Dreaded Dentist

I had the dentist on Monday. It is not at the top of my 'fun things to do' list, and means that I have to take the entire day off of work because of the post-dentist recovery time required. This time my usual dentist was off on maternity leave, so I had a fresh faced, keen and smiley cover dentist instead who insisted that unless I buy an electric toothbrush and special floss sticks, and go back for a deep clean that week that I would get gum disease. I'm still not sure if she really meant it or was just promoting electric toothbrushes.
Anyway, I am now the (slightly un-)enthusiastic owner of an electric toothbrush, and a variety of tiny brush-like tooth-pick floss things that I don't find does anything that the toothbrush doesn't do. We'll see how it goes but I really don't like the toothbrush whirring away, I hugely prefer the manual toothbrush- and I don't dribble so much!

After the bad dentistry news, I sought out my special place of solace in Southover Grange Gardens, just a short walk down the hill. As soon as you enter the gate to the garden it is like you are enclosed in a bubble of calm and tranquillity. It's one of my favourite places in the world, and with a coffee in hand and a little stitchscape to work on, I can quite happily sit there for hours.

I currently have eight completed little Christmas stitchscapes which are going on sale tomorrow at the Barnsgate Manor Christmas Craft Fair. They are framed nicely in their own little hoop, backed in white felt and have a loop of lace through the screw so that it can hang on the Christmas tree. Sweet! I am looking forwards to this fair, and have lots of new ways of displaying my work to keep things fresh. For the Christmas spirit I have sprays of holly (not real in case it stains anything, or causes bleeding), twinkly lights and a sort of Christmas tree to hang the bauble 'scapes on. I'll take some photos so you can see what it turns out like.

Embroidery is such a soothing thing to do. Sat in the sunshine on my little bench, I let my mind wander and drift- sometimes a to do list would appear, and sometimes there was nothing there. It's quite a busy little park, full of mums and their little ones out for a bit of fresh air, or meeting other mums for outdoor play dates.
The gardeners were out in full force changing the garden over to the Winter season, cutting down trees and replanting the beds with Pansies, Wallflowers and Primroses. One particular gardener who wheeled his trolley of flowers over near my bench, was working on a flower bed in part of the set garden, marking out where the flowers should go according to a pre-arranged arrangement on a piece of paper. He managed to plant the entire bed whilst I sat and finished my 'scape.

There are still some fruits on the trees in the garden, figs and apples aplenty. Other than the lack of fresh flowers, it didn't seem to really be affected by the changing seasons as there were still lots of green leaves on the trees.

There is a water way that runs through the garden, which for most of the year, is completely empty of water. The Pampass Grass grows right along the edge of the 'water' and look absolutely incredible with full feathers waving in the breeze.

There are still a few late roses in the Rose Garden, little reminders of the summer just past.

Sadly for me, even though I spent such a pleasurable few hours 'recovering' from the dentist. I had to go back later that afternoon for the 'deep clean'. Two words guaranteed to strike fear into the hearts of many- all that scratching and scraping and squeaking and polishing and poking. Sitting up and working through the rinse and spit routine. My teeth have been pretty tender all week!