Jolly July

Well I've had a very jolly July - it being my birthday month ... my friend Joy served up this lovely
tomato tart on her retro china for a birthday lunch and all the way from Brazil I received this pretty piece of hand crafted embroidery from a fairy fan called Silvia.


She tells me it is called file ( with an accent over the e ) work - it looks rather like our drawn thread work. Isn't the internet a wonderful thing when it brings people from all over the world closer ! Thank you Silvia.


Another delight at this time of year has to be visiting wonderful gardens and I am glad to report that I have finally managed to go to Great Dixter. For all non gardeners it was the home and garden of the great plants man Christopher Lloyd , who like myself had a penchant for dacshunds and there is a great pebble mosaic on that subject in the garden.
The amazing thing about the place I think is the profusion of flowers crammed together in the most unexpected combinations ... exubrient planting wrapped around a Lutyens restored house where he grew up and if you go earlier in the summer the wild flower meadows are really beautiful. ( I confess that I have been twice but that was only because Sissinghurst was closed because I hadn't checked and it's near enough to make a detour to to save the day from being a wash out .) It was still exciting to see it the second time a month later with all the subtle changes.
Anyway it got me into a frenzy of colour and texture and below are some pictures of his garden and some details of some new fairy garden embroideries.

I have been mixing in more of my crochet in with the stitching for a greater depth of texture ( on the lower portion. )











I will leave you with a picture of this wonderful dangly tree - anyone know it's name ?!