October 2024

Recent gales have brought down many conkers, so the children come once more to the churchyard opposite our cottage to seek them out just as my children did many years ago. These tree seeds are very beautiful and I have grown several in pots over the years for the sheer delight of it!

We are swapping summer curtains for thick winter ones in one little room we sit in, and the sweep is coming tomorrow so we will begin to light the woodstove again. Autumn is here, and when the sun does shine it is a glorious time of year, with much still to enjoy. I am stitching all things Christmas and looking ahead to next year’s collection of William Morris cards for Kelmscott Manor which I make in the winter months. A new collection of WM cards will be available here very soon!

September 2024

September is always a time of change; the days are not so long and hot now as we move slowly into new terms, gentler golden sunshine, harvests and the return of the jacket potato! This photo is in a wild part of the garden, a hollyhock seed that arrived on the wind and grew to a giant specimen, flowering for weeks and weeks. The bumblebees have been visiting it happily every day; the low evening sun shining through the petals giving the remaining blooms an arresting fluorescence. There are once again skeins of geese calling as they fly overhead early and late each day, a sure sign of the changing season.

I continue to work on Christmas collections, to re-stock here and to send to galleries who sell my work. Autumn is not far off now, but these last glorious days of summer are so precious; the remaining flowers now showing off their charms with less competition.

August 2024

The sunshine came in the end and we have enjoyed it all the more after the dull and gloomy start to the summer. As we now grow fewer vegetables than we once did we let nature take over the places we are not cultivating; these areas are now abuzz with many varieties of bees and other pollinators. We still grow leeks each year as they are useful in so many ways for winter recipes and are easy to grow, standing ready to harvest right through to Spring. We never quite finish them and leave the last ones to flower the following summer, (as shown here) their giant globes of tiny white or pink florets held high on tall sturdy stems.

Again this year I began Christmas card-making in July, and will continue through the next few months to be well prepared for the gallery orders that are already coming in. With various family matters concerning the very young and the very old life can get quite busy at times, but somehow it all gets done, and my sewing time makes for a welcome little rest and a sit down!

I hope your August passes happily, whether it be action-packed funfair-filled days or quiet times sitting in the outdoors with a cuppa, the latter being my preferred option!