It's not easy being green

More greenery - this agave was a gift from Peter Reid, the teacher who supervised my final teaching practice, back in 2000. It came with a plant tag that said agave hartlepoolis as it was one he had grown from seed. I should have put something in the photo to show scale - it's about a metre tall. This inspired J to give it a go and he successfully managed what we now know fondly as The Billingham Six. Hopefully, they will thrive as well as this chap.



I was thinking more about the hideous lime yarn I bought for Green May. I believe it is destined for the craft area at school! We're having new carpet and storage in the study, where my stash lives, disguised as boxes of essential household thingies. This means sorting and tidying so I've been revisiting some of the boxes and wondering how on earth I accumulated so much purple and natural tone yarn. The purple is easy to explain - it's my fetish, but I look awful in natural hues so they probably need a rethink. I keep being seduced by the wholemeal earthmother thing.

What I did find was these:



I was surprised to find any green, so these mixes certainly count for me. The larger wound balls are Cherry Tree Hill sock wool in greenish and khaki mixes (greener than the photo shows, the smallest balls at the front are 50g of the finest mohair I've ever seen; there is also a ball of Lana Grossa cotton/virgin wool self-patterning sock yarn and two skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Clay, which has green in it so it counts!

Finally, another garden shot - it's looking really good out there are the moment. J has really got a good selection of spring plants mixed into the borders now. Last year he began the process of erradicating a badly thought through water mint from the pond. Although bits of it will probably reappear for years the other plants have a little more leg room now. I think this is a marsh marigold.