So this was June!

So June is at an end, we are now half way through the year!

I thought I'd sum up my month...

The most miles walked in one day:  8.2 miles

Miles walked this month: 81.3 miles

My favourite walk was returning to the amazing beach along the Old Blackgang Road, although I returned via the NT land over fields and hills and wooded areas.

An exciting nature watch was the Sea Lion diving for food at one of the bays (during the above favourite walk!)

From the garden:  Discovering what is flowering and eating home grown vegetables every day.

My favourite creations this month were my shell and driftwood hanger and Bramble Brown Bear.

Goals achieved: I set up and opened my new Etsy shop 'Kiwi Wight Creations' for the bears and other creations I will make and I reopened my Doll Dressmaking Etsy Shop 'Muriel Makes' and made the first sale since the beginning of the year which is good.  Hopefully I will make more!

Started: A personal project which involves reading and art that I am quite excited about.

My trolley arrived, it was easy to assemble and is well made, being all metal, and I will spend the 1st July organising it.  Simple pleasures.

We had some pretty decent rain today so hopefully that has helped the garden and grass somewhat.  Unusual for me to say this, but we could have done with more, but at least we got some.  

So all in all a pretty good month.

Sunday.

Not quite a day of rest but a gentle day in some ways.  I completed some jobs done that needed to be got on with and also had time to just sit quietly as well.  

I put the flattened boxes that have been in my hallway for far too long up in the loft - I had been procrastinating for goodness knows why!  Which meant I could then give it a good vacuum, I got the old photos of my great grandparents out and put them on the Singer Treadle machine and also hung a couple of pictures on the wall.  This hallway will eventually be repainted as the colour is not something I am particularly fond off and it doesn't go with any of our pictures for a start. I've just put the pictures up where the previous owners had removed hooks and painted over with a slightly different colour paint as it was pretty ugly so I wanted to hide it.   I broke another drill bit in the process - this is the second drill bit from a brand new box of Bosch drills, so not impressed with them.  These pictures probably won't stay there long term but just until I repaint the hallway and plan out what to put up there.  I also put up another couple of pictures in our lounge.  

The after picture...

Ha ha, the before!  Obviously I hadn't been using this door to go in and out of the house which was just as well.  

Much better when it is clear and spacious.

Looking in the opposite direction.

One of our set of the wedding photos we had done with our son and daughter in law up on the wall.  As mentioned I broke the drill bit, so couldn't put the rest up as the other drill bits are too big to make the holes.

I put up the Takehe painting that a friend (and one of my Dad's 'neighbours' ) painted that I bought while in NZ a couple of years ago.  Still need to put my Fantail picture up.

I picked some flowers from the garden.  They smell wonderful!

These are the flowers - on the bank that I can see as I look outside my kitchen window.

I spent some time weeding the four raised vegetable beds in the back garden, and have a couple of beetroot to cook, plus some peas and raspberries which I will have this evening.  The ground is so very dry.

A cauliflower starting to form!

Yellow courgettes.

A very dark rich coloured poppy.

This illustrates how little rain we have had.  The pathetic amount we had yesterday morning did nothing.

The grass is all but dead.

I cooked the beetroot and had a bit with dinner tonight.  I also had some chard.  The peas I had raw, as I think they are so much nicer than when cooked and I picked a few extra raspberries to add to these and added them to a little chocolate pudding I made for dessert.  

I went for a lovely walk this afternoon.  It was pretty windy but relatively warm which was good.

I sat down on the beach for a while watching and listening to the waves.

They were actually quite loud.

You don't often see seaweed washed up on this beach...so I had to photograph this piece.

Such a lovely afternoon, despite the wind.

The waves crashing against the rocks.

A pretty good Sunday, jobs done, letters written ready to be posted and one of my little doll dress and cardigan sets packaged up ready to be posted.

Playing Catch Up.

Thursday morning it was clear by very early that it was just going to be far too hot to do any work in the garden, and anyway I like to have a day of rest every other day if I have worked hard in the garden...of course as it has turned out the weather turned so I have had several days 'rest' since Thursday.  Anyway, back to Thursday, I packed a lunch and a drink and set off for Brighstone Forest as I was pretty sure it would be cooler walking through the forest than anywhere else less sheltered.

I enjoyed a lovely morning walking through the trees.

It was very quiet and peaceful. 

Lots of options of where to go should the fancy take you to head out of the forest.

At lunch time I decided to head to Brook Bay to have my lunch on the beach...rightly or wrongly... as it was VERY hot so I didn't spend a lot of time on the beach that was for sure.

Still it was lovely to sit on the sand while eating my lunch and admiring the view and the stunning blue sky.

For a bit of fun I changed the setting on my camera to monochrome to take a photo of this crab shell.

...then left it on that setting for a few other photos.

This boat is always here, and has been for years.

Once home I sat on the deck in the shade of the umbrella with a nice cold cider and my book.

Friday just sort of came and went.  One of those days where I didn't do a lot at all, for various reasons.

Today we finally had a bit of rain, but it wasn't much and didn't last long, so I doubt it will make a lot of difference to the ground.  It has been pretty overcast most of the day and quite windy.  It has been a stay inside and do housework type of day.  

I tidied up the dining table as it had become rather unusable.  As I am on my own I can use this at the moment for my scrapbooking/journalling, not that I have done any for a while, but now it is tidy perhaps I will!  I ordered a three tier trolley from Amazon for my supplies, as I have nowhere to put them - a severe lack of cupboard and drawer space due to not getting them before lock-down.  Hopefully I will be pleased with it and it will do its job.  All going well it should arrive Monday. This in part helped motivate me to start clearing the table.

Morning Gardening & Afternoon Walk to Ventnor Botanical Garden.

I was out in the garden by 7.30 am this morning as I wanted to get some work done before it got too hot.

I decided to tackle by the summer house as I hadn't been up there for a while.  It is not really usable as it is pretty dilapidated so that is part of the reason why it ended up so overgrown.  We will eventually replace it - that is the long term plan anyway as the views from up here are fabulous.  

I had had plans to paint up here, and store my painting supplies, but well with the easel boards being lost by the removal company I have nothing to use on my easel frame, and it has just kind of put me off the whole idea.

Wheelbarrow full of weeds and what I have pruned from various plants.

The round bin is full too.  I actually did a couple of wheelbarrow loads.

Much clearer.  Still needs work, but it started to get too hot, so I moved to the orchard.

The views from the summer house.

You can see my cherry trees with the netting on the two branches.

I spent some time in the orchard, clearing ivy off some of the apple trees along the back and also cutting away grass and weeds from around their trunks.

One of the original labels that the owners previous to the ones we bought the property off put on the trees.  A shame all the other labels seem to have gone missing.  

After lunch I decided to go for a walk to Ventnor Botanical Gardnens.

A lovely walk along the coastal path

The gardens were looking fabulous.

These are Agave plants like the one I got the other day.  She grew it from seed she got from the Botanical gardens.

I sat for a while on this bench in the shade

and just took in the view.

I left a little Kiwi Rock to hopefully bring a smile to someone's face.

So many beautiful flowers of such vibrant colours.

A helicopter flew overhead on my walk home.