Oh the joys of a new laptop. Web pages load in moments not minutes, and I don't need to reboot every other hour. I can sail the seas of Blogtopia aboard the good ship 'Red Leather Sofa' without fear of being reefed or wrecked. Hurrah! Or maybe I'll launch the dinghy 'Stripy Deckchair' - it's a glorious evening out there!
I've been busy today. Busy, busy, busy. It's a treat to sit down! I've been planting viola's in hanging baskets - some a delicate lemon, others the prettiest delft blue - and contemplating cow parsley. 'Mother-die', that's what my Dad was taught to call it, probably because it's a dead ringer for hemlock. You didn't pick it, you didn't dare, it could kill your Mum! But it's a good dye plant ... once mother-dye perhaps, who knows. With an alum mordant and an iron modifier it gives greens not unlike those in the image below. I wish I had time to show you - it's been a while since I dyed any yarn - but there aren't enough hours in the day right now.
I should be working on the Teeny Tiny Mary Jane shoe pattern for p/hop, or putting the finishing touches to the next knitsofacto baby design, or knitting a few more rows of my Lowry shawl. But knitting - and blogging, I'm terribly behind with my blog reading just now, I do hope you'll forgive me - simply haven't been a priority this week. No, I'm bogged down in the aforementioned planting of patio pots and hanging baskets, in paint charts - we're revamping The Farmer Boy's bedroom - and in cow parsley, or rather in images of it.
I'm working on an artists' book commission*, thankfully without too onerous a deadline: a friend wants a memento of the cow parsley that filled the church, and the churchyard, on her wedding day. A gift to herself for her first anniversary. You can make paper with cow parsley, did you know? I'm not sure if I shall, but it's a lovely thought. For now I'm just playing with ideas. I'd forgotten how much fun this is!
What a fabulous response to our plans for a knitters' and crocheters' country house weekend! Details, for those who missed my last post, are here. It's not too late to reserve a place, so do please let me know if you'd like to join us. I'll be emailing everyone who expressed an interest soon.
* You can read more about me and artists' books in my post about The Beetle Correspondence.
Hello Annie:
ReplyDeleteBusy, busy, busy!! But how wonderful is that and your violas in lemon and blue sound an absolute delight.
Cow Parsley we adore and used to have it lining the lane leading to our Herefordshire house at this time of year. A glorious sight. We did, at times [slapped wrists] pick it but found it never really lasted in water.
Delighted to know that you are thrilled with your new lap top. Life is good!!
Cow parsley everywhere round here. I love it. I overheard a grandmother telling her granddaughters they were cowslips. how I wanted to correct her, but didn't.
ReplyDeleteI do like your nautical metaphor for the internet.
i like to read your posts!!!
ReplyDeletexxxx Alessandra
Great pictures of the cow parsley, a thing I also remember lining all the hedges on the way down to the farm I grew up on. In fact the hedges are still full of wildflowers, pink campions, celindines....
ReplyDeleteGlad you have a new computer, it's the highest form of frustration waiting for a computer, while it's chuntering, worse than waiting for a kettle to boil.
I must get out in the garden, my Borders are still chokka full of weeds, but there's just too much else to do.
Fascinating post - I did some natural dyeing on my C&G course years ago but don't think I tried cow parley and I didn't know you could make paper with it. I love the stuff and the roadsides round here are frothing with it - beautiful.
ReplyDeleteCow parsley lines the lane to the farm next door. I want to lean over and pick some but they have warrior geese, an effective and very noisy deterrant.
ReplyDeleteI do so love cow parsley! It's growing in abundance in these parts :)
ReplyDeleteVictoria xx
Cow parsley is everywhere at the moment. Love the idea of dying with it, those shades are so delicate. Thanks for the post :) Ruth
ReplyDeleteSo many uses for cow parsley that I love the sound of and would love to try, but like you too busy at the moment. Instead I shall look at the cow parsley lined lanes and be very glad I live in this country in May.
ReplyDeleteAh I'm not the only one then! I commented on Lucy (Attic 24) post re cow parsley remembering the 'big' girls who used to tell 8 year old me not to pick it and take it home because my mother would die, and that's what it was called! And to this day I've never brought it into the house, though of course I am NOT superstitious..........
ReplyDeleteLovely post, and yes, your first para spot on!
ps I wonder whether it was a regional thing with the 'mother die' name....I was in Liverpool/Lancashire, did your husband grow up 'oop north'?
Another one for cow parsley love here and how I love your photos. I've got a dyeing kit here that I've aching to try but somehow never get round to it .. dyeing with cow parsley sounds a huge amount of fun. I imagine dyeing with nettles might give good results and there plenty of those around too!! Have you tried that?
ReplyDeleteEnjoy your day with new laptop, oh the joys. Our day started very misty but has now brightened up enough to consider the dinghy option as opposed to the good ship :D
x
Hi Annie,
ReplyDeleteWhat lovely pictures!!
This week has been busy for me too. I am planning a busy weekend holiday too, with some gardening thrown in. :)
xx
I like the description of delf blue flowers, it makes me feel all dreamy Annie. As for the cow slip, well I never knew about it's many uses, I just love to look and admire it in the country lanes, s delicate and special. I missed out on childhood memories of English flowers, mine were more bold and tropical and a lot less delicate than we have here.
