Summer Days and Sewing Patterns

I love Summer. Longer, light-filled days. The calm and gentle atmosphere of the garden in the evening after a very hot day. The welcome showers after the dry heat. The abundance of flowers, fruit and delicious vegetables. So much to enjoy.

June is my favourite month with roses, foxgloves, poppies, marigolds and campanulas. Bees humming as they sip their nectar and collect the golden pollen. So much to see and appreciate.

The opium poppies have lovely buds, flowers with their silky petals and are just as fascinating when they have seedheads.

My peonies have only a few smaller flowers this year but very pretty. They’re a fabulous shade of pink. Romantic and beautiful. I just have one plant now, called “Sarah Bernhardt”, which grows in a pot.

Fruit is growing well. Apples and pears will not be ready for a few months but are looking decorative. The redcurrants are my gift to the blackbirds but the strawberries are precious treats for us. I do leave a few outside the nets and there are tiny wild strawberries for passing creatures.

As you can see from my last photo, even the sepals from the strawberries look lovely.

Good things to eat now. Broad beans, peas and another meal from my quirky cauliflower.

One of the things I love about the garden is finding surprises. This big fungus popped up the other day. I think it’s a puffball but I know very little about fungi.

Another unexpected find is possibly a wild orchid! I’m not certain but here it is.

I’ve been sowing seeds a lot but I was also thinking about the other kind of sewing. Different spelling, different process. Although I love sewing, my dress-making days are over. I have a lot of patterns, some of which haven’t been used. Far too good to throw them away. My lovely neice, a keen sewer, said she’d like them. Very happy to see them going to a good home. Here’s a small selection.

Long Summer nights with plenty of light have encouraged me to paint. I dug out a photo from my huge collection and spent a few happy hours stroking the paper with my brushes. I haven’t used my acrylics and oils for a while. Instead I have painted with gouache , a favourite medium of mine. It’s quick, clean and satisfying. I like the boldness of the paint although it’s also possible to produce subtle effects. Here is my latest picture.

That’s all for this week. I hope you’re enjoying Summer too. With you again soon. Bye for now.