Today we are going through the...............blue door...

Glad that Floppity brought back some memories for you

Perhaps not so much 'through' but more: 'in front of..'!

Thank you for asking a while back for more garden photographs. I tend not to stray from the main 'blog brief' so do not usually include stuff beyond sewing and old bits.  I do however take more photographs of the garden than anything else so...

You DID ask!!!

 Back door in dire need of  a repaint...

Our garden is teeny, tiny but it earns its keep.  

It is like the house in that there is a fair bit of stuff packed into that space. Ahem!!!

These photographs are not in sequential order

The 'secret' is to wait for a storm and then haul loads of seaweed up from the beach in the Autumn.  Let the seaweed rot down nicely  (smells a bit but there is no such thing as a free launch) and it seems to double the vitality of the soil (which is heavy clay).

 So whilst these flowers are nothing extraordinaire  I do get good crop rotation and from early Spring to late Autumn there is always something in flower in this spot.

Plus the colours look quite nice against the blue door

I have to keep a tight grip on some plants so I do  extraction when needed.  Other than that I am a great dead header and keep green fly to a minimum by tapping the little rose buds over the little pond and the fishes get free food as the aphids fall off.  

Everyone's a winner baby...

The Bumble has landed!

Many of the plants are from my mum's old garden - so true 'vintahj darling'

Be they ever so humble.....

We don't use any chemicals or nasties and we have lots of slugs - I dream of lupins...

Life is about give and take - slugs do a fair bit of taking sadly but the flowers a lot of giving!

I am keen on Latin names and very fond indeed of binomial nomenclature (Annie will bear testament to its wonderment and usefulness) - crack that you gain a great understanding of each plant.  Very neat!!

I will do a separate post on my peonies - all of which came from my mum's old garden - some have sulked for over ten years but I did not give up.  This year they have all flowered!

Please note the resident snail - all are welcome chez La Cootard....!

Happenstance photograph

Nice clematis put on a good show this year

Flowery bowery

 Underneath the arches....

We dream our dreams away...

Underneath the arches... on cobblestones we lay..

You might remember the bird cage 'makeover' that I did back around Easter time - it is still here and lives under the floral bower (grand!!) ... in reality that nice clematis.

 Here it is prior to flowers blooming:

and in bloom....

Looks quite purdy I think

I had half hoped that a pair of canaries would move in

  Tweet tweet

By the by I am enjoying the 'Tweet of the Day' on Radio 4 at the moment - what a joy birdsong is.

After all that gardening sit down and take the weight off your feet (Dom has repaired these chairs many times over the years but they should hold your weight just fine)

You may be distracted by the box of  reduced scabious bottom right (the ones that Dom bought back from B &Q a little while ago) - they are still in full flower

Sadly there is no tea or cake in these photographs - that would have been the perfecto mix I think

That may be a vintahj (dahling)  tablecloth wafting to the right of the picture below.....

A reminder that when we moved in there was not a single plant, bush, tree, blade of grass in this plot - just two layers of concrete slabs.  I was gutted as our garden in London was pretty and we had left that behind. It took me a long time to grow to like this garden.....and a lot of hard work.

Do you remember my umbrella purchased from my favourite junk shop for a £1 (just double checked the memory banks and found that it only cost me 50p) ?  It is very handy on those rare sunny days.

More flowery bowery

It's not where you start it's where you finish!

So -  be your garden small or grande -  make it lovely if you can. 

It is good for the soul

Closing the door for now

Pretty as a picture.....

PS: Garden open to the public between dusk and dawn from May until June.
Public liability insurance not taken out.
We will not be held responsible for any injuries but action will be taken if you are found pilfering cuttings...just as my mother used to do....
Terms and conditions sadly have to apply.

Floppity Jane ~ BFF

Thank you again for kind words on previous post and welcome to new followers - sorry again regarding tardiness in replying.  

Today I have selected this post from the hitherto unpublished back catalogue

Can you tell how much I loved Floppity Jane - here I am bursting with happiness because I have a doll that as far as I was concerned was practically the same size as myself!!!

