Merry May

 May is my very favourite month of all. There is a freshness about it, still a part of spring, but containing all the promise of summer. Trees and fields are verdant with the brightest, zingiest greens, and the air smells sweet with the honeyed scent of blossoms and new growth. Even when it rains in May, it's fresh and invigorating. I tried to capture this sweetness in my calendar page for this month. It was difficult limiting myself to just six photos - I could easily have chosen many more.



I'm in good company in my admiration of May, as many writers and poets have been inspired by this month. The poet Thomas Carew wrote about the burgeoning countryside:

'Now do a choir of chirping minstrels bring
In triumph to the world the youthful Spring
The valleys, hills and woods in rich array
Welcome the coming of the long'd-for May'

And I love this quote from Mark Twain. It perfectly captures the feeling of renewed energy and restlessness that arrives with the spring:

'It's spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you've got it, you want - oh, you don't quite know what it is you want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!'

I've had Edith Holden's 'Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady' for many years, and the charm and skill of her paintings never fail to delight me.    

The May paintings are very delicate and fine, and I love her depiction of bluebells, may blossom and a bird's nest.

On the subject of blue, have you noticed just how many flowers in May are blue? And not just any old blue - my very favourite shade of purply blue. The early clematis which grows up the front of my shed is so graceful with its bells which gradually open. These photos were taken a couple of weeks ago and the flowers are now green, spirally seed-heads.

Our ceanothus, or Californian lilac, is blooming at the moment. It's such a deep, rich blue and makes quite an impact in the garden.

The Spanish bluebells are looking glorious now. We haven't been out to look at any native bluebells yet this year - we'd better get a move on before we miss them!

When we celebrated my dad's birthday at a country pub a couple of weeks ago I took a picture of this wonderful wisteria growing up the front of it. We used to have a lovely one which grew around the windows on the front of our house, but a couple of years ago it suddenly died. I do miss it - maybe we'll plant a new one, if we can find room.

As well as blue there's plenty of pink around at this time of year too. The aquilegias, or granny bonnets, are at their best now. Long slender stems carry those gently dancing blooms above ferny foliage - what's not to like? A year ago I wrote about how prolific they are in our garden, and it's still the case. I shall have to do some thinning out so that our other plants have room to grow. I'm very fond of their soft colours in shades of pink and blue, though.

The dicentra, or bleeding heart, is another pink flower which brightens the garden in May. Its unusual blooms hang in a row of delicate little pink hearts.

I also have to mention this sweet little lilac-coloured flower which is at its best in May. I always knew it as Wandering Sailor as a child, but in recent years I discovered it's official name, Ivy-Leaved Toadflax.

Along with ivy, it grows all over our stone garden wall and has pretty little flowers which look like tiny snap-dragons.

It's easily overlooked, but I think it's an incredibly pretty little plant that deserves a closer look.

Every April and May the ferns unfurl (just love that word!) and send up little coiled fronds which look a bit other-wordly, like strange creatures.

Gradually they unwind, uncoiling up the length of the frond.

This is how the fern looks this morning, completely unfurled.

These are all things I love about May. Other things I'm looking forward to are:

-cow parsley lining paths and lanes

- meadows full of buttercups

-hawthorn blossom in the hedgerows

-really warm days that feel more like summer than spring

-eating outside in the garden

-wearing sandals - hooray!

-the first fragrant, glorious roses

-watching the Chelsea Flower Show on tv

- long evenings spent outside

... what are you looking forward to this month? 

(By the way, I'd like to say a big 'thank you' for your encouraging comments about our forthcoming kitchen and your own kitchen-related experiences. Our old one is now gone and the room is a shell awaiting damp-proofing - it's all very exciting indeed!). 

See you soon x

Dropping By

Just a quick drop-in to say 'hello' and to say 'thank you' to the lovely VeggieMummy at Tales From The Riverbank for nominating me in the Two Good Reads tag. I was thrilled with her comments, and have to say that there are so many wonderfully inspiring blogs out there that choosing just two is very difficult, but here goes.




The first one I'm tagging is Jan at Jan's Ramblings. She is a new blogger and her posts are full of companionable walks in gorgeous countryside, wildlife photos and beautiful crochet.

The second one is Hawthorn at I Live, I Love, I Craft, I Am Me whose blog details her fantastic knitting and crochet, wonderful hikes in the hills and some stunning photos of nature and home life.

(To participate you just need to display the logo, link back to my blog and make two of your own recommendations)

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Last week I made the rhubarb I picked in this post into one of my favourite jams, rhubarb and vanilla. I've made this a few times from this recipe, and love this rhubarb and custardy-flavoured jam which we sometimes have as a treat on sweet brioche rolls for breakfast - delicious! 

We've had some sunshine here today which was very warm, a foretaste of summer. Clover quickly found a patch of sunlight to sleep in after her tea and nodded off next to me on the sofa this evening. There are few things as relaxing as sitting next to a sleeping cat in warm sun,

After work I popped out into the garden and found the first rose of the year, 'Compassion' which has a very sweet perfume. I picked it and took a deep breath of its delicate fragrance - a moment to savour.

