Gardeners Crafting Diary of Wonderment, February 2026

Oh my, I have been so productive! With the daily deluge outside, it is too waterlogged to attempt much gardening. I have been out dodging rain showers, getting little jobs done, but with every silver cloud and all that, literally, there has been plenty of time to get some of the boring jobs done, with one job haunting me for ages: tearing and ironing 8 metres of fabric into 12 cm squares for my cards, which took me four days. I have been putting it off for months; well, maybe 10 months, but now it is all done, yay! Production in February has continued strongly from January and has been extensive and varied, not just tearing mountains of fabric but restocking hares for Ostara and Easter, making gifty robins and sorting unused pom poms for garlands I shall sell at the Beltane Fayre in May.

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2nd FEBUARY

Everything is shrinking.

It has been a week of things getting smaller. Believe it or not, these two stars are the same size but only half the depth. I am really disappointed with them, as the chunky stars added a real feeling of quality to my cards, unlike these new skimpy thin stars. It is a sign of changing times, I guess, and I had started to accept I am not always going to be able to replace things of the same quality. I originally bought 400 of the chunky stars, as I really liked them. At the time I

thought 400 would last ages; I just sold a lot more of them than I had thought.

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5th FEBUARY

Matching hares and card

As I mentioned in the last diary of wonderment, Etsy now allows 20 photographs for each listing, so I have taken photos of each of my greeting card fronts, with a wax seal on the envelope to promote my seals with a matching lavender-filled hare. Because I keep a strict colour palette, based around vintage colours, all of my cards have a matching hare. It is part of my 'gift shop' agenda, where I promote free gift wrap and match gifts to cards and cards to gifts.

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7th FEBUARY

More squares everywhere!

I have been on Etsy for eight years and during all that time there is one job I have done just three times, which is THE most boring job I can think of. My cards are tatty, torn squares of calico, with an embroidered matching border surrounding my watercolour designs. These squares start out as a huge length of fabric that I measure into strips and then tear. Once I have 800 12 cm squares, they all need ironing and reshaping into true squares after being distorted during

tearing. The last time I did this, I also drew squares on the back of them all as guides for the embroidery, but this time I have decided to just do 50 at a time, as and when I need them. It will ensure I do not get really bored, sloppy and slack when positioning my template and drawing the pencil square. Many of my last squares were quite crooked, not properly shaped and not completely wrinkle-free. This batch is perfectly square and perfectly smooth. I'm looking forward to embroidering them now I have fixed all of my previous issues.

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10th FEBUARY

Crow Aware

Mr Edward Zailes, our friendly crow, has stopped visiting and we haven't seen him for a while; he disappeared when all the crows in the big willow tree disappeared, so hopefully he is at a spring crow gathering. He had become really friendly and would wait by the back door for treats. We noticed his little habits: he would bury bacon bits; we saw him hide a bit under a lavender bush. He spent a lot of time under the rose by the back door, so we left him mealworms there. He had very

mild manners, as he was happy for Mrs Blackbird to dine with him and several nights he roosted on our hanging basket bracket, protected from the elements by the house. We are hoping he will come back after doing some crow stuff, like finding a partner and building a nest. Maybe he will bring us his young; we wait with anticipation.

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12th FEBUARY

Luxuriously Cosy Draft Excluders

As part of my Etsy revamp, I have taken new photographs of all of my draught excluders. I'm really pleased with how the photos have come out. Over the years different colour combinations became popular and so I have a lot of grey/blue drafties, swamping the rarer, bright colours. All the bright-coloured ones suddenly all sold and although I remade them, I have been left with far too many that are similar in colour. These poms will be repurposed, as I am going to make lots

of pom garlands for the May fayre.

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14th FEBUARY

Spring has sprung!

Yes, at last, the flowers have started to bloom. Aconite, primroses, snowdrops and crocus are already carpeting the ground, little dashes of colour against the darkness of grey days. It had rained for 40 days, not in a biblical fashion, but enough for the garden to be really damp and unworkable. I am so far behind in the garden that I have started dodging rain showers and getting out there when I can.

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16th FEBUARY

May fayre bluebells, tulips and forget-me-nots

Way back in November, I painted some terracotta pots for the Beltane fayre in May. They were planted up with pale pink tulips and bluebells bulbs and today I lifted some mixed-coloured forget-me-nots. I chose a patch that had flowered pink, blue and white last year and I am praying I have got a selection of colours. All of these pots are to be part of a tabletop maypole centrepiece. I want the hall to smell of bluebells to really capture

the season and with the harps and flute music, I am sure it will be a memorable fayre.

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19th February

February's extract from my Short Stories for Little Plant book.

Little Plant, I've heard of a faraway land,

Manicured, pristine and oh so grand.

A land where nature, with all its grace,

Has created an alluring natural place.

Little Plant, here is a tale that at first seems unreal, I promise you'll think it's make-believe! So curious a place where the earth is alive, with rocks so hot under deep, crisp snow. This unknown, secretive

isle so far in the east, is kept in pristine beauty through traditions over centuries of heritage and care. I heard of this place and all that it is, from volcanoes and hot springs and manicured views of blossoms and acres in the richest of hues, where dragons once roamed over the Earth that sometimes moves. Imagine my surprise when I heard of healing pools.

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21st FEBUARY

Journaling extreme!

This year I am making my journal a priority, where I make a real effort to trial lots of drawing ideas, which can then be used in my card designs. Doodling in my journal and experimenting with different watercolours is so beneficial and I have already started drawing new cards. One idea is very unusual; it is a proposal card, where there is a long organza ribbon on the front for an engagement ring to be attached. Obviously this card can't be put through the post! I also have a new

Beltane card in the making and I have recoloured some really old designs of mechanical bees, fish, owls and hens. These new cards are very rich in colour, with complicated, whimsical foliage. They will make great framed prints for the May fayre.

24th FEBUARY

AHHH, technology!

I rely on technology a lot, unfortunately. Photoshop is on the Apple computer, where I edit my watercolours so that they are perfect for the cards. Up until last summer, there had never been a problem with the printer working consistently. My poor workhorse printer broke last June, so I went to the store to replace it. Taking regrettable advice from the shop lady, I bought the model a little cheaper than the printer I was replacing. BIG mistake – what a piece of Stone Age nonsense. Everything I printed was a problem; either the colours were wrong or the paper size wasn't recognised. If it could go wrong, it did. Fuming, I muddled through, using the big A2 printer whenever I gave up on the useless new one. Moving on six months, today we got a posh printer that ought to make tea and rub your feet, for the price of it. Good print quality is the keystone to my cards, so I am hoping this printer will perform as it should.

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27th FEBUARY

New card designs

Having been working on doodles in my journal, I have taken a few ideas for new card designs. This Beltane card is full of rich apple blossoms and moon-gazing hares dancing around a maypole. I used a lot of these features from the Beltane Fayre poster and I'm really pleased with how it has come out. The new printer didn't like the design, so I will have to enhance the colour a lot and tune up the contrast a lot. The old printer was a Canon; this new one is an Epsom and I have a sneaky feeling I will have to edit all of my watercolours due to different printer settings.

It's been a great month, very productive with backroom jobs that will make the year run smoothly. I hit my targets of making 100 robins, tearing all my fabric squares and have very nearly upgraded all my Etsy listings. It has just started to warm up, so my timing is great. I have another week of working on Etsy, just as seed sowing time arrives. I cannot wait to get in the garden this year, I plan on living out there whenever the sun is out this year, reading, drawing, making and internet catch-ups, all in the garden. It better be warm and sunny!

Thank you for reading my Gardeners Crafting Diary of Wonderment, February 2026