In the Lavender Garden...

Hello there

Hope you've had a lovely week, and are coping with the heat/cold/other weather oddity (delete as applicable) in your particular part of the world. Here in London, it's seriously warm. So, where better to take you, than a lavender garden?

Click or tap here to see the full version of this design

This is a digital watercolour of mine in Krita, and it's based upon a trip we took to see the Fawcett Garden in Vauxhall.

As you can see from these photos, the garden is smaller than the mythical place in my imagination :-) (isn't that always the way?). But it is beautiful, and we got there at just the right time to see and smell, the lavender. (As ever, the Computer Man and I went together. Most of the photos are his, as he's much niftier with a camera than me).

Happy bees abounded...

And there were roses, too...

Photo by JimFernbank

As well as a general feeling of "Cottage Garden-ness"...

Photo by JimFernbank

Which is all the more amazing, when you consider that Vauxhall Park is just a stone's throw from the MI6 building in central London. 

The thing I loved best though, is that the park's lavender (which also featured in rows like these)...

Photo by JimFernbank

is harvested every year, by volunteers, with proceeds from the resulting oil being used to fund the ongoing upkeep of the lavender garden.

You can't beat a situation so full of win-win aspects for everyone, can you?

And on that note, I'll just wish you a happy weekend (or week, depending upon when you're reading this).

And thank you for reading down this far into a long post :-).

More soon.

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A Tale of Restoration and Happy Mooching...

Hello there

I'm back now from a little break away from work and oh, can totally recommend it if you're feeling a need to re-charge.

Anyway, thought would use this post as a first little catch-up on what I got up to. First off, not *everyone* in London was knee-deep in Jubilee celebrations last week. The Computer Man and I know this, because whilst we were scoffing yummy bagels at the newly re-opened Camley Street Natural Park, so were quite a few other people. 

(Massive thanks to the Computer Man for so much, but especially in this case, this lovely photo...)

Photo by Jim Fernbank

The Camley Street Natural Park is amazing, not least because it spent a century or so as a coal drop storage yard, sandwiched as it is between  King's Cross and St Pancras railway stations (both originally built in the 19th century.

Yup, you read that right. You can now even enjoy a wildlife pond, woodland, and a just-beginning-to-bloom wildflower meadow, complete with bees and beautiful flowers like the one above, within shouting distance of  the Eurostar.

According to the park's  info-signs, several centuries ago, the area was once part of the ancient forest of Middlesex. And it absolutely gives me tingles to think of even a tiny part of that being re-forested and  renewed...If this place can be restored, anywhere can.

And the next step was inevitable...

And so, of course, after all of that,  the next step was inevitable.  A memento was needed. Which of course meant drawing that flower... (Yes, that meant digitally drawing in Krita. Clearly there's a big part of me that, mysteriously, doesn't perceive drawing on the computer to be something that interrupts a break...).

 I think the flower in question was  a poppy, though it was more beautifully exotic and "ruffly" than any poppy I've ever seen before. It started like this...

progressed into this...

and may or may not finish up like this, at least for now:

I've absolutely no idea if it will turn into anything, and am kind of liking the sketch more than the colour at the moment.

And there was more...

And I discovered more-a lot more when there was actually time to browse around and do things for fun again. But as this post is getting looooong, I'll save that for another time.

Thanks for reading down this far-and have a lovely weekend.

More soon.

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Forget-Me Not Thinking of You Card, And a Sale...

Hello there. Hope all is well with you. This week's offering is short and sweet as it's Bank Holiday here. But wanted to let you know that all my printable card sheets are 20% off until midnight on Sunday June 5th 2022, BST. Click or tap here for details.

The forget-me-not design you see here is new, and also part of the sale (including a matching background, and lots of different verses and wordings to suit all the different occasions on which you or someone you know might want to send it).

Have fun with this, and more soon.

Update on June 4th 2022: This design is now also available on fabric:

Forget-Me-Not Blue and White Floral Fabric
by BoundingSquirrel

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