SPRING - busting out in the garden

 A walk down the garden on wednesday evening showed spring had arrived in a rush.  These are the pictures I took and it was lucky I did because by the next day this dwarf cherry had as good as finished flowering.

   After a winter that really feels as though it has gone on forever it was lovely to see the leaves of the Acers  breaking bud and the spring flowers and bulbs all aroundthe garden.   

 The drumstick primulas that we planted last year have survived all of last summers rain and are welcome colour against the mud at the edge of the pond.

Golden marsh marigolds - both single and double varieties.

One of my favourites 
SNAKES HEAD FRITILLARY

I like the colours and the checkerboard pattern of the flowers.

The stems almost seem to frail to support the flowers.

  

 Bluebell flowers beginning to emerge.

A frog by the pond - we are hoping that the frogspawn we were given has hatched and we will have a garden of frogs again. 

time for me

So a week has gone by and my dinning table is almost clear.  This means I can finally shorten the net curtains for my mother.  Plus things have been sorted and put away instead of stacked in corners.  Another bonus is that I have found quite a few misplaced items so time well spent.
 
I have been continuing with the half finished cardigan - the sleeves are nearly finished.  This may seem as though I have taken a long time to get this far but I am not the fastest knitter in the world. The end is in sight and I am beginning to look forward to wearing it.  

It has been so nice crafting for myself.  It feels like a very long time since I have done this.   I have been so busy making things to sell - in future I must remember to do things for myself as well.  

Getting things finished

I have been spending time over the last week sorting and clearing.  I only have a limited amount of space and a tendency to let things that I am working on (or have been working on) pile up around me.  This is a habit I am trying to break myself of because my work space sometimes gets so small that making anything at all is impossible.

While I was attempting make room for all my treasures I found a cardigan that I had started while my friend was expecting her son - six years ago!  I knew the cardigan around but I couldn't remember how I had left it and was worried that I would not be able to work out where I was in the pattern. 

I was very very happy today when I discovered that not only had I left knitting the cardigan in a sensible place but as the back and both the front pieces were completed I only have the sleeves and collar to knit.

So now to get my cardigan finished