Phew!

I can still run!  Now that is a relief.  My little 3.5 mile plod went without major incident and I have a bit more confidence again.  Now I've got to build back up gradually as my next marathon is in 9 weeks.

My beautiful Verbascum 'christo's yellow lightning' has been growing daily before my very eyes, its spike around the 6ft mark already.  Yesterday I spotted some of the flowers had started to open but as I went for a closer look something else caught my eye - the brightly coloured caterpillars of the Mullein moth.

Cucullia verbasci

My beautiful plant had 2 enormous flower spikes but one had been chewed off completely by the little blighters, leaving behind a black, oozing stump.

Chewed flower spike

As I don't use pesticides the only thing to do was to pick them off by hand and dispose of them in the green recycling bin.  I might try growing some wild verbascum as a sacrificial plant, which may or may not work.

During the football match last night I started to doodle some ideas for my knitted blanket as I didn't feel like knitting or crochet.  The blanket is for use in another room and will also serve to adorn the back of an armchair which is seen from behind as it faces a picture window, for the view, but looks as bit boring.

Blankie doodles

I want a floral theme.  Big, bold flowers worked in intarsia or even perhaps Fair Isle using Rowan Summer Tweed, a lovely nubbly silk/cotton aran weight yarn.

5 doodles emerged without too much thought and will now be studied and tweaked until I find the one I want to pursue.

1.  A border of large flower heads surrounding a small rectangle in a stripey melange of toning shades, with a crochet  border. 

2.  A large central motif of several flowers and leaves on a stripey background with either a knitted or crocheted border in sold stripes.

3.  A background of toning stripes with more abstract flowers.  With a lacey crochet border.

4.  A landscape scene.  Giant poppies, green hills and a sun that looks like a giant spider!  Solid knitted border.

5.  A mass of flowers, all shapes and sizes.  Solid border in knit or crochet.