The Great Bluebell Hunt

Around this time of year the English countryside plays host to the wonderful Hyacinthoides non-scripta, which to you and I is known as the English Bluebell, a glorious deep violet blue scented flower which dominates the woodland round here. In fact we have many of England's most beautiful bluebells woods right here in my native county. It’s illegal to pick any wild flowers here in Britain, or to dig up any to move them to your garden for example, but each year many people go in search of the glorious swathe of blue and that wonderful scent.

Sadly the English Bluebell is under threat from the prolific Spanish Bluebell which looks similar, but does not have such a gracefully curved stem (the Spanish is completely straight) and has no scent. Saldy, even when the two are cross pollinated, the strains of the Spanish take over. I went with my sister and Mum to a local English Heritage site where we could stroll through the bluebells woods, and the gardens of the manor house.

There were many different varieties of chickens strolling about..this cheeky chappy caught my eye…

And these darling hairy piggies which I’ve been trying to find the breed name…they are sooo cute! If you know what they are, let me know!

These are definitely not native to Britain, but they were certainly pretty to look at!

The garden were full of stunning flowers

And lovely little surprises at every step…

The weather was beautiful. Sadly it’s been chilly aswell. I’ve found some cultivated English Bluebells at a local garden centre, so I’ve planted some which will hopefully give me my own little bluebell wood next year!

I have also been having fibre adventures as well as floral adventures. I finally finished my Mosey Legwarmers! Yay!

I love the cabled back ‘seam’

 

I ran out of the lavender yarn before I got round to the pompoms, so I chose this lovely lilac colour to make them

and then so it didn’t seem odd, I crocheted a ruffle at the bottom in the lilac. I really like how it turned out….

I also crocheted a tribal fringe belt which I found on Ravelry here

I’ve been doing a Tribal Dance class for the last month, so tribal accessories have been in my mind a lot recently. I don’t have any dancewear in green, so I used some stash yarn to create this. I actually really love this belt now it’s finished and I think I’m going to use some of the left over yarn to create some matching falls, or to plait into my hair in long pigtails.

The yarn is a mixture of acrylic, fancy novelty stuff, cotton and chenille. I fancied a mixture of textures and colours.

Love it!!

And then ‘cos I was on a roll, I took apart several silk flowers, and mixed them together for a hair slide.

And then because I obviously have startitus at the moment, I started this Tribal Tassel Belt which was on Craftster ages ago. I’ve had it bookmarked for ages and finally got round to starting it. I’ve had to learn Tunisian Crochet in order to do it, and not just any old Tunisian Crochet, but double sided Tunisian crochet no less! You use a long crochet hook with two hooks, one at each end!

But look at the gorgeousness that it creates!

I love that you get a different effect on each side.

Yes, I know, I succumbed to my favourite colours…