August 2026

As a gardener, each month brings its own demands on time and energy, as the tasks needed to be done change from week to week. This August has brought extra challenges due to water restrictions and the extreme temperatures, but the lavender seems happy in the drought!

 I have two new card designs: Wildflower Meadow and Little White House. The first is a variation on the framed ‘Summer Meadow’ embroidery which I have been stitching for many years. The pretty Little White House is based on an early design which I have refreshed before including it once again. Followers if my work will know I love stitching little houses!

July 2026

The flowers here have needed a lot of looking after in the recent heatwave, but worth it to see the colourful sweet peas, revealing new blooms daily in range of heady colours. Most are from saved seed, meaning that there are lots of nameless surprises never ever seen before! The trick is to stop deadheading at the end of summer, in time to let a good number of the pods swell ready for harvesting.

Several new cards: three new prams in a variety of colours and a pretty floral heart with gingham border. Re-stocked is the framed ‘Summer Meadow’ which is an informal miniature embroidery; every one I make is unique as I just make it up as I stitch.

Thank you for visiting today, I hope you enjoy having a little look around.

Helen

June 2026

Have you looked in The Curiosity Shop lately? (See tab above). It is a shop within a shop where I put mostly reduced price items and a few other things I have made, like photo cards taken in the cottage garden here for instance. I have just added some ‘old stock’ cards at reduced prices, so why not pop in and have a browse!

The baby birds here are now appearing, tiny pale bluetits, long-legged speckly robins and screechy young blackbirds ‘parked’ around the garden waiting to be fed. The roses are showing now too, always chiming with the giant angelica ‘trees’ that self-seed all over the place. A rather wild garden this year, but full of life, more than ever before, so I am just sitting back and enjoying it all. These are my husband’s Cedric Morris irises, which are spectacular this year!