Cheerful Flowers

Fuchsia Southgate

Verbena Pink Splash

I've got a new camera.  The Kodak camera I had is a bit outdated, has a cracked battery cover and uses up batteries so quickly I probably keep a battery factory in business.  So, I have now got a camera that is Li-ion powered.  In other words the battery is a proper rechargeable one.  I wanted another Kodak but, not being very interested in the specifics of photography, I was talked into a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS30 (whatever that means).  I knew that I could transfer the pictures from the memory card via my printer to my old Kodak software programme.  I love my Kodak software programme, it is so simple to use.  Other camera software seems unnecessarily complicated.  After all, I only want to take photos to show on my blog and send by email to family and friends, I'm not trying to win prizes or make money from my pictures.  Anyway, I was also treated to a memory card that my printer didn't like.  I messed around with the Panasonic software and hated it.  Then I decided I'd swap my new memory card for the old memory card that I had in my old Kodak camera.  I uninstalled the new software and what happens?  My settings were all changed and I couldn't remember how to make my computer use my Kodak programme to open pictures.  By this time I was in one of those horrible, computer killing moods, I'm sure you know what I mean.  I only wanted to download a picture or two for goodness sake!*~#!

Anyway, I eventually did a system restore and all is well with the world again.

July

I'm not doing very well keeping up with my blog am I, life just feels a bit strange at the moment.

I've been trying to get on with some crafting and came up with this little embroidery

It's similar to several others I've done in the past, not sure yet what I'll do with it.

Also, I made up a cushion cover with a cross-stitch that Graham did

I think I've mentioned before that Graham does cross-stitching - who'd think a big, strong fellow like Graham could make something so delicate!

We went to Norfolk for a few days and went on the Wells to Walsingham Light Railway.  Here's the little engine that pulled the carriages

It was a fun, if bumpy, half hour ride!  If you want to read about it here's the web page.  We had a good look around Walsingham  which is famous for being a place of pilgrimage.  While I was there I bought some little religious medals, one of them was St Clare and when I looked up what she was the patron saint of I discovered that, amongst other things, she is the patron saint of embroiderers and needleworkers.

I Love Quizzes

Who doesn't enjoy a quiz, I wanted to put this on the side of my blog but the layout wouldn't let me so I put it here.  I don't spend ages with the layout of my blog and just go for the simplest - too much stitching to do to spend time fiddling about with layouts!!!

Your rainbow is shaded brown.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What is says about you: You are a deep thinking person. You appreciate the roughness of nature. You feel closer to people when you understand their imperfections.

Find the colors of your rainbow at spacefem.com.

A Quiet House

For 34 years there has been at least one dog in my house.  At one time there were three dogs and a cat.  Now there is no one to bark at the postman or to scramble to sit on my knee.  It feels very strange.  It will take a bit of getting used to.

I have started to get back into a bit of crafting, another pincushion

This one to match a sewing roll I made a while ago.

Yet another pincushion, this one because I wanted to try the spider web roses.  They were very quick to do and I'll definitely be using this stitch a lot.

I also made a button pin

It only took a few minutes to make and is for a swap.  I used wool to embroider the flower, I bought the wool years ago with the intention of trying some crewel work but this is the first time I've actually got round to using it.

I'm also trying to catch up with some 'almost finished' cross stitch pieces.  They are only small designs but have been hanging about for ages.  There is just the border to finish on one piece, then I've got to decide what to do with it, maybe another box top, we'll see.

Pincushions

I've spent the last couple of days making pincushions, amongst doing other things, like cooking, housework, washing etc.  I wanted something sewing related to do on Thursday afternoon when I have friends round for a crafting session.  Well my mind was blank so I asked the handstitching group I'm in for suggestions and Laurie suggested this pincushion idea

After I'd made this one I thought I would have a go making another one that was slightly different and came up with this

and then I had to make a matching scissor fob.  I really enjoyed making these and my friends did too, so it was a successful afternoon of crafting.

When I'm making anything I have to have lots of breaks for cups of tea and a bit of a search around the blogs.  Yesterday I was searching 'pincushions' and came across a pincushion I thought looked like a bit of fun to make so I had to have a go

Apart from handstitching the gap closed after I'd stuffed it, this is all made on the sewing machine so it's really quick - and a lot of fun to look at!

A Matter of Taste

I have wondered recently if my sense of taste was disappearing, particularly when I eat vegetables.  On Sunday I managed to collect enough veg from my plot to give us a small portion each.  That's when I realised that it's not my sense of taste, it's the commercially grown vegetables that I eat most of the year.  Carrots usually taste of nothing but I eat them anyway - but - when I tasted my home grown ones the memory of what carrots should taste like came flooding back.  They were delicious, full of flavour.

It's years since I tried to grow carrots, I never had any success with them.  This year, because I now have my raised beds, I decided to try them again.  These carrots are the best I've ever grown, wish I'd sown a few more now.  The mange tout are tender and tasty, the courgettes taste like courgettes and the broccoli has flavour.  Even though I only grow enough veg to use during the summer months it is worth it.  Worth it for the taste and worth it for the enjoyment I get tending my veg plot.

This is a coconut cake that I made today.  So what, you might say.  Well, what makes it unusual for me is that as well as using desiccated coconut it contains coconut cream.  I have only ever used coconut cream in curries before now but the recipe for this cake included coconut cream in the cake and in the icing.  I'm not sure if it makes much difference to the taste but the texture of this cake is very nice.  My recipe book tends to overdo it on the icing so in future I think I'll only make half the quantity, I told myself this before but I must stick to my decision next time.

June Flowers

After a very wet week we had some beautiful weather yesterday.  I was able to get out into the garden and do a bit of work.  These pictures were taken in the part of our garden nearest to the house, it's all looking very colourful.

This rose is growing in some very poor soil at the side of our garage.  I'd forgotten that it is a miniature climbing rose, it's never done very well but this year it has really put on some growth, I think it liked the cold winter we had.  Next to it is a honeysuckle and that is looking very healthy too.  I've almost removed this honeysuckle several times because it always looked very scrawny, the cold winter suited it too.