End of Term

We're on summer holidays here in England. It doesn't necessarily affect me because my little one isn't old enough to be in school but it means that we don't have Rainbow and Guide meetings so I get my Monday afternoons and Tuesday evenings back from volunteering as a Leader with both groups. 

For Rainbows we had our last meeting at a local wildlife reserve, Horsted Green Park, and took the girls (aged 5 - 7) for a wander to look at the different habitats. It was actually a really lovely evening; I hadn't walked around here before even though I live fairly close. It's one of those reserves built to offset the fact they have built/are building 1000 new homes on the other side of the road so it's relatively new as a place to visit. 

The ponds and waterways were a little bit brown and dry looking but this particular pond (overgrown puddle) did have water boatmen and other little watery bugs skimming across the surface. 

The grasses were absolutely stuffed full with crickets, which the Rainbows loved because they could try and catch them in their hands. There were also butterflies and bees flying around and we saw some buzzards flying overhead. 

It will be interesting to see how this reserve matures. Several years ago it was a farmed field - as were the ones on the other side of the road now covered in houses and tarmac roads - so I'm not sure whether there was an initiative to scatter around lots of wild flower seeds to encourage more varieties to grow. They've also planted little trees around the pathways so hopefully they'll grow big and tall to provide future habitats. 

Less guiding means more time stitching and I started my Allotment Garden ATCs shortly after my visit to Horsted Green. There was lots of inspiration for colours and tall plants, even an orchard. What would you include in an allotment garden? I actually roughly sketched this design to make sure that I had enough space for a greenhouse and some bean poles. I can use this sketch to make templates for the building to cut my fabric shapes from. 

I love the bottom batik fabric that I've used  - it really gives a sense of a ground surface and I like how there are splashes of that bluey/grey to match up with the sky fabric. 

At the parent's house they've had a whopping crop of leeks this year, all of which have flowered (I'm not sure whether that's meant to happen) with the most enormous purple allium flowers! Perhaps I could include some of those in my cards?

My greenhouse fabric has little grey leaves throughout to sort of hint at plants further into the structure than I would be stitching. This I've just simply blanket stitched with a single strand to hold it down but I have vague plans of layering this with a clear plastic of some kind over the top to make it shiny like real glass. 

I had to stitch my contents down first though so I have satin stitched a bench and a couple of flower pots to fill, leaving a gap at the other side for a door which will go down in a different greyish fabric later on. 

The top pot I have filled with a wild chain stitch plant. There was no planning to this plant so they are not the same, I've just gone straight in with stitching random branches using two strands. It reminds me of a Christmas Cactus! 

The bottom pot I've filled with a leggy climber plant, using a single strand of back stitch for the stems, overlapping them and working them up toward the roof of the greenhouse. Detached chain stitches are being adding at random points along the stems for the leaves, making sure to vary the angle and direction. I didn't actually plan what plants I was putting in these pots but I'm really pleased with how it's looking!!