Holiday.......without a Cat! and other things.

Came back a few weeks ago from our hols in Lanzarote, lovely blue skies and a mini heatwave gave us temperatures of over 30 degrees, (been shivering since I came home)...... and no cats in sight. If you have read any other posts on this blog you will see that we usually find a cat that befriends us. This is a mystery to us as we are not cat people and my other half doesn't even like them but they seem to attach themselves to him. Probably because he is a push over and feeds them, so they visit him every day.

Nevertheless, no cats just a lovely relaxing holiday for 10 days.

Steve had to stop and admire this car. The owner obliged by lifting the engine cover and made them drool.



We arrived home to cold wet weather and a few days later we even had snow mixed with the rain. British summer you can't beat it.

I have managed to get my tomato plants in the greenhouse (plastic not glass). and Bert went in for the inspection. Caught him once or twice sneaking in and sniffing about, he's partial to strawberries so will have to watch him with those.

Everything is a lot bigger now so the hanging baskets with the strawberries and tomato's have now gone outside. Popped some Iceberg lettuce in pots yesterday so we will see how they go.

A pot of Geraniums on the patio will add a splash of colour.

A nice hanging basket full of strawberry plants, now hanging well out of the way of Bert, although he is good at climbing on the chair that is underneath so will have to watch him when and if they get fruit.

I had an redundant metal trough sitting at the top of the garden filled with weeds so I turfed them all out and filled it with Sedum, Sempervivum Hybrid Mixed they have a lovely tinge to the end of their leaves and grow little off shots that I hope will trail down over the top and eventually hide the plastic liner. I popped a Hosta in there too but if it gets too big it may have to come out but for the moment it's fine, Saxifraga Monarch which grows pink and white flowers on the end of a tall stalk and a Sedum spathulifolium. I hope they will all cluster together and form a carpet of colour, just thought it would be unusual and fun.

A handy tip for green pepper plants, Spray the plant with Epsom salts (1 teaspoon dissolved in a spray bottle of warm water (about 4 cups). That gives the pepper plant a boost of magnesium that is required at flowering time to produce fruit. Spray them again 10 days later and then again in a few weeks time.

Bert obligingly stood and let me use my new camera for a couple of photographs, he looks a bit solemn on this one. He's probably wishing I would go away!!

Enjoy the summer!

Puppies & Butterflies

It has been a long time since I last posted anything on my blog. I am afraid I have been too busy with other things. If we haven't been DIYing in the house I have been in the study with clay creating another wedding topper. (More info can be found on weddingsofclay.co.uk)

But for this post I thought I would share with you my polymer clay puppies and my kaleidescope of Butterflies. I suppose this could be used on the top of a birthday cake or perhaps a paperweight to give your desk a bit of colour. For the moment this is going to sit on the coffee table in the conservatory and then when we do eventually get a bit of sun in the North East it will catch the colours shimmering on the Butterflies. Another idea would be to pop them into your plant pots along with your plants to brighten them up.

First the puppies.

This is Flip and the one below is Flop!

This is a photograph of Jenson a German Shepherd who featured on my latest wedding topper for James & Kate.

This kaleidoscope of Butterflies was just a fun idea I had and it gave me a few hours of relaxation just sitting here and painting them.

I placed the wires in the back and bent them around a paint brush to give them a spring. Two small pearls and a larger one were placed on the top of the wire and a pair of antennae on their heads.

I made nine in total.

I painted them with Stewart Gill and metallic paint.

Lastly I made a base out of a lump of scrap clay, covered it with imitation silver leaf and when it was fired gave it a coat of alcohol ink then water based varnish. When it was dry I threaded a load of seed beads onto thin wire and then wrapped them around the base. If it was going to be made as a cake topper I think a heart shape would have been more suitable.

Please feel free to leave any comments.

Wedding Pics

As promised here are some photographs of my daughters wedding which took place on 17th December at Horsley Hall near Stanhope, County Durham. It was a beautiful clear crisp day, we had the odd snow shower but nothing major.

It was a really special day and enjoyed by all.

Please feel free to leave any comments.