Brilliant Blooms

Kirkoswald has achieved a gold award for Cumbria in Bloom. The Artful Garden was mentioned in the report.
"It provides interest with many works in addition to a wide spectrum of plants, vegetables and colour." 
The garden also got a special award of  'Magnificent."

A dry weather week has  allowed me to catch up with my gardening. It is lovely to garden when the sun in shining. 

I have been making a series of wreaths from natural materials experimenting using different plants.
Wreaths for the gate into the Artful Garden.

Made from rowan berries, rosehips and oak leaves

Made from apples and acorns

Hawthorn berries and sycamore keys

I am picking raspberries almost every day.

There is an excellent crop of raspberrries

The apple tree is so heavily ladened that we have had to prop it up.

A bumper crop of apples

The sunflowers are starting to die back I am leaving the flower heads for the birds.

A giant sun

I love the cardoons.

Doon yer think were great?

We have had a slight frost but some of the nasturtiums have survived.

Nasturtiums intertwined with the apples

I love rudbeckias.

Look at the spiky petals 

The monarda is still in full flower.

Purple pincushions

Look at the symmetry of the leaves.

Striking

I found this baseball man in Hexham.

Hi I'm a Hexham Dodger

A strange ladybird has appeared in the Artful Garden.

I'm no lady

Look at the clouds floating over the Eden Valley.

A superb views

HappyHarvesting

We are now self sufficient in fruit and vegetables. We have a regular supply of our own potatoes, both french and runner beans, carrots, celery, kale, cabbage, garlic, onions, shallots, tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce, small turnips and  sweetcorn. We have one sweetcorn plant that we grew in the greenhouse which we harvested yesterday. It was 25 cm long, very sweet and delicious. I have about 21 cobs that will be ready soon. This is the first year that I have grown sweetcorn so I am very pleased that it has been so successful.

My prize sweetcorn and homegrown carrots

Last Saturday I went to see 'Yarns in the Yards' at Kendal. This was a series of 15 min plays performed by Kendal Community Theatre in the many yards in Kendal. It was supported with artwork from the local schools. It was an excellent event full of inspiration and enthusiasm.

One of the yards.

Narrow alleyways lead to the yards

Portraits of Alfred Wainwright.

I love the naive illustrations

Felt houses of buildings in Kendal.

Knitted and felted

How many buildings do you recognise?

Felt herbs.

Some of these herbs were used for dyeing which took place in the yards

I loved this wicker shoe.

One two where's the other shoe?

This was made by secondary school pupils from plaster of Paris.

Very effective

A street performer.

If you donated money she moved

The cardoon in the Artful Garden has now come into flower.

It is like a giant thistle

This lovely purple flower is a perennial which I dry each year.

They close at night

One of my pottery houses amongst the Japanese anemones.

Birds and flowers

Home grown fruit.

Blackcurrants, red currants and blackberries

Richmond in North Yorkshire is a beautiful town.

This interesting building is being restored

A view from the castle walls

This looks continental.

A gothic framed view

I love these steps.

What is at the top of the stairs?

The town hall.

Look at the coat of arms

I found this plant pot woman in Appleby.

Hello there

Wedding Wonders

Again this week we have had rain and some cold nights down to 7C. I have discovered a rabbit in the garden. Despite surrounding the garden with rabbit wire it tunnelled in under the bent wire on the field gate. It is now munching away on my bedding plants in bunny Utopia. I am not a happy bunny. Watch out bunny.

Luckily I had only planted out a few of these bedding plants

These are the flowers I did for a friend's wedding. Using the church window ledges was a new technique and a challenge for me.The bride and her mother were very happy with the final result. I was able to use foliage from the Artful Garden and my home garden.

A display in the church entrance

White, pink roses and stocks, a lovely perfume

I decorated the altar vases with lace

Bracken, ivy, euphorbia just some of the foliage I used

The display compliments the window

The May blossom is just coming into flower such an intense perfume of sunny days and cloudless skies.

Will May flowers bring forth sun not showers?

Cow parsley is now in flower on the verges.

Cow parsley heads nod in the breeze

The dandelions have turned to seed.

Yellow dandelion buttons

Feathery dandelion clocks. Blow the seed heads away to see what time it is.

One o'clock, two o' clock three o' clock four?

The broom is a bright acid yellow splash in the verge.

Yellow beads

Beautiful water buttercups such a rich golden yellow.

Golden stars

Deep maroon cosmos.

Feathery foliage and red jewels

This rhododendron is just smothered with blooms.

Pink personified

Delicate orange welsh poppies.

Fragile and dainty

The farmers are ploughing their fields. 

Plough a straight furrow

This tree trunk looks like a gnarled giant's hand.

Witches fingers 

Look at the variety of edible fungus for sale at the greengrocers.

They look like sea creatures

Home grown rhubarb.

Delicious

I have emptied my plant pots and put the bulbs to dry in the greenhouse. I have labelled the different varieties hoping the labels stay in place for next year's planting.

Daffodil and tulip bulbs

A pottery lady has appeared in the Artful Garden.

It's frightfully cold out here and I've got rather a stiff neck 

At dusk a lone swallow sits on my washing line and chatters like static to it's friends.

Chit, chit, click, click