Heffalumping along

Alongside my next chair back crochet project I started another very portable project the other day - a heffalump. Not just any old heffalump, it's another of  Heidi Bear's African Flower patterns, Nellie the Elephant.

I enjoyed making both Happy the Hippo (and here) and The Bluebird of Happiness ( and here) so much that I wanted to make something for us. I've already made 2 more Bluebirds for proud grannies in our village as it is such a lovely pattern but I wanted something different for in my office.

This is what I've crocheted so far:

I wanted lots of bright colours with some darker ones mixed in as I prefer them to be random rather than all the same colour. It's such a sweet little pattern and really quick and easy.

In the garden everything is growing like mad but we could really do with some rain to freshen everything up a bit. Our soil is heavy clay and it's hard as rock at the moment, although the weeds still manage to push through it!

I thought this pot at the front of the house looked really pretty with the Violas grown up through the Fuchsia 'Lady Boothby'. This particular Fuchsia is often referred to as a climbing Fuchsia as it is very upright and can be trained up a frame.

The key to keeping Violas flowering for a long time is to just pinch out the old faded flowers when they start to crumple (this is known as dead-heading) as this stops the plant putting its energy into producing seed.

When I went round the back of the house to pot up some more things I noticed Tilly was watching me so I took a quick photo of her looking through the patio doors. What a strange effect - there's the reflection of the patio and it looks like a double exposure with a ghostly apparition of Tilly!

In other Tilly news, she's taken to helping me in my office and she has now experienced the printer for the first time. She was sitting on the floor quite happily but when I switched it on she leapt up onto the table and peered into it as it clicked and whirred.

When the paper started to feed through she stuck her paw inside to pull at it but I was laughing too much to take a photo!