August garden

Flowers at the front

Chocolate Cosmos - wish I could upload the smell!

Begonias ( Dragon wing and Apricot shades)

Crocosmia

We've been enjoying lots of produce this month - yum

Yellow beans

Round courgette

Curly cucumber

Cherry tomatoes

Currant tomatoes

Today's picking of blueberries

Made into yummy tart with one of the first
 autumn fruiting raspberries

We've had lots of figs this month

Making rhubarb and ginger jam

Salad blue potatoes - looking v jewel like

More crochet!

I am very pleased to have finished my first biggish crochet project - a cardigan for my daughter in her favourite colour - purple.

I completed it on a long journey up the M6 - good use of time I thought.

Bought a button from the market on Fri and here she is wearing it.

Now I must get on with her wall hanging!

Crafty Weekend

Am pleased with my productivity this weekend!

Have had this idea on my pinterest board for ages and while I had my sewing machine out to work on Amy's wall hanging I thought I would complete this project in time for Amy's birthday in a couple of weeks. She loves playing with her dolls and is forever undressing them. I'm hoping she will love these cute nappies and wipes to play at changing her baby with and that she can manage them on  her own as I always end up dressing everything when she has taken all the clothes off!

We went blackberry picking on sat and so I have made some bramble jelly today

1 jar given away already ; )

and someone's enjoyed scraping out the pot!

Butterflies

This week we are taking part in the big butterfly count which runs till the end of August. Our Buddleias (also known as the butterfly bush) have started flowering and they usually attract lots of butterflies.

For the butterfly count you need to spend 15 mins observing butterflies in your garden, a nearby park or while you're on a walk. I downloaded the smartphone app to make it easy to submit the results whilst out and about.

I spotted a small Tortoiseshell which landed on the garage. There are often a few of these on the purple buddlia flowers, but I've spotted them this week sunning themselves on the garage bricks and the windowsills!

and a Peacock on the buddlia - it stayed here for ages but couldn't get close enough for a decent photo (can you see it near the middle of the shot?)

I also saw a Red Admiral and Speckled Wood but didn't manage to get photos so here are some images

Red Admiral

Speckled wood

There have been some white butterflies fluttering about but I find it difficult to identify which kind they are when they don't settle anywhere long enough to have a good look at them! I think they are small whites.

We looked up some information about butterflies and found:

• a group of butterflies is called a flutter
• their scientific name is Lepidoptera
• their wings are made of chitin the same as our hair and nails
• the average lifespan of a butterfly is 20-40 days but depending on the species it can vary from 3 days to 9 months
• butterflies taste with their feet
• they cannot fly if their body temp is less than 86 F

Here are our journals

We received a certificate for taking part in the Big Butterfly count

Happy Butterfly hunting

Crochet

I have been able to knit as long as I can remember but for some reason I have never learned to crochet, so this last month I have rectified that and joined up with a couple of friends who meet to knit and crochet together to pick up this new skill.

I think with being able to knit I have been able to pick it up quite quickly, as I am used to keeping the tension on the wool and holding the needles etc

My friend taught me some basic stitches and then I fancied making some cute butterflies I had seen - I was pleased with the results.

We have some friends working out in China who have just adopted a second child and my second project was a headband for her and I made one of my butterflies into a brooch for her sister.

I also had a go at some granny squares. Thought I would use this one for a bed cover in my little girls doll house.

I am now on with a cardigan for my daughter in sparkly purple! Bargain wool 3 x 50g balls from Poundland for £2. Photos when its finished ; )

Park trip

While the boys were busy with their dad, Amy and I took a trip to the park

We took a walk to the lake to see the coots and ducks. Look at their nest - its all overgrown! The pond had lots of green algae at this end too.

We spotted a dragonfly flitting amongst the grasses- can you see its bright blue body

As we were walking through the trees we heard something pit pattering onto the path and grass around us. we stopped to investigate and found we bits of chestnut being thrown down at us by a rascally squirrel!

Further round the path we spotted a tree trunk that had been chopped down - Amy clambered up to have a closer look

The tree had an interesting hole, which with a bit of extra grass as bedding made a perfect spot for little teddy to have a rest in.

The afternoon was finished by a climb on the fire engine and a quick go on the swings before a trip into Heywood where we found a pair of very sparkly shoes!

Art work from summer term

As I don't keep all the childrens artwork I thought my blog would be a great place to keep a record of it all

Flower made at POPS

Bumble Bee made at POPS

Sticking done at Norden Centre

More sticking at home

And more sticking!

Seaside scene on visit to playgroup

One of  many butterflies - most have been made into cards ;)

Amy had fun painting with flowers

Here is the finished product

Amy loves picking flowers

Another way of displaying Amy's flowers

Beautiful

Luke's Mondrian Art

Amy and Luke's version of Piet Mondrians church

Luke has got into the latest craze of loombands. Here are a few of his creations:

Starburst

Dragon scale

Fishtail into chain

Inverted fishtail

Ben's 3D art

Luke's 3D art

Spring trees made at Touchstones

Tour de France came to Rochdale