Here comes the sun again!

Lovely sunny day! I enjoyed sitting in the garden and admiring the flowers and trees and closing my eyes to the overgrown parts! 
 











The trees are all coming in to leaf and the Weigela is in full flower. It's glorious! 













The Rhodidendron is nearly over but has been a lovely colour. I think this will be the subject for another silk ribbon piece!













The roses will flower all summer but these are nearly finished. They still smell wonderful!














Wild garlic is hidden under the Rhodi's! 














Close up of roses! 















Lots of inspiration there for some embroidery! I've just heard the weather forecast for tomorrow and it's going to rain! Glad I was able to sit out today. 

Je suis triste!

I am so sad! Today my wonderful Fuji Finepix 4900 digital camera wouldn't work! I love this camera as it is so user friendly. Whatever I did it took wonderful pictures...well 99% of the time anyway. In the car, at any angle and with all sorts of bumps and jerks it still took a very good picture. If I can't get it mended I am going to miss it. It was OK last night and then I charged it up overnight and this morning when I turned it on it was all haywire. The settings were all awry and most on them gave me video mode. There was no macro setting and no fine tuning controls. It will take a picture but with no input from me to get it just right! It wasn't cheap either. I bought it for my second teaching trip to the States and felt I deserved the best! It did me proud and I took masses of photos and since then I've used it constantly. Perhaps it has just run out of life! Who knows. But while I wait for a camera techie to pronounce judgement I am sad.

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However I am really touched by all the comments from yesterday's post welcoming me back! You are all great and I am glad to be back. I hadn't realised how much I missed writing in the blog. It anchors my thoughts. I have thought about this and decided that I will only reply individually to comments if I am asked a question or there is something I need to reply to. Otherwise I will just mention them in the blog. I do like comments so don't let this put you off!
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I managed to get some pictures of the garden from the semi defunct camera. So here goes.These show the before and after of the tree. It really does look bare but also makes the garden look much wider. The honeysuckle on the back fence is now able to get some sun so I might even get flowers this year. I have planted bamboo and some ferns. The bamboo is the silvery looking stuff. I have clematis in the obelisque and give it a year and it will look lovely....I hope! The problem with this corner is that it is very damp and shady so not a lot will grow there. It does get some sun later in the year but not for long. It is also possible to see the difference in quality between the older photo and the one I took this morning!

And as well as all this gardening I have been playing with faux chenille. I love this technique. It is so tactile. This is a bag I made using a piece of faux chenille. It is full of pockets and is really a useful tote bag. The flowers were fussy cut and put on the top fabric piece. Then five layers plus flowers were stitched through and the resulting channels cut and brushed. I have also made two more pieces to turn into cushions. I am contemplating making a jacket using this technique as I think it could be quite useful and very effective. I first saw this technique in a very old copy of Threads magazine and they had made a coat!

It is now time for pudding! Greek yogurt, maple syrup and cream. How decadent can one get!

Rising from the dead!

Well I had been in two minds as to whether or not to give up blogging but then I needed to know when I had planted seeds in my garden last year and the blog was able to be of immense help so I am still here and rising from my slumbers of the past few months. And its all change as well! No longer just a click and I'm on the 'dashboard' ready to roll. No, its sign in and sign in and eventually one can get going on the spiel!
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We now own the house we have been living in for the past fourteen years and it is a funny feeling. Its not like moving; there is no euphoria of a new house to decorate or the fun of arranging the furniture in a new setting. But there is the quiet satisfaction that everything we do in the house or garden from now on is for us and not for the landlords. And I have such plans. The list is growing by the day. Unfortunately everything except the garden is on hold as Martin has bought a new Espace to take the place of his old one and he is spending every available minute doing it up and I have seven seat covers to make. I wouldn't mind so much except that all seats are different. The front seats are different to the middle seats and the back seats are different again to the middle and front and to cap it all the middle seat in the back set of three is different again! As he's been cutting templates for me in acrylic I must get on with them pdq!

Carolyn came down to visit in February when the weather was rough and cold but we managed to get onto the beach and had one day of sunshine. Looking back it was a very wet start to the year and yet now we are having hot and sunny weather with a promise of more to come.

Fred, who at eighteen months is now all boy complete with chocolaty mouth and a real tear away and Fenella on our local beach being very pink. Her favourite colour!
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This is just a start. Tomorrow I will take pictures. I am teaching for five weeks this term and start this Friday. Then through the summer I will give workshops at home. The teaching is very rewarding and although I haven't been doing a lot for me what I have been doing has been satisfying. I no longer feel that I have to produce stuff. No longer do I feel driven to create just because, which has freed me up to do the things that I really enjoy such as reading, dyeing and applique without feeling guilty that I am not making 'meaningful' art! I shall enjoy this summer making my small garden wonderful and planning next year's teaching projects. It is amazing how much one can spend on such a small garden! My son has transformed his garden.

From this on the left to this on the right! It has taken him a year to do the basic restructuring. This is a photo he sent me this April. I wish he lived nearer and not 600 miles away as then he could lend a hand in my garden!
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Now to see how these photos will publish! Fingers crossed!