At last.....

Hello everyone and thanks so much for bearing with me.

I am feeling much better, and just want to thank you all again for your lovely messages of cheer and support. I will be contacting you all soon. I am so looking forward to catching up with all of my favourite blogs and finding out what you have all been doing.

I am so pleased to be feeling better and to have more energy again. I had such a happy beginning to June but after the wedding I seemed to slump and just felt very low and really quite exhausted; everything seemed to be a major effort and I seemed to have had no energy or ability to do it. Between the continual problems with our renovation work, a bad time at work with lots of uncertainty about what will happen, two more bouts of urticaria and feeling very down, I decided it was to to switch off for a bit, try to sort myself out and try to get things back in perspective. I realised that I was starting to panic about everything, even not doing my blog on time, and trying to impose too many things to do and too many restrictions on myself.

So I've had a time out and feel better than I have for a long while. There are still a lot of things going on, but that's life. I decided that I won't stick to a weekly post any more, but will be more spontaneous!

Once I started to feel better, I began to do some creative things. I've actually almost finished 2 very different dolls. I can't show you either just yet, for reasons which will become apparent but I should be able to very soon.

I've been completing my Spring embroidery; and inspired by Melissa I have been making lots of hexagon flowers. I have found this a great pastime while watching a film or DVD, in the evening! I also had a lovely day with some great company at Wendy's box making workshop. Here we all are in her living room having great fun sticking and folding fabric.


I had no idea this was being taken!
Some of us made Victorian Etui boxes and other boxes with drawers. Here is my Etui box. I finally got a special use for the beautiful vintage daisy button on the top sent to me by my kind friend Rosemary in Australia. It looks just right.

And here is the box open.

Enjoying the sun in Wendy's garden with our finished works!

The other ladies are all local patchwork and quilters and have inspired me to perhaps have a go at quilting again this autumn. We all enjoyed ourselves so much we have arranged to meet up again for a craft session in September. Wendy also put me in touch with a lady who runs a local embroidery group and I have been invited to join them on a Thursday evening in the autumn, which will be lovely. It's so nice to make new links with other creative people.

I've been asked if I am going to enter some of the handicraft classes in our local show, so I thought I might enter one of my embroideries and maybe one of my dolls? I don't know which ones though. Any thoughts?

With all this new energy I have been getting up and going for a walk every day, and this morning I managed to take some quite decent photos of some of our summer flowers and butterflies.

Here is the view from the top of the hill, I thought it looked quite pretty through the trees. You would not guess the City of Bristol is over the horizon.


There is a grassland common at the top of the hill beloved butterflies, and I managed to take this marbled white enjoying a sunbathe.

All the hedgerows are full of this wild clematis which we call "Travellers Joy". The fluffy seed heads of this plant are called "Old Man's Beard", but I prefer the more picturesque name!

This doesn't look like much, but it is the site of an iron age hill fort (about 8th century BC), where there was once a thriving community, now it is covered in plants and trees and a haven for wildlfe.

One of the tiny blue butterflies that love the grasslands, they are so delicate and pretty.

This almost looks like an autumn scene already, there are so many blackberries this year.


Now I'm off to enjoy the sunshine for the rest of the day. Hope it is shining on you wherever you are. x