Summertime.....

 

Reruns.....

You Might recall, Dear Readers, that the Lilac beside the Folly door only blooms briefly in the Springtime. The rest of the Summer it is clad all in green and goes largely unremarked as it stands in quiet leafy abundance beside the tiny patio. The morning sunshine fills this corner early on sunny days and often Will and Gabrielle sit outside for a few minutes at the start of their days. 

Their lives are often too busy to linger, 

so they try to grab the minutes they can.

They are often in too much of a hurry

 to stop and notice the little worlds they rush past...

The dew spangled summer spider webs in the bush....

Or to glance down as they step from the porch....

is that a fairy mushroom circle..... 

hiding under the lilac?

 

 Can you see them tucked in under the lilac stems...?

And is that a tiny fairy chair left under the cobwebs....?

Or has the sunlight dazzled our eyes and played tricks....?

But, lo! When a cloud momentarily blocks the sun,

 we can still see the tiny mushroom circle and the abandoned chair...!

But Will and Gabrielle have not noticed at all!

And as for the question, Dear Readers, 

of where the little TV will find a home,

 the answer to me was obvious!

You have not visited Sally May and Chip's house,

 The "Shabby Sister House" for quite some time,

 but I assure you Time has not stood still.

Sally May did a little shopping a while ago.

 She found this charming shelf with storage baskets

 which fit perfectly in her still unfinished living room.

And you can see my first "large" stitched 

petit-point carpet has found its home here.

Chip's folks, Ernie and Blanche, have been

 hanging out here since early in the pandemic... 

they are quite at home by now!

 

 

And if you look in the back corner of the room,

 you will see an old TV set.... 

well, it is supposed to be a TV set!

(This is the only one of my dollhouses to have a TV set!)

 

They only needed to rearrange things

 a little bit for better viewing!

 

Ernie doesn't like to admit how much he likes the old summer reruns!

(Do you even remember Summer Reruns?)

 

Well, Dear Readers, ready or not,

 it is Summertime....

The season of dew spangled spiderwebs,

Fungus fairy circles....

and Re-runs!

 

Midsummer....

 

Magic....

Perhaps, Dear Readers, when you awoke early this Midsummer's Morning, you remembered at once that it was the beginning of that Longest Day of the year, and you leapt from your bed eager to see the dawn light come tip-toeing into every corner of the garden. Or perhaps, when you awoke, it was to discover a chilly fog laden mist shrouded the world in mystery.... quieting the birds and not a cricket awake to sing in the meadows. Or Perhaps you awoke to the loud crashing drama of a stormy morning, stealing your breath and shaking the earth, making you pull the covers back over your head! But however it was that you greeted the World this Morning, perhaps you had forgotten that last Night was one of those Magical Nights of the Year.... when the Fairies are abroad... and their Magic is often still spread across the fields and hiding under the hedgerows. And you just might catch a glimpse... if you are looking...!

And if you were rushing to get ready for work, 

you might not notice at first...

As you were rushing out the door...

The dew spangled spiders web hiding in the Summer Lilac!

But it might make you pause, 

and stop to take a closer look...

Perhaps you glanced down....

 and spotted something mysterious in the bushes...

What is that....?

Can we even see in there?

It looks like a ... chair...?.... a throne?

Half hidden in a Fairy Blanket spider web...

And a ring of fairy mushrooms....?

But try as I might, Dear Readers,

 I could not spot any Fairies!

 

 

And I did have to rush off to work!

But at the very last possible moment.... 

the sun broke through the morning mists...

Revealing the Summer Lilac in all it's glory!

Did I just Dream that the Fairies had come....?

Well, Dear Readers, I'll leave you to decide...

But I hope that you have all found

 Magic in your Midsummer Morn!

Summertime....

Tiny Updates.... Not A Lot of Progress...

Summer Arrived on Saturday, Dear Readers, and it was Time to put away the Blossoming Lilac Shrub and return to the plain old Leafy Summer Lilac Shrub. I am not sure that Gabrielle and Will noticed at all! I had intended by now, for sure, to have accomplished the mossy ground around the lilac Shrub(s), but it is still not even started. I need to find the right "mossy material" and learn how to apply it... and I am not about to experiment on these shrub(s) that took more than a year to make! So it has not been done. But I don't think Will and Gabrielle are thinking about it at all! They are enjoying each other's company so much, they do not even notice the World around them!

On a sunny Summer morning it is a lovely spot to sit!

And eventually there will be moss... 

and the rest of the Vinca will cover the ground.

(I can Dream... right?)

I did manage to make some small progress

 on the stitching of the Tea Cosy Cottage...

I didn't take many progress pictures.....

Here the front is almost done.

Here I am beginning the back side.

I really like that the two sides are quite different!

 

And over in the Castle, I have made

 more stones for more door surrounds....

 

This time it is in the Guard Room... 

a room which was "finished" years ago! 

But all the doors and windows need those stone details...

I started on the one to the left of the Great Hall Door

 (which already has grand stonework).

