Autumn fires

Many thanks for all the nice comments you left last week. As quite a few of you seemed to like the bears hiking their way across the Lakeland mountains I thought I'd include another pic of a busy pair working in the garden. This one brings to mind the poem 'Autimn Fires' by Robert Louis Stevenson.

In the other gardens

And all up the vale,

From the autumn bonfires

See the smoke trail!

Pleasant summer over

And all the summer flowers,

The red fire blazes,

The grey smoke towers.

Sing a song of seasons.

Something bright in all.

Flowers in the summer.

Fires in the fall.

As well as having the occasional bonfire, hubby has spent the last few weeks cutting wood in readiness for the cold weather ahead.

Today, whilst hubby's back was turned, Belinda Jane managed to fill her basket with small offcuts.

With some help she managed to carry the loaded basket back to the dolls' cosy kitchen where a splendid Victorian style range keeps everyone snug and warm.

Enjoy your weekend everyone

Flower filled days

Don't you just love these colours!

This illustration is by Brian Wildsmith and it accompanies the poem 'The Flowers' in his fabulous version of 'A Child's Garden of Verses' published in 1966. Brian Wildsmith is now in his 80s and has illustrated many books over the years.

Hilda Boswell's lovely books include 'A Child's Garden of Verses' which like Brian Wildsmith's also dates from the 1960s. Her style is typical of that era whilst his illustrations seem way ahead of their time.

Hilda Boswell (1903 - 1976)

Children in the Victorian and Edwardian era would have been treated to Charles Robinson's version of the book which contained over 100 wonderfully detailed black and white illustrations in the Art Nouveau style. It was first published in 1895

Charles Robinson (1870 - 1937)

In 1946 Alice Watson illustrated the book. One of her delicate line drawings accompanies every poem. This is her version of 'The Flowers'

A.H. Watson (Alice Watson 1896 - 1984)

I have a copy of Gyo Fujikawa's 'Child's Garden of Verses' which she illustrated in the 1950s. Sadly the poem in question hasn't been included but as I'm a great fan of this lady's work I decided to include her flower filled cover picture.

Gyo Fujikawa (1908 - 1998)

Last but not least is Tasha Tudor's wonderful interpretation. She first illustrated 'A Child's Garden of Verses' in 1947 but my book is a newer version dating from the early 1980s. I love it.

Tasha Tudor (1915 - 2008)

Robert Louis Stevenson's poems have always been a favourite of mine and I'm afraid I can never resist buying yet another vintage version of his book when I find one.

I've enjoyed several 'garden days' this week as the weather has been amazingly kind. Here are four views of my 'patch' captured yesterday.

Below is a small part of the 'cutting garden' that I planted last year.

I'm really pleased with the way it has matured. Every available space is filled with colour.

Having a cutting garden is a great way to have cut flowers for the house without spoiling the main flower beds. I wish I'd thought of it years ago.

Thanks for dropping in.

Until next time

Eli

Garden ghosts

Imagine you are a wealthy Edwardian lady with a beautiful house and garden like the one above. Isn't it gorgeous. You would, of course, have a gardener who would keep the lawns manicured and pick fresh flowers to fill your pretty house with scent and colour.

Then one day the gardener complains that large leathery leaves have mysteriously appeared in his carefully tended flower borders. He cannot identify them as there are no blooms. You decide to leave them growing just in case something beautiful or unusual appears.

The following spring several buds emerge and within a few short weeks these spiky beauties appear. They are 'eryngium gigantium' (sea holly).

In Victorian and Edwardian times, if these plants mysteriously appeared in your flower borders the chances were you had been visited by a well known plant enthusiast named Ellen Willmott. She would regularly taunt her friends by scattering seed of eryngium gigantium in their gardens and must have carried seed with her wherever she went.

Ellen Willmott

The flowers are tiny and are clustered on the central cone. They are surrounded by wonderful grey/white bracts that shine like silver in the summer sun and on a moonlit night they appear a ghostly white. Friends of Ellen Willmott eventually became used to these plants popping up uninvited in their gardens and they became know as Miss Willmott's Ghost.

I heard this story a few years ago and couldn't resist buying a packet of eryngium gigantium seeds to scatter in the garden. Nothing appeared so I forgot about them. Last year some strange leaves emerged which I thought were probably weeds. Then suddenly, in the last few weeks Miss Wilmott's Ghost has put in an appearance.......magic!

