Wonderful to be HOME!

It is glorious in southern New England and I am thoroughly enjoying all the perks of living in a house!  Laundry!  Cooking!  Puttering in the dirt!  In spite of the harsh winter all my perennials are showing signs of life–except one peony, but I’m pretty sure it had died before last fall’s first frost–and I have scattered some seeds which causes me to excitedly search for signs of germination each morning and evening when I walk around the gardens to take stock of new life emerging.  As of this morning I have poppy seedings! Rejoice with me!  I plant poppy seeds every year–and never get any.  Dare I hope??  Rain is expected tomorrow and I sure hope it will be gentle on my tiny seedlings.

There are a couple of wonderful volunteers in the lawn this year.  Some pansies from my window boxes self seeded along the front walk.

There are violets everywhere in the lawn… makes me want to dissuade Bob from mowing. He’s not here now to mow down these sweet gems.

And this is a new volunteer this year, and something completely unknown to me.  I have just googled yellow wildflowers in spring and found that this is Leopard’s Bane (Deronicum).  It blooms at the same time as daffodils.  I hope to transplant this into one of the gardens before Bob arrives home with mowing on him mind…

My first bouquet from the garden….daffs, hellebore and forget me nots on a handwoven runner on my desk where I write these posts at my computer.

And now, along with getting as much weaving done as I possibly can, I am turning my attentions to my older son’s upcoming wedding.  It’s time to look for a wedding outfit.  I am in the unfortunate, but not so unusual, predicament of having two, yes TWO, mothers of the bride, so my fashion choice must accomodate theirs!  Anyway, I have decided to attempt making my own outfit.  This decision is entirely based on catching up on two seasons of Downton Abbey since I returned home one week ago.  My son calls that ‘binge’ watching–and he’s right!

I am thinking of making a boat neck tunic out of pale to medium blue silk charmeuse and embellinging the neckline with ribbon embroidery….. very like this tunic that Lady Crawley wore in a couple of episodes. (I have a collection of photos of Downton Abbey costumes–taken while pausing the show to snap the pix! I wonder how many others do this too!)

I am imagining trailing vines in greens and browns with some roses and other flowers thrown in (color choices will be based on the overall effect going with my favorite brown silk pants with the pretty Chinese knots that run down the outer leg). I will stop by Banksville Fabrics on my trip to New Jersey later this week.  If I can get a lovely blue silk there I will then make a trip to Thistle Needleworks in Glastonbury to get the silk ribbons for the embroidery.

I am also dabbling in some Romanian Point Lace that intrigued me at Saturday’s monthly lace gathering.  My friend Mary is trying it and she shared the information that she has found recently.  There is a lot on Pinterest, and there are two older issues of Piecework that describe this technique  (March/April 1998, and one from 2001).

I must have garments on the brain (too much Downton Abbey for sure!)….I think a border of this lace would be stunning on a tunic.  This time I envision a handwoven silk fabric with Romanian Point Lace at the neckline.  It would also look wonderful on the collar of a melton wool coat.

So, with puttering in the gardens and doing just the smallest bit of spring cleaning in the house, I have not yet managed to touch any of my looms.  As I finish this I plan to bring up my portable easel and get back to my small Portuguese Man of War tapestry that I started on the boat.

Today is a glorious day for weaving outside!