rubykittyruby

  I love how bizarre this photo looks.  It'll make sense later on, just keep reading.  It's a sunny Thursday morning in West Yorkshire and I'm debating whether to risk a line of pegged out washing or keep the laundry for another day.  Oh, the decisions!  It's better than trying to make up my mind about who to vote for.  General Election day in the U.K. and I'm still dithering over my choice.  I keep telling myself my one little vote won't make any difference to the overall result, so why tie myself in knots trying to decide.  But you can't think that way.  Every vote's important.  I will always vote in an election, whether local or national.  The suffragettes were imprisoned, force fed, beaten up and derided for demanding women's right to vote, so while it may sound pompous it's every modern woman's duty to honour their memory and put her X in a box.  Or spoil her ballot paper or whatever, just turn up and exercise our democrat...

Well, that was odd.  My innocuous, entirely harmless craft blog threw up a 'sensitive content' warning.  I initially thought it was because I'd used a Japanese word which is similar to a rude word, though spelt differently.  But actually I think it was because I'd recommended a Japanese craft website which must've referenced the controversial subject of Taiwan and China somewhere among the discussion about boro and sashiko and making do and mending ...  Anyway, just a heads up.  If you're wary about accessing my previous post because of a content warning, don't worry.  You can happily click on it without encountering anything weird or offensive, so why not give it a try.  The roof won't fall in.  Honestly!  

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

 I do love a list.  It's not only the start of a fresh, brand spanking new month, but it's a Monday, so time to write down what I want to accomplish this week.  A lot of my list's the home admin type thing - check home insurance renewal date, move savings around from one account to another, contact the gutter cleaning company.  The sort of stuff that's dull, but necessary.  Especially the gutter cleaning company.  It's like the Hanging Gardens of Babylon have suddenly sprouted up there on the roof.  Anyway, I've also got several craft-based tasks on my list and - yay!!! - I've already got some of 'em done.  Like this needlebook.   I lined this piece of scrappy slow stitching with felt, then made felt pages to insert inside.  Today I finally sewed those pages in, and added a button & ribbon fastening.   It's a simple construction, but these kind of needle books are very handy.  Much better than pushing your needles...

  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 b...

It's morning.   The hot weather's supposedly due to break today, and the sky is a moody greyish-blue.  On the allotment the foxgloves have almost finished flowering, and all the strawberries have gone.  I've still got plenty ripening in my garden as it's shadier in places compared to the openness of the allotment plot.  For a fortnight now I've been enjoying the novelty of wandering outside first thing, pyjamas on and sometimes in bare feet, rummaging among the flower beds for berries.  They're planted everywhere I could squeeze a strawberry plant in, so I keep seeing flashes of scarlet nestling among the Love-in-a-mist and Crocosmia.   The photo above is of a project that's going to be a small-scale thing, something that trundles on in the background.  An embroidered fabric book.  I've been seeing lots of them online, and wanted to make my own.  Something I could stitch into every now and again, to be picked up and put down as the mood ...