Oklahoma!

This interesting piece of scenery was part of the Oklahoma! show that we saw last night at our City Hall.

It was such a good performance, and took me right back to the days long ago when all that Truro had was an Amateur Dramatic society.

Every year a different musical was put on, and we always went.

I remember Oklahoma, and how we sang the songs for weeks afterwards.

Even the American accents were well done, not always easy if you are English!

The costumes were great, lots of gingham and frilly petticoats.

And the singing was superb.

We are very fortunate to have this City Hall and we certainly get some good productions throughout the year.

We are off to stay at the Blind Veterans (St Dunstans) Centre in Brighton next week. It's a holiday for both of us, and my husband will be in the craft workshops part of the time carving Soapstone.

His elderly sisters, both of whom live about an hour or so away, have arranged to visit us there which saves them the long trek to Cornwall.

So I shall not be posting for a couple of weeks but will see you at the end of June..

Garden wanderings.

Just a few garden shots this morning.

My all time favourite rose, Zephirine Drouhin, is covered in buds and beginning to flower so prettily. She is a thornless rose, which makes it easy to pick her flowers.

This is Golden Gate, who is busy leaping up the fence to great heights.

The flowers seem to glow in the evening.

A little group of Aquilegia, Pinks, Delphiniums and an Agapanthus which after three years, is about to flower.

My pride and joy!

A Gooseberry, planted in a pot to save space, is producing fruit. Not quite enough for a pie, but nevertheless very pleasing.

Lettuce and a new row of radish, so nice in a salad.

We will be away for a couple of weeks in June, so I am preparing things to make it easy for my rota of part time gardeners/waterers and lawn cutters.

Card making.

Some time ago I was asked to give a craft demo at our local 'Memory Cafe'.

I played around with all sorts of ideas, a super paper craft idea from Angela, some Japanese things, but decided to keep it really really simple. So many of the elderly folk who come have real mobility problems as well as everything else.

A Memory cafe, for those who may not have heard of the term, is a meeting place for people suffering from memory loss, Alzheimers and dementia.

The idea is that the afternoon is spent stimulating the minds of the various people who attend.

Sometimes there is a sing song of the old favourites, a 'chair based' movement and music session, or a craft time, and of course, always tea and cakes.

Cards seemed to be something that we could all do, and they would have a handmade article to take home.

Now, I have to admit to never having made cards before...so was I the person to do  a demo?

With the advice of my talented daughter who thankfully was home from Canada for a week, and a helpful suggestion or two from Terri who is a prolific card maker, I was all set to go..........

until I read some of the magazines on card making and realised I didn't even understand the language. Embossing? Die cutting?

Taken in hand by daughter and rushed off to our huge Hobby Craft shop, I found that all I needed was a pack of cards and envelopes, some pretty papers and a simple stamp set.

All the other bits and pieces such as ribbons, stickers, buttons were already in my craft box(es).

I made the four cards above to use as examples, and the afternoon went with a swing.

'Look' excitedly from one lady 'I've stuck all my stickers on the front and now I'm sticking more on the inside...both sides. Can I have some buttons now?'!

Never mind design, sticking was the best fun!

They were all so pleased to have, as one lady put it 'A whole card AND an envelope' to take home.

Neighbourhood walkers.

Honestly, I don't spend all my time gazing out of the window. 

Living in France with an acre of ground around us meant that nobody passed our gates.

Here we live in a small close on the edge of the village.

It's a very quiet area, most of the neighbours are.....of a certain age and all very pleasant.

They all seem to have dogs to walk.

If I gazed out of the window, and of course I hardly ever do (!), I would see........

Mrs D with large black and white dog, always waves, (Mrs D, not the dog)

Someone's grandaughter with small dachsund type dog, pulling her along.

Mr H with noisy woolly dog, and a lot of Stop/Start instructions.

A nice young couple with children and big white fluffy dog, pushchair and assorted dog/child toys.

Miss S , an evening walker with ,um, collie? Very purposeful walking.

You can probably tell that dogs don't figure much in our life, and I find it hard to remember breeds.

Now if it was a cat............!

