Joy in the Everyday Ordinary - July, 8-14

Hi there everyone 😀

Well, what a week it's been. It's been roasting hot again and Martin was at work for the best part of the week, so I've tried to get straight and up to date with everyday stuff, but it has all felt like a bit of an effort.

It has actually been a bit of an emotional week. After the excitement of football highs last week, we came back down to earth with a bit of a bump. There has also been the sense of bittersweet, which comes from remembering someone who is no longer around.

There have still been plenty of moments to be more than thankful for .. so here we go with the joy I found in the everyday ordinary last week ...

Day 8 - Another bright sunshiney day and a long overdue catch up with these lovely ladies in Stow-on-the-Wold, where a wander in the sunshine and an afternoon tea went down an absolute treat 🍰

Day 9 - After another busy, but lovely, weekend and with Martin back at work for the best part of the week it was nice to slow the pace down a bit and catch up with household chores, blogging and paperwork. There was still time for just a tiny bit of crafting and I managed to get three peg bags cut out ready for sewing up later in the week.

Day 10 - Have I said that it's been really hot lately? I'd not done any ironing for about three weeks so that was what was on the cards for today ... not much joy to be had there, though it is always nice to see the washing move from one pile to another. There was a quick trip to mum and dad's to water their garden whilst they are away, where I managed to pinch a handful of green beans. For as long as I can remember mum has always loved gardening, though the green beans are definitely more dad's domain. Whilst I am nowhere near as committed to the effort it takes, I'm sure that's where I get my love of a pretty garden from 💜

Day 11 - I don't even really like football, but this week I seem to have had 'it's coming home' on a loop in my head. I just haven't been able to shake it. I think the last time I watched England play was back in 1996 and that fateful game where yet another penalty shoot out was our downfall ... and the nation wept for poor old Gareth Southgate. This evening, along with the rest of the country, I sat and watched with bated breath, daring to dream that this time it would be different and, whilst we didn't make it through, it did feel different and, hats off to Gareth and his waistcoat, ever the gentleman, for giving us back a sense of pride in our national team and hope for future possibilities.

Day 12 - Today was a day for staying in the cool, at the dining room table with the sewing machine, for a day of crafting. I managed to get a good start made on a batch of six memory cushions that I am making for a friend, but was chuffed to bits to finally finish my flamingo phone case. It's not perfect, but it's finished and I love it 🐦
(We definitely need a flamingo Emoji, maybe I will start a petition!)

Day 13 - It was another hot, hot day and we were out grocery shopping and doing errands, which was not the most pleasant of experiences. However, we did manage to start off with lunch and cake outside in the sunshine at a new spot that we've found, which is always a treat 🍰

Day 14 - Saturday night and I was 'out' out. Out with a group of old school friends, recently back in touch, for a memorial night for one of our classmates who had been taken far too soon. I wasn't expecting this to have been the thing to have made me smile today, but I surprised myself. After all, my normal preference for a Saturday night doesn't involve leaving the house. We met up in a dark and steamily hot bar, we even danced ... vigorously. I've finally managed to shake 'it's coming home' from the loop in my head, only for it to be replaced with a raucous chorus of 'this is the sound of the suburbs'. It was a great night. One of those when you get home and your voice is all croaky from having to shout to be heard about the sound of the live band and screaming out the words to songs remembered from long ago. I think we did our friend proud and he would have had a good smile at seeing us all together, celebrating his life with such enthusiasm.

*********************************************************************************

On our Doorstep - Alrewas Open Gardens

Hi there everyone 😀

This year we missed both Newton Regis and Lullington Open Gardens as we were at the Lullington event, on the village green with the craft stall for the whole weekend.

We still wanted to get our annual fix of garden inspiration and were delighted to spot one of those signs on the side of the road, that seem to be everywhere at the moment, advertising local events letting us know about Alrewas Open Gardens.

Alrewas is a lovely little village, not too far away, and we’ve spent a day there before completing a series of Geocaches, so we thought it would be lovely to get to see behind some of the beautiful old cottages and see what we garden inspiration we could find.

Having a quick look on Google it appeared that there would be somewhere in the region of 25 gardens to look at so we decided it was well worth a visit and, if it was too hot, we would perhaps just pick a handful of gardens to look at, have a cold drink somewhere and head back home.

We picked up mum, made our way over and parked up on the cricket ground, which was well signposted and easy to find, and bought our programmes, giving us entry to the 24 places open for viewing. Having a closer look at the programme it seemed that only 15 of the places listed were private gardens, so we thought that maybe we would be able to fit them all in after all.

As we were a little early and the gardens didn't open for viewing until 1pm we decided to skip the first three and hoped to get back to them at the end of our visit. We were all impressed by the wood carving outside of the first property though ...

We decided we would head straight for the church and we made our way through alleyways and cut throughs bordered by high walls covered in tumbling roses ...

We took the footbridge across the canal into the churchyard, where we stopped for awhile in the sunshine watching the barges coming and going ...

We crossed the churchyard, where we witnessed a bit of a disaster as a proudly made Victoria sandwich ended up topside down on the gravel path 😞

We availed ourselves of the facilities in the church and savoured the cool interior whilst we had a look at the displays of the special occasions of the royal calendar, both past and present.

By the time we had finished in the church it was just after 1pm, so time to head for our first garden. We caught the occupants having an al fresco lunch on the front patio, thinking they may have at least another 20 minutes before their first visitors arrived.

