Sunshine.............

...........doesn't it make all the difference? :))

Favourite jewellery

My jewellery favourites change from time to time, but I thought I'd share some constants with you. My preferred metal is silver, although I do have some gold rings; it's the silver ones I wear most, though, but not in the garden etc for fear of losing/catching etc. The necklace in the picture is one I made up for myself, and doesn't come off for the moment; I might ring the changes with different attachments, but these are what are on it just now. The little green earrings are one of the sea glass pairs I made a while back, the pentacle is one of a pair, and the peace symbol I've had for some 20 years or so now; it gets swapped about with other earrings, on to chains, etc as I feel the mood take me. The silver Celtic band was actually bought on e-bay, but is my favourite ring of all, it's special, with a lovely colour and feel to it.
I think that jewellery worn constantly and often picks up from you, and becomes imbued with a sense of self. I have grown quite attached to various bits over the years for this reason and there are some pieces I will never part with.

Tulips...............

These were bought at a knockdown price from the diy shop - not bad for about 98p :)) Aren't they gorgeous?

The view from here..............

My computer sits on a cupboard in the corner of the sitting room, beside the front window. I'm sitting here this morning with that window open wide, and the cool fresh morning air is just wonderful. This is the view from my computer chair..........

The perfect blossom

A highlight of my year is the blossoming of the quince tree; even if it never fruited again, the blossom can only be described as exquisite - from tight little bud, to swelling blossom, and full-blown blowsiness. A real gem.

Must be the old hippy in me.....

I love tie dye :) It makes me think of sunshine and festivals, laughter and long days, friends and fun. So, with one optimistic eye to the coming summer, I did this today:

I was dyeing a shirt a rather lovely colour of blue, and popped in the t-shirt as well, just wrapped around with cotton string, for about 20 minutes or so. There's something lovely about unwinding the string, then shaking and flapping the soaking wet t-shirt to reveal the pattern - always seems to be pleasing, whatever :))
The shirt was one I've had for well over 10 years now; bought in a charity shop, but a rather unattractive shade of peach/beige sort of thing. I loved the style, and unpicked the front pleats to give a more smocky feel to it. It's now an ocean blue, slightly patchy/faded looking in parts, but I rather like that, looks "lived in" lol - I will definitely wear it more now.

Aquilegias

These are on of my favourite flowers of all - good "doers", seed happily around, and they cross with each other so easily, giving rise to new colour permutations every year; beautiful foliage, too, grow in sun or light shade, last well as a cut flower and seem to know just the right place to set seed and grow all by themselves with minimum intervention. Mind you, the very pretty cream one in the picture has conveniently set herself right in the doorway of one of the greenhouses and I can't shut the door! When flowering is over, I shall move her, as she's too beautiful to lose. When we moved here, the only flowers were a few small-flowered aquilegias and some pot marigolds; the tiny dark pink one is an offspring of one of the originals, so nice to keep that going. The big blue one is in among a nice stand of Solomon's Seal by another greenhouse door - the colour combination of greens, cream and that dark purply blue is stunning. The pretty pale pink one grows happily inside the same greenhouse - I don't feel the need to move her at all, she's more than happy where she is, and attracts insects in too.
I have met in the past, some real aquilegias snobs (bit like rose snobs) _ "Oh I've got such and such (drops in names)", boasting about where they acquired plant/seed and how much they cost - completely OTT in my book for a special plant that is so much more rewarding to let seed itself and be happy where it grows.
Better, for me, to take what nature offers , and accept it with grace.

Davidia involucrata - handkerchief tree

This is one tree I've hankered after for about 20 or so years; I've only ever seen one in situ, at The Garden House in Devon, I think, when it was in full "bloom". Davidia involucrata's other name is handkerchief tree, due to the pendulous white bracts which appear in May. A year + or so back, I was lucky enough to find one in the local garden centre; not only did they have the tree, it was reduced from 40 to 10 pounds. Up until about three weeks ago, it spent its time here in a pot, awaiting a space. My catalpa bignoides sadly didn't get through the winter, so that was hoiked out and the davidia put in its place.
How thrilled was I the other day to find the first white bracts appearing? You really have no idea, but the wait was so worth while. At the moment, it is only small, with a grand total of three pairs of bracts on, but this bodes well for the future.
Thrilled to bits.