Sadly, with my husband's infirmities, an animal isn't possible, but we do enjoy not gazing out of the window and seeing the neighbourhood dog walkers!

Chelsea Garden show.

Like many others I would love to go to the Chelsea Garden show--preferably on a day when no one else was there, except maybe the Queen.

However, we have to be content with Television views.

This year the Best in Show garden is by Dan Pearson, who has had an eleven year absence for Chelsea.

He has recreated, and seemingly moved, Chatsworth House garden to Chelsea.

Enormous pieces of rock were brought in from a quarry in Derbyshire, and even the showground engineers were worried about the weight on the grounds, under which ran some Victorian sewer pipes.

It recreates a trout stream and a rock garden in Chatsworth. I love the gentle naturalistic planting and the fact that the whole garden looks as though it has been there for ever.

Many of the plants will be returning to the trout stream area in Chatsworth, so the garden will go on being enjoyed, rather than being sold off piecemeal.

An afternoon out.

Yesterday I took my husband to the Cornwall School of Art, Craft and Jewellery. (shown below)

He had enrolled in a private class to do some Soapstone carving (prior to another stay at the Blind Veterans centre in Brighton).

The school covers many different craft classes, and he came away with a perfectly formed miniature Etruscan vase.

The only problem was that the place is way out in the wilds near Bodmin, and we got completely lost trying to find it.

While he was there I met a lady who often comments on my blog, but doesn't, as yet , have her own. She doesn't live far away so it was a good opportunity to meet.  'Rambler', and I went for a wander around Pencarrow House gardens.

The Azaleas and Rhododendrons were superb.

The house is still in private ownership.

We didn't go inside, but we did enjoy a very nice coffee and home made cake sitting in the garden.

Two of the gardeners were busy cleaning out the pond and fountain.

Since neither of us are good with being photographed I took this shot of Rambler, and her very good dog, making their way up the Azalea path.

I did enjoy the afternoon, and it was so nice to meet another blogger. We had plenty to talk about, and I'm hoping there will soon be a new blog announced!
Edit.
Rosie's Ramblings is up and running!
http://liskerret.blogspot.co.uk/

Garden growth.

There is such a feeling of anticipation at this time of year.

The Broad beans are full of flower, as yet not attacked by Blackfly.

I have picked the second bunch of Rhubarb from my two little plants....and made delicious Crumbles.

My one Gooseberry bush, growing in a large tub, is full of baby gooseberries!

In the greenhouse some of the Tomatoes have already got flowers on.

I always plant companion African Marigolds and have found that I don't have white or green fly on the tomatoes.

Potatoes (just visible in beds behind the greenhouse) are growing extremely well.

the French beans and sugar snap peas are very half hearted however, and I think that is due to the cold nights.

I love the beginnings of 'Harvest time'.

Herbs

The sun shone this morning, and it seemed a good time to move my pots of herbs into a warmer position, all the way down the little garden path.

There are two types of mint, the 'ordinary' one which I use a lot for cooking, and a dark pepperminty one, nice with fruit salads.

 Then I have French Tarragon and Thyme. Tarragon is a lovely herb to use with chicken or fish, or just added to a salad.

 Everyone needs a pot of chives, to snip over potato salad. The dappled leaves of the Lemon Balm are so pretty.

 Last but not least. a pot of Parsley and a slightly struggling Rosemary.

Those are my stand-by herbs, they go with so many dishes and are easy to look after. I once used to grow many different varieties, but haven't the room now.

Our 'daughter time' has ended now. She is flying out tonight from Cornwall to London, and then onward to Vancouver tomorrow. We have had such a good time together.

Nearly a new Royal baby.

This is, apparently, the scene outside the hospital where the Duchess of Cambridge was admitted early this morning. 

The photographers are all rushing around, according to the BBC news, getting into place for the best picture.

So far the News channel has shown a photo of the front door of the Lindo wing, another photo from a different angle, of the door  of the Lindo wing, photos of the Young couple with Prince George.....

and lots of speculation about whether it will be a girl or a boy.

(I guess it's bound to be one or the other!)

It's all very exciting!
Edit,
It's a girl!!