I tried to get a "system" of patterns for the stones

 so I could produce them in bulk...

But the doorways are a bit inconsistent.

You probably can't see it in this dark photo,

 but the stones over the door to the stairs have a gap...

One of the ones I had cut and painted 

didn't fit right when I was gluing them on...

It was getting late and dark.... 

I pulled the miscreant off and left a gap

 to be filled when I have the patience

 to reach into the space and fit a "rock" to the gap.

The stones over the Main Door fit better....

 but only because I carefully fit them as I cut them.

This door is wider than most of them

 so it needed special fitting anyway.

And then I will need to do the window surrounds... 

which will help make the shutters fit better too!

I have not yet counted all the doors and windows

 which need this stonework upgraded.

This project may take a while...!

And the Map... 

you are wondering if there is Progress at all?

I will let you be the Judge....

This is how it looked on Midsummer Morn....

(I know it is hard to see the details at all!)

And when next I took a picture....

Some things had changed....

(Certainly the Mountains have grown...)

And Castles have sprung up ....

Wait.... could that possibly be Aachen... there in the foothills?

And maybe even Grandson and Gruyeres?

Well.... maybe it is hard to tell for sure....

But we can Dream... can't we?

So you see, Dear Readers,

How small the progress has been...

But the Dreaming...

Aahhh.....

Midsummer Dreams

 Are like no others!

Summer Lilac Shrub.....

Done With The Leaves At Last....

A Few weeks ago, Dear Readers, I left you with the above picture of the Summer Lilac Shrub showing that there were still not enough leaves to call it finished. Since then I have added twenty more leafy stems! (Each leafy stem has a dozen leaves attached.) Since a picture is sometimes worth a Thousand words, I will show you the progress pictures!

Immediately upon my return from my Travels, I started in on the Ten Leafy Stems production line, but I did not have time to complete them or attach them before my post last week. Believe it or not, the above picture has the ten leafy stems attached! They do add a sense of density to the middle of the shrub which was lacking before.... but it is really heard to tell that anything has been done at all! And because I was sure this would be the case, I made another Ten Leafy Stems as well....

For the record, here they are begun....

And here they are done!

Well, I am still "shaping" them prior to attaching them....

And here they have been attached!

Can we say Ta Da Ta Done.....?

Well... maybe not quite yet......

I am still finishing the seed pods.....

But I had to test the shrub in the Folly Garden....

Of course, the Sun is setting so early now....

 there is not enough daylight to show it well.

We will have to be patient waiting for the sun....

And I am still making the seed pods.....

I am not entirely satisfied with them....

And I have only completed six so far.....

Not that you can See them once they are attached....!

Can you see them....?

(There are four or five visible in the above picture!)

I need to make another dozen or so......

 

I've even started about eight more already.....

And I have begun the painted glue blobs that make the pods... 

I will have to make a whole bunch more.

But I think I can say, Dear Readers, 

that I am Done making Leafy Stems!

And I know you want to see it in The Folly Garden where it belongs!

Even though we will have to use artificial light...

 I think I can say it looks just the way I hoped it would!

And while I cannot yet say that

 The Summer Lilac Shrub is Done, Dear  Readers,

At Least I am Done with The Leaves!

There And Back Again......

And Back To Work....

Well, Dear Readers, the Excitement of Travel is behind me now. I made it out to see my Folks and we had a Wonderful time, but it always feels much too short and passes so quickly! And yes, I have already begun another Ten leafy stems for the Summer Lilac Bush! I plan to ignore all the evidence of the Changing (or Changed!) Seasons and will just keep working on the Summer Lilac Shrub until it looks the way I want it to!

I got as far as adding the leaves to the stems before 

my fatigue caught up with me.

(Traveling 2300 miles (more or less) there and back again is not easy!)

As you can imagine, I made sure to bring with me

 a mini-project or two that I could work on

 while visiting with my family.

It was during last year's trip that I started stitching

 on the Snowy Village Christmas stocking, 

so it seems appropriate that I was able to finish it this year!

I still have to cut it out and attach it to the backing, 

but the petit-point is finished.

 I do Love how it turned out!

(And only one noticeable mistake!)

I am sure you will not be surprised

 that I brought along another kit to make

 because they are so small and pack up easily.

It is another Janet Granger Christmas Stocking... 

this time it is Santa, or Father Christmas.

I spent a lovely day with my Mom, Dear Readers,

 while she knitted socks

 and I made tiny petit-point stitches

 and we chatted and napped and had tea and cookies!

Of course, these stockings are a bit more challenging than they look!

The tricky part is in counting the threads properly

 between one part and the next!

I ended up pulling out the stitches for one section more than once!

 

And I know it doesn't look like much, but this is how far I got....

And yes, I have found a mistake in the counting

 that I will not be able to undo!

 I will have to work around it... 

I think it will be okay in the end.

So that is as far as I got, Dear Readers,

Thousands of miles there and back again, 

And Precious hours spent together

 Stitching and knitting.

And even though I miss them dearly.... 

It is good to be back to work again.