Winter colour and rustic decorations

 

Just before Christmas we visited RHS Harlow Carr.  I love the rustic decorations  in the gardens especially in the greenhouse and summer house.  They always give me ideas to use at home although some of them probably take a lot of preparation.

The table display in the summer house was quite simple but looked really good so I decided to decorate my porch in a similar way. I only managed to make one candle bowl as my porch table is much smaller than this.

Walking around the gardens we were quite taken with the winter colour from the dogwoods.

Seeing all this colour always makes me want to plant some dogwoods in my garden, but I wouldn't have enough space to get such a lovely effect.

Christmas shopping event

We've been really tired this week following last weekend down at our daughter's helping with her fund raising event. Packing up the car with all the stuff was quite a challenge especially as we were travelling a fair distance. Making sure nothing got squashed was important as well as finding room for everything in our little car. Our suitcase was somewhere underneath all the boxes as was the spare wheel. My husband was hoping we didn't get a puncture on the journey down!

But we had a great time and the whole event raised  a good amount for cubs funds. I enjoyed running my Christmas decorations stall and meeting so many people. It was good to chat to people even if they didn't want to buy.  We didn't sell up, I didn't expect to so we brought  some things back with us which we can either make use of ourselves or pass on to some local charity events and I managed to sell another fresh foliage door decoration once we got home. Now I need to find the time to make my own door wreaths.

Being so tired we haven't felt up to doing any allotment work, but as the work is slowing down now I'm not too worried. It's all about clearing and manuring beds at the moment and we can do that a bit at a time.

We've had frost this week so I'm glad that I remembered to close the lids on the cold frame where I have put some tender plants.

One of the wreaths I made

Glitter time

It's that time of year. The glitter is out and all over the place and it will probably be around for the next six months or so. On carpets, clothes, the cat, even the garden. For the last few weeks I have been making Christmas crafts for a fund raising event my daughter is organising--Christmas tree decorations, pomanders, rose hip hearts, pot pourri. It all involved plenty of glitter and smelly spices. The grandchildren complained about the smell but I like it.  This week I have been making fresh foliage arrangements--wreaths and table decorations.  I have raided the garden and the allotment for conifer, ivy, holly and anything else which looks good at this time of year and will keep for a few weeks.

It started off as just a small idea but grew as I got carried away with it all and did lots more than I intended.  I'm exhausted now, but it's all done and soon we will be attempting to pack all the stuff in the back of our little car and drive down to Bedfordshire. So if you are in the Stotfold area on Saturday 29th November, 12noon--4pm, call in at the Scout Hut on Baldock Road and enjoy a Christmas shopping day. You get a mince pie and a glass of mulled wine with your ticket. It should be a great day. If you see me say hello.

January

The Christmas decorations are down, the sparkle and glitter has all gone. I'm a bit sad about that as I like a bit of sparkle and glitter. But it had to go.  Sometimes I can still see bits of glitter on the carpet, I don't think I ever  get rid of the glitter completely.

It's back to normal for everyone this week, the schools are back and the council recycling wagon was busy the other morning collecting everyone's Christmas trees. The trees looked a bit abandoned on the pavements outside peoples' gates, lying in a pool of pine needles and with semi bare branches, but still a reminder of the last few weeks' festivities. 

We've had some fine weather in the last couple of days and looking around the garden I've seen signs of new growth. There are primroses flowering and shoots of bulbs appearing in the borders. There are flowers on the winter jasmine and the  witch hazel.  We managed a few hours at the allotment at the weekend it was lovely and spring like. I'm looking forward to being able to get outside more, clear up the borders and make a fresh start with the vegetable plot.

The house can look a bit bare once the decorations are down, so I always buy daffodils for the house after Christmas. They're a lovely change from the reds and greens we have at Christmas and bring a lovely freshness to the house with their colour and smell.

January can be a miserable month, when it's gloomy outside sometimes the best thing to do is curl up with a good book or some knitting. When I'm not doing that this month then I will probably be planning what vegetables to grow this year on the allotment, ordering seeds, onions and seed potatoes.