Early yesterday morning I managed to finish the wordplay for June, the one that goes with the Anthea Calender SAL by Faby Reilly. I was just in time before July was released later in the morning.

June’s SAL was cornflowers, it’s a beautiful vibrant blue design. I shared it here a couple of weeks ago..

What I didn’t realise until Faby kindly mentioned it, is that I’d completely forgotten to add the french knots and the beads! So yesterday I finished it properly, it makes such a difference, it’s gorgeous!

Trying to think of words to include in the wordplay wasn’t easy, I haven’t exactly done much recently apart from sewing and gardening! I’m trying to keep these covid free whilst still reflecting the times. In the end I stopped trying to think of what June has been like this year, and thought about what I remember of past June’s.

Centaura is the latin name for the cornflower, I’ve only got the perennial cornflower in the garden and that gets a bit sprawly and needs keeping under control! Roses are usually coming into their best in June, we’ve got probably over 30 roses in our garden, not counting the hedge.

We always enjoy watching the birds visiting the feeders near our condervatory. We’ve had lots of bluetits in June as the parents brought their brood to feed. It reminded me of a line in a book I read last year ‘Oh look, someone’s opened a can of bluetits!’ One of the fledglings nearly flew into the conservatory after feeding on the perspex feeder we have attached to the window, it was right next to an open window and before we knew it the little thing was perched in the open window looking round. Luckily it decided to fly out rather than in!

The phrase in the middle is by Jenny Uglow. The full quote is ” We may think we are nurturing our garden, but of course, it’s our garden that is really nurturing us. ” It seemed particularly apt for the moment, as if I’m feeling fed up with the current situation then I do feel a lot better after a session in the garden.

My walking buddy and I often do our long distance walk in June as the weather is usually decent and the days are long, without having the inevitable price hike on accommodation once school holidays start. The hay is usually being cut and neatly stacked, the calves are getting frisky in the fields and we’re always extra vigilant if the path goes through their field – we once had a detour of a couple of miles due to frisky calves and their protective mums.

Up in the Yorkshire Dales the wildflowers meadows are beautiful, full of buttercups, poppies, cornflowers to name but a few. I think the farmers get a special grant to delay cutting the hay so the meadows are protected, it gives the flowers chance to set seed ready for next year.

Last month we also had the saga of the bumble bee nest! A swarm decided to take up residence under the eaves outside our front room window. I rather enjoyed watching them, however the workman who came to give us a quote for replacing our soffits was not so impressed, even after I reassured him (with fingers crossed!) that they would be gone in a matter of weeks, long before he was planning to do the work. I love seeing bumble bees and refused to ‘deal’ with the nest, we need as many bees as we can. They were short term residents to my relief, but then whilst working in the front garden last week we noticed some smaller bee activity around the nest, like lots of them! We had a few concerned hours thinking another swarm had moved in, luckily they were obviously just raiding the nest as the next day they were gone!

We’re now half way through the SAL, I’m making mine into a book so these wordplays will be on the facing pages. Here’s six months of wordplays…

The design for July has just been released and it’s pretty bunches of lavender with butterflies. There’s lots of french knots though, I’ll be doing them in my sleep!