Flowers and other things

The past two days have been more seasonal here...cool with bits of rain. We needed it. I also needed to stay in and ge the hosue ready for my niece and nephew's visit later this week. It is so hard to do laundry and dust when the sun is out! Note how british I am becoming - I automaticly start talking about the weather! Anyway, the showeres hasve also given me time to work on the little needlepoint bag I bought at the gardensale the other day (1 pound for two unfinished bags.) There are some very tiny beads on this that started to fall around me like bits of hail the moment I took it out of the bag. I think I got most of them back on...enough for me anyways! I'm going to try my hand at putting one of them together this week. I am going to run over to the Beckford silk and get some black for the inside.....Before you ask -I have no idea what I will do with it when I am finished. It will remain impractical and pretty - there is space in the world for that no?!

I noticed a lot of flower photos as I cruised the blogs this weekend so I decided to post a few from my village. On the left are the lilacs I see from my front door. The cottage across the street has a beautiful front garden with a half a dozen different types/color lilac bushes. I feel a bit spoiled since I get to enjoy the view of a great garden without any of the work.

At the top is some queen Anne's lace. The sides of the road are just covered in this right now. It reminds me of my family's cottage by the beach...we made small bowls from clay and pressed the Queen Anne's lace flower into them for decoration. Then we buried the pot in the hot sand and let them bake. The things moms come up with to keep kids occupied during summer vacation!

We walked up to bluebell woods on Breedon Hill last week and glimpsed the end of their blooms. Next year I will plan better and see them at their peak. It was still worth the climb. It has a very Tolkien/elfen feel to it...old trees, quiet, small running brook, lots of low dark green undergrowth. Can you tell I really like it there!

Unfortunatly to get to the Blue bell woods I have to go through this...the dreaded rapeseed blooms. It feels like they are everywhere. A few weeks ago I was going on and on about how pretty and bright they made the hills look....now I can barely open my eyes wide enough to see!

Finally a photo of a huge (ok about 3 inches long) snail that has taken up residence in our garden. I know they eat the plants but he is so cute! I just keep meoving him over to the blackberry canes that we want to get rid of anyway....