Lulworth Blue No.89 Door - gorgeousness !!!

The weather has been lovely , perfect for painting our front door .

It took me hours to get the blooming ,fiddly,icky-sticky masking tape stuck around the windows .

                            The paint arrived........and .... my heart sank .....

We had ordered Lulworth Blue No 89 but the colour on that label looked anything but blue ......more like ....grey  :( .....I nearly gave up there and then but my husband said to open it and give it a stir  ...... oh .....what a relief ...beautiful , beautiful blue !  :) 

                              Lulworth Blue No.89 door gorgeousness !!!

  We are very pleased with it , and after doing two coats , still had plenty left to do the back door too . Very , very happy !

 My indoor plant of the month is this gorgeous Schlumbergera ....do you remember I planted three different colours into this hanging basket . I can only see two colours , so maybe the other one is a later flowering one .
 So pretty !

                                                 We lit the fire ! :)

 I,m glad to have finished painting the doors while the sun was shining and my hands warm.....over night the weather has changed..the North wind is blowing and we are having heavy , icy squally showers . There must have been some lightening , as the clock on  my cooker had stopped and was flashing on and off when I came down this morning ( isn't that annoying when it does that ? ! Grrr ..have to re-set it again grrr ..all one needs first thing in the morning ! grrr .... )
 Anyway I,ve had my morning cup of tea and everything is fine again , we lit the fire for the first time and I am settling down to a nice relaxing day in our cosy cottage living room , making my dolls .

                        Go see my other journal to see my needlework  .

                     I am having a go at making an Izannah Walker doll .
                           That's all for now , speak again soon !

Busy Planting Trees Acers and Liquidamber styraciflua

 I have five little Acer saplings which I thought would look great along the North facing garage wall . I have kept them in pots for a couple of years in the position where I would like them , just to be sure they would be happy there .
 Also so that I could pick out the ones with the very best Autumn colour .
I can see them from our kitchen window and enjoy their loveliness .
 Yesterday I decided to make a start and I weeded and recut the shape of the bed, bringing it out more to give their roots more space and improve visually the shape of the lawn .

 On the other side of the garden is this very gloomy looking area ....under the enormous Pine tree (where our two resident Ravens and Owls live ) .
 It is the so called " bottom of the garden ".. a place that has been a bit  neglected really . Our tree surgeon recently took down a few of it's branches to make it safer to walk under and also to let in more light underneath .
 The fence is ugly to look at , so I,m going to fill the area  with colourful trees and shrubs .

                                 Now imagine this lighting up the space !

 It  just so happens that I have one little Liquidamber styraciflua sapling waiting in the wings .

       It was hard work digging the hole for this ...but I got there in the end .
In the Spring and through the year it's leaves are emerald green , then turning yellow, scarlet, orange and purple in the Autumn .
      The leaves have a beautiful fragrance when crushed .                     

   My favourite kind of a tree and another place for the birds to sit and sing !

Hop picking fun !

 A couple of years ago I had a bumper harvest of Hops from the several vines that I have about my garden . I use them to make Hop sleep sachets and pillows .
 The ones I am holding in this top picture ,  may be just a bit under ripe and still look a bit green to me , they need to be just turning brown around the edges .

My Hops are left to scrabble about on a couple of  trees and they are easy  for me to reach and one called "Fuggles " an old English variety which I have in a large tub ( but it really needs to be in the ground )
The ones on the trees are the lovely golden yellow leaved  Humulus lupulus " Aureus" . 

 This year despite the lovely summer , not such a large harvest , as  you can see here on my little kitchen table .

             Enough to twist into a pretty wreath and to stuff one small Hop Pillow  .

 Stormy weather coming tomorrow and over the next few days , glad I came across my hop vines today or they might have been blown away  !
 Our storms are not so bad , but we hope there's not too much damage .
  We are watching on the news the progress of Hurricane Michael in Florida ,over the other side of the world .
 Please get yourselves to a safe place and take care of yourselves , your children and pets ,while there's still time . Our thoughts and prayers are with you .
      Speak again soon ! Daisy x