The first of the month, the last of the beads...

At last I have completed the final bead hanging. These have been a good way of combining all the colours that I love, even if they tend to lean towards the same old combinations... But then Nature does that generously anyway, so why fight it?

When out on early morning walk back home, I came across the ultimate blinding display of natural colour, in the form of a peacock. Sadly, this particular specimen had just been hit by a car. The shock of seeing such a magnificent creature ending up in some gutter as mere road-kill meant that all my scavenging magpie instincts left me (all those feathers!!!), and I just could not pick up more than a few, out of respect.

I have finally come to the end of my wooden bead supply, having made the last of these wall hangings. In fact, I have run out of convenient corners and curtain rails from which to suspend them - there are six of them in the one room!

This one ended up in shades of purple and turquoise... Hmm, not exactly a first, then! As they are quite long, at about 2 metres, they are difficult to photograph in their entirety and ultimately end up looking like a muddled, coiled heap of beads, as above, or as a rather stringy affair, as below...

Nevertheless, as I said, they bring in all the colour. As my passion flower has been sulking since my absence - no flowers - I can't rely on that for the time being. Here it is in all its glory, a few weeks ago.

 And just to continue to indulge in that vein, some beautifully feathery anemones that I saw in the spring...

A member of the cornflower family, with its tight cluster of petals...

And then those of a cranesbill with delicate rain drops...

I intend to continue as I started - indulging - so am now going to experiment with Carrot cake recipes, having carried out extensive tasting sessions while in England....  Seven different samples and still counting! The richer, the denser, the heavier; the better...