August 2025

The garden here is very wild and untidy this year as for various reasons we have not kept on top of things. However, the established perennials have made it through and flowered despite our neglect of them! I went around the garden to pick a jug of flowers for the house and managed to put together this bunch, which includes seed heads from last year's forgotten leeks, fennel flowers and wild purple loosestrife.

I am once again stitching all things Christmas in high summer, but needs must to make enough stock for the coming season! Some new designs will be coming soon.... Remember, the Christmas Shop (tab on Home Page) is open all year, especially useful for those who like to 'shop early for Christmas!'

July 2025

The old lavender bushes growing here are now as tall as I am! Why they are so big I have no idea; the thousands of flower spikes are alive with bumblebees of all kinds, a joy to behold. Each year I cut some of the flowers to hang indoors in bunches, their scent becoming very much a part of our house in summer. Each year I am amazed to see the variety of insect life in our garden, from the tiniest brightly patterned moth to the weird and wonderful sabre wasp, which I saw for the first time in my life only last week. As I sit sewing in our little summerhouse on sunny days, I love to hear the sounds of the birds and insects all around me; I realise more than ever how precious each spark of life truly is.

June 2025

Many flowers appear in June, looking their best surrounded by fresh new greenery. Roses burst forth along with several garden border favourites and the poppies. Their brilliant red flowers appear every year in the wilder areas of our garden along with unusual pastel variations, which are a throwback to when we grew a lot of Shirley poppies here years ago.

There is a wonderful poppy poem by our Poet Laureate Simon Armitage called ‘In Retrospect’ which can be found easily online. In it he beautifully describes the qualities of the poppy, its resilience and significance.

‘in fallow fields and railway sidings, on roundabouts, verges and no man’s land, from the brickwork of old chimneys and bridges and cracks in the pavement……’