Pleasings...

It's been a funny old end to the gardening season and I seem to have missed the boat on a general tidy up and the putting it all to bed for the winter.

That strange spell of hot weather we had in October was spent sitting in chair on the veranda reading and topping up the vitamin D, and in any case, everything came back to life and had a final fling and it seemed a shame to uproot and clear. Now of course the rains have come and we have a mud bath. 

And early one morning some bullocks jumped the fence and invaded. It was like watching harrier jump jets... from a standing start they were up and over and frolicking. The air was worse than blue and I cut quite a dash in my wellies and dressing gown while Bookhound nearly had apoplexy trying to persuade them to jump back.

Poached I think is the agricultural term for what we now have in place of a manicured lawn but that's the countryside for you.

So I think we have decided just to heap a load of mulch on top of everything and leave it until the spring.

But two garden pleasings...

I did manage to get out and clean up my tools which will be ready and waiting for me in the spring.



My second garden pleasing was the Penstemons...

Now I am new to the world of Penstemons, never much of a devotee until Carol gave me some plants and I realised that they grew well here with minimal interest from slugs and flowered their socks off, creating lovely splashes of trouble-free colour amongst everything else. Then I started noticing them at plant sales and bought a few more, and then I thought I'd try some cuttings back in September.

Nothing more horticultural than cutting bits off and sticking them in pots.

Two months on and to my complete surprise they have all thrived..
.
...and when I moved them into the greenhouse this week there were the roots shooting out from the base of the pots.

Clever plants. I hardly want to shout success from the rooftops yet because they still have to survive the winter, but if they do I will be delighted and have lots of Sour Grapes, Russian Rivers and Tsars to plant out or give to friends.

A sewing pleasing...

Apologies, you will be getting sick of these hexagons but thankfully I am not..

I found a couple of lovely fabrics to add in this week and, when the woman in the shop asked me what they were for, and I told her she grimaced...

'Awful English piecing, rather you than me, hate it.'

I was a bit taken aback to be honest. Not what you expect in a patchwork shop (it wasn't our local one) 

Anyway I am stitching on and have started some joining. The temptation is to try and plan it, whereas I think it has to be completely random and the eye will just wander around it so I will just keep adding.

And a Christmas Pleasing...

We are into the realms of 'this time last year' at the moment, and on one of those poignant days last week I was in town and dropped into the Parish Church to wander around the Christmas Tree Festival.

The scent of spruce as I queued (yes queued, it is hugely popular) was overwhelming and to see the church dressed overall in twinkly lights was something quite extraordinary. It is a huge place with lots of dark corners, but every single one was illuminated and filled with trees decorated by organisations various around the town...


 and the stained glass was loving it...


Carols were being played and this year the church is piping the sound out into the churchyard so the atmosphere was very festive and I chatted my way around bumping into friends various along the way.

The perfect way to jump-start into some festive cheer.

Is it happening over your way...

Any other Pleasings to report...