Swingball anyone?

In the Back Garden ...

Fay and Jay playing swingball.

I snapped this peacock butterfly, resting on a sheet that shades Lettuce's ark.

I love the fluffyness of this marguerite.

In the Front Garden ...

I just had to take a photo of these hollyhocks. Aren't they glorious?

The Sedum is looking pretty at the moment.

I love these perpetual sweetpeas.

From the Allotment ...

Garden peas and asparagus peas.

This is going to be my final post for a while. During August I am taking a break from the computer. I hope you all have a wonderful summer and I will catch up with everyone in September and let you know what we have been up to!

A Day in the Garden

Yesterday was perfect gardening weather, neither too hot nor too cold. I spent most of the day dead-heading, cutting the lawn and general tidying-up.


The cats enjoyed a mad half-hour in the garden too.

The plants in the greenhouse are doing well.

I hope that these Brandywine tomatoes ripen before we go away on our holiday.

The Large Whites were laying single eggs on individual nasturtium leaves.

It will be interesting to watch these develop. I know that the little green caterpillars will munch their way through my leaves, but everything else does so they might as well join in!! It's all part of gardening organically and I think the garden would be a barren place without the insects.

It's good to see the Bumblebees on the lavender. Later I was gardening at my friend's. She is on holiday so I am watering her gardening and keeping it tidy.

On the knitting front I have finished my Mum's beaded bag.

These two bags I had previously knitted and are ready to be posted to France for Amelie and Celine's birthdays.

The Summer Holidays Are Here

Yippee!! As of this lunchtime, this family has started the summer holidays. I'm looking forward to spending time at home without any outside commitments and during the summer we are off on a very special holiday.

Strike a Pose!

This photo of Ella makes me laugh. She was washing her tummy last night and stayed in this position.

Another lavender-filled cupcake. On my needles at the moment is a beaded bag for my Mum's birthday. Now that I am off work I'm hoping to have more crafting time.
Happy Summer Holidays Everyone

Farnborough Air Show

The Red Devils

Lightning, Lancaster & Spitfire

Eurofighter Typhoon

The Blades

They could give the Red Arrows a run for their money.

Alien

The only operational Vulcan B2
"Oh, another plane!" Fay went prepared for the day with phone, books and Ds!

Apache



Can you tell that I have been to too many air shows!?

Monkey

The Red Arrows

An arrow through the heart

The Red Arrows Video ... blink and you'll miss it!

It never ceases to amaze me how fast and how close they fly.

The Perfect Posy

Freshly picked from the garden to sit by the kitchen sink and delight the person working there. I love these colours and the fact that the little jar is a "treasure" that the children dug up at the allotment.

In a previous post I featured some patchwork fabric that I had bought for a quilt and it wasn't until I took this photo that I realised the colours were identical. I still need to start the quilt!

The July Garden

The wisteria is flowering again and smelling wonderful.

Lettuce is enjoying the shady corner.

Gatekeeper butterfly on a hebe.

My flower of the week: Buddleia Black Knight.

Strangely I haven't seen any butterflies on it.Nasturtiums

The marguerite that originated from my paternal grandmother's garden.

I have forgotten the name of this astillbe. I bought one plant 18 years ago and have divided it and spread it throughout the garden.

Clematis Minuet rambling over Photinia Red Robin.
Love-in-the-Mist self-seeds everywhere.

At the allotment I have risked uncovering the Asparagus Peas (we have rabbit problems). The pods are beginning to form. I think that these are pretty enough to grow in the flower garden.

I have just about finished picking the raspberries and blackcurrants. The glut has been put in the freezer. The mice are eating the strawberries!! I haven't seen the snake again since OH saw her in the compost heap. We think there are eggs in there so we will leave it alone for a couple of months. Courgettes are doing well as always! Last night I thinly sliced some baby yellow ones and added to our egg pasta and sugar snap peas for the last minute of cooking. I stirred in green pesto and sprinkled with basil leaves and parmesan. Jay announced that he loves the courgettes like that. I feel blessed that I have children who like fruit and vegetables, but then I have given them a variety of both since they were old enough to eat them.

I spent the first half of this morning baking and these cakes are cooling in the kitchen at the moment. I have to keep a close eye on Maurice as he is a cake thief!

This is my usual drizzle cake but instead of lemon I have drizzled it with some homemade elderflower syrup.

Lavender Shortbread. This is the first time I have made this using the Rivercottage recipe.

Banana Crunch.

This is a family recipe that I loved as a child (still do) and my children love it too.

8 oz butter or margarine
8 oz rolled oats

8oz granulated sugar

8oz plain flour

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

2 large eggs, beaten
2 - 3 bananas, depending on size

Greased baking tray

1. Melt fat in a large saucepan.

2. Stir in dry ingredients.

3. Combine mixture with the eggs. Stir well.

4. Spread half of the mixture over the base of the baking tray. Thinly slice the bananas and arrange evenly over the mixture. Cover with remainder of mixture.

5. Bake in the centre of the oven at 180'C for approximately 20 minutes, until golden brown and risen.

6. Cut whilst hot and leave to cool in tray.