Gypsy Lunches & Teacup Angels

Golly, I've been gone for ages, I know!
I've not disappeared, truly.

It's so kind of you to visit me...

The past weeks have been rather a delightful & fruitful adventure here at an angel in the garden, but have also required copious cups of calming tea.

We have been so very busy with Sunshine Vintage, gathering, sorting, wrapping & posting & it's been such a joy. What lovely, lovely people there are out there in our little nation. As I list, describe & research the seeds & plants that I love to grow & would like to share with others, I have begun to see my garden & the landscape around me with fresh eyes. There are plants that I didn't even know had seeds, until now! 

It's the simple memories that remain with us through the years: the scent of violets from a beloved grandmother's garden, a mother's favourite flower, a father's collection of geraniums that we took no notice of at the time, but the memory remains attached. I find myself to be offering the plants of memory, the "Nanna plants" that line the garden paths of childhood & nostalgic memory; those that people cannot find them in the commercial places...they are only handed on through angel's in gardens & the such-like. 

 My mother kindly gave me a magazine for my birthday back in January & in it what did I find...

Tilda Teaspoon Ladies.

They can be found in the Tilda book Fairytale Wonderland.

Knowing that I simply would never get around to making them myself, I asked my dear & marvellously crafty friend Julie if she would make some teacup ladies for me.

 We managed an exchange of fabrics & teacups & hugs one day in Dannevirke back in January, when we were both traveling in different directions, one heading home from a wedding, the other a funeral, but passing each other by.

 Aren't they adorable!
And very fiddly to make.
You can read about the making of them here.

  I love them to bits! But of course they are in fact teacup angels!
 Nina likes them too.

I always know when she does...she stops quite, quite still & gazes silently, intently with a sparkle in her eyes; for a very long moment...before she speaks.

Along with the "girls" Julie sent this delightful dottie angel card.

 Which was a good reminder to check in & see how the dottie angel dress pattern was coming along.

And, what would you know....this week Tif announced that her pattern will be released by Simplicity in June. Hooray!

Rob had a little time off in early May. So much to do here in autumn, so we worked & we ate together & it was a good break from his nursing work.
I have been reading this book: The Signature of All Things, by Elizabeth Gilbert. It's taken a while...which is a good thing. I have savoured it.

I rather like this review over at Shiny New Books.

One night, sitting up in bed reading together.
  I came across this sentence..."They ate hot buttered toast together every morning, gypsy lunches out in the fields & stayed up late in to the night together...."

And so we did...

In amongst all the goodness & the wonder, the grand friendship & the seed selling there was also sadness & struggle...the tears & the grief, & feelings of worthlessness & not being ever safe that belong to the past; the itchy skin & inflammation in my eyes & sinuses & the really, really fat days! Sometimes I despair that my healing/menopausal process is so slow to move along. But I am encouraged, just now, to note many small things that are transforming & re-shaping before my eyes. Rob has quite brightly stepped in to real ownership of his own nutrition & is taking great pleasure in preparing meals & helping put things together..with care & intelligence.  

Our Gypsy lunches are truly delicious.

And it's not all hot buttered toast.

One morning he decided to make a fruit salad.

With so much abundance in our little back garden fruit forest...

it was easy to gather all that we/he needed (with the exception of the bananas!)

Our little blue friends will have been keeping something naughty at bay.

I love how the persimmon leaves transmute in to gold along with the fruit.

One morning this week as I walked to the gate to serve a fruit customer I realised I had a little visitor on the front lawn.

And then he had a graze in the back garden.

He's been wandering along the guttering on The Pansy (the shed) looking for grubs & things.

I am a little worried about Charlie & Whistle though, our borrowed furry friends.

I phoned Mr Harrison (who knows pigeons) he says he's not from around these parts & he's a racer. He tells me he should fly off on his way soon.

But this afternoon..pop, there he was again, wandering all over.

Meantime the morning glory got a bit carried away so we twined it around the washing line.

I am watching carefully, daily, for the seed to set.

More Gypsy lunches!

And shared excess.

And other small visitors.

Slightly larger ones too!

The light is marvellous in autumn. It brings a touch of magic to the world.

Thank you ever so much for visiting me!!
Much love & blessings of abundance to you all, Catherine x0x0x