November colours

 We walked through our local park, the leaves are carpeting under the trees and looking good, these are at the end of the park by a main road, and make a perfect backdrop.

The flower beds still have colours, this central bed always looks good, I do love the crown structure in the middle, perfect for plants to grow up. The bed in the bottom corner of the photo has roses blooming again, there is another identical bed, other than the roses are a different shade. 

I have always adored our tiny bandstand, the twin rose beds have a third shade of blooms, often you find young children on bikes or scooters going around on the path, there is a bench where I am standing, so adults can sit and watch them.

Back in our garden the acer is stunning, with the Virginia creeper over the fence this corner is very colourful, we are enjoying it as soon it will be bare.

Not as bright but still lovely is my olive tree, this is an evergreen. 

Finally our neighbours pyracantha, this is in the corner of their garden behind our garage, beautiful orange berry's, the top is almost bare, the pigeons have been feasting, along the fence is my red berry plant, much smaller, I hope eventually it will cover the whole back fence.

I have very little to do outside, both veg beds are full and growing strong, I don't cut back the flower beds until spring, I do have tulip bulbs to plant, all the other spring bulbs are in pots already. The flower plants in my greenhouse are doing well, I have seeds growing, some plants which I potted up as they were seedlings in the wrong place and a couple of huge plants I have split, some could be outside, but our clay soil in winter months gets water logged and things rot. I am collecting leaves for making mulch and both composters are full.

I am reading, I started two books by new authors, which I discarded, but as yet no crafting, I really want to knit, I have loads of 4ply wool (yarn), a pack of cotton yarn for toys, and some double knitting wool (yarn), plenty of patterns,  just no inspiration. I have been looking at cross stitch I have two unfinished designs. Will loves our red cushions, I have promised him I will make one for him, he chose the cushion with the badges, hubby ordered the one badge, I will make the stripes myself. 

Park walk.

I walk through this park twice each day, early in the morning and then early evening, we are so lucky to have this so close to our home. The wild flower meadow was redone this year, it's stunning, the gardens are weeded often. The council is allowing the residents to chose how to replace the dated play area, it will still be a play area after it has been updated, it's an area where all our grans sons have loved playing.

New start

Yes I have started some cross stitch

A lovely Mandala kit from here

I'm stitching on 28cwt, DMC Lugana, using 1 strand of silk.

I have finished the back and front of my jumper up to the armholes.

1st sleeve, I'm knitting on 4 pins which I have never done before, it was fiddly to start but much easier now I have some weight to hold the needles steady. 

 This is the point where the design starts, which is the part I enjoy most. 

We have not done much this weekend, bit too dull, cold and wet to get outside, I spent loads of time stitching on Saturday, watched a couple of films and had another pie and mash evening with hubby and brother. We popped to the COOK shop to purchase more pies, with a few extra now in the freezer. The shopping center at Locks Heath had a fruit and veg stall, which had good fresh firm produce, so we stocked up and fruit and veg, without any plastic bags.
Sunday we had a huge family Easter lunch, Will, mummy and daddy came for the day, another cold and grey day, but it did not rain, so I suppose we could call it a better weather day. After lunch Will walked to our local park, he loved playing there, we have a photo of all our younger grandsons in this crawl space.

 Look at me, on my own

Mummy and daddy having fun. 

Today, guess what it's pouring down again, but no snow, later hubby and I are popping to town, I have seen an arch for the garden, we want to replace our existing arch before the growing season starts.
Our fridge is full of leftovers, I am going to freeze some slices of pork (hubby does not like it), we each have another lamb roast dinner for today. Leftover lamb has been cut up ready for a Biryani in the week. We also have some chocolate left, we were both pleased to see a big Cadbury creme egg, purchased for my brother, had a cardboard inner holding the egg and the packaging contained no plastic, we were impressed.
Later I will craft, I have a small project for my sewing machine and then cross stitch, I am really enjoying stitching again.