Flowers, Crochet and Cake!

This past week here in the South of England, we have been experiencing a high level of smog, which is unusual for us, but the combination of winds carrying sand from the Sahara and high pollution levels have resulted in a week of overcast skies and a horrible sulphur smell.  Poor Mini is now covered in sand from the Sahara.

 You can see in this photo that the skies have been overcast and this was taken on a better day.

At least my flowers have made the garden bright.  In the front garden the amelanchier is in blossom

and so is the ornamental crab apple.

My hanging basket

 and pot by the front door are both full of pretty violas, primulas and wallflowers.  There is also a pot of spring bulbs by the doormat.

 In the back garden the tulips are now beginning to open.

 Patches of blue forget-me-nots are springing up throughout the borders..

 I have several varieties of wild flowers in my garden, including wood anemones

 and primroses.

 The forsythia is still flowering

and the wisteria and lilac are just beginning to bloom.

In the greenhouse, the beans are starting to grow.

Dwarf beans.

Runner beans.

The sweetcorn is shooting

and the many varieties of pumpkin seedlings are putting in an appearance too this week.

I bought some plug plants from the garden centre, in readiness for my summer hanging baskets and I have potted these on to give them a chance to grow bigger before making up the baskets.

Crochet wise I have blocked the first lot of squares for my next cushion.  They didn't block as big as I thought they were going to, so now I will have to make 36 of them.

The cushion is to match this one I made last year.

I am using DMC Cotton Natura and I have been very pleased with how hard-wearing it is and it washes beautifully.

Yesterday Jay arrived home from uni for the Easter holidays, so I am back to making cakes.  This is a chocolate and almond loaf.  I found the recipe here.  For the topping I melted some dark chocolate and added a dollop of creme fraiche.

Fay will be home next Saturday.  I'm looking forward to being a family of four again, although it is only for two weeks.  We plan to spend Easter at home as Jay has revision to do and Fay may have some work to do still as well.