Flutterby Patch

Festive thoughts

You might remember last week I told you I was I feeling rather autumnal. Well friends, today you find me feeling distinctly festive. The reason....

I just happened to be loitering outside the local fabric store (as you do) when my eye was drawn to some delicious silver and gold fabrics. It's a warm sunny summery day today but on seeing these I was immediately transported to mid December and could definitely detect the scent of pine needles in the air. I had to buy a small selection of course.

On arriving home I matched the fabrics to my various trims.....

and was closely watched by some little faces waiting patiently to be made into Christmas fairies. It's never too early to start thinking about Christmas is it?

Harebell fairies

Greetings friends. I've been busy stitching this week.

My little project was inspired by some pretty blue harebells that I found dancing in the summer breeze.

These delicate wild flowers found their way into our garden some time ago and seem to like it here as they pop up every year on the edge of the lawn. They always remind me of my childhood days and my endless search for fairies who are supposed to ring the tiny bells on warm summer evenings.

Sadly I've never seen (or heard) any evidence of little folk ringing the bells but content myself with this lovely picture of a harebell fairy painted by Cicely Mary Barker. It comes from her much loved book 'Flower Fairies of the Summer'.

Unfortunately our pretty patch of harebells was hit hard by rain on Sunday. These delicate blooms on slender stalks were no match for the torrential downpour that we had.

Happily when the sun came out the following day a few hardy bells looked ready to chime again.

With no fairies to be found in the harebell patch I decided to make a blue fairy baby and she's a real little character.

She is usually very well behaved and plays happily with her tiny brass bell.

But occasionally she gets into mischief.

Recently she dropped her bell onto this cup and was determined to retrieve it.

Eventually she reached her bell but then found she was stuck inside the cup!

I rescued her of course and now that she has been reunited with her little bell she seems quite content.

The rain has returned and the wet garden is not inviting so I will probably stay indoors and make another fairy or two.

Hoping the sun is shining for you wherever you are.
Until next time

Eli

Green shady places

After last week's colourful 'rosie post' I thought I'd take you to some of the shadier parts of our garden. Neglected corners where ferns and brambles thrive.

Let's follow this little path and see where it leads.

 
We could leave the garden by this little 'secret gate' in the hedge. But we won't, we'll head for the far corner of our patch.

This is my husband's domain. It's where weeds and hedge clippings that aren't suitable for composting are piled high ready for burning. As an ex-Boy Scout my husband really enjoys having bonfires (the bigger the better!) The large logs are from a larch tree he felled and I'm not sure if this arrangement is meant to be an artistic 'log-man sculpture', a chopping block or a seat. It probably serves as all three.

We are surrounded on all sides by woodland. As you can see it is quite dense at this time of year but lovely in all seasons. We enjoy watching roe deer, badger, fox and rabbit in the wood but not in the garden as they can wreak havoc. Deer and rabbit eat anything and everything; badgers dig up the lawn looking for worms and the fox raids the dustbin....complete chaos! Most of the time we manage to keep them out thanks to a high fence.

Back to our garden and this is a safe refuge for small mammals and birds. What a perfect reason for not moving this tangle of fallen branches interlaced with brambles. I guess it could be home to a great many different creatures so we are happy to leave it undisturbed.

But who's this little fellow? He's certainly not one of the creatures I was expecting to see! I wonder where he's going with his bundle of feathers? Let's follow him.

I think he's disappeared up these old stone steps and is hiding in the shadows. We'll creep up very quietly and see if we can find him.

Ssh! Don't make a sound. He's sitting over there. I wonder what he's up to?

He seems to be busy stuffing his soft downy feathers into a cotton bag. I do believe he's making a pillow.

Oh dear! He must have spotted us. His little stone seat is empty and he's left one of his feathers behind. Did you see which way he went?

Perhaps we should leave him in his shady green home and head back into the warm sunlight where the flowers bloom. We'll return again later in the summer and see if the little fellow is anywhere to be seen.

This little hobbity fellow is the same size as my Midsummer fairies and measures just 4 -5 inches (10cm - 12cm)

Until next time,
Eli