 I remember very clearly getting Floppity Jane for Christmas.  All made by my mum of course: hand knitted cardigan, beautiful felt Mary Jane shoes, red tights, a blue brushed cotton dress with little hand embroidered flowers, cottton handmade knickers trimmed with lace and matching vest - topped with brown wool hair tied up with red ribbon.

I loved Floppity Jane.

I thought that she was made using a pattern from  Woman's Weekly but I spent a little (ahem!) time  searching the internet and found this pattern on ebay and then even better this one. I am a bit puzzled because these patterns are for sale in America and I would have no idea how my mum would have got hold of that - perhaps there were ads in the back of Woman's Weekly.  The doll looks very, very similar. The blurb says that the doll measures 32" - seems about right.  Though my mum made many, many soft dolls for all of her grandchildren and great nieces etc she never made another like Floppity Jane (it might have been because of the amount of Kapok used to fill her up!).

By the time I started school and mixing with other children I  found that there was a whole world of plastic toys.... I really, really, really would have liked a Tressy Doll...and  Tiny Tears - beyond my wildest....sadly never to be.

 Every year my mum would make a new outfit for Floppity Jane.  Of course these were usually from the same fabric that my own dresses were made from  - she managed to keep up with changing fashions pretty well. She was very well played with and then she fell out of favour and was discarded....

"Jenny please don't tell us the Floppity Jane ended up on the Bonfire of the Vanities" (message from Mildred in Tulsa) 

"Oh Mildred I could weep..poor old Floppity." (message from Agnetha in Stockholm.  Translated from the original 'Oh Mildred Jag kunde gråta .. stackars Floppity'.  Take it now or leave it....)

"She did not deserve this!" (message from Kevin in Kalgoorlie)

"I will have to write a letter...." (message from a Mrs Trellis in North Wales...)

"I'm sorry I haven't a clue...what this is about" (message from Kandy in Arkansas)

" La Cootard could not be so cruel" (message from Claude in Toulouse)


You are funny....

....of course she didn't!!!

A bit battle worn but still here

She still lives with us - I made a few outfits too over the years but here she is with different hair (she has had several changes including a real wig!) and an outfit that my mum would have made around 1975-8'ish - a little felt bolero jacket with embroidered flowers and white blouse with frilly lace and fashionable peasant style skirt popular around that time. I think that I will change her hair again and try and get it to be more like the original.

What was your first toy that you remember?

Good times


Tra la la
Fiddle de dee
Tatty bye for now
From Floppity Jane
and me....

PS: That should be all from me for a while as I am busy work wise ....and we have the builders in doing stuff ....and goodness me the house is dusty...if you see me lurking round here tell me to get back to work

PPS:  Now - "GET OUTTA HERE ~ YOU PESKY KIDS!"

PPPS: I measured Floppity Jane and she is................... 31 and half inches high...sadly shrunk with age...comes to us all...........

And the winners are...

 

Sorry again for the delay

 Just been busy setting up my little shop in order to give the giveaways a good send off!

 I need to make some adjustments to the cash register I think!

"Yes - but who has won?"

Sorry but it took a long time to write out the names

"Flamin' heck - she likes to spin it out doesn't she.."

I particularly loved how you commented on the Co-op (a supermarket for those not from these parts...said in a Dorset accent for some reason)

"Still waiting..."

The winner of the 50s purse is  Gillian at tales from a happy house

And the winner of the cathedral window is Dorothy at hensrule

Thank you for entering and for all of your very kind and nice comments - I will do another one when work has settled down

We'll gather lilacs...

......in the Spring again...

                                                               ...and walk together....

.

...down an English lane

                                                                 ....until our hearts....

                                                             ...have learnt to sing again...

                                                         ...when you come home once more...

For all fathers.... present..... and past...

PS: I have the 'winners of giveaway' post all lined up and will post in the next day or so.  Thank you for entering