Looking forward to spring in the garden

After being at work all week and the craft fair on Saturday, I finally managed to see the garden in daylight on Sunday. I had wanted to take some photos of the fantastic icicles that I'd seen in the past week,  however the great thaw started on Sunday morning and they were mostly gone by the time I got up!

There was still plenty of snow lying on the ground, though it had already been shaken off by a lot of the plants - and I'm sure after a couple of weeks under their heavy white blanket it was a great relief.

We've had more snow in the last two weeks than I can remember. I've enjoyed seeing the garden in its white winter finery but I've not enjoyed trudging to work each day through the snow then ice and slush, and it's amazing how little snow it takes for the country to come to a standstill.

It's Thursday now and we've still got quite a bit of snow left in the garden, and piled up at the sides of pathways, but it's definitely on its way out. We've got a couple of months before the warmer weather comes, but I'm really looking forward to spring now. The seed and plant catalogues are coming through the letterbox thick and fast, and it's time to plan and prepare. I have a lot of shrubs and perennials in the garden already but I have left spaces for the odd pocket of bright annuals. One such space is in front of the garden bench; it's lovely sitting here in the summer with the bees buzzing around, watching the blackbirds splashing in the pond - hopefully this snowy cushion will be gone by then...

Whiteout in the Garden

My last post showed you some quite colourful photos of the garden that I took in mid-December. However, just a few days later the garden looked like this with the first snow of the season.

The garden looks so different with a scattering of snow on it; colours are lacking but textures really comes to the fore.

Plants are transformed into icy white patterns.

The birds are grateful for their easy-to-eat patio lunch...

...once the plants have been stripped almost bare of their berries.

And then they create a little bit of art with their delicate footprints in the snow.

I think the garden looks quite enchanting under a coating of snow. It has the power to transform ordinary things into something much more dramatic and interesting.

However, the snow has kept on coming...

...and coming.

...and coming.

And yesterday we had even more snow; so now the garden is a complete whiteout. The pots in the photo above are nearly buried now, the garden bench has a cushion of snow up past the arm rests, the pond has completely disappeared, and most of the plants are now just white fluffy mounds.

I'm astonished at how much snow we've had in the past two weeks, and there's more to come according to the forecasts. It will be interesting, come spring, to see how the plants have fared. There will be some broken branches due to the weight of the snow no doubt, but it's insulating properties should protect the plants from the low temperatures and hopefully they'll survive to grow another year. Watch this space...

HALF PRICE SCARF SALE

The weather has been a bit rubbish of late and there definitely seems to be a chill in the air... autumn is on its way!

So, I'm having a kind of 'spring clean' and clearing out some of last year's winter scarves that didn't sell, before I advertise the brand spanking new ones for this year's autumn/winter collection.

I've listed five scarves at HALF PRICE on my Folksy shop (www.folksy.com/shops/blissknits), but here's a quick peak at one - this is my 'Kaleidoscope' scarf, now priced at a bargain £9.50.

Gateshead Summer Flower Show

Even though we've had a lot of rain lately, there have been a few sunny spells inbetween the showers. Some of the bedding plants are looking quite bedraggled, but there are a lot of plants still flowering well, showing off their colours in the summer sunshine.

The Met Office have now said that it doesn't look as if we're going to get the BBQ summer that they predicted for us in May. The heatwave lasted for about a week here, and we've had showers and sunny spells since then. Ho hum, the great British summer. As a gardener I do appreciate the rain though, I just wish we didn't have so much of it all at once. I can cope with two days of rain if it's sandwiched around a day of lovely sunshine!

I'm hoping that the weather will be dry and sunny on Saturday as I'm off to the Gateshead Summer Flower Show with my mam and sister. We all love gardening so it's a great day out and a chance to spend some quality time together. The family gardening gene has missed my brother out though! He's a very creative person in other ways (working with wood and doing lots of DIY projects amongst other things) but he sees gardening as a real chore and would rather pave it all. He does appreciate a pretty garden though!

Back to the show - as well as the plants, garden furniture, sculptures, etc. for sale at the show, there's nursery and plant association displays, a huge floral art competition, a farmers' market, and a big craft marquee too. It's fab! I try to save my pennies for the show because there's some great stuff to buy - I usually start my Christmas shopping in the craft marquee! I'll definitely be taking my camera, so hopefully I'll post some images of the show over the weekend.

It's £7.00 to get in, which is a bargain really as it is a full day out, and there's so much to be inspired by. However, if you put an entry into one of the Amateur Exhibit classes you get a free ticket! It costs £1.00 to enter up to five classes and you could win a prize in each. There are 375 classes to choose from, ranging from 'a bowl of sweet peas to be viewed all round', to a 'basket of vegetables arranged for effect', to '2 jars of light honey' and many more. So whatever your talent, there's a chance for everyone to exhibit something handmade or homegrown.

I'm entering one of the handicraft classes with this crocheted bag that I made a couple of months ago. The design was in Simply Knitting magazine, issue 55 (June 09). The colours used in the magazine were very rich and vibrant, but I was making this bag for our holiday in Cornwall so I decided to go with creamy, icecream shades. I'm really happy with the way it turned out as it was my first real crochet project - and now I just can't stop hooking!

Pretty beads and clouds

After a bit of fiddling about with buttons and beads of various colours and sizes, I went ahead with clusters of silver beads on the floral crochet napkin rings, and I'm really pleased with them. They just add that little bit more 'oomph' to the flower.

I'm going to list them as a set of four on Folksy tonight. They go really well with a set of coasters that I also have for sale.


The weather is supposed to be getting better in the next few days so here's hoping that everyone will start thinking of eating and drinking outdoors again.


The weather has been so erratic lately. A day of hot sun, followed by a day of torrential rain, followed by three days of showers. The great British weather - we never tire of talking about it do we? I'd hate to live in a country with no seasons and pretty much the same weather every day. That must be so boring! As I've mentioned before, I love sitting out in the sunshine, but as a gardener I know how important the rain is too. One thing I hate though is being cold; I guess that's how I started out making loads of scarves!!

I've always been interested in the weather, but I know very little about the science of it all. I have a few books about the weather, but like most of my books I look at the pictures and read the captions, and then never get round to reading it cover to cover (one day - when I retire!). One of the books is really easy to dip into though - 'The Essential Book of Weather Folklore' by Leslie Alan Horvitz. It's full of old wives tales and superstitions and whether they hold up to scientific fact, or not. As well as the folklore there are a lot of facts and illustrations explaining the science behind the weather. It's a really interesting read for an inquisitive Aquarian like me.

This was the sky at 9.30pm last night. I love how one part of the sky can be so full of fire and drama, and the opposite side is all dreamy and soft. Who could get bored with that? Now I just need to study 'The Cloudspotter's Guide' (Gavin Pretor-Pinney) to find out what kind of clouds they are...