we planted some cucumbers and courgettes to try and germinate them.

It was already about 6 hours later so Mum went home and I continued with Operation Ivy.  Finally, I tackled the mowing of the lawn.

 I was so satisfied to look out there this morning.

 This afternoon, I saw my little friend in a tree at the back.

 Some Forget-me-knots have turned up in the lawn, along with daisies.

 Here are some flowers that seem to have newly grown.

 The work in the garden seemed to have sent some sort of subliminal message to the local wildlife.

This squirrel darted around the garden and the robin seemed to like the wheel barrow.

 I went to buy some bird food with Mum yesterday- peanuts and seeds and this afternoon the visitors started arriving.  I love this bird feeder stand.

 Is this a Great Tit?

 A crowd of Starlings were picking for insects. I remembered my Grandad's binoculars so I sat and watched them up close!

As I was ruthlessly hacking back the ivy, I heard a crash and a fox had leapt over my fence, dashed across the garden and moved into the adjacent garden- IN BROAD daylight!

So, I hope to be able to show some progress next month!

What's been going on in your garden?

xx

Yellow peril

I love the film Summer Magic-  I totally adored Hayley Mills when growing up- she was so sweet and lovely and English!  When I found this Topshop dress in the St Francis Hospice charity shop, it made me think of the yellow dress she wears to the Halloween ball, or maybe some other Hayley Mills film (she seems to wear yellow in Pollyanna too) but I'm not sure which.  I've never been a fan of yellow clothing, although I do have a mustard vintage blouse and beret which I now really like, but when I saw this dress, somehow, I thought it too pretty to leave and bought it! CBC was really surprised when he saw it was yellow but when he saw it on, he said it was really pretty and I looked nice in lemon!

Yes that is my hand. But it doesn't look like it!

I teamed it with gold sandals, white cardie, Balinese shell necklace and a panama from Tiger plus these cute, cute heart sunglasses I found in Tiger when we were hurrying down Tottenham Court Road to meet friends for dinner.


It put me in mind of that saying in Pollyanna, another of Mills' famous films:

"When you look for the bad in mankind, expecting to find it, you surely will."  

It's attributed to Abraham Lincoln in the film although I believe that wasn't exactly what he said.

Now, I take this sentence in two ways.  I love looking for the good in a situation, in a person, trying to see the best in a situation, I love this for encouraging you to have a positive outlook on life.  But at the same time, seeing the bad, offers an opportunity to pray for it- for the situation.  At church today, the talk to the kids before the sermon was about remembering the wrong that we might have done this week, the things we are ashamed of and want to change.  Obviously, as  Christian, I think this is a good thing to do, because I believe that if I confess it and truly try to change, God forgives it. But it's no bad thing for any of us to do even if we aren't Christians- acknowledge and consciously think about changing that.  I put my hand up and said "Gossiping and talking about people,".  I was guilty of that this week- I've been discussing people leaving at work and people being poached to other jobs.  I didn't even think about it being wrong until it came into my mind today- but by talking about it and other's business, I am not giving people a chance to share it themselves, to talk, I might put pre-conceived ideas in people's mind. I wasn't being bitchy or negative, but then I wasn't being helpful.   I was really glad that it had come to my mind. I won't be gossiping at it. It's not my business- it's those people's business- when and what and who they want to tell. He said a saying someone said once: God doesn't rub these things in, he rubs it out.

Later, in the prayers, he asked for people and children to put their hands up and name situations in the world they wanted prayer for.  Now, I don't have a TV and I don't listen to radio and don't really read the newspapers, so I have very little idea of what is going on in the world except for what others tell me and in some ways, I prefer it this way.  Because my life is relatively free of the worries of the world.  But when I considered all the awful things in the world at the moment, such as the situation in the Ukraine, Syria, Nigeria (kidnapped girls), mining disaster,  it's really hard not to feel anxious and worried about all these terrible things that are happening.  But no, I will choose to be calm and pray until something happens! Because worrying doesn't help- it achieves nothing. But praying can do something. And this is a comfort.

