miss marie's miscellany

Looking lovely in the garden this week

I was thinking how few photos I've taken this year of flowers in my garden, somehow up till now, there don't seem to have been as many as last year. But this week some beautiful colours have appeared .

Blue, blue anemone - this is sitting on the front doorstep, every time I go out, I have to stop and stare.

 

Pretty pink geranium

 

Frothy creaminess of this beautiful hydrangea

 

Lovely rose :-)

 

I love this two-tone geum, it's so unusual and the colours almost seem to glow, I find it mesmerising, especially when the sun is shining.

 

Green apples galore, it'll be a good harvest this year.

 

Cheery yellow calendula

 

All the bright and beautiful colours are having a good effect on my latest WIP, I thought I'd take a photo of it in the great outdoors.

 

Nearly finished! I'm loving how it's turning out, the random choice of colour is working a treat. I hope to be able to show you the completed blanket after the weekend.

 
 
 

 
 

 

 
 

Playing with colour

It's a while since I talked about crochet and wool. but I haven't been idle, in fact quite the opposite, I can't stop with the crochet hook!
 
I found some fabulous wool/silk mix yarn on Ebay, from this seller. Their shop has lots of beautiful wool in a rainbow of shades; much of it comes on cones, good for those larger projects, and they have now started selling 100g balls, which is ideal for my purposes.  I chose an autumnal mix of aubergine, dusky pink, mustard, oatmeal and lemon and lime twist (sounds like a recipe) in this lovely nubbly yarn which has turned into this round cushion.

It is an unusual mix but I think it works :-) 


When I was in Liverpool, my sister-in-law took me to an Aladdin's cave of a shop, Abakhan, a treasure trove of supplies for every craft under the sun, and of course, that includes lots and lots of lovely wool. They have an online shop too, worth a butcher's.  It was like being let loose in a sweet shop, I left with a huge bag filled with brightly coloured wool. I decided to make a granny square blanket using lots of colour and a random combination of them.



A freefall colour experience for me, I usually like to be symmetrical ; I'm just keeping going till it's BIG.



Still a way to go before it's ready, but it's turning out nicely!

Continuing with the granny theme, I've seen a couple of lovely granny shawls recently and had a real attack of the wanties. Just the ticket for a cool summer evening in the garden, I thought, and it will definitely come in handy if we have another baltic winter! I'm just playing with the colours, but think I've found a good combination with these.



These are very 'me' colours! A concerted effort over the next couple of days and I should be able to show the FO shawl.

I hope your weekend is full of colour too.

The longest day

The longest day ended with the most brilliant sunset

 

A glorious sky

 

 with rich and vivid colours

 

You have to stop and look at such a beautiful sight

till it's almost gone. 
 
 
 

Final flush

All the tulips are nearly past their best, they've provided some wonderful colour in the garden for the last 2-3 weeks. 

This variety is called  Antoinette.

 

On the pack it says this is the chameleon tulip, I'm not sure why!? The colours remind me of pear drops

 

I planted these to have cut flowers in the house, but I've hardly picked any, i just couldn't bring myself to take the scissors to them!

These dwarf tulips were the first to emerge, they're called Johann Strauss (yes, I have to get some musical names in there!)

 

This is  Flaming Parrot.

 

 

Jan Reus, fantastic dark red 

 

Madonna, delicate white ruffles with a tint of green.

 

Palestrina 

 

 

Spring Green

 

And just because it's so pretty, this lovely parrot tulip  'Rococo' again.

 

 I'm glad I included some ruffled parrot tulips this year, they are exciting to watch as they go from tightly bunched up petals which give no hint of what's hiding inside to richly coloured and frilly flowers. A lovely contrast to their more upright sisters.

I love tulips, they're one of my favourites,  and I'm sad these lovely flowers will soon be gone from the garden, they make me catch my breath every time I walk past them!

 

But they'll re-appear next year, and there's plenty more to look forward to as spring turns into summer.

 
 
 
 
 
 

Tulip

I planted lots of tulips in the autumn, and of course they are now coming up and looking fantastic. I love tulips, the more in the garden the better, I think.

