miss marie's miscellany

Blue skies

A lovely day today, hardly a cloud in the blue, blue sky

A walk round the garden this morning and I see that the good thing about all the weekend rain is that everything is GROWING!

I have flowers on my peas and broad beans

And a little onion shoot peeping out

Queen of the Night tulip. The tulips are nearly finished for this year, but this is a late and lovely arrival.

Apple blossom

This gorgeous bush,which I'm afraid I don't know the name of, not yet anyway. I think I have pruned this a bit too enthusiastically in past years, as it's never had such a profusion of flowers before and wasn't pruned last autumn. I'll hold back with the secateurs this year. 

Hot pink azalea and japanese maple, I love the combination of these 2 colours

Lime green euphorbia to add some zing!

And the wonderful clematis. It takes my breath away every time I look at it.

It's lovely to see the sun dappled on the (long) grass

So much to enjoy and  look forward to!

Another tulip

They just keep on coming at the moment. Taken just after a shower of rain, isn't it lovely?!

Have a happy weekend.

pictures from the weekend

I had a busy weekend, working for the greater part of it.  But there was still time for lots of good things.

Getting my peas and broad beans planted.

New flowers. Pink pulsatilla and wonderful glowing red tulip.

I made maple and pecan biscuits(recipe courtesy of Nigella). Naughty but nice!

Cherry blossom at night. I sat in the garden when I got home at 10.45pm, enjoying the warm night, and this is what I saw as I looked up.

My crochet squares are ready to be sewn together. Cushion completion soon!

A slightly naughty wool purchase at my lunch break on Saturday.( I couldn't stop myself! Shop next to place of work + zero resistance is not a good combination for economy)

That's all I had time for!

Flower power

The plans for a great floral display are coming on well. I already have sowings of geraniums, sweet peas and lupins, which I started off a couple of weeks ago. Last  week I planted more seeds, some marigolds and mesembryanthemums, both in shades of yellow, and some zinnias, a variety called sunbow.  

 I was very taken with this plant on a visit to Broughton House in Kirkcudbright last summer (a lovely place to visit if you are ever in that part of Scotland). It's called cerinthe, so I hope to get some seedlings of this to give the garden a liitle je-ne-sais-quoi

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Unusual shades of flower and leaf, very eye-catching.

I've also got some bulbs and tubers to plant.....peonies, anemones and ranunculus asiaticus. If the latter look anything like these 2 ranunculus plants which were bought  last week I'll be delighted.

 And lots of dahlias, I can't get enough of them! 

My spring flowering clematis is about to open, so there will be some pictoral treats to look forward to, as it's a beauty.

Here it is just waiting to open.

This lovely tulip caught my eye today, 'Apricot Beauty'.

And this one,which I can't put a name to.

So many things blossoming everyday and so much to look forward too.:)

 

Frill thrills

This azalea is looking so good in the garden right now. 

Like lots of frilly underskirts.

A beautiful start to this week.

Tulips

A quick post today,as I'm having a few gremlins with my internet connection. Normal service will be resumed by the weekend..

I love tulips, so here is a collage of some of the loveliest of late, a mixture of indoors and outdoors.

In the pink

Lots of new blooms in my garden, and especially lovely are all these beautiful pink flowers. Just the right cheery and colourful note to celebrate a much-needed long weekend off work!

Learning to crochet

Having been a devotee of several blogs which feature crochet for a while now, I thought, rather than sit here cluelessly thinking how lovely it looks, that I should learn how to do it. I can knit pretty well, so how different can it be, I thought. Hmm. Off I went and bought a couple of hooks, a couple of books. Plenty of wool in the house, from my knitting projects, this should be a doddle

 

My confidence didn't last long, in fact, it was well and truly dampened..... after starting and stopping and starting again, I couldn't get it at all. The patterns were written in a strange language, which was incomprehensible to me. Much grumpiness ensued. Feeling daunted, I mentioned to my mum that I was trying to teach myself, but was having no luck. She came to the rescue, as mums usually do. She has a friend who can crochet who is happy to show us both how it's done! Marvellous! Off I went the other night to Mum's house, and after half an hour round the kitchen table, I was finishing off my first square. It looked a bit uneven, but  it wasn't too bad at all. 

 I have practised every day since then, and I think( and hope) that I have improved!  I found a tutorial for crochet flowers at the wonderful Attic 24, and here are my first attempts in all their modest glory.

They've multiplied!

I also found this tutorial for hearts

 

It may look far from perfect, but it makes me feel really happy that I've fathomed out the mechanics of how crochet works. And I understand the patterns!  

So, I bought this little stash of goodies at the weekend, and I hope to be able to show new (and vastly improved) fruits of my labour at a later date. Soon. 

Golden overture

A shining start to a new week!

Salutations

Hello, and welcome. I start with trepidation, but excitement....I've wanted to write my own blog for some time now, but have contented myself with lurking in cyberspace and reading many blogs which I enjoy, until now. At last, I feel ready to let my voice be heard, and I hope you will enjoy reading about my life and loves, thoughts and observations.

My first photographic offerings are some images from my garden taken over the last week or so, as spring works its magic. I love my garden! It doesn't look very loveable at the moment, still recovering from a cold winter, but so many things have started growing recently, 

 

crocuses  

snowdrops  

 

daffodils  

 primroses

 

hellebores  

that it already looks more beautiful than I'd hoped for, having done no gardening whatsoever for the last 3 months.

 

Enjoy!