Christmas fast approaches now and things are hotting up in the sewing room with things being made for orders and me still ploughing away with the Christmas presents for our own friends and family. We took some time out yesterday to sort the garden while the weather was fine. Yet another roaring bonfire was the result of much pruning of our huge bay hedge, though I kept a large pile of the clippings to dry in the kitchen. The smoke curled through the garden, pefuming the air with the wonderful smell as Dave and I worked away. The leaves were raked into enormous piles by Lucy and Isabella gamely dug the bed I had just planted with chives and bulbs and oregano...thank you Isabella.
It was just so peaceful out there with the sun weakly shining down, the crackling of the fire and the hen scratching around where I dug. The hen pen also had a good clear through and we finally moved the new house Dave and Elias had built into place. Discovery rewarded us with one beautiful warm egg which Dave found as he placed fresh straw inside and we shared it later with buttery soldiers to dip into the deep yellow yolk.
Other good things this weekend included making this wallhanging for a little friend's first birthday. I wanted to make a picture to hang in her room which included applique and hand embroidery (of course) and have been slightly obsessed with these houses - they are beginning to appear on a number of things in the Pipany sewing room of late. The pictures are dire for which I heartily apologise. I had not realised there were smears on the lens until after the present had been given and am now waiting for better shots to arrive from Celia's lovely Mummy. In the meantime, here's a close up of one of the houses with a purple flowering plent twining its way up the walls (perhaps it's a cup and saucer plant).
I particularly like this higgledy-piggledy house and the tree with its underplanting of flowers.
Oh those photographs truly are awful...sigh. Clicking on the images to enlarge gives a better idea of what it looks like. Ah well, it is very pretty in 'real life' and I will just have to check the lens in future won't I?
Happy Monday xx
