Planet Ruby Starrs

I am really loving this summer weather - I just wish it could be like this every summer and we could rely on it.. I wouldn't even mind a bad winter if we could always be promised a season of warmth and sunshine.  My little courtyard garden is looking really colourful - its mainly bedding plants for a quick colour fix but its working well and I have a few perennials and interesting plants developing although while I was down in Leeds last week the wind blew all my seed trays away so I've lost a lot of seedlings 😕. Dr Fred spent the solstice on Goldsborough Car while I pottered around the garden enjoying the local wildlife. We sat out quite late and then retired with a g&t to the sun room waiting for the bats to come out - the sunset was glorious very fitting for mid summers eve. Later we spotted noctilucent clouds hovering over the northern sky - very pretty. We are very lucky to have such a secluded and quiet lovely spot to sit and reflect and drink gin.

This week I've been drawing with the sewing machine... I use a darning / embroidery foot and this gives me quite a bit of freedom to move the fabric where I want it to go.  Sometimes if i'm sewing material I use an embroidery hoop but often I find these get in the way and can be restrictive. Last week I tried my hand at making paper from scraps... as pictured on a previous posting my first attempt ended up with a kinda grey slab... but as it dried - which took about a week!! it slowly lightened and then  left it in the sun where it bleached further... it was rather thick - actually I've seen thinner cardboard but it has a very rustic feel and more importantly its the first paper I have made so I had to find a use for it... After quite a bit of consideration I decided its lovely uneven texture and rough edges really lent itself to stone walls - I'm very drawn to stone walls, often beautifully constructed using no cement just clever placement of available stone they c...