CAUGHT IN THE ACT

This one spotted me pick up the camera but I just caught him.

Here she comes again..... I'm orff!

MORE FROM THE GARDEN

The End... of the tulips for this year

The first rose of summer... this was given to me by the girl who helped me clear my old house and is a lovely reminder of her and all her help.

Isn't this blue Columbine beautiful?

Another of the little chancers that I love to see... this one a wild grannie's bonnet

The variegated holly is flowering. Hope that means there will be berries later

Wild yellow poppies are scattered everywhere at the moment

Can anyone tell me what this plant is?

The Wigelia is out too

More grannies bonnets, this time in the border

GARDEN VISITORS

After I filled the bird feeders I went and sat at my desk near the window with the camera beside me so that I could see who came. After a while I saw gold finches, green finches, woodpecker, sparrows, blue tits, pigeon and a little wren.
It was fun watching them all.
Here are some pictures for you.

Sparrow

Greenfinches sharing a meal.

Safe feeding for this greenfinch

Goldfinches sharing an evening meal

Bluetit

I waited and waited but the wren and woodpecker were too quick for me! Just the slightest movement and they are off, the window is only about three metres form the feeders.

A WALK AROUND THE GARDEN

There seems to be something new to see almost every day at the moment so here is today's walk.

Above is an alpine scabious about 2cm in diameter

More alpines in the sink... I have said before that the birds had a high old time pulling out the labels so I don't know the name of this one above or the one below

I never tire of these dandelions

Or of their fluffy seedheads

Stitching at Frolesworth.

I have had a great day out today stitching informally with like minded friends from the Lutterworth Branch of the Embroiderers' Guild. We met in the village hall at Frolesworth which is really close to where I live and sat happily stitching on whatever we felt like.
There was some lovely work going on and the ladies were happy to let me share it with you. For some it was a day for experimentation and for others a chance to work on UFO's.
So here are some photos for you. They are all works in progress of course.

The first two are abstract embellishing samples.

Next some crochet which had grown much more than this by the end of the day.

Now some lovely fabric flowers

The next two are part of a series of free machine embroidered pictures by the same person

Another piece of free maching

Next we have the Rose Hip Flower fairy... a nice peice of stumpwork in progress

This beautifully stitched squirrel is going to be gorgeous. 

The next one, using sweetie papers, is the basis for further work. I look forward to seeing where this one goes too

The last one is mine and has been in the works for a long time... with a house move, illness and cataract surgery interupting progress here! The hand stitching is now complete and I just have to decide how to mount it. I can't decide whether to add a border and make it into a little hanging. or whether I shall mount it on a canvas board.



Today has been another interesting one as I have been to my monthly mixed media workshop with Angie Hughes at the Bramble Patch. Here are some pictures of  some unfinished book pages.
I haven't yet decided where to go next with these.

It was fun using a limited colour palette just black and white at this stage. I used gesso, white paint, graphite and black ink.

As usual, clicking on the image will enlarge them.

Above are two of the pages.

A detail from the above

Here are three of the pages

And a closer view

We painted an A1 sized piece and then divided it.

I was sitting here minding my own business late this afternoon when I heard a tinkling noise. When I looked up I saw tinkerbell dancing around the room leaving her reflection on the wall!

I think she had been visiting the gnomes in the garden and thought she would come in to dry off and warm up!

I have been having a little fun with the computer today. I thought you might like to see them.

Abstract Tulip

Plastic tulip

Psychodelic tulip

The tulips are still doing well but some are fading now. Some of them fade very gracefully like this white one, which simply turns it's petals down one by one before dropping them. 

This one is only just fully out with it's lovely creamy petals

And pretty detail

What a lovely jumble of petals this one has become

As has this one

I wish the naughty birds hadn't removed all the white labels from my plants!

Todays images are again from a stroll around my garden. Do I ever go anywhere else you wonder!

It's bluebell time and I love the few rogue white ones that appear each year.

I also have cowslips and they have a lovely smell

 Finally a beautiful weed... I love dandelions,  they always look so cheerful don't they?

Some more garden pictures to show you today. These are some little Alpine plants in two of the sink gardens

This one has spikes of these little flower clusters all over it

I think this is a roulia shown in it's setting and below is a detail. These little 'flower' shapes are each only about 1cm in diameter.