A Whisper of Spring....

 

Snowdrops....! 

The Deep snow is all gone from The Folly Garden, Dear Readers, and so is the Snowy Winter Rhododendron Shrub! In its place we find the bare branches of the early Spring Lilac shrub and the Skeleton of the soon to be Green Leafy Rhododendron shrub. I needed to pull out my storage boxes and create the Safe Storage for the Snowy Winter Shrub... like it's sibling, the Flowering Rhododendron Shrub, it required some special engineering to build the holding space that would not crush or damage any part of the shrub. This is a bit complicated because the shrub goes around the corner of The Folly and hangs low on the embankment. I had to make a shaped framework that mimicked the Folly Garden space! 

 

I used the same pink builders foam that is used on The Folly Landscape.

Here you can see the two completed shrubs in their boxes!

And while I was looking at the now bare garden at "The Folly", I remembered that there were some tiny snowdrops I had made years ago... where did I put them? 

I found them in a little dish in The Conservatory.... just waiting for Spring!

 

I do not glue these in place, Dear Readers,

 because this is the same shrub that must be usable

 in the Autumn before the snow comes... 

or in the winters that don't snow....

 

There are a few little holes poked into the foam base

 and I simply insert the stems carefully...

They are such brief and temporary visitors!

 

So tiny and delicate!

And just whispering that Spring is on the way!

 

 

And while the snow has Not yet gone from my RL garden

it is slowly receding! 

 I was able to climb over the gate and find the spot near the foundation

 where the sun warms the earth the soonest...

And was overjoyed to find the Snowdrops are up

 and nodding their little heads! 

 

The temperatures have been above freezing, Dear Readers,

the snow is melting... the Snowdrops are blooming,

And I have finally heard that first Whisper of Spring!

Are You Dreaming of Springtime....

 

In Spite of the Weather....

Have You noticed, Dear Readers, the gradual returning of the morning sunlight? The Conservatory has been asleep, it seems like forever... but a few weeks ago, I noticed the early rays of morning sunlight shining on a tiny pot of snowdrops! Oh, how I long to see some snowdrops! At the moment, they are buried under mountains of snow in my RL garden, so I will not be seeing them soon. This picture was taken a couple of days before "Groundhog Day" (which is really Candlemas but it is not known by that around here). In this part of the world, a very important Groundhog (woodchuck by another name) comes out of his burrow on February 2nd, and if he sees his shadow it will be six more weeks of Winter. If he doesn't see his shadow... it will be an early Spring! This year he saw his shadow... and yes, we are still being Slammed by Winter! We just endured a very windy three days and two nights, and we were lucky that all we got was lots and lots of snow and sleet... ice and freezing rain had been predicted, but we stayed just cold enough to spare us the ice!

The view from my window the morning after the sleet...

And I stepped outside to get a few pictures but it was very windy and very cold!

But inside the Conservatory.... we can Dream of Spring ...

 

 And perhaps begin to plan the tasks for this year....

 

 And even enjoy the sight of little bunnies frolicking in the flowers...

Even though in RL they are an annoying pest in the Gardens!

It has been so cold in RL, that it is a bit chilly to work in my downstairs studio... 

so I have focused on the stitching (when I wasn't cowering from the Storm!).

I have made good progress!

 

 Here you can see the first two cushions are completed!

(At least, the stitching part is.)

And I am starting the outline for the third cushion!

There were four designs in the original set,

 and then Mary Corbet designed a fifth one

 which, of course, I had to have too! 

I started the next one right away! 

And I am stitching the Deer Cushion... 

mostly because it is the one I have already printed the chart.

You can see I am making it "upside-down"

 compared to the other two... 

this is strictly because it is easier for my hand

 to reach the stitching area in this direction...!

It is an 8" hoop and reaching all the way across is challenging!

 

And I just Know you will not be surprised that I had to add another Deer!

 

I tried to tell myself that I should just go with the design as it is....

but there is all that room....!

I took out my graph paper and colored pencils

 to see if it would work.....

 

 I needed it to look a little different... 

but tried to keep it really similar to the first one.....

 

 I cut it out and tried to find the right position on the printed chart...

 

 And decided pretty quickly that She was a Doe...

so no antlers were needed!

And I decided it was a "go"

 and all I needed to do was carefully mark

 where it sat on the chart...

(I ended up taping it in place....  carefully so as not to damage the chart)

And got right to the stitching!

 

Of course, I made an error early on with the counting... 

and didn't catch it until waaay too late to unstitch...

something about the position of her neck...

which means the whole rest of her body 

ended up being farther to the left than the design had suggested...

but no matter, she fits! 

(I was going to have to adjust the placement of the blossoms anyway!)

And that's as far as I got, Dear Readers,

Stitching Millefleurs and Bunnies and Does,

And Dreaming of Springtime

 in Spite of the Weather!
 

Snowdrops....

 

 And Slippers....

The Snowdrops are finished blooming in my RL Garden, Dear Readers, but they are in full bloom where I work in the Hills of Vermont. And some of you might recall that when I made the mini snowdrops for The Folly garden, under the lilac bush, I was concerned that they turned out a tiny bit too big for perfect 1:12 scale. You can see them in the gloomy morning light in the picture above. And I have a note beside my computer that has been there for a long time that says "Measure snowdrops" on it. This would be so I could prove for once and all what scale my mini snowdrops turned out to be! I thought I had made a measured drawing somewhere... but could only find the one I did for the little Squill blossoms. But the snowdrops have to be in bloom to measure them! 

Last week they were blooming in my garden,

 but I neglected to measure them!

This morning I remembered at the last minute on my way to work....

But the blossoms were all spent...

These stems were the best of the remaining blossoms.

They are not five inches tall... 

you will have to believe me because I did not go get a ruler!

Meanwhile, the blossoms at work are Huge by comparison!

Of course, it is difficult to get a sense of scale from a photo...

You can see by my hand that they are much larger

 than the little ones in my Home garden!

But I needed proof... so I plucked a stem....

And brought it up to my desk where I could measure it....

Nine and 1/2 inches long!

 

And the blossom alone is 1 and 1/2 inches long!

These are Huge snowdrops!

Here it is in a bud vase....

no shrinking violet this blossom!

I think I can safely say that my mini snowdrops

 are  in perfect 1:12 scale!

And what about the slippers I mentioned?

Well, you might recall that I was trying to use all the stitching space

 in the corners of the Christmas Tree Skirt project.

And when I had filled all the corners with "cushions"

 there was still a bit of space along the sides

 that I thought might just work for mini slippers.

I didn't have a pattern, so I made one up...

 

I stitched four pairs of slippers around the edges...

 each pair a little different from the others.

And then because I didn't know what I was doing,

 I made up one whole slipper without taking any pictures of the process!

I think it turned out okay!

I took pictures of the second one...

 but they are pretty boring.

I lined each slipper with a silk charmeuse cloth 

which is very fine and flexible.

I stitched the whole thing, not using glue

 except for binding the edge of the petitpoint before I cut the cloth.

 

The soles are made from synthetic suede cloth.... 

small samples that I was given with a variety of colors.

 

I think they turned out really well

 considering that I didn't know what I was doing!

And that's all I have to show, Dear Readers,

 my weekend having been spent in the RL Garden,

Huge snowdrops and Tiny slippers!