Poppies, Poetry and Stitching.

June already! Halfway through the year and the beginning of Summer. This is a lovely month in the garden.

Time for roses to bloom. They struggle in our poor sandy soil but I have a few flowers and they give me enormous pleasure. More to come.

My clematis “Voluceau” has more flowers this year and looking lovely.

This month the Ceanothus displays its lovely blue flowers and the Deutzia is smothered with pink blossom. The bees are humming as they sip the nectar and collect their pollen. I love the buzz and the beauty.

Pinks and purples are my favourite colours in the garden but the zingy yellow and orange of the Welsh poppies is always a welcome sight in Spring. They are still popping up and looking wonderful.

I was inspired to write a little poem about them.

Welsh Poppies

Meconopsis cambrica, a lovely name,
But if you say Welsh poppy
Its flowers will be the same.
Satin yellow petals with a lovely sheen
Blaze among the foliage
And some are tangerine.
A nectar-sipping draw for each passing bee,
Discovering their silken sweetness
Unlocked by Nature's key.
Then the breeze the rattling seeds will fling,
To begin again their beauty
With each returning Spring.

Other little beauties are catching my eye at the moment.

The bamboo by the pond is enormously tall and beautiful. Useful too for bean poles. It sways in the wind and gives an oriental look to that part of the garden.

In the vegetable garden I’ve sown basil for summer meals. Wonderfully tasty and useful for pesto which I freeze for later. I use cashew nuts, instead of pine nuts, and Lancashire cheese. My recipe is in my Earthy Homemaker’s Cookbook.

The carrots I sowed earlier are growing well now and I have some tiny ones to follow on coming along. I remembered to sow thinly so each carrot has space to develop good thick roots. If they’re too close they don’t thrive as they compete for nutrients.

The cauliflowers I planted in January are forming little white heads. I was about to compost the plants because I thought they were only going to grow leaves. I check most days and, hey presto, success at last.

Indoors I’ve been sewing and have more to do. I’m a great believer in “make do and mend”. A new cotton top I bought fitted well on the shoulders but was longer than I like. I removed a strip from the bottom and pressed a turning to sew a new seam. It would have been a speedy job with the sewing machine but I find it difficult to keep a straight line, so I hand-sewed it. I enjoy stitching so it wasn’t a problem.

I try to achieve a neat finish and when the top is pressed again the stitches will hardly show.

“Making do and mending” includes turning collars on my husband’s everyday shirts. When the collar fold becomes worn I remove the collar, reverse it and sew it back in place. It’s easy to remove the collar with a little tool called a stitch ripper. Then I use the sewing machine to replace it securely. Good enough for working in the garden.

Here’s one I did a while ago but I have two others waiting.

The tatty side goes underneath so that when the collar is folded back it looks good again. A satisfying job and prolongs the life of a favourite shirt.

I’ve removed the collars from two more shirts and will sew them back in as soon as I can.

My knitting is slowly progressing. Seems a big job because the yarn is finer than I normally use and I only do a few rows now and then. It will get there eventually.

I hope you’re finding pleasant things to do and enjoying these warm, dry, days. Bye for now. With you again next week.