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  Spring has to be the prettiest of the four seasons.  The apple blossom is on the trees, pink and white and so delicate.   The wild garlic is flowering.   Even though we've had little rain lately, the country lanes and bridleways are still green and lush.  I've been occupying myself with the usual kind of things - tidying the garden and allotment, and planting seeds.  The courgettes are sprouting, as are the salvias, though the geums are stubbornly refusing to germinate.  I've been stuck into some good books too.   This P.D. James was a cracker, with a very satisfying twist in the tale.  It's set in a hospital, and the writer's clearly an expert on the subject.  Deeply knowledgeable but not showing off about that knowledge.  I also loved the cover with this striking print by Angela Harding.   I'm a few chapters into a biography of Agatha Christie, written by Lucy Worsley.  I'm a big fan of Christie's c...

  Okay, before the gloating commences I'll show you the start of the last page of my Ann Wood stitchbook.  Finally!  A use for some of the shiny green sequins I've inexplicably got loads of.  Right, after that insect based interlude, let the gloating commence.   The charity shop gods smiled on me this morning.  A whole heap of die cuts and printing stamps, some in what look like brand new condition, and all mine for the teeny-tiny sum of £5.50.  Yup, only 50 pence per item.  There was a basket full of them, and I had to rein myself in from buying twice the quantity.  I do love it when a fellow crafter has a clear-out and you time your visit to the shop just right to snap up a heap of bargains.   I've butterflies and dragonflies, birds, dandelions, travel themed printing stamp sets and musical ones, leaves and abstract designs.  Now, if you'll excuse me I have to test these out, and congratulate myself for being such a luck...

  When you're a child and there was a Bank Holiday - which means a day off school - it always seemed to pour with rain, so you were stuck indoors and bored.  I've been largely indoors today, but haven't succumbed to boredom.  Instead I've been sewing a cover for my Ann Wood inspired stitchbook.  The 100 day challenge Ann hosts is nearing an end.  I finished the 19th page this morning, and in five days time that'll be the final page completed.  Then it's simply a matter of assembling the book.   I've already decided the 20th page will feature insects.  Bugs!  Not always my favourite creatures, but I bought a fun die cut with various beetle shapes on it, and made printing stamps of them.   This was something I only learnt how to do the other day, YouTube yet again teaching me a new technique.  Hobbycraft sells A4 sized pieces of craft foam with adhesive backing.  You use your Sissix machine, a die cut and a piece of thi...

  Apologies for not posting anything for a while.  I get side-tracked.  Or lazy.  Probably a combination of them both.  It's been a lovely spring here in my part of West Yorkshire, and my tulips have bloomed like crazy.  I like the idea of having a restrained colour scheme in a garden, but in reality I got for the every-colour-under-the-sun approach.   Some of the flowers are almost ready to drop their petals.  They've got that blowsy, nearly-but-not-quite-yet look to them.  Other flowers are still getting ready to open out as they're in shadier positions in the garden.  But they're all beautiful and very welcome splashes of vivid colour.   On to other things ...  I finished reading this today, and it's a terrific spooky read.  Very enjoyable, and I could easily see it being adapted for TV or film.  Next up, I've got another of S.J. Parris' books, 'Sacrilege'.  It's set in 1584, and features the author'...

I thought I'd better catch up on my blog posting as I've been rather tardy about it lately.  Today's been another beautifully sunny day and I'm just back from a long healthy walk, ready to crash out on the sofa for the evening.  I've got a book to read, 'The House of Whispers' by Laura Purcell.  I realised when I started it that I'd read it before, but I can't remember how the story ends so it's worth a re-read.  The book's set in Cornwall, and is a gothicky creepy read, full of unexplained noises and lights out to sea, talk of supernatural goings-on and featuring as it's central character a devious servant with an over-fondness for gin and laudanum.   This is the latest completed page of my Ann Wood stitchbook challenge.  Mainly masses of seed stitches.  It's not the most complicated of pages, but I enjoyed sewing it.  You can't really see from the photo, but I used Christmas material on the left hand side.  I turned it over, so ...

Bright sunny days and light evenings, tulips and daffs flowering along with anemones, grape hyacinths and forget-me-nots.  What's not to like about this time of year?  Of course, the date the clock's go forward by an hour is strange as you feel oddly discombobulated for the entire day.  The same goes for when the clocks go back in the autumn.  Time's shifted when it's normally so dependable, and your internal body clock needs a while to adjust.   In between gardening and allotmenting I've completed another page for my Ann Wood stitchbook, and that - if my maths is correct - means I've only 6 more pages to sew before I'm all done 'n' dusted.   I also began making another fabric book, this one nothing to do with the stitchbook challenge.  I have a rectangle of sample fabric that's ideal for a cover, being a sturdier upholstery material, and sewed a scrap of Indian embroidery on to it.  Plus added a sari-silk ribbon as a closure. ...