Good Intentions!

 I had intended to blog more often, but as usual there never seem to be enough hours in the day to do all that I plan to do!  My goals for the summer were to:-

::   blog more often  

::  vlog monthly on YouTube

::  complete some of my outstanding projects

:: be more productive on the allotments

:: walk 10K steps a day

:: Lose weight

On the whole, I haven't done too bad, but there's still room for improvement as I failed on the first and last in the list! ;) Moving in the right direction for blogging more often, I will proceed with a couple of catch up posts today, starting with this one about July.  Here in the UK, lockdown eased towards the end of June, but life in our household remained the same with my family working from home.  Sadly my mother-in-law passed away at the end of July.

 My husband and I continued to enjoy our walks in the local countryside.

One evening we drove to a nearby viewpoint to see Comet Neowise.

We followed a scarecrow trail around the village.

The garden looked beautiful throughout the month.

At the two allotments the vegetables were growing well.  Hoping for lots of pumpkins this year.

We had a huge lavender harvest.

There's a trug under there somewhere!

We started eating the new potatoes

and harvested other vegetables too.

As usual there was lots of baking and crafting.

I took part in a community sewing project called Stitching Together.  We each received a drawing completed by a school child and a piece of fabric.  This charming drawing of a boy on a bicycle was sent to me, it reminded me of my son on his bike when he was younger.

Each embroidery will be part of a large hanging to go in Farnham Maltings.

I finally finished by Marettimo jumper by Caitlin Hunter.

Then I cast on the Stillness Shawl by Helen Stewart.  This was a MKAL, each clue released separately and this is clue 1 completed.

I also completed the Joyful World designs by Snowflower Diaries.

I have discovered FlossTube and had to make myself a floss minder and charm.

As I am back into cross-stitching I decided to buy some plain linen and naturally dye it.

The hot days were perfect for drying the linen on the lawn.  My aim was for a patchy effect so I have used a low immersion technique when dyeing.

I continued dyeing with different plant materials throughout the summer.