A house of flowers

When we were travelling recently, we visited a National Trust garden filled with gorgeous leggy yellow blooms that we couldn't recall ever seeing before.


The gardener working in the neighbouring veg patch told us that they were evening primrose - beloved of cosmetic companies but possibly overlooked in the grander scheme of garden flowers.

Evening primrose, as the name implies, flowers in the evening, but more than that, this variety of evening primrose practically explodes into bloom every day. They seem to build up some sort of pressure in the petals before popping out each day; with sufficient speed that you can see them doing it.

When I see really beautiful gardens and hear stories of plants that do the most amazing things (and don't get me started on how incredibly cunning Venus fly-traps are) I really wish I was more green fingered and had more space to have a cutting garden of my own. I love having flowers in the house, it brings it alive, but sadly they aren't cheap so my flowers are few and far between, and just occasionally homegrown.

This week though the house has been swirling with scent; H bought me sunflowers, gladioli and orange honey coloured roses to keep me company while he went away on a training course, and while he was away the people organising the training course sent me (and all the other left behind wives) an enormous bouquet of flowers. They arrived last Tuesday and they're still going strong.

And when I say enormous I mean huge, the sort of floral display that requires digging in the bottom of the cupboard for more vases. The arrangement eventually split into two:



Scented stocks, gladioli and a bit of spiky fern




And the other half


Chrysanthemums, pink carnations and the blush pink love flowers of a poppy and a rose whose name I really should remember - can anyone help me out?


This one looks like a quilt star


Pink carnations - the ultimate in girly and frilly - and because of a daft university tradition, forever associated with finals.


I love the way this bud has furled

And this one is hiding from plain sight.

Since I've finished one 'set' of sock club socks I got cracking on the latest set from Socktopus. This is what you would call deceptively simple. It's a toe up sock and from the top it looks like this:

See nice, straightforward, pretty colour red.

But the sole ....


How about that for a twist - I love it, it's a stst sock with interesting bits and from the reviews from other club members who've already finished, this is a knit it, knit it and knit it again kind of sock - I'm hoping it works for me too!

Oh and if anyone has any top tips on how to photograph red knitting well - please chip in. I played around with about a gazillion different settings on the camera and this is the best I could get and it frustrates me!