Our Garden

No stitchy pics today I'm afraid, as I can't show one piece until after it's arrived in its new home and I'm leaving a Night Watchman update until tomorrow. Thought I would share some pics of parts of our garden instead.

I've often mentioned Arthur and Guinevere and here they are:
Usually he looks a little sterner than this, so I guess he didn't mind having his photo taken. Guinevere, on the other hand, is looking a little coy. LOL
They are either side of the back door (well, actually, it's on the side of the house but leads into the back garden) and the flowers are Lemon Pansies.

At the back of the house we have a sun lounge that has double patio doors that look straight onto the back garden. We have a tiny patio area (to be extended) and these are the pots that share it with a couple of plastic chairs:

As you may be able to tell, I have a fondness for pansies and violas. :0)

These two pots (the one on the left is the new one we bought a couple of weekends ago) sit to the right and in front of the patio area, by the side of the old air raid shelter, but the narcissi are now past their best and the other flowers aren't yet properly established: Yes, we have an actual old brick built air raid shelter in our back garden, a remnant of WWII, when the local steelworks was on the Nazi bombing list. The old door (at the back) was bricked up, a new one put in facing the house and the floor partially filled in so it could be used for storing things. I guess it was decided it was too much hassle to knock it down because of the solid concrete roof - we also use it for storage but most of it is hidden under a mass of ivy, honeysuckle and winter flowering jasmine. :0)

This is the little bit of planted area at the bottom of our garden which is between DH's workshop to the left and the old shed to the right:

If you look closely you may just see my Green Man peeping out from all that mass of greenery. There are also bluebells and even some white ones (harebells? though they didn't quite make it into the pic). My Dad gave me the shrubs a couple of years ago - don't ask me what they are though, I can never remember, but they'll be covered in small pinky/red flowers a little later in the season - and since we put the Green Man up they've just gone mad. Look again and you may even see those triffids I mentioned in my last post. LOL

There's much more garden but it needs a lot more work doing to it before it's fit to be shown here - we've had a long-term problem with ground elder and have been trying to sort that out before going ahead with any new planting - so now you know why we have so many pots to satisfy my flower cravings. ;0) I prefer gardening without chemicals but DH is a weedkiller fiend..... I've had to admit defeat and give in to the inevitable because continually digging it up hasn't worked so far and we're just not able to keep doing it. If anyone knows the best stuff to zap this weed with please let me know.

On the car front: we are now owners of one Honda CR-V........ or, at least, we will be when we get back from our holiday. They can't get it serviced, valeted and the paperwork sorted in such a short time span, so we decided it was best to let them hang on to it for the week we are away as it will also give them time to fit a towbar to it. There isn't a problem: DH decided to keep the Trooper anyway, for going to work in, until he can find a smaller, more economical car. Due to the state of the roads and the layer of corrosive muck that the cars get covered in on the works it's made him adamant he's not taking the new car anywhere near there - can't say I blame him really as I've seen what it's done to the Trooper's bodywork over the years. Boys and their toys though, eh? ;0) LOL

Guess that's about it for now........ if you've got this far you deserve a medal. :0)

Oh, nearly forgot! Kyri: if it's the Love Is You piece you were asking about it's by Carol Tinson of Heirloom Embroideries. It was a Limited Edition piece (only so many available) and, if I've remembered rightly, was only available through her Yahoo Forum for a short time.

Many thanks for taking the time to visit and for all the lovely comments girls, you really do make my day. :0)