so if this is august, what happened to july?

Officially it is summer, summer should look like this...

 

I can tell you that in Scotland at the mo it definitely doesn't. I won't show you - it is grey and bleurgh. So have some more photos from Chelsea Physic Garden in June.

 

A trip to London for 2 days was my birthday present, and the one thing I have wanted to do in London since I was little was visit Chelsea Physic Garden (heaven!). Being with Trevor, I thought I better be a good girl or I'll never be allowed back, so shopping was pretty much avoided (apart from a brief visit to Liberty for mum), the first day he made me walk 8 hours solid, the next day he went a little easier on me (7). Those London pavements are hard.

I loved these fabulous flowers by the way...

Yes, I am alive, just currently over-worked and decidely grumpy and sleep deprived. School holidays suck - that's official, her Majesty is away on a week long orienteering thingy (coming back today - Gravel Guy has gone to pick her up, though why beats me - surely if she is away for a week of running and reading maps she could find her own way home from Perthshire? yes I am being facetious - I'm tired, very tired, tired makes me sarky, and sarky is not nice). However this leaves two boys here - at least in theory, but Nr.1 is nocturnal (drat - he has inherited that from me - and night time is MY time when everyone else slopes off to bed and I can happily potter, only pottering is a solitary occupation which is ruined by other peoples pottering - it is a solitary sport and so I am miserable, people don't potter in herds), as for Nr.2 - well Nr.2 is very social (where did he get that from???) and our house is infested with damp smelling teenage boys wearing tea-cosy style beanies hauled down as far as they will go over their heads.  They come for sleep overs and are draped over furniture while they sleep (until 3.00pm-ish) and only awake for cheese toasties or if you play The Priests very loudly, but they can sleep through heavy metal.

The house stinks of soggy males, cheese toasties, baked beans and trainers.

Still, they go back to school in two weeks.

So is it any wonder I have done very little, I go to work, I come home, I sleep, I make dinner (lettuce is such a fab invention, the offspring all hate it - even better), I go back to sleep, I go to work, I come home.... Very rarely I haul  my knitting pile up on the sofa and look at it. I made a Drops cardigan for my sister (they are having a cold winter) but it was on huge needles and had 3/4 sleeves - even I can manage that.

I finished Muse - plain basic knitting, I can manage that too, looks pretty on - it is one of those knits that doesn't look good on a hanger and only really attractive when you wear it - which is better than the kind that look great on the hanger and not a person I guess.

And I finished Chinoiserie - even though I thought the pattern was adorable, I then changed most of it as I knitted - I gave it a bit of shaping (boxy makes me look like a plinth awaiting something to be plonked on top), I gave it saddle shoulders, I gave it some petersham ribbon (the knitted along fronts curl badly, but nice idea) and I just embroidered roughly what was on the picture. Not a difficult knit - the hardest thing was to find green sequins for a few leaves - it is only when you come to look for green sequins you realise the difficulty in knitting Chinoiserie isn't in the knitting - it is in the finding of appropriate green sequins. Not sure I've cracked the right shade, but they will do until the right green sequins come along.

Now I just need to finish some other bits and bobs (and sleep)....

Comments

[dawn]

I've started Muse this week, and it might even be in the same colour - mine's Skipper, due to the nautical name. Yours looks lovely.

[Bryony]

I'm sorry your life has been so tiring and stressful recently, but if it helps, your knits are gorgeous! And that looks like the right green from here - beautiful embellishment :)

[Dawn in NL]

Hey, you have done really well getting three things finished and they all look great. I love Chinoiserie but I always shy away from embroidery.

Hang in the last weeks before school starts will fly past.

All the best,
Dawn

[Deb]

I love the photos - the flowers and gardens are simply radiant. The knitting isn't too bad either :) Love the Chinoiserie - I'll have to see if I can get my hand on a copy of the pattern.
Please, please, please, post more - your blog always brightens my day.
Deb

[Jeanne]

Lovely knitting! And I agree--pottering is a singular sport. I now have DD and DH aboard since it's summer vacation--not the same. And I can't outlast them--they will stay up as long as I stay up. Sigh. School starts again in 1 week--can't wait!

Have kind of dropped off on knitting--summer does that to me :). Am knitting Ishbel--very fast and satisfying!

Nice to be back in touch :).