It was a lovely garden, south westerly facing, with views over the adjoining open countryside, with a brook running along the bottom, which had been planted with wild flowers ...

From here our next stop was the village allotments and we headed back along the road passing pretty thatched and brick cottages and thinking that we would definitely be suited to village life ...

The allotments sat in a lovely spot, under the watchful eye of the church ...

It was roasting hot on the allotments, there was no shade and not a soul to be found ... far too hot for any kind of allotmenteering today.

We had a quick wander around the plots some of which were far more cultivated than others, but all quite charming and a quintessential part of English village life ... 

Our next stop was a real treat, Mill Gardens. The Mill was converted into apartments a number of years ago and sits within a private gated community, so we hadn't even noticed it before.

The Mill itself is a beautiful red brick building, fairly imposing and tucked round the back was the loveliest of gardens ...

Fairly low maintenance I would imagine and with plenty of wildlife ...

It was a beautiful spot for sitting and just taking in the view ... which we did for more than a few minutes.

Though we hadn't really walked that far and we were only at number 8 on the programme it was stifling hot and we were all ready for a bit of a breather. We tried to find a bit of shade in the Vicarage Gardens where cake and cold drinks were order of the day ...

I'm pleased to confirm that this is NOT the Victoria sandwich that we'd seen end up in the gravel by the church and was very tasty, the strawberries were so refreshing, a real treat.

Rested and slightly cooled down we were back on our meanderings, past the Mill Stream rest area, where we'd cached previously, back over the canal to our next garden.

This was a long, narrow, mature cottage garden at the rear of a Victorian end terrace house. It was a bit busy for us so we only had a quick look, though I was delighted to bump into a lady that I used to work with years ago out the front ... it's a small World.

Our next garden was quite a large open space but there were some interesting touches and the patio running along the back of the house made for a lovely spot ...

There was then another pitstop for ice cold drinks in the William IV before making our way past the tiny war memorial garden, where the teddy bears were enjoying a picnic in the shade ...

Our next garden was one which has been open for the full 26 years that the event has been running. It was a lovely Georgian walled garden and we were very taken with the fairy sculptures ...

... and the very unusual and huge green man ...

We were really flagging now, the heat was really wearing us out and I ducked into the Methodist church to have a look at the floral displays, where it was oh so cool ...

By now it was just too hot for wandering about so we decided we would just visit the gardens that we would pass on the way back to the car and have to leave the rest ...

Whilst you would always hope for good weather for this kind of event, this time it was really just too hot, which meant we couldn't face up to visiting all of the gardens that were open, which was a shame, as some of those we missed looked really interesting.

Whilst it's not for everyone, we always enjoy mooching round other peoples' gardens and getting to chat to the owners about what they've added to the garden and what plans they still have. It was a good event, though the gardens that were open were fairly spread out, and I'm sure we will visit again and hopefully get to see the gardens that we missed.

*********************************************************************************

In the Garden - June

Hi there everyone 😀

It's been a fair while since I've done a monthly garden post, but June has just been so different in the garden this year, and I've taken so many photos throughout the month, that I thought it would be good to bring them all together just to see how far we've come.

Our garden has always given us plenty of interest and colour in the Spring but, come the end of May that has been pretty much it ... lots of lush green foliage but not much by the way of any other colour.

Over the last few years we have been gradually trying to extend the flowering season and this year we have definitely made our way into June.

We were away on holiday for the first week of the month and we couldn't quite believe how much the garden had changed when we got back ...
The pots and baskets of summer bedding had really filled out and the delphiniums were looking spectacular. At just £1 a plant, they have definitely earned their spot in the garden.

The irises that we'd bought from the Osborne House plant sales when we were on holiday on the Isle of Wight last year had also all come into flower and were looking just as we hoped.
The new raised brick planter we added to the patio last year had also really filled out with the pom pom clematis and the Rhapsody in Blue rose in full bloom.

This is the old raised vegetable bed which we used a bit of a temporary bed for bits we'd had to move out of the borders last year. I had intended to plant it in a white theme, but seeing it with this tangled mass of colour has changed my mind. It looks really cottagey, just the kind of look that really suits the garden.

There were even flowers on the wisteria that we planted against the new pergola at the end of last summer.
This yellow rose has been in the garden since I moved into the house over 20 years ago. Up until a year or so ago it did nothing as it was swamped by ivy. Having finally got rid of all the ivy we've been able to let the rose ramble as it wants to and has now spread pretty much half way along the garden fence and has been covered in blooms. I'm so glad that I never actually got round to digging it out.

The strawberries and sweet peas had also come on really well.

We always like to bring some form of memento back from our holidays and this time it was a treat for the garden.

Since we've been back from our holiday the weather has been amazing and we've spent a lot of time in the garden, with plenty of al fresco breakfasts, lunches and BBQs ...

The Rhapsody in Blue has really come into its own ...

Even the succulents have flowered ...
... and we've had a go at taking some cuttings ...
We've managed to use the new pergola seating area ...

... and have now fitted a sail to give us some shade from the afternoon sun ...

Coming into July there is still plenty going on ...
... including an impressive harvest from the Morello cherry ...
... and hydrangeas which we have managed to turn back from pink to lilac ...
So far ... it's looking like July is also shaping up to be colourful, assuming we can keep on top of the watering ...

*******************************************************************************