Growing like topsy ...

 

I thought I'd start with a round-up of what's growing on the allotment and in the garden.  These hollyhocks have suddenly bloomed, and isn't that a glorious pink?  The leaves do tend to get rust spots, which is a shame when the flowers are so beautiful.  

Also on the allotment are evening primrose, dotted around where they've self-seeded, growing here among a sea of seed pods.  

The marjoram's flowering too, and will be a bee magnet.  They love it.  

I think these white flowers are mallows.  

The apple tree's going to provide plenty of fruit.  

Should be lots of blackberries too.  I know I can gather them from the hedgerows, but cultivated ones tend to be more productive than their wild counterparts.  

Redcurrants are ripening. 

Blackcurrants too. 

Gooseberries too, or goose-gogs as we always called them.  

In my front garden the valerian is everywhere, another favourite with the bees.  

Astrantia, also known as Hattie's pin cushion, mixing with the vivid purple of catananche.  

These orange flowers are, I think, commonly called fox & cubs.  I never planted them, so the birds must've bought the seeds in.  

Mexican daisies are a cheerful addition, and great for covering the hard edges of stone walls or paths.  

I don't know for sure, but possibly these purple spikes are a perennial called veronica.  Love the slender stems.  

Apart from pottering about outside I've been messing about indoors too ...

I made this simple boro-inspired bag a while ago, and it's been hanging around, waiting for me to find a suitable strap for it.  Well, I had a lightbulb moment yesterday while I was cutting up a charity shopped shirt.  Why not repurpose the strips of shirt material where the buttonholes and buttons are?  

So that's what I'm doing.  I'm leaving the buttons in place, and I think I'll have just about enough length to make a crossbody strap.  I'll be a little rough & ready, but that's fine, it fits in with the rest of the bag.  I'm rather chuffed with that nifty bit of upcycling.  Sometimes I surprise myself!