Taking photos in the garden

One of the things on my 'to-do' list in the lockdown is to take more photos.  I used to take a lot of photos of daily life and make albums of them, but recently I have simply run out of enthusiasm!  I took my camera out in the garden a couple of days ago and took some close-up photos of flowers.  Here are some of the best: 

And finally, here's one of my collection of houseplants in the dining room window.  They are on an East facing aspect so get the full sun in the mornings.  I haven't had houseplants for a long time because I kept forgetting to water them!  These have mostly been gifts and I am taking great pleasure in keeping them thriving with water and feeding.  

A close up of the orchid flowers.  They last for months!  

What I have been doing in lockdown

Lockdown here in the Uk has been in force since March 23rd.  We are only to go go out for food shopping, collect medicines, care for someone or once a day exercise.  We are now half way through our 5th week now, so what have I been doing to pass the time?

Exercise:
I have changed my dog walking routine, and now take Barney out about 4pm, instead of first thing in the morning.  I love how this is working out!  The weather has been wonderful, warm and sunny for the most part.  Here's a picture of the Ilex trees in the afternoon sunshine.

As well as my daily walk, I have been doing an online exercise class each day.  Throughout March I tried to do some yoga each day, which has stood me in good stead to carry on through April.  I have found 2 You Tube sites I like:  Yoga with Adrienne, and Fabulous50s.   I am alternating them each morning.  Here's a terrible photo of me attempting to do a 'tree' pose!   I have also done a few classes from my regular yoga teacher on Zoom. I have found that I really like exercising on my own in my bedroom.

Sewing:

My major hobby at the moment!  I bought several lots of fabric just before the lockdown, and have challenged myself to be more patient and take more care and be more perfectionist!  Here I am modelling my maxi dress, hat and rucksack all made by me in the last few weeks:

The hat is unfortunately a little small - especially with my 'lockdown' hair, which is much bigger than normal!

I had a little experiment making a couple of facemasks from some pretty fabric.  I am not sure whether we will have to wear them in the UK, but I am ready if we need them!

And of course, lots of gardening with the weather being so lovely!  After a really wet winter, we have had a prolonged dry spell, so I was happy to see some rain yesterday and today!  I love to see the ferns unfolding - such a promise of things to come in the garden.

5 Things - October

In the hope that I might write some more blog posts, I am starting a monthly meme - 5 things.  So here's 5 things that I have photographed this month of October 2019.

First is a 'Tilly and the Buttons' Cleo pinafore dress I made in blue denim.  You can see that I had my little helper/photobomber Barney the springer spaniel with me!   I have included one of the outtakes too.  I topstitched the denim with orange thread and put orange buttons on to secure the straps.  I can see that I will wear this dress a lot, including with long sleeved t-shirt and tights.  In fact, I have just bought a pair of ochre opaques.  I am so looking forward to trying them out!

2 Autumn is really here now!  Some lovely red hawthorn berries spotted one sunny morning on my dog walk, and the grass sparkling with dew.   I like to imagine that the dew drops are tiny diamonds sparkling away!

3 I have been hand sewing little bits of my scrap fabric together in the evenings while watching tv.  Here's what they look  like so far.  I have put them away for now as I want to concentrate on sewing for Christmas (I love making little felt ornaments for the tree).  I am imagining this as a bed size quilt in a sort of rainbow colour pattern.

The other quilt I am making but have put away for now, is this one, called the X-factor quilt.  I am using up lots of autumnal colours for this one.  The pattern was in one of my (very) old quilting magazines.

4 Autumn in my garden.  I put my phone right down in the grass to take photos of these little tiny fairy mushrooms.  Or are they toadstools?  I don't know what the difference is.  But I think it is quite a good year for all types of fungi.

I love the colour that this vine goes in the autumn!  And look at the colourful purple berries on the Callicarpa bush!

5 Finally, our son turned 30 last December, and his sister bought him a supercar drive around Goodwood race track.  He finally did it last weekend.   Here's Maurice, Nicholas and his girlfriend Natalie.  He absolutely loved driving the Ferrari and Aston Martin and then was driven at high speed around the track by a professional driver.  Great fun!

Cool Summer Tops

This summer has been hot!  Well, that is until the schools broke up at the end of July.  August has been windy, wet and quite a bit cooler.   Is it me, or is it that the weather is much more humid these days?  Maybe it's my age, but as soon as I start to do anything I feel hot and sticky.  Not a nice feeling.  So time to make some cool summer tops:

First up is the Super Basic Tank Top from Halfmoon Atelier.  This is a free pattern if you subscribe to her emails.  As the cost of patterns is quite significant I do love a freebie!  I made this in the pink and white stripe jersey and I have made an orange one, and have a red one ready to sew.  It has a similar scoop at the back which I really like.  I love having bare shoulders and arms on a hot day although these days I tend to wear  tank tops only in the garden.  I do like to get a tan while I am gardening.

Second I made a 'shell' top from this gorgeous 'countryside' border print.  I have had this short length of fabric in my stash  for ages, but have no idea where it came from!  I had just enough to squeeze this shell top made with Simplicity 8061.  The pattern has several different necklines and now I have nailed the fit, I will make some more!

Last but not least I made this loose shirt in a gorgeous yellow print slinky fabric from More Sewing.   This is really loose, and lovely to wear on those really hot days.  It is made from McCalls M7629.  I have some more 'slinky' fabric in a dusky pink print to make another.

Both pairs of shorts are from Lands End.  I ordered the dark blue pair when I received an offer, and liked them so much I ordered the brown ones, which by then were in the sale.  Bargains!  They are smart enough and long enough to wear outside the garden!

Spring Flowers

Bluebell woods are one of the spectacular sights of the countryside in England at this time of year.  The English bluebell is a lovely flower with its drooping bells in stunning shades of blue, and carpets the woodland in a haze of blue.  One of our favourite dog walks at the weekend is Slindon Woods about 30 minutes drive from here.  We decided to go over there on Bank Holiday Sunday to see the bluebells.  The weather was cold and a bit dull, and some of the bluebells had already finished!  But we found enough to take some photos:

 We took a flask of coffee and sat under these intriguing branches of an oak tree to drink it.

A few days later the sun was shining, so I took a walk around my garden with my camera to try and capture some spring colour:

And finally, I potted up 3 tomato plants and a Black-Eyed Susan in my greenhouse.