Another Page.

Another page for my book - as you can see it's Nettle this time. I have used similar techniques for this page as I did with the others. Only two more to do and then comes the 'make or break' bit of assembling everything and I haven't even thought of a design for the cover. I probably do things the wrong way round, but my books always seem to end up fatter than I expect so the cover has to be made last.

The initial letter looks more defined in reality than it does here. The professional photographers who do the pictures for textile books are so clever and know how it should be done. I am always in a rush so it's no wonder my pics aren't very good.

Thank goodness plants don't have limbs or faces, I can't draw those but I can just about manage a leaf or two.

The weather has been glorious for the past few days and we actually sat in the garden at the weekend, with a cuppa. The seritogstigma wilmottiana (I hope that's the right spelling) is looking lovely. Those flowers are a really intense blue, almost as blue as a Morning Glory.

I cut all the hardy geraniums down not so long ago and they are rewarding me with a fresh crop of flowers. Again, this one is much more intense and a really gorgeous magenta.

And this one is a pretty pale lilac but not as washed out as it appears here. The leaves have a lovely shape too.

I was about to empty this large pot a little while back, when I noticed all these new flowers and fruits forming. One of them actually shows signs of ripening so I have put the pot in the greenhouse in the hope that we might have a second crop of strawberries. They have been very worthwhile but the annoying thing is that I can't remember their name and have lost the marker. Hopefully it might be somewhere under all that foliage. All the pelargoniums are repotted and tucked up in the greenhouse too, and I shall be on my guard this winter if it gets very cold again - I lost a lot last year because the metal door became frozen shut for about 4 days and everything rotted through lack of ventilation. It doesn't seem any time at all since last spring when I was taking out the sheets of bubble wrap for insulation and now it's time to put it all back again.