Touchdown at the Newest Bluestocking Inn. Pudding, cups of tea, the vegetable garden coming into its own, and gerbils beautiful gerbils all furry.

[DeanElderberry]

All females welcome for intelligent discourse and non-harmful comestibles.

I still use Stylecraft for most of my stuff, especially baby blankets since then they can be tumble dried if necessary. Am I missing something?

Been busy in my garden all day today so now have a backache

I dug out some guernsey nerines las winter from a customers garden, (with permission)

Shoved them in a bag in the greenhouse and forgot about them. Found them today and they have all sprouted, so set them outside.

They flower early autumn so a welcome punch of pink at the end of the season.

I have lost five customers in the past year, which was hard because i get attached to them. Am winding my business down now. Have four left.

My garden is just getting into its rhythm, it was just a a patch of grass 8 years ago.

i might post a few pictures if anyone cares to see.

Stylecraft is great for stuff that needs to be chucked in the wash with everything else. There is a brilliant choice of colours - I made several blankets that were anything from 80% to 100% Stylecraft DK.

But I have a terrible weakness for the hard stuff lovely yarn, and don't really like acrylic. After I stumbled across some wonderful alpaca and made a blanket using it (and it is SO warm), I was lost. And if I'm going to spend however many hours it is (60? 80?) making a sweater, I want the end result to look great, wear well and be very, very warm.

John Arbon is the crack cocaine of yarn. Also Malabrigo.

I'd love to see garden pictures, Hedgey.

I love nerines. We had them in our garden when I was a kid.

So would I, please. I might get some inspiration.

Yes, Hedgie, would love to see your garden. Maybe I should find a gardener. My garden is just getting to be too much for me now. I hear you about the aching back! It can take me days to recover now after I have a long day digging, chopping, and planting.

Sleep gerbils, if you're back on duty soon, please head my way. It's been a long day, thanks.

Will do then .. one from last year

I’m with you all the way, although Biscotte yarns (inconveniently from Canada) and Jamieson of Shetland are my poison.

I've found that Stylecraft Special can vary in how soft it feels. I'm using a Saffron colour which is very soft but then I used Camel which feels much coarser. Birth are Stylecraft Special Aran.

Hedgey, your garden is gorgeous! And just a lawn a few years ago 💙💙💙

I always used Stylecraft but I've now moved on to Yarnsmiths.

I just spent £32 last night on yarn to make a blanket for a friend. She was widowed a year ago and finds it hard to go home to an empty house so I decided she needs a woolly hug all of her own.

I had a quiet house all day because everyone else was out so I decided it would be a good idea to empty my entire wardrobe onto the bed to sort all my clothes.
Then I felt totally overwhelmed and had to go sit downstairs and read my book for a while 😄

Found you!

Have given the north and western boundary hedges there first cut of the year. The western one borders a council verge, so I'm having to pick my way through mounds of excrement - obviously all from the one dog. The piles are the same size and equidistant...must be a daily visit.

Bandit of an owner. At least the chilli powder is keeping it off my driveway flowers.

Apparently, coffee grounds are supposed to deter dogs. Maybe I can scatter the on the verge. Can't use vinegar - it would kill the grass.

I wondered where you were WAW. Glad you found us.

That’s really lovely.

I enjoy gardening but am no good with the structure and hard landscaping - which you clearly are.

yesterday we went to the Orangerie. The Monet Lily pond paintings are wonderful but… what they made me want to do is sit by a pond and watch the water and reflections of clouds. An artist may be able to capture the colours of sunset clouds on water but there are no damselflies.

After that we went to the Musee Guimet which is the French national collection of asiatic art which is excellent and has a very good Korean restaurant.
Friday was the Musee D’Orsay which is fantastic.

today is our last day, Mr Dragon’s back is suffering from too much ‘museum pace’ (slow walk and standing) so we’re having a late start.

I've just noticed my typo. Aaaaargh! tries to blame autocorrect

Your garden is lovely @Hedgehogforshort

Beautiful garden @Hedgehogforshort What a transformation from a bare lawn just a few years ago!

My garden is small and mostly paved, with raised beds and a planting area at the back. It hadn't really been touched apart from weeding for a couple of decades and just had a few evergreen shrubs which had long outgrown their space. I had them all cleared out so that I could deal with the fence behind them and I've put in three small trees - four if you count the potted acer on the paved area. I'm now starting to fill in the gaps with shrubs and perennials. My annuals and bulbs mostly go into pots to ring the changes of the seasons.

Lovely garden, Hedgey! Lots of variety for the eye to light on. It really sings
Enjoy your last day in Paris, Errol.
I had a silly thought when you said that when looking at Monet's pond, you missed the damselflies - teams of state-employed damselflies- demoiselles fonctionnaires- released into the Orangerie to fly around the lily-pond pictures during opening hours to enhance the visitor experience😁

I feel guilty that I didn't miss Weary😞but it was because I saw your name on another thread, and it somehow got transferred into my brain that you had been popping into the Bluey as per usual.

I used to keep a mental tally of who hadn't been in for a while, and send them a little👋 but at a certain point it got beyond me, so I just sometimes put out a generalised 👋to absent Stockingers. Like now😄

I have a picture of Inky in my little stash of stored images to recycle, so she pops up in person from time to time - like now: hello Inky, and Boily reading the Sundays😄, and of course our dear Swash is always in our hearts💙

edited to change 'I have a photo of Inky' to 'I have a picture of Inky' - it would be a bit worrying if I thought these were actual photos of mooses and beetles reading the papers😁

It's really annoying when people don't pick up after their animals WAW.

I don't know about dogs, but coffee grounds certainly do deter cats, as I discovered with my previous garden, when my neighbour's two cats became a real nuisance. Garlic powder and grated citrus peel also worked - anything really to disrupt their sense of smell without causing harm. The coffee grounds were the easiest though as my friend had a coffee shop in the village and let me take some of her used ones. They are a pretty good fertiliser too in small amounts.

ETA You do need to keep on with it though, until the animal gets used to automatically avoiding the area.

I really dislike dog owners like that. The give the rest of us a bad name.

I'm not above burying dog shit in the woods, or kicking it down the side of a ditch by a field, but I'm forever picking it up from paths and verges. Quite a few of my walks start and finish along the same paths, and since B&B usually empty themselves within the first 200 yards, I tend to pick it up and leave the bag tucked to one side, and collect it on the way home. We have paths in the village that people mow entirely voluntarily, so no way am I leaving it for them to find.

And Hedgey, I love the tropical look of your garden.

Part of the problem with the garden is that I'm in an end-terraced house with a long public path running alongside the adjacent hedge.

I once found that someone had tossed a used nappy into the back garden...Another reason for trying to keep my hedges tall.

@MarieDeGournay

it would be a bit worrying if I thought these were actual photos of mooses and beetles reading the papers😁

I refuse to believe otherwise. So there.

I don't even understand what is meant by actual photos. Surely all the BS photos are actual?

Yes. The Sleep Gerbil photies look exactly like the gerbils that tuck me in at night...