living vicariously through other gardens...

Last year I posted lots of photos of my allotment on the blog (or at least bowls of things picked from it...) but this year only people interested in slug farming and mildew would find them noteworthy.

There are lots of things trying to grow and with a blast of sunshine they WILL all make it before the end of the summer, but for now I've only been taking photos of other peoples gardens, people with staff, hothouses, special micro-climates, bog-gardens and special ways of dealing with slugs.

printing with children!

I am always leaving little snippets of lino around, off cuts and little corners that I don't need as part of a block and these days there are willing helpers who are ever eager to turn the snippets into art themselves.  Sitting quietly at the table, with a lot of concentration, I find it really suprising how much time and patience they will put into lino carving when it isn't an 'instant' picture, you can't really tell how it will look until later and we can't always print until another day

Far too young to use tools surely, they merrily gouge away with only an occasional yelp of pain and end up with editions of prints of their own, ready to pass on to friends and family.  There is often a lot of black ink to remove from clothes/door handles/sinks/hands but the rolling and inking is definitely to be done by the children and I am quickly put in my place if I try to 'help'!

I can imagine that we will be doing a lot more of this this summer if the weather continues keeping us all indoors.

printing multiples

There is something very satisfying about making the same thing over and over again.

Lots of little butterfly labels have been fluttering around my work table (and they are little, as they are only 4cm long...) and although I'm sure I've got enough now and haven't thought up a use for this many  little labels I can tell I'm going to keep printing until both packets of blank labels are empty.

garden day

I spent this morning printing cards and after reaching 100 I decided that really being outside would be better than being inside.

Sitting outside I am very busy, absorbing all the bright colours and the huge amount of green after all the rain, basking in the warmth from the sun, listening to the buzzing, beetleing and chirping that is going on, watching a tiny spider trying to build a web around my camera cable (is it cruel to let it carry on?) and chomping through a plateful of things from the fridge...this is going to take all afternoon!

Thanks to Folksy too, for putting my A-Z animals teatowel on todays newsletter!  It has been lurking on their 'Gift Ideas under £25' for a week or too now as well, hurrah.