 
 

Last week I spied this parrot tulip; I couldn't quite remember what colour it would be, so I waited expectantly for its petals to unfurl.......

A few days later, it was looking decidedly rosier

 

Then after my working trip away at the end of last week, I returned home to this beauty

 

 

I'm very glad I braved the freezing cold to plant all those bulbs, what a treat to have all this colour.

More of those lovely tulips to follow soon :-)

 
 

 
 
 
 

 

April collage

Time for another monthly round-up; during April there has been a trip to Liverpool, the garden has started to come to life, colourful crochet, time spent with friends and family, and the Knitting and Crochet Blog Week rounded it off nicely; all in all a good month with plenty to be happy about:-)

 

 

On the beach

Down in Liverpool for the weekend, and no trip is complete without a visit to the beach. There's something liberating about being by the sea, feeling the sea air hit your face and walking on the sand. 

 

This was Friday evening, an after-dinner walk. The sky was an mixture of pale and delicate pinks and greys
 

 

Watching the sky turn gold

 

then ink blot clouds become darker.

 

Till the sky was deep blue as night fell.
 
 
 
 
 

Happy Easter

Wishing you a happy and peaceful Easter. 

 

March collage

Time for another monthly round-up, is it just me or has March flown past? 

Good stuff; lots of crochet, as well as my recent reveals you can see some new stuff in the photos which I've been trying out and will post about soon, getting started in the garden and some lovely flowers beginning to show themselves, my trip to Aye Write and Creative Stitches 2010, the best green boots ever, so comfortable.......and my giveaway (which I very stupidly forgot to photograph; Jenny did a great job for me!)

Bad stuff; yet more snow at the start of this week......I'm not going moan about it too much but I've really had it with the white stuff, enough is enough! Let's hope April will bring more clement and seasonal weather!

 

 Have a good (and prank-free) day :-)
 

Weekend bits and pieces

The weather has taken an upward turn, the temperature has risen, so happy days. Friday evening started with this amazing sunset sky

  

Then I went off to hear one of my literary heroes, William Boyd, at the Aye Write festival here in Glasgow at the Mitchell Library

 

WB is an engaging and warm orator, natural, warm and witty, and totally at home in front of an audience. It was a fascinating evening with a description into how his novels are conceived, researched and crafted, some readings from his latest book Ordinary Thunderstorms and a Q&A; one of the questions posed was about the particular difficulties of transferring a long novel to the small screen, especially one's own work, and WB told us that his novel (and my favourite of his books) Any Human Heart is just about to start filming in a TV adaptation, to be shown this autumn. I, for one, can't wait to see how such an epic novel of a long and full life will translate to the screen. All wonderfully interesting and entertaining -  I'm so glad I was there.

Saturday, I put on my crafty hat and went to the Creative Stitches show at the SECC. I enjoyed much of the exhibits, and there were some lovely wools. But it was a bit of an effort to get round as there was lots of pushing and shoving - if anyone is familiar with the comedy show The Mighty Boosh, there's an episode called Nanageddon, when all the elderly ladies in the vicinity become possessed by an evil demon and go on the rampage, and I was reminded of this with increasing regularity as it got busier and wool-frenzy took hold.  I left before it got really nasty! However, I didn't come away empty-handed (of course not!) I bought some lovely wool from the New Lanark Organic wool shop

 and a pack of 10 balls of Rowan Alpaca in beautiful purple 

 

and this lovely book

 

I think I'll be making something purple from this book soon, so watch this space!

Today brought an invitation from my sister to go the cinema, so off we duly went, armed with our 3D specs to see Alice in Wonderland. The plot of the film is an amalgam of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Through the Looking Glass and Jabberwocky, so if you are a purist, you may not like it. But I did, it looked so beautiful, wonderful sets and costumes, and the sombre, slightly spooky mood and sense of unease suited the reworking of the story.  I liked Anne Hathaway's White Queen (like a crazed Nigella Lawson) and Stephen Fry's voice for the Cheshire Cat, all persuasive plummy purring! Well worth seeing if you like your films with a dark twist.

That's all I had time for!