miss marie's miscellany

Tick tock

I know I should be getting rid of these with haste, but they are amazing when seen at close quarters. 

One more garden lovely today, this pansy with its unusual colour

And the Royal Horticultural Society have made me laugh again, now they're after your bras and your fella's boxers to turn them into hanging baskets. Apparently there are special laundry baskets at the Chelsea Flower Show in which to deposit ones old (clean) undies. I wonder if Joanna Lumley and Stephen Fry brought their old smalls with them when they visited!

Yet another cushion!

I'm ablaze with crochet this week. You may remember a few weeks ago I was crocheting a ripple pattern

Here it is as a work in progress

It got put to one side after I'd finished rippling while I made all those granny squares. But I finally had time to sit down and assemble this into a cushion. I used another bit of my old scarf as the fabric back and tried a different way of fastening it.

Just one row of double crochet x 4 tied in bows

And here is the finished article

I think it's not too bad at all for a first attempt, but I'll keep practising!

Gnome and Garden

Lots of lovely colour everywhere in the garden this week.

Bluebells are such a gorgeous blue.

This geum is so bright and sunny

And this Dicentra spectabilis with its heart-shaped flowers is lovely, I'd forgotten the stems are deep pink too.

From my garden to something a bit posher.....I'm looking forward to seeing the Chelsea Flower Show programmes on BBC1 & 2. I love seeing the plants and flowers, new varieties and old favourites....and all the show gardens. Interesting to see what the designers come up with, especially in this time of recession. I see from reading the Guardian that all tickets are sold out for the entire week, the RHS have banned one of the exhibitors from having their lucky garden gnome in their display, but strangely they have allowed a garden made entirely of plasticine to be shown.  

Come in, No.2.

Ta-Dah! I finished my second cushion using granny squares. I wanted it to compliment the one I made a few weeks ago, but not be identical, so I used some different wool;  the red is a bit brighter and I've used a bit more lime green, to give it its own personality.

Here it is on its own

 

And here they are side by side (No 2 is on the left)

 

And on the sofa

 

I'm all squared out for the time being, so I'm on the look out for another project. What will be next for the hook?!

Mellow cello

As yet, I haven't posted any posts about things musical, but thought it was about time I did. As I am a professional musician. And I play the cello. The lovely picture above is by Augustus John and is called 'Madame Suggia'. She was a famous musician in the early part of the 20th century, a trailblazer as she was one of the first female cello soloists, at a time when it was rare to find women playing an instrument which required such an unladylike way of sitting. I love this painting, she looks so graceful and poised, and her red dress with its long train compliments the burnished wood of the cello.. 

From the sublime to the hilarious. I found this page at the website of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Cello Challenge,which had me in stitches.  You too can play the cello just by moving your mouse from left to right in time with the cellist's bow. Worth a look just for the entertainment value!

Pink skies

A beautiful sunset last night

The colour of the sky must have influenced my choice of after-dinner goodies!

There's nothing like a glass of fizzy fruity rose to make one feel summery.....and turkish delight,an old favourite, just seemed the right accompaniment.  A pretty pink end to a warm spring day.

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!

Black and white

I thought today I'd have a change from colour and go monochrome. My camera has a setting so I can take black and white photographs and I quite often take 2 pictures of the same thing, one colour and one black and white, as I find it interesting to note what stands out in each variation; similarities and differences. I particularly like the way trees look when they are photographed in black and white. In autumn and spring, the detail of knarled trunks and branches seem exaggerated;

This next tree, the only one I photographed in summer,  looks like it's about to fly.

And this one looks almost like a person,arms outstretched. (If you have read or seen Lord of the Rings, you'll know what I mean if I say Treebeard)

This tree is a deep orange brown colour, but in this b&w version the absence of colour means the markings and shine of the bark are much more eye-catching.

I also like the the timeless quality that black and white photos have. 

Hope you enjoy these!

Cheer up!

It's still pouring with rain, so I thought a bit of retail therapy might hit the spot, and dispel the wet weather blues. The cupboard was bare, so a trip to the supermarket was necessary. But a left turn at the door took me to the aisles of non-comestibles. Lots of goodies!

A new magazine with this free Cath Kidston bag and magazine.

It is described as a washbag but I think I'm going to use it as a  crochet/sewing bits and bobs bag

Some things to put in the bag (the row counter was only 37p, bargain! )

There was a brilliant selection of crafty things and stationery

Some things for the garden

A new t-shirt

A  lovely V&A card 

That was my haul and I'm enjoying all of them already......sitting reading the magazine with a cuppa wearing my new top.  The Cath K bag contains bits and bobs for crochet on the move, and I'll plant the peony when it stops raining.

I'll leave you with crochet progress, more squares for a new cushion cover. 

 

And my spring clematis is finally blossoming

which is good enough reason to be cheerful.

Staring at the wall

The weather has been truly awful here in Glasgow this week,wet, windy and cold. The rain is bucketing down outside as I'm writing this.( Actually, I went and looked as it was so noisy and it's hailing now) More autumnal than springlike. To be truthful it's made me feel a bit down and I haven't had any good ideas for posts. Staring at the wall blankly. But I remembered some photos I took in Liverpool last summer, of a wall with a difference. 

Liverpool is where I was born and brought up, and has a special place in my affections. Last year, Liverpool was European City of Culture, and had all kinds of things to see, listen to, watch and visit. This rotating wall is called 'Turning the Place Over'. We saw this by chance opposite one of the city centre train stations, on our way back to my dad's, and stopped for a good while to watch.

It transformed a dull gray wall into something altogether different, eye-catching and entertaining. And it certainly made people stop in their tracks to look and pass comment. But that's not that unusual in Liverpool; the craic is always good value there!