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?