Elsewhere in the garden Posy has been hard at work. She is the only dolly whose legs are long enough to reach the pedals on this old bicycle and so she volunteered to pull the trailer loaded with pots and garden tools (plus a few helpers).

Meanwhile, Polly and Kate have been in the orchard gathering cherries. Every time they count them there are less cherries in the basket. I'm not sure how many will remain by teatime!

I'd better get back to the garden whilst the sun continues to shine. Enjoy your weekend.

Eli

Summer begins

Well, its officially the first day of summer today and I've chosen this pretty floral fabric as inspiration for the new dolly I've been planning. The fabric is named 'Summertime' and I've just realised it is a UK product. We used to be world leaders in cotton production and for centuries our mills produced cotton fabric that was exported around the globe. But those days have gone and now most of what we use is imported so it's really good to see some fabric with a UK label.

I love matching yarns to printed fabrics and as you can see work on the new doll has already started thanks to this little floral print. I know more or less what she will look like but am never averse to making changes to my plans along the way. I can't say how long the dolly will be in the making but while we are all confined indoors the knitting will continue.

The rain stopped for about five minutes this morning and as I had my camera handy I popped outside and took a few pics. I think they speak for themselves.

Meanwhile the dolls in the playroom gaze out of the widow longing for the rain to stop so that they can enjoy some much needed outdoor fun.

Back to the knitting!

Eli

A secret world

For some time I've been looking for a bell that I can ring to call hubby in from the garden. We have rather a sprawling plot and finding him when needed often requires quite a hike around his various hiding places (bonfire, shed, garage etc). Anyway, last week I discovered this beauty which makes an ear piercing sound when rung and hubby is able to hear it wherever he is working around the garden. He's attached it on the pergola beside the study door so whatever the weather I'm able to ring it furiously without having to walk very far.

This morning he's been mowing this strip across the lawn.

We let the grass grow long here until July so that the wild orchids can flower and set seed. We discovered one solitary orchid about 15 years ago and now we have about sixty.

Long grass in the garden always makes me think of the poem by Robert Louis Stevenson entitled 'The Dumb Soldier'. Its about a little boy who places his tiny toy soldier in long grass and forgets about him. There the solder lies watching bees and beetles as the grass grows ever longer. Then one day the grass is cut and the boy finds his soldier again and wonders what adventures he will have had.

This tiny fellow belongs to my son and I couldn't resist using him as an illustration.

When reunited with is pals he couldn't wait to tell them of his adventures.

There are nine little soldiers in total and they live inside a painted wooden egg. Before climbing back into the egg the little adventurer took a final look at the big wide world.

I'm sure he will now keep everyone entertained inside the egg with his tales of 'life in the long grass'.

Until next time

Eli

Garden days at last

Greetings friends. It's been a while since I popped in to say "hello". I'd so looked forward to writing some sunny Maytime posts but the entire month of May was a complete wash-out with cold winds and endless rain, day, after day, after day.

However, June has been kind to us so far and we are all enjoying the sunshine at last.

With endless games of hide and seek around the flower beds there hasn't been much 'real' work going on.

The excuse has been that many of the garden implements are far too large for small people to use.

But thankfully Posy has been lending a hand with a few chores.  

And this afternoon Kate volunteered to take baby Daisy for a walk in her pram.

but Daisy had other ideas . . . . .

. . . . . . . and decided to climb out. . . . .

at which point several others climbed in and pleaded with Kate to push them round the garden.

But the pram was loaded to overflowing and, try as she might, poor Kate was unable to shift it.

Then, when Daisy climbed back in, Kate gave up completely.

She took her little duck for a walk instead as he presented less of a challenge! 

Kate's duck has reminded me to give you an update on the duck's nest we found in April under a clump of heather on our patio.


Mrs Duck laid 13 beautiful eggs at the end of April and we took great care not to disturb her. Four weeks later there should have been 13 baby ducklings but sadly that never happened. The eggs are still in the nest but Mrs Duck has disappeared. We are all very sad and disappointed.

And so ends a sunny June day here at Flutterby Patch. I hope your weekend weather is being kind to you wherever you are.

Until next time