Sometimes the wild goddess calls you

 You might not be listening at that moment

so she calls a little louder

 Will you listen? Will you ignore her?

 Will your heart sing and your joy spring forth at her call?

 Does she reach the inner you? the child within?

 What will you do with the call and its message?

 The first pictures above are a half of this years lavender crop in the front border, ripe already. I left the rest for the bees:) Then this picture is some part of our tomato and pepper growing in the conservatory. We have had our first tomatoes from them.

 The back border shows some colour and is growing so well with the wet warm weather we have had.

 The lush flowers in the vases were a thank you gift from friends who are moving. We went to lend a hand packing. The flowers are now fully out and truly stunning.

 I have decided to give spindling another go and I love the trindle I got from a friends destash. The batt I am spinning is also from a destash and a change from my usual bright colours. It does however have some sparkle in it.

 Then another friend persuaded me to have a go at knitting a swirl jacket. I had lots of part balls of yarn left over from the Elsewhere jackets I knit so decided to use those. The jackets are an unusual construction, you cast on almost 600 stitches in a circle using long tail cast on. I'd never done that before and that was an exercise in patience. Also made my thumbs exceedingly sore. I knit several rounds and was sure that I'd not twisted the join but I had:(

A  friend who was staying took pity on me and when I had pulled back the many rows I'd done she cast on for me. Thanks Sam:) We did go to the Tynedale Gathering over on the north east  and while speaking to one of the other people there I heard of a great idea for joining circles. This lady pins out the circle on her ironing board, checks it is straight then joins in situ. What do you know it works much better than crossing fingers and hoping.

 The jacket is very bright as you can see and I love it. The sleeves are too long but I'm not worried. I will stitch the cuffs back on it,.

 Then I did mention my sewing ?
This is my little featherweight machine, isn't it lovely?

Lavender and bees

The bees and I have an agreement where lavender is concerned. I only take a small amount this time of year and I ask permission to take stems from the various bushes. I'd guess that there is less than 2% of the total lavender crop here. I take some now for drying and more later in the season.
While we cut the stems they buzz around quite cheerfully, even landing on the stems and me. Almost as if they are checking the quality and the ammount of stems we have.

This will hang in Mr Mog's new workshop for a few weeks then most will go in the incence cupboard for mixing with other incense ingredients and for lavender bags for the fibre chests to help keep moths at bay.
The next lot will be dried for cooking and some used fresh.
I love lavender in biscuits, cupcakes,scones, sugar and lemonade to name but a few.
You can also infuse it in oil, make soap with it ,or my favourite, fizz bombs for the bath. The list is endless. Give it a try.
I never take too much at this time of year, or indeed any time. I leave a lot over the autumn as it still receives lots of  visits from the insects around at that time.
The house and workshop smell delightful with this fresh picked harvest.