Snapshots from July

Hello again! July has been quite a nice wintery month that arrived cold and departed with warm breezes and the (false) promise of spring. We've had frosts most nights but generally fine days even on weekends, which has meant Lui and I can get outside and air out our whiskers in the sunlight. Here Lui is demonstrating our favourite lunchtime spot on the wooden chair in the glasshouse.

Sometimes while Lui lounges I wander around with my basket looking for flowers to pick. At the start of July it was pretty bare... I really only had wintersweet, camellia and the first of the daphne buds not yet fully opened. I still managed to make this posy with a few lupin leaves to bulk it out.

Here we are on a cold and frosty morning! Can you feel the cold air pricking at your nose and the grass going crrrrunch under your feet? She is so beautiful, Miss Frost, covering bushes and branches in crystal coats and furry frozen jackets. Beautiful, but kind of a bitch. I don't really like her.

We have had snow forecast a few times although nothing more than sleety showers has eventuated. On one such morning this new spring catalogue turned up. New season styles just arrived! Really, there is nothing I feel like less than dressing myself in loose tops and floating dresses right now. (Although I must admit I really like the blue top on the cover!)

I have been keeping busy on the crochet front. I have a new project which I will tell you all about in a separate post some time soon! I also made a couple of dish cloths from cotton yarn because that seems to be what I do in the winter.

Fairy lights, candles and early indoor bulbs. These are some of my favourite things about winter!

This is a beautiful new hellebore I got this year. I love its ruffled pink petals. It looks so beautiful floating in a teacup but I have discovered the bloom only lasts for a day or so before it relaxes too much and the petals fall wide open. I still think it is worth it!

In the last couple of weeks of July we've had some stunning warm days. It's even been warm enough to go barefoot! I started working on this edging which I thought was the same one I'd used on a pillowcase previously. After a few rounds it didn't look right and I realised I was following a different pattern I'd pinned. I ended up ripping it out and redoing it, and now I just have a small part of the last round to finish... and that brings us to the end of the month!