Christmas Worry Worms

Christmas prep comes early for crafters. The house is full of various boxes and trays of Christmasy looking bits and pieces.

Having spent a long weekend in Leicester with my nephew and his family, I spent what little spare time we had, making 14 worry worms. The children wanted to make gingerbread houses and fairies. There were rugby matches to watch, allotments to weed, children to collect from school and babies to cuddle.

 I came home with a cold so I spent today resting and completing the worry worm characters. It has been wet and miserable outside anyway but up in Leicester they woke up to a layer of snow. 

Inspired by gingerbread houses, and an experiment ....

 

..... little elves ....

 

 ....... Santas .....

 

...... snowmen ....

 

....... reindeer.

Coming up at the end of November, is a craft fair, in the next village. I am looking forward to it.

Lots of my Christmas makes will be there.

Here are a few more.

And of course the inevitable fairies.

Recently I saw my five year old great-nephew and he asked me to make something with his favourite old pyjamas, which are covered in tractors.

So I came up with this.

Its a mini-quilt.

And finally I made a pompom dog. We took Rosie for a family walk and I made this one-off tree decoration for his owner, Pauline.
 

I wonder whats next?

The Chips are Down

 Well the chips aren`t entirely all down but we put in a good effort to do so. The pile went down quite a bit anyway.

Some people may wonder at my excitement for a pile of chipped bark, but it is so useful to us and after its done its job on the paths, it can be shovelled onto the beds. Lovely stuff.

 
We had a late start due to the rain but we soon got stuck in. 

I decided to begin on the paths from the compost heaps. The chipped bark was smouldering inside so just as well we used a lot. 

I even had time to weed the insect hotel area and spread bark there too. The bright yellow crabapples were all but going down my neck. The nettle roots, also bright yellow, had spread under the insect hotel from the other side of the fence. What an incredibly successful plant this is.

At the end of all that shovelling, we were sweating.

So I had a nice easy time, picking dahlias and taking these photos.

 

Steve harvested yet more peppers, runner beans and another hidden aubergine.

 

Elsewhere around the garden, more fungi are appearing.

 

And Boogie Woogie flowers on and on, covered in many heads.

Raindrops and Chippers

Another decent day for gardening. Hooray.

Lots of colour around. New projects afoot. Extra large willow wreaths being made.

Our first view of the new project just outside the garden. 

Watch this space!!

We are in preparation for this years wreath making. I cut 40 whips and made two large rings over our teabreak. There is plenty still to cut.

We are looking forward to this years wreath day on 14th December.

I have been splitting perenniels at home so I have had plenty of spares. I got oriental poppies, helianthus and pink michaelmus daisies into the flowerbeds.

The job I am still trying to complete .... the barn path. Gosh it was hard work today .... matted grass tussocks which took some tugging out. I just have a short way to go.

Steve got more of our own compost dug out and spread around. The barn path soil, once chipped bark, is good stuff and I want to spread some of that on the flowerbeds at some point.

We are still picking peppers and even an aubergine and runner beans. The dahlia bouquets are still lovely. Hopefully we can make some up for the village coffee morning soon.

 

Steve has planted broad beans in the polytunnel. They did so well in the spring but they have got protection.

Elsewhere in the garden the fungi have made an appearance.

Dahlias continue, unabated by frost so far.

 

Anne`s salvias are stunning.

It is difficult to get a photo that shows the full extent of how beautiful they are.

 We could hear a chipper round the farm so I was very pleased later to hear from Anne, that the resulting chipped bark can be used for paths. Very happy about that.

Raindrops on alstromeria.

Bees and Boogie Woogie

We are making the most of these days and it seems like the insects have the same idea. We have seen butterfiles and bees out and about today, despite cooler weather. They are loving the Michaelmus daisies.

We have had our first frost albeit very mild.

There are so many jobs to do, it is quite hard to decide where to start. But start we did.

I completed the first flowerbed ... full of weeds and unfortunately couch grass. I got out as much as I could find.

 

 

 

Only four more flower beds to go !!! But they all still look lovely.

Next I continued with the barn path which is like a jungle.

Ferns, brambles, nettles, comfrey, angelica, buttercups, willowherb, elder seedlings.

I suppose I cleared a third of it, saving all the good things..

Steve started at the other end after having cleared one side of the polytunnel, ready for broad beans.

We had a delightful teabreak in glorious sunshine, during which I broke up some rotten wood to burn.

My final job was another section of raised bed, whilst Steve sieved our own compost.

Lots of flowers still looking good.

Tithonia which has taken its time this year.

Dahlias from seed still going strong.

Boogie Woogie which I moaned about earlier in the year, as Steve keeps reminding me. There`s nothing to moan about now.

Salvia "Amstrad"

All in all it was a very productive morning.