Tuesday, August 07, 2007

7 August: Home life, continued

We could do with some rain.

No, really, the ground here is baked hard and solid. So of course did I decided to weed on Sunday for the first time for months. (My secret is to fill the borders with so many plants that there isn't any room for the weeds - and I have kept on top of weeds in previous years, and it does reduce the seeding.)

Since I removed an under-performing rose, lacerating my hands in the fashion usual whenever I go near a rose, the other plants in that bit of border have done much better, particularly these - dark-leaved hebe and ligularia -


Love that colour combination!

There was no space to plant out sweet peas with sticks, so they got tucked into odd spots where I hoped they would climb up nearby plants. Now there are a few of them peeping out here and there.


And here's another in my occasional *underfoot* series - a couple of self-sown nasturtiums growing in the leaf litter, with added rose petals.


And just in case you thought I'd been neglecting the knitting, here's the latest in the sock saga -


The hunt continues for the perfect fibre for hand-spun sock yarn. This is Blue Faced Leicester blended with tencel; both fibres dyed before carding together for spinning. I have them on at the moment (it's a bit what they call fresher today), and will see how they wash and wear. The previous BFL and soy mix seems to be wearing better than the shetland and bamboo, but this blend might be good.

4 comments:

Granny J said...

So did one part of England get heavy rain/floods while another part suffers drought?

stitchwort said...

Yes, here in the North East, we are much drier anyway than the west, where all the rain from the Atlantic gets dropped. The Pennines push the clouds up, they rain, what's left of the weather continues across us.

The recent floods were further South, mostly in the area where the River Severn collects all the water from a wide area on the Welsh border.

KAZ said...

OK - so if your weather's so great - why do you need so many socks?
I speak on behalf of the wet Pennine dwellers.

stitchwort said...

Wet and dry are not the same as cold and warm.
Our wind that blows off the Pennines may be fairly dry, but it's often far from warm!
And anyway, I'm stocking up(so to speak) for the winter.