Half term wanderings

We found fairies in an orchard not far from here.  I think pink and purple dreadlocks are my absolute favourite hair.  Oh how I wish it was mine.  I would quite happily dress like that every day if I could.  Well, maybe not the wings, I can see that they might be a little tricky to manoeuvre in a school cake sale situation or squeezing into the car in the Aldi carpark.  Wings just for special occasions.

I found bee hives as well, more of my favourite things.

I tiptoed in close, it was quite buzzy.  I'm not sure whether tiptoeing in makes the bees cross, it was certainly quite loud close up.

I tiptoed back out again quite quickly so as not to upset them.  Bees are such miraculous little creatures.  They have such short lives, and they work so hard to produce honey.  Worker bees live for only six weeks, and each one produces less than a gram of honey its short life.  It makes me use honey with great respect and restraint.

In the garden the comfrey and the raspberries are covered with all sorts of bees whenever it's not raining.

The week is going quickly, despite the slightly damp weather.  We went for a picnic yesterday at the wildfowl and wetlands place we go to.  There are thousands of fancy birds there of all descriptions, but the boys were most thrilled of all that the pigeons would stand on their arms to eat.

At home there's been holiday food.  Artichokes and asparagus from the allotment on a pizza.

Between showers I've been hanging out the washing using my lovely new peg apron.

I won it in a giveaway from the lovely Christina at A Colourful Life and I absolutely love it.  It's exactly what I needed for keeping in pegs in.  Before, I was using an old carrier bag with a hole in and pegs were always falling in the mud.  Now I'm like Wonderwoman with the washing.

In the garden the beans have started to twirl nicely round the hazel poles that I got from the local community woodland.  I love that moment when they start to entwine the stakes and head for the sky.  First there's a couple of weeks where they wave around madly, feeling about to see what they can find.  And then suddenly they locate their stick and they're away.  They always twirl anti-clockwise.  I'm assuming in Australia they're doing it the other way.  Does anyone know?

The strawberries are swelling nicely.  These are honeoye, a fairly early one.  We should be eating them in three weeks or so I think.  Summer will definitely be here then.

And just in time for summer I finished knitting the scarf I was making.  I saw the yarn last year on Vanessa's blog, Coco Rose Diaries and fell in love with it.  I'm a huge fan of Vanessa's blog, and just about everything she makes, do have a look if you're feeling in need of inspiration.

My scarf was a lot less impressive than Vanessa's.  I found a really simple pattern that I could manage late at night when I'm tired, and I still made mistakes.  But it's done and it's not itchy and I still love the yarn so I'm happy.  And the weather's almost cool enough for a scarf right?

It's reminded me how much I love to make things.  I do wish there were more hours in the day.  Do you have any tips for making a little extra time?  Do tell, I need to squeeze out some extra moments.  Enjoy the rest of the week, especially those of you on half term or summer holidays.  CJ xx