Christmas makes

 Preparations for this year's Christmas Fairs caught me a bit on the hop, and making was rather frantic in the run-up to the Cowslip Fair last weekend. With another Fair in Mylor this coming Saturday I thought I would share with you some of my latest makes.

 Wreaths with everlasting flowers and pine cones, designed for indoor use, that will last for many Christmases to come.

 Stockings made from an old bedspread with appliqued patchwork and a hand-stitched 'Happy Christmas'.

These are the first things that I have made using the new sewing machine I bought in January; it has taken me this long to get around to trying out all the fancy stitches it can do!

Autumn Gardens

 The garden at Charleston Farmhouse, once home to Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, and frequented by many others of the Bloomsbury Group.

 Autumn blooms in the vegetable garden.

 Pots and vases sit on the studio windowsill.

 From East Sussex to Cornwall.......

 This magnificently gnarled oak is down in The Lost Valley at Heligan Gardens.

 The sinister looking 'Devil's Finger' fungus.

 In the kitchen garden at Heligan the espaliered apples have been cut back to almost nothing.

 Inside the greenhouses a lovely display of gourds and squashes.