In a Vase on Monday - Down the garden path

I totally agree with Cathy who hosts this IAVOM group, that there are many benefits of gardening...such as learning perseverance.  Having persevered and overcome her association of her choice of the week with earwigs, she has discovered the greater delight of Dahlias.

When Alison asked if we had had a frost, I knew by looking along the garden path, that we had not yet had one,  as there were no tell tale signs of limp and blackened flowers on the tender annuals.  

The nasturtiums, the few that I had not pulled out, left for the remaining bumble bees, are still attracting several species.  I too have overcome my association of nasturtiums with blackfly.  This late in the season there are very few, so many much have been eaten by other bugs in the garden.

This morning I went down the garden path to pick a few.  The vase is a pressed glass vintage affair with its own glass frog.  What a palaver: there were really insufficient holes and they were also not large enough for  thick shoot stems.  However without the frog, the vase would be better off as a bombon dish.

Having finished the lovely alpaca cardigan, which has taken me all summer, I am back on one of my favourite small knitting projects: socks.  How could I not choose to knit this pattern:  Garden Path.  They are top down socks, for which the pattern, like the vase/bombon dish is frustrating.  There are errors in the chart, which I luckily spotted straight away, and for ease some of the stitches not correctly described, but with adjustments I am enjoying knitting these socks.  No wonder my favourite knitting site shows only a few members have tried this one.  I wonder whether 'the not fit for duty' design of the frog is why the little pressed glass vase ended up in the Charity Shop, and I wonder just how many times it has changed hands?  

As I transcribe and correct the pattern and get on with knitting the Garden Path socks this week, I shall have my little arrangement of nasturtiums to look at.  In this low autumn light, this colour looks very cheery.

Inside the lipstick plant that Sandra, a regular IAVOM contributor,  brought earlier this year, is blooming beautifully.  Suddenly as Winter looms, my taste for bright zingy colours is emerging.

I've just finished the following beautifully written book: Midwinter Break by Bernard MacLaverty.  I picked it up on a stand of newly acquired books at the library.    They had set up stands with books with opposing themes: hot and cold!

A few tears were shed....I would definitely recommend this one, but do read the reviews as it touches on several sensitive issues.  Having been on holiday with a friend to Amsterdam during cold weather, MacLaverty captured the feeling of the City as well as the story of two people considering their past and future lives.  But if you are resilient, DO NOT read any reviews, other than the synopsis on the flap of the dust-cover if you must...the unfurling of the story as one reads is part of its charm.