Home Again, Home Again

I've been planning this post for a little while. It's a kind of 'reacquainting with home-life' post that involves pootling around the garden seeing what's still in flower and showing you the things I have been making and creating. There is a part of a nursery rhyme that has been stuck in my head for a couple of days and I can't place it, although it seems quite apt. It's just one line repeating itself over and over; "home again, home again, jiggity jig...." Ring a bell with anyone?

The nice weather from the holiday pretty much carried itself over into this week. It's been a really dry year so far I think, speaking rather generally, as I don't recall too many days of standing at the bus stop in the pouring rain. The flowers have done well and some have entered into a second flowering which is rather nice. The lovely purple Clematis is flowering for the first time this year- it isn't usually so late but it hasn't been happy being so exposed and kept itself to itself whilst a creeping flower wound around and protected it from the wind. Now it is happy enough to flower and is bringing a splash of deep aubergine to the patio for everyone to enjoy.

The Nasturtiums in the front garden have gone completely bonkers and have taken over most of the Lavender bed and the steps up to the grass in a most Triffid like way, winding little tendrils around anything in it's path. They do look pretty in the sunshine though.

The Tomatoes, I was informed earlier today, have now been turned over to me. They were grown by The Brother and his girlfriend, but he has taken an enormous new life step this morning and moved in to his University accommodation, ready to start a degree in Mathematics- once he's made it through Fresher's week of course. At this very moment I am told he is unpacking and making his room look more homely before The Parent's leave tomorrow morning.

We have a lovely vase of lilac coloured Alstoemerias (Lily of the Incas) on our table at the moment. They are such pretty blooms and make an excellent cut flower as they usually last for ages. I really like the spray of darker lines on the inner petals, I'm sure there is some scientific reasoning for it, a runway for bees perhaps, but I like to think of it as an extra decorative flourish.

Lately I have been working on a couple of commissions, some of which I can't yet show you fully on the blog. The stone above is part of a bigger commission, but I don't want to give too much away, I think it is quite a pretty thing and I'll try to remember to show you the rest when I'm allowed.

And otherwise I am still enjoying my stitchscapes as a therapeutic, after work and in front of the box set of Silent Witness activity. This one is sort of inspired by the lovely beaches we visited in Yorkshire, although they do look more like the chalky cliffs of the Seven Sisters than the cliffs seen in Scarborough and Robin's Hood Bay. I have a special plan for this piece though, with little pieces of the holiday entwined into it- I'm excited to show you when it is done, hopefully it will all go according to plan and imagination.