Finally, one last thought: is there anything I can pray for you?  No matter how small or trivial it may seem, I would be glad and honoured to.

Linking up to:

Visible Mondays with the gorgeous Patti


What I wore to church with Carolyn McAfee



and Creative Mondays with Claire Justine

oooh and

with my Cath Kidston-recycled cards from last week!!!


*** The title is a quote from Summer Magic

With cat-like tread, across the seas we go

You get super brownie-points if you can tell me where my blog title comes from!

Ages ago, I saw a wonderful tutorial on Kate-Gabrielle's Scathingly-brilliant blog for how to embroider your own cat shoes.  I thought this looked a great idea and decided to give it a try.   Her tutorial is here- I'd advise you to go to her blog for the proper tutorial.  This is more my own take on the experience rather than amazing original tutorial.  That would be plagiarism!!

1.  You need to find a pair of cheap flat shoes.  You could do it with heels but they'd need to be something you can pierce easily with a needle. I have looked for ages and found this pair with plimsol-like material in Asda for £6- I knew a needle would easily pass through these.

You can find them here at Asda. They also do them in grey!

2.  Next, I drew round the front of the shoe and then drew a cat face on it.  I kept it fairly simple.  I then scribbled on the back of the paper with a white pencil and then placed it over the shoe and drew hard over the design with a medium-sharp pencil (not too sharp or it will go through the paper.).  Kate used tracing paper but you don't need to- I couldn't find any!

3.  Then you start to sew with embroidery thread (and a sharpish needle).  I chose to use biscuit-coloured thread as it was not so stark as white might be.  Kate advised that you start from the bits further inside the shoe as they are the hardest!  I had to go over the white pencil face with my white pencil a couple of times as it rubbed off a bit. I had trouble with finding where to put the needle through- it was mostly guesswork. I know of no other way to miraculously find where the needle needs to go otherwise!

4.  Finally, I decided not to go with green eyes but used pink Pebeo- 3d touch paint to colour in the nose.

5.  I intend to sew on a little pair of black felt triangles (with mini pink triangles on top) to the top to make ears at some point but right now, I think I will wear them as they are.

6.  If you decided to make a bunny version of these shoes (Asda do grey shoes), you could easily add a pair of floppy ears and then add a white pom-pom to the back to make a cute tail.

Linking to:


Sarah's Super handmade Sunday


Claire Justine's Creative Mondays

Cynthia's In and Out link party

Lakota's Ta dah Tuesday

In which I pretend I am a fashion blogger and pose with my hand on hip!

(But as usual the cheesy grin gives it away!!!!!!  No, I shall never do mean and moody or pouty or I'll look like a salmon! I don't do fashion- I just like clothes!)

Ahgrh, am so tired!  I went to bed at 2am, was woken by CBC arriving at 3.30am, was then woken by CBC's alarm at 6.15am!!!! Sleeeeeeeep!   I had a lovely time out last night though with 2 dear friends who I don't nearly spend enough time with.
For want of something original to write, I decided to take photos of my totally comfy outfit worn for school on Wednesday, to model new/old blouse bought the previous weekend.  First day back after the lurgy, I feel much better so thank you for your kind well wishes and prayers! (as you can tell, I started writing this post 2 days ago, but got distracted!)  My day was fairly easy so I was eased in mercifully.

 Excuse the pale face of post-ill!  Here we have that thrifted Topshop blouse in candycane shades with Boden thrifted Tweed trousers plus Zara green (current) old man cardie.  And these shoes which I must point out make my SPADE-like feet look positively dainty!  I bought them on a 2-day trip to Rekjavik 11 years old and they never fail to make me actually think my feet stand a chance of looking feminine!


And I leave you with a picture of the afternoon sun in Stock, Essex over the green. Ah... fresh air...

How are you my lovelies? And that includes everyone!  Don't be shy!