This month, the EEWI ladies made their way to Walthamstow for a little gallery outing. It's our monthly "coffee morning" which usually takes place in an East End coffee shop. This month was different. We were heading William Morris-wards; tea-time, pimpernel and glorious gardens awaited.


The gardens were just lovely. The sun was out, the flowers were looking fabulous, and we took tea on the balcony overlooking the garden where we discussed London buses, bags, patchwork, credit cards, bees and birthdays.


The inside of the gallery was appealing, but the outside. Oh, the outside! I could spend days in this garden. If it wasn't so hot, I daresay I would have happily taken my shoes off and worked in the sun instead of heading back to the office.

I got all caught up in the Paralympics and other goings-on that I completely forgot to share with you the last official summery day here in London Town!

As it just so happened, we were invited to a Tea Party on said day.

















... and what is a tea party without cake? What a spread! Scones, muffins, fruit cake, coffee cake, almond cake, chocolate cake, sandwiches, fruit, and more.

















I say "and more" because I was somewhat distracted from the rest of the cakes by this piece de resistance! What a spectacular triple chocolate cake of greatness. We took home a slice to share (all legit, like. We got a piece to go).

















I don't know what's more impressive: the delicious fruit cake, or the pretty doily-style cake stand. Mm.

















Cake and Almonds, Oh My! With a lot of patience and a healthy supply of nuts, that centre blossom could turn into a bunch of chrysanthemums.






















I think you should forgive me for making floral comparisons: look at that garden. That's the first thing I saw when I walked in, so you can imagine what was on my mind. I know. I couldn't contain my garden-geek-excitement either. Monty Don, eat your heart out.






















I don't know a lot about gardening (I like to sit in them more than I like to, uh, make them) ... but I do know that some of these flowers are suspiciously successful at blooming all-year round.






















... another one of those annual bloomers. My kind of garden!

















The colours that you find in an English Garden like this could inspire a range of crafty goodness. Just look at that balance of pinks and greens!

















Add to that a healthy balance of sage green, cheery sunshine yellow and a deep, inviting maroon and you have a winning combination of colour goodness.

















Okay, I'm almost done here. Just a few more pictures of summer, okay?

















Echinacea?

















Garden squee! I will save you from the thousands of photos I took of Miriam's fabulous veg patch. Let's just say, she doesn't need to order a weekly veg box. Nosirree.

















Other areas of the garden included the piggery (!), the beehive (with real bees, I Kid You Not), the Giant Man Shed (filled with China), King Arthur's Grave, a pond, a greenhouse and let's not forget, statues of maidens.

I am so grateful that this is where we got to spend our last day of summer. The skies are now slightly greyed-over and there is a definite chill in the air. I am - as I type - wearing socks. Socks!


This is the kind of garden that inspired my Garden Party Quilt (okay, yes, and the garden where we had our wedding). I can't wait to snuggle up under the greens, yellows and pinks of my own piece of summer... now, if only the Cotton Patch would deliver my quilt wadding... Huff. 8 days of waiting and counting.

Every possible Photoshop Gene in my body is telling me to edit these photos before I post them - or at least, to wait for a bit of sun so I can re-take the pics. Every "show off" sensibility is telling me not to share this week's Wednesday WIP. But you know what? The point is that these are works in progress so they don't look perfect. And yes, they desperately need a good iron.

Nothing says "summer" for me like a lovely, lush garden and - of course - garden parties.






















I love garden parties, as you can probably already tell from all my garden party enthusiasm on this-here blog.  I love trees that cover you with hugs of shade, flowers that smile at you with their big blossomy grins, and the spectrum of greens that welcome you like a secret garden with fifty shades of emerald. Ha.

So, lucky for me, this month's WI coffee morning was held at Elizabeth's house. I've mentioned Elizabeth's house before, and I promised I'd take photos of the garden. It's a beautiful oasis set just outside the heart of Walthamstow - you'd hardly believe that you were in London with all of the trees, the reservoir and the ducks hanging about.






















We don't get a lot of summer here, so when it does come around we really try to take full advantage of it. It was as if the weather had heard about our tea party plans and decided to send us its very best bout of sunshine, too, which was fabulous.



And what is a tea-party without miniature Victoria Sponge Cakes?






















There was also cherry and almond cake, and hummingbird cake (which was full of pineapple, bananas and other delicious fruit).

















Elizabeth has a lovely bee dress, so when I saw a cross-stitch pattern for a bee in last month's CrossStitcher, I knew it would end up being a brooch for that dress. It took a few weeks, but I eventually found some time to sit down and stitch. The bee is stitched in Madeira silk on a linen blend backing, and the crochet border is made from a special gift I received from the wonderful Anne.


















... and by pure coincidence, Elizabeth was wearing her bee dress!

















This week at our WI meeting we made bunting that depicted Food Stories. Each bunting triangle has a hand-made item of food on it, with a story attached to the back. We went through the stories and had a good chuckle at how funny some of them were. Such lovely handiwork and clever interpretations, too.

















This is Poppy (or Daisy?) - the kitten that almost was. We had very nearly adopted him when Elizabeth suddenly had many kittens in her kitchen, but the kittens stayed together and are decidedly happy in their lovely garden.






















I couldn't resist a quick photo of this rocking chair with its lovely pillows and beach huts. I love beach huts almost as much as I like garden parties. Mm. Doesn't it look inviting?