I put it into a tiny vase with some Spanish bluebells from the garden, and will put it on my bedside table so that I can drink in that scent while I'm drifting off to sleep.

Out in the garden, instead of noticing how much the grass needs cutting, I noticed just how very pretty the lawn looked with so many daisies and dandelions growing in it.

Down at ground-level the daisies almost sparkled in the vibrant green grass.

The dandelion clocks were ethereal and delicate close up.

I never want to blow them because I love their shape. I've read that when the sun is shining the fluffy heads open right up, ready for the seeds to float away on the breeze, However, when rain threatens they close up until it's past so it's possible to use them to predict the weather. 

We'll probably get around to cutting the grass this weekend, but until then I shall enjoy our 'bio-diverse' lawn.

Crochet Catch-Up

I've been blogging so much about flowers lately I've neglected to tell you what I've been up up to crochet-wise. To tell the truth there hasn't been a great deal of yarn-related action going on, just a little here and there.
This is because we are about to have a new kitchen fitted, as well as having the walls damp-proofed, so we've been spending a lot of time emptying cupboards and drawers. I had a conversation at work the other day in which we all agreed that everyone's kitchen has a drawer full of the same things: old keys and phone chargers (not sure if we still own the things they're used for), tickets, receipts, string, tubes of glue, small screwdrivers, labels, elastic bands, drawing pins, batteries (old or new? - hard to tell), those pesky plastic bag ties that get everywhere, matches, plugs, small unidentifiable electrical-type things (perhaps they are important and we'll suddenly need them one day) ... the list goes on. And that's just the drawers. As for the cupboard-under-the-stairs ... I'm quite a tidy person on the whole, but we've lived here as a family of five for a good few years, and a sort-out was definitely overdue.

So we've spent two weekends clearing the kitchen and under-stairs cupboard, and soon we'll be temporarily kitchen-less. I am very much focused on Concentrating On The End Product, and persuading myself that it'll be fun - like indoor camping. It's very exciting that we are lucky enough to be in a position where we can say goodbye to our old damp cupboards and hello to a new kitchen - that's definitely something to look forward to.

So with that in mind, I have squeezed in a tiny bit of crochet here and there amid the jobs. I finished the crocheted hellebores which I mentioned in this post ages ago, but took a while to steam them. I was pleased with the finished result, even though the real ones outside have gone to seed now. They're made from cotton yarn in colours which are a good match for the real flowers. However, the strands of the cotton stamens separated and lost their definition, so I'll use wool or acrylic yarn next time, I think. I just have to decide what to use them for - I keep thinking they'd look nice on a tea-cosy.

Still on the hellebore theme, I also made a little needle-felted hellebore picture, which I'm very happy with. I enjoyed making the petals first, and then sewed the stamens in contrasting silky embroidery thread, finishing off with some tiny beads. Needle-felted items are always irresistibly tactile, aren't they?

Back to crochet again, I decided that another mandala-type table mat was needed for our dining room table under my flowers, so made another very easy granny-style circle to the same design as my last one. Not at all complicated, and in fresh spring colours, I enjoyed crocheting this one in front of the tv. I can see I'll be making a whole set of these for the changing seasons, and will try a different pattern next time.





After all  the high winds and blustery showers that we've had here recently it's sunny and warm today. Hope you catch some sunshine, wherever you are this week.

PS A very big thank you to VeggieMummy who has named me in the Two Good Reads tag - it's a great compliment and I shall enjoy deciding on two blogs to nominate, although this will be a tricky task! x

Tiptoeing Through the Tulips

Yesterday morning I indulged in one of my favourite seasonal treats, a spot of tulip-picking. For the fourth year in a row our favourite farm has opened its pick-your-own tulip field - you can read about it here when it was featured in Country Living magazine not so long ago. We have been every year to pick tulips, and now it has become an annual fixture in our calendar.



When we arrived at the farm P went off to the cafe for a coffee and to read his book, and I eagerly picked up a bucket and headed for the field.

 Despite the fact that it was a very chilly and overcast morning there were swallows swooping overhead and the colours of the tulips glowed against the fresh spring grass. It felt wonderful to be out in the fields on a Saturday morning!

I have to say, with my bucket in one hand and my camera in the other I felt the same tingle of excitement that I feel in a yarn or bead shop. So many colours and shapes - which to pick first?

Pretty soon my jaunty yellow bucket was full of gorgeous tulips. I'm pretty certain I'd managed to pick some of each variety.

Aren't they heavenly?

They grew in wonderful rows of raspberry red. Perhaps my favourites? ...hmm ... hard to decide.

Back home I put them on the dining room table, and kept 25 for us. The other 25 I gave to my dad today. It was his 90th birthday recently and we all had a family get-together at a country pub to celebrate. My parents love flowers and gardening, and he was delighted with them.

Last year I photographed the tulips I picked, as I loved the variety of forms and colours. Looking at the two year's bunches, I can see some similarities and differences. 

My family thought I was a bit odd taking photos of individual tulips, but you understand don't you, dear reader? Lily, peony, single, double, fringed, parrot ... so many lovely shapes. 

Here they all are.

If you made it to the end of this post, well done! I hope you enjoyed all this delightful floral colour!

Have a happy weekend x