Lucky dip or nothing ventured ....

Spurred on by the weather forecast last night promising rain and the fact that I'll be away at the KCG AGM at the weekend, I finally got my act together today, and sorted some things out in the garden.

Both of us buy seeds, and they accumulate over the years.
At the weekend, I sorted through them and picked out all that should have been planted before 2011.
They went into two containers, one for flowers, and the other for herbs and vegetables.

Over the past week, I have cleared some of the default pink or white hardy geraniums from a few areas.
Then as I needed to empty some well rotted compost, this has been spread and dug in.

This afternoon I took my "seed soup" and sprinkled it on the designated areas.
It has been covered with a thin layer of spent compost, and gently watered in.

So, what I want to know now, is what happened to the promised rain?
It is nearly 18.00, and so far we have only had a few drops!

Catching up with June

As usual I meant to keep up to date, but good intentions ...

... tend to get washed away. 

This was the scene on my birthday, not quite what I had been expecting for a DAS day outing to the Black Country  Museum. I hadn't been there since 1993, so saw some changes through the rain. 

It did make for a few interesting pictures. This was taken when standing under cover at the rolling mill, looking out at the puddles. Most of the time I took snatched pictures with my phone, rather than my camera.

As you can see it wasn't freezing, but I was glad I'd taken an umbrella and jacket with me. Here are the baker's and sweetshop.

It certainly seemed to be the wettest day of the year so far, although I'm not sure if the statistics will back that up. Our garden benefited greatly from the steady rain.Later in the day we travelled on to the Mushroom Green Chain Shop in Cradley Heath. Again, I hadn't been there since '93. It was under cover and warm, and a pleasure to see individual chain links being forged. I would have had a try, but I was wearing a dress that I don't want messed up.

One of the advantages of Ravelry is that there are many groups that arrange swaps. This year I took part in the June Birthday Exchange again, thus guaranteeing at least one birthday present! This shows the contents of the lovely parcel I received from Gudrun in Germany. I have often thought about buying a Zauberball, but couldn't work out which colourway to choose. Gudrun got it spot on, saving me much searching. The white mittens in the foreground fit perfectly, and will come in handy later in the year. Due to extreme temperatures on its journey, the chocolate had partially melted and reformed, but still tasted great.