Summer Loving

Have you ever carried on merrily with a project, just rolling along when voila! it hits you that it isn't right, that's me with these Japanese crochet flowers.  The pattern that I was following said twelve spokes on each round, OK got that right, but where I went wrong was it did not say twelve petals, it just said chain five and slip stitch it every third stitch, and consequently my counting of third stitches must have been incorrect, so I landed up with too many petals.  It wasn't until I went to block them that it struck me that these were never going to lay flat, as pretty as they might look, see photo above, it could not be left like this. So now I had at least thirty which I had to undo and re crochet, see photo below.

I took the easier route and bought the multi coloured yarn for this project.  There are several more colours in this range of yarn, but I would have to buy them online, as my local store does not carry them, I am thinking of doing that.  It is going to be a rainbow of colours, I'm not going to be conservative.

My vision is an oblong shawl, connected with a plain green trellis with leaves and dangles of some sort, possibly leaves at each end.  I have what I think is the perfect colour plain green for this project.  I wanted a bright green, but not garish and I found a lovely Moss Green Bamboo and Silk yarn, so I hope this works.  As with all things it's just in my mind and reality may be quite different.

What do I love about summer, well especially the mornings, when it is warm enough to sit outside very early, the light is wonderful then and you have this feeling that the day stretches ahead of you with endless possibilities.

Tea and toast in my Italian set, it reminds me of my day at Cinque Terre on the Italian Riviera, a UNESCO heritage site. of towns climbing the cliffs, such names as Manarola and Riomaggiori, just roll off the tongue.  A little zucchini and ginger jam on my toast.  All accompanied by a little crochet.

I love to use the words that I like best, for instance I like the American word for marrow which is zucchini, but I like the English word for eggplant which is aubergine, using the best of both cultures. 

Now to my garden, a new perennial has been introduced, David, a hardy garden phlox.

What about these planters already made up.  This is not the way I usually buy plants and flowers because they are just over priced.  So my tale is this, I went to Lowe's looking for more hosta, but the selection was limited. I thought I had seen the mouse ear hosta there, which is a tiny little curled leaf variety of hosta, but I must have seen that at a different nursery and will if I want it, which I do, have to pay the price.  Just love that name Mouse Ears.  But in the mean time I couldn't make the trip and come back empty handed so I bought a little container of  Leptinella, more on that later, just as I was checking out I asked if they had a clearance section, sure enough, hidden in a corner they did, and look what I came across.  There were probably five of them, but I resisted and left some for other people, originally $25.00 I would never have paid that price, reduced to, wait for it $3.00.  With a little trimming they look quite respectful.  The trailing petunias were mostly gone, so I may buy a few individual ones and plant those in there.  In any case I love to resurrect plants.

My second perennial buy this year, Indian Feather, Whirling Butterflies, one would buy it just for the name.

My herb garden area, coming along quite nicely.

Cleome, need I say more.  Cleome would take over the world, it is on a quest to do so, at least in my garden.  Once introduced, you never need seed or plant another one, but just need to be vigilant in digging them up and relocating to where you would like to see them.  I just let this area go wild, including some other plants which I know will grow up to have dark berries on and the birds love them, so have left them.

My blackberry bush with thorns which seems to produce far more fruit than my thorn less blackberry.

In Joanne's on clearance a little cup and saucer flower pot.  I had the choice of three colours, white a teal green and this colour, but there was no decision here because this colour seems so iconic to fifties and sixties pottery planters.

A few cats and kittens taken off my boot planters, plus a trailing succulent that just grows in my garden.  Now this is what I bought the Leptinella for or Black Brass Buttons, just to fill in.

Here is the Leptinella squalida, originally from NZ.  When I first saw it, it reminded me of fern, and something that you would see at the Philly Flower Show, on those miniature garden displays.  Isn't it exquisite?  I think so.  You use it as a ground cover and it must be a moist area.

So these are some of my summer loving things.

Christy