Rose parade

No black spot.

I've no idea why not.

No special treatment was applied,

so it is just an unexpected blessing.

The window boxes are covered in black spots however.

Slate dust showers down on them daily.

Some respite today perhaps

as the builders haven't arrived.

They move in mysterious ways.

Perhaps the van will be blamed.

Or the remote relation in hospital.

Or the football.

When is the first England game?

It's going to be a long slow job.

Chasing my tail

It has been a particularly good year for hawthorn

and pink campion.

The foxcubs - there are three this year 

don't be fooled by this tender only-child scene -

have trampled happily over most of the emerging plants in the garden,

but the runner beans have a bamboo barricade 

which has survived their predations, 

I think.

I'd better go and check.

Yes. It's working.

And while I was out there I managed a little garbage collection.

The new game is scattering other people's refuse

all over the garden.

We have a handy new recycling system which separates out

the food waste into smaller bins for the foxes' better convenience.

Reality check

We've been enjoying some beautiful gardens.

This one at Scotney Castle

with its stunning display of acers, azaleas

and rhododendrons

and of course Sissinghurst too with

the white wisteria just opening.

I took note of a pairing of smoke bush

and alliums, underplanted with a pale pink persicaria 

and thought I could do something similar at home.

But the fox cubs had other ideas.

These are the ones I salvaged.

 I thought of Freda and her deer-munched tulips

and all the other people working against the clock, the climate and the critters

to get their gardens ready for public display this summer.

Faux Fair Isle Fail

I was very taken by the idea that I could use a wool

that would knit Fair Isle all by itself,

according to the lady in the shop.

I have attempted the real thing and it's time consuming, fiddly

and rather too warm with the double layer of loops at the back of the work.

I needed a quick project that would be off the needles before

grand-daughter went away on her holiday.

Planes can be chilly even though her destination isn't.

So I embarked on a hooded jumper with pom poms

excited to see how this would work.

Hmm. Nice stripes with the merest suggestion of alternate stitch colour change

but Fair Isle it ain't.

For the real thing you could do no better than to visit this clever person.

Luckily grand-daughter likes it a lot

and wore it with the hood up on quite a warm day

until we both agreed that she was getting a bit too hot.