Summertime and the roses are growing

I love this time of year as the roses come into bloom and the days are at their longest.  Our swallow family have set up home once more in the log store, and the parents are kept busy bringing tasty insect treats to their hungry youngsters.  They are incredibly noisy birds, and the sound of whistles, tweets and clicks can be heard from behind the rambling rose whenever food is delivered.  The rambling rose in question is a bit of a monster – ferociously thorny and overwhelmingly vigorous – it has to be pruned well to keep it in check.  This year the warm sunny weather seems to have suited it and it completely covers the log store roof….

It’s actually much pinker than this picture suggests, but the colour has been bleached by sunlight in this photo.  I was going to say if you look carefully, you can just see the gazebo roof behind the rose – but I’m not actually sure that you can.  The perfume is amazing, not just from this monster, but from other, less showy roses too…

This rose rambles over one of the old apple trees

Here you can see the tiny green apples.  The ground beneath the tree is littered with these tiny apples – the June drop – perfectly natural, as otherwise the tree would have far too many apples to ripen well.  Pollination must have been very successful this year, but then the weather was glorious in April when the blossom was on the trees, and in this part of Devon bees are still numerous.

And my latest Rosie & Bear design celebrates this, my most favourite time of year.  Inspired in part at least by RL Stevenson’s charming poem, “Bed in Summer”

To have to go to bed by day. 

but also by my own childhood memories of lying in bed on a summer’s evening listening to the friendly blackbird singing in the tree outside my window.  Later I became a mother myself, and of course inflicted the same fate upon my own daughter, Rosie whilst Bear called “Come outside and play!”

For the photoshoot I couldn’t resist picking some roses from the garden, and one or two daisies too – I think they make the perfect frame for this design.  I’ve added a very short adaptation of RL Stevenson’s poem – but htis is optional of course.  The quilt is huge fun to work – as is the half of Bear you can see peeping through the window trying to tempt Rosie out to play.

I do hope you like it – it will be in the July issue of the Bustle & Sew Magazine ( out at the end of June), and is currently available on my website and in my Etsy shop 

Back out to the gazebo now …. have a great weekend everyone!