The vines are tacked................

................ and ready to hand stitch down - that should keep me out of mischief for an hour or three

Then there'll be a forest of leaves and berries to complete the job

Just ignore the tails of green bias tubing peeping out from under their neighbours - I shall trim those to size once I'm stitching in the vicinity - I've learned from bitter experience how much tacked things can shuffle once a big piece of work is being tugged about and the last thing I want is for them to be just too short anywhere. A big thank you to Libby for giving me the initial inspiration for this quilt - I'm so please with how it's turning out

The batik jewel box is slowly growing too - but has been on hold for the last day or two while I've tacked all those vines

Himself is still plodding on with the back garden - the cement mixer he bought at the beginning of the job has been worth every penny.

Now that the sun has come out at last the butterflies, who have been in very short supply up to now this year, are visiting the garden in abundance and loving the white buddleia we have in the corner - the bees love it too.

My beautifully scented David Austin old english roses are having a second lease of life

This one is called Shropshire Lad - very appropriate as Himself is one of those too having been born in the Shropshire county town of Shrewsbury.

This clematis has decided to come out to play too - it's a gorgeous one with a big blowsy centre but I can't for the life of me remember which one it is - and the label has long since blown away.

Clematis are my very favourite type of plants - at the last count I think we have seventeen different varieties around the place. You can never have too many clematis I always say.

The pumpkins continue to flower in abundance - the flowers are short lived but oh so magnificent. I'm not sure who's the most excited with them - Louise who is their 'mummy' or me because we've never grown them before and they continue to delight us each day

This little fella has got to about 3" across - I just hope it will have just the right quantities of rain and shine to still be growing along when we return from our trip.