my stitching and other journeys

Saturday, 20 May 2023

May at Barrington Court gardens

Another beautiful sunny day, but with north winds, which is a shame.

The house at Barrington Court is closed for repairs, but it is a pleasure to take a walk through the grounds.

Information office thatched roof being repaired:

Back at home - flowers of different kind;

production line of hexie flowers for the next border of Butterfly's Ball quilt

and all 36 flowers needed for Crojo blanket.

And now something completely different:

The two most important men in my life, at the start of this year's Mendip Vintage &Classic Tour, driving 47 years old Holden Kingswood (some of our Australian friends might remember Holden cars - apparently it was the "car which got Australia moving")

My son bought the car many years ago in Perth, Australia, at the start of his year long trip around the country, eventually finishing in Melbourne. When it was time for him to come home, the car came too, loaded onto a container ship for a long journey to England.

It is has been restored to its full glory, now taking part in the Tour every year. The Tour finishes on the green, in front of the Wells Cathedral, so the public can stroll around and have a good look at the various cars.

There is a YouTube video from this year, which you can see here:

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2023

Tuesday, 2 May 2023

May Tuesday

A day too good to stay inside, making the most of a nice day.

Morning at Lytes Cary Manor (NT) gardens.

We try to come here at this time of year, to see this wonderful display of camassias in the orchard,

and if we are lucky, like this time, the camassias flower at the same time as yellow buttercups and cowslips; a wonderful sight!

You too can spend your holiday here, because you can rent a part of this very old house.

Afternoon at Tintinhull Garden (NT).

Why not? These two properties are very close to each other and

today has been such a wonderful bright day -

lets explore more.

Only the gardens are open to public here.

Below - apple tree with mistletoe.

Mistletoe grows very freely in this part of England,

it is a parasitic plant, it has to grow on other trees to survive.

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2023

Monday, 1 May 2023

April update

And it is May.....bluebell season.

May Day today, if you celebrate it.

I can't say that this spring has been was very memorable so far, wet and cold......

But despite that, it is very green in our garden, with apple blossom,

the nature doing its own thing anyway,

with a promise of warmer weather on the way.

I moved into my new space at last, more space, more light - wonderful!

It didn't take long to make that "lived in" look 😉

Mary Jane teddy bear is very smug in her new place ("better than on the top of the book shelves", she says).

She is one of those who survived the move, not being shunted off to a charity shop as were some of her less favourite cohabiters of the book shelves.

Still - recycle, recycle - I am sure they find new homes to go to.

Somewhere in the middle of all that upheaval I managed to do some sewing;

this is part 3 of the Butterfly's Ball applique border,

but I forgot to take a picture of part 4 before I attached it to the centre piece,

it is the one on the right in the picture below.

I need to finish the corners yet.

So, this is were I got to.

The next border is suppose to be "Octagon", but I decided to skip that one,

and move on to "Hexie flower" border, because including Octagon border would make the quilt larger than I want it, and also because to be honest, it is not doing anything for me.

I think I would prefer to make a final border with some nice flower fabric. We shall see.....

It is one of the things I like about this design, it gives you the freedom to change it.