Everything in the garden was lovely...

After the hot spell in April, most of the plants in the garden were really struggling, we've then had a wet May (though not everywhere in the country was so lucky), and now June is warming up again and everything is bursting in to bloom.

Mum and I go off horseriding for a week tomorrow, and when we come back the garden will be awash with colour. All these foxgloves will definitely be out...


The poppies are starting to appear, and the Honeysuckle is just teasing us.



We're fully expecting the hedgerows to be beautiful as we ride along the country lanes. Speaking of Hedgerows I'm leaving the shop up while I'm away, anything sold will be sent out when I get back. Once I'm back I need to spend a few more days marking exam papers, then I'll be settling down with the fluff to create some brand new colours.

The Beach

I've not posted for a while, sorry about that...
I've been busy building up stock in the shop (I start exam marking in a week, and then go on holiday so will be too busy to play with fluff and sparkle for a while), and I went back to Sheffield for a weekend. BeforeI made the decision to leave work I booked my Rainbows to go on an overnight trip, and I felt like I couldn't let them down. I also got to catch up with some friends which was nice. The Rainbows were as lovely as ever, though I finished the weekend exhausted.
We made some gorgeous Fairy Houses though.





I spent the next few days catching up with things, and yesterday we took the dogs out for the morning. We went up to a place called The Blue Lagoon, which is a flooded slate mine above Fairbourne. The water is very very deep, and in the sunshne really is bright blue. The dogs had a lovely time fetching sticks, though Meg had a shock when she went out of her depth.



After that we went down to the beach, the dogs ran themselves ragged chasing after balls, and we waded through the streams trying not to go above welly height. Topped off by coffee and homemade jam tarts in the sand dune, and then chips at lunch it was a rather lovely day.

The Biggest Waterfall in Wales

We went for a walk yesterday up a beautiful valley to see a waterfall. apparently it's the biggest waterfall in Wales. We're not quite sure what makes it the biggest (is it most water, tallest biggest drop...) but it was certainly very impressive!



It was very very windy though, we ended up changing our route back down as the ridge we were trying to walk down was very unpleasant with the wind right in your face.
In a way that had it's own bonuses though as we found these pine cones. They're this years cones, and are a beautiful shade of maroon, which contrasts beautifully against the lime green needles. I'm tempted to use it as inspiration for the shop, but I fear that once spun up it would turn in to mucky sludge!

However, I think some roving in theses colours would produce some gorgeous yarn...



Mum and I have been watching these buds for the past week as we couldn't quite remember what colour they were... turns out they look like this!

Slow Worms

We found slow worms in our garden last year, and they're turned up again this year. We found one dead on the drive a couple of weeks ago, and 2 days ago we found some live ones under some bark. We must have a breeding population which is fantastic news as they eat those pesky slugs. Now we've finally got some rain the slug population has started breeding, and don't the plants know it!

Experimenting

I'm having real fun at the moment experimenting with natural dyes. We've always made home made wines and to a certain extent it's Chemistry, which of course I love!
You do have to take care with things, some people seem to get very scared by using chemicals, but I handled chemicals on a daily basis for the last few years, a lot of which were more dangerous than the ones I'm using now. Whats interesting is how many dye plants are also ones we use for wines.
Speaking of wines, here was my first experiment, we had some blackcurrant wine which had turned to vinegar in the bottles, I mordanted the fibre in alum and then simmered it in the wine for a while. The resulting colour is a lovely dusky pink, somewhere between the colours in these pictures. It will stand up to gentle washing just like any other dye job, and seems light fast. I've had it in full sunshine for a week and haven't noticed any colour loss. People seem to get their knickers in a twist about natural dyes fading, but all dyes will fade if left in bright sunlight for long enough, natural dyes are probably more prone to fading, but that doesn't mean they don't have their place.




Emboldened by that success I've also been playing with the Birch leaves from the Birch tree that grows by our pond. I also tried out modifying the colours with iron solution.




The kitchen and the utility room are currently resembling a witch's cave according to my Dad with various pans bubbling away with various leaves and fibres, and several jars filled with bark soaking.
I'm about to start marking GCSE and A-Level exam papers and will be rather busy for a while so am indulging while I can!

Doing what you love

I uploaded things to my Etsy shop for the first time tonight. I've been beavering away for a couple of days now blending up fibres.
Within minutes of posting on Ravelry some fantastic people had made purchases.
I feel so very lucky, I am happier now than I've been in ages, I'm getting to be creative designing things, blending colours, and the scientist in me is being kept happy by trying natural dyeing. More on the dyeing later, I'm waiting for things to dry... a bit tricky now the rain has finally started falling in Wales!

Being able to go out for walks where I get to see the Bluebells underneath the Beech leaves is wonderful.


It's pretty inspirational as well.

This is Bluebell Wood, it's still in the shop if you like it.

In the oaks

How has a week gone by already?
Much busy-ness here in Wales, I've been busy varnishing floors, painting doors, making cakes, cutting grass, preparing to mark exam papers and trying to get a new business started!
However I do have pictures for you, yesterday we went for a walk through some disused gold mines above Barmouth. Seemed fitting as all royal wedding rings are made from Welsh Gold, all the mines are now closed, and the Queen has some of the last of the reserves, maybe by the time she runs out the mines will have become economical to work again, after all, there is a finite amount of gold in the world.
These mines are now owned by the RSPB and are run as a reserve, it made a really nice change to walk through open deciduous woodland, rather than the more common conifer plantations.



The dogs were rather happy we found them a river to swim in, the hot weather here is continuing. A bit of rain would be rather useful, the garden needs water, and our water supply comes off a spring.





The end of the walk gave us views down in to the Mawddach estuary, with Cadair Idris in the background. The bridge you can just make out is Penmaenpool, where we canoed along to last week, and where I took these photos back in January. The weather's changed a little since then!