ReplyDeleteOur laptop is about 8 years old now and still going, I can see it packing up soon though and I love the idea of a swift surf across the net :o) Happy June days ahead xox Penelope
I can just imagine you on that red leather sofa, jolly bunting above and the nautical barrel of rum by your side as you surf happily away after your busy toil. Cow parsley is so unassumingly pretty, and your photos are lovely.
ReplyDeleteLovely to read about your gardening so light and summery like the cow parsley.... which reminds me that I have rather a lot of autumn gardening to do!!
ReplyDeleteNothing quite like a big jug of cow parsley! :)
ReplyDeleteVivienne x
I misread the bit about revamping a boy's room, and thought you were papering the walls with images of cow parsley! Actually, I think that would be rather lovely!
ReplyDeleteWhat a pretty plant that is. I will enquire at the nursery tomorrow when I get some lavender. I haven't dyed with plants or made paper since the uni days either although there was an indigo vat that had a life of its own for a while.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on the new comp-baby!
My you are a busy bee!
ReplyDeleteI love cow parsley...its so delicate and lacy.
enjoy your new speedy laptop...what a joy
love jooles x
oh such pretty photos!
ReplyDeleteIt is so very lovely isn't. I saw a drift the other day with forget me nots weaved in and out - it was so pretty, but unfortunately no camera.
ReplyDeleteGlad to see you managed to post in the end.
Nina xxx
I love cow parsley and the pictures you are showing are so beautiful, it's such a shame it doesn't flower for very long. Maybe we wouldn't appreciate it so much if it was around all summer! I didn't realise you can make paper with it or use it for dying.
ReplyDeleteSarah x
Such pretty photos, enjoy that new laptop! (I have lovely visions of that red leather sofa :)
ReplyDeleteSuch heavenly pictures, Annie. What an uplifting post this is.
ReplyDeleteThis thing about "it might kill your mother" sounds like our "don't step on a sidewalk crack, or it might break your mother's back..."
ReplyDeleteBrenda
Annie, I'm glad that you've got a new computer and it's got you back on the faster track.
ReplyDeleteCow Parsley has such pretty flowers. I wonder if it is akin to what we call Queen Anne's Lace over here in the States. (My mother warned me against Queen Anne's Lace because it was supposed to carry ticks.)
I have no idea if that was true, but certainly never picked any of it.
It's funny how busy our days can become, and how that can keep us from some things we'd truly like to enjoy Right Now.
xo
Golly. That shawl is the loveliest thing I've seen in a long while. I have never knitted anything like it but that didn't stop me from buying the pattern. I would love to join you on your knitter's weekend, but it would be a big trip (from the USA). I hope you all have a fabulous time. Love your blog, your visual sensibility, the photographs, all of it. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteOur Macbook is 5 years old and starting to show it's age..also have to reboot often or quit the browser and relaunch it.....we are planning to buy a new computer soon. Very frustrating, dealing with old machines.
ReplyDeleteLoads of cow parsley around here - do cows eat it? I must look up where the name came from - it's such a funny one. Must say there are also loads of cows about too. Near the cow parsley, wouldn't you know.
how can you NOT bring cow parsley inside??? It's beautiful! I wonder if that is something we have and I'm just ignorant---looks a tad like our queen anne's lace, but not really. your shawl choice is yummy---it's queued for me, too--maybe the next cast on!! have a great day!!!
ReplyDeleteI do love the image I've now got in my head of you settling sail in a stripey deckchair - I love the way you conjure up such vivid images with your words. Likewise your beautiful photography speaks volumes, what stunning pictures of one of the prettiest roadside flowers.
ReplyDeletewhat a great blog! it was retweeted by emma mitchell. xx
ReplyDeleteThat cow parsley is devine, pity it stinks hehe. It does look like Queen Annes lace too. I love the way you write Annie.
ReplyDeletexx Sandi
Another one here loving the delights of cow parsley. Our lane and the roadsides are a sea of white frothiness! And you cannot beat a lovely jug full of the stuff!
ReplyDeleteEnjoy your gardening and your speedy new laptop.
Jeanne
x
What lovely images on your blog, very dreamy! Re your question about Lottie eating stuff in the garden; she doesn't touch the veg or flowers but is partial to some weeds like goose grass and often nibbles the jasmine leaves!! xx
ReplyDeleteHi there! Thank you so much for visiting my blog, I'm very sorry it's taken me so long to reply and visit your wonderful space... I'm very behind on my blogging too! I am a follower now... you have such amazing photographs!!
ReplyDeleteBack soon!
Louise xx
I also love cow parsley. And, like another comment, wish it would flower longer once cut. I bring it in. Your pictures do more than justice to the lovely plant. So far I havent died or got ticks.
ReplyDeleteOr is it tics!
ReplyDeleteYour pics are so beautiful. Queen Anne's Lace / Cow Parsley - just so epitomises the best of an early English summer. I know the smell can be a bit much but again it's so evocative. I didn't know you could use the plant as a dye or to make paper - fantastic! Your artist's book memento will be beautiful and so treasured if these pics are a taster of it! E x
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