Sunny thoughts and high hopes

So, son number one has come home for a quick visit - wonderful, fabulous - but where is he?  Not here, that's where.  It's his birthday in early June so I suggested we trot off to York for a little birthday shopping trip.  I waited and waited, did my ironing, pottered about in the garden and  lo, he awoke and suggested a hit and run trip to the designer outlet :(  Not quite the mother/son day I had in mind but beggars can't be choosers.  Rather a lot of money and not much time later we were back at home with designer purchases, a diminished bank balance and a promise of help in the garden.  Son number three laid low whilst Ben and I started digging for gold at the back of the garden.  Back breaking, hot work  Ben gives up once the turf has been removed so I toil away hoping no one will pop by to say hello!  Newcastle beckoned so Ben headed North and I continued to toil but now, one broken back, one very red nose and ruined nails later, I have a pond!  Well, actually, I had a black plastic lined hole in the lawn but  high hopes.

Having taken two days off to spend time with said son and finding him absent this is how my second day went - dig a bit, sit a bit, crochet an African flower.  Dig a bit, sit a bit, crochet another flower.  So mow I have a nice pile of flowers and a mind full of plans for the pond planting.  I'd like to think that I've done my year's share of exercise over the past few days but as I slide into the bath I'm not at all convinced.  Oh, but how lovely to slump on the sofa with a lovely pile of wool.....oh, and a very well deserved glass of wine.

By the end of day three I felt sure I must have sweated at least twenty pounds off but the image confronting me in the mirror in my shorts told quite a different story.  Anyway, the pond is in situ, just waiting for six weeks for some fish and I managed to fit in a little bit of crochet along the way.  None of the weekend's projects are much to look at just yet but as I say .... high hopes.

A dear friend gave me this lovely hunk of dead tree - as soon as I saw it I knew what I would do with it - the perfect seat at the edge of the pond where I can sit and eat strawberries while I admire my handiwork.

Just need to do a few more flowers and then figure out how to fill in the gaps and then the cushion should be about done.   The photo doesn't really do the colours justice but I can't seem to get it right.

In the spirit of using up as much as possible I've also been using up all the little bits and bobs of ball ends.  They started off as little buttons ...

but then grew into tiny granny squares - I actually had a few 'spare' navy blue squares but I'm sure the birds made off with them when I was sitting in the garden!  Cheeky devils but I quite like the idea of my little feathered friends lining their nests with a little granny square.

In true British weather form we've gone from tropical heat one day to decidedly chilly overnight.  Oh well, at least I'm not torn between the garden and my craft projects - always got to look on the bright side, hey?