Gardeners Crafting Diary of Wonderment May 2026

It has been a sensational month except for the crappy weather, but it wouldn't be very British to not have a moan about it! All I want is a few days of sunshine, but it's an endless round of wind, rain and cold at the moment. It has been a month of wonderfully creative ideas, but they are all quite big, with a lot of planning needed, so I have lots of researching to do before committing.

2nd MAY

Day before the Big Day

With the fayre just tomorrow, my fellow Pagan Raven Glen, husbunny Paul and a few volunteers laid out the new table plan and dressed the hall with ivy garlands, pots of spring bulbs and the maypole. I had a very clear vision of how I wanted the fayre to be and we created a wonderfully natural flow around the hall. The layout was vital to avoid bottle-necks and access for buggies or wheelchairs to pass each other.

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3rd MAY

The Big Day

What a brilliant day we had; our Beltane Fayre was an incredible success. The hall was stunning and smelt of huge bunches of lilacs I had picked, with soulful music of harps and flutes played throughout the hall and the Maypole Cafe was absolutely delightful with its blue-checked tablecloths and potted bluebells and tulips. The Man Creche was a lovely quiet area that was used throughout the day and the Tombolare was a complete success, with folks loving the fact they got to pick their prize. We were also visited by

Ravens' Coven, a witch dance troupe, who have said they will perform at our Samhain Yuletide Fayre – so exciting! We had a team of people helping to unload cars and they walked the hall throughout the day to ensure everyone was happy. We covered bathroom breaks for single traders and fetched them refreshments, as it was so busy there wasn't time to stop. It was an incredibly busy day and even though in our 'thank you for a great day' email to all the crafters I asked if anyone had had any problems or issues, we received nothing but praise and not a single complaint. You can download free music for an event at Pixabay.

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4th MAY

Day after the Big Day

Having sent out a thank you email to all the crafters, I had to spend the day replying to everyone's lovely responses and all the great comments on social media. It was insane, as it seemed absolutely everyone who had attended the fayre had left a message in one form or another. There were also all the comments and messages from new crafters who were asking to attend our next fayre.

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7th MAY

Wall-to-wall wallflowers

Having been so busy with sorting out the spring fayre, I finally got around to catching up on my garden. There will be many new surprises this year, starting with all the wallflowers I planted last autumn. Their colours are stunning, from light orange through to dark crimson – not a yellow one in sight, to match my colour palette. There were so many of them that the garden was fully scented – absolutely fabulous. These pink tulips in this photo were the ones I had grown for the fayre and they were in perfect flower

at just the right time. I had nurtured these tulips by putting them in shade to slow their growth, so their flowers were at their peak. I will be sowing next year's wallflowers from last year's seed this month.

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11th MAY

Stone Runes

As I am taking a gap year from Etsy, I have decided to make some things for the next fayre, exploring new ideas, one of which is to elaborate on my pom pom garland door charms. They had sold well on Etsy in past years and I have decided to make more, leaning more towards pagan Yuletide rather than traditional Christmas. I plan to make stones from air-drying clay and carve runes into them, then use these as an embellishment to my garlands. I have researched which three runes would work best together and plan

to start making them soon. I had considered using actual stones, but the carving would have taken forever.

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14th MAY

Road Sign Designs

My dear friend Zoe (hiya Zoe!) had been a big help at the fayre, as she had run the highly successful Tombolare and to thank her, I finally got around to painting her a house name plaque I had promised her years ago. The hand-painted road signs for the fayre had been so professional-looking I have decided to make them as plaques for gardens. Ideas like 'Peas and Love', 'Thyme for spells and seeds' and 'Turnip the beet'! I have researched the best paint to use and the company that is the best allows you to choose the colour

you want and they make it for you. This is great news, as my front garden fence is in need of smartening up, so I can do that too with the same vintage cream I want for my signs.

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17th MAY

Macro is a no-go

I have been trying to get more macro photos for my Adobe portfolio, but the light levels have been shocking: very cold, dark and windy – not how May should be. It means I have missed the best of some flowers as they first bloom, which is the niche I have chosen to focus on. When concentrating on tiny details, the flowers need to be still and it has been near impossible to get a dry, bright, still day; it has been a complete nightmare. Even looking outside now in the late evening, the light levels are fabulous, but it is

blowing a gale. Still, I managed to get a few great photos.

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19th MAY

Lilac Syrup

Having been so excited about making lilac syrup, once I had made it, I decided I didn't really like the flavour. Zoe had made some last summer and it was great, but I found after a few glasses I wasn't so keen. I am waiting in anticipation, though, for the elderflowers to come out, as I love elderflower cordials and hope the roses are out in time to make my very favourite rose and elderflower syrup. They are just starting to open and so I need to have a drive about and find some elderflower hedgerows to harvest. I used to collect

elderflowers for a drinks company in Grantham and am looking forward to some hard-core foraging.

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22nd MAY

Baby Blackbird Nursery

We don't know why, but every spring the local blackbirds drop their young off with us; it happens every year without fail. They train us to open the back door and they will be sat waiting for mealworms and raisins and this year they have even learnt to come when we make a baby blackbird squawk; it's wonderful. There are two of them, which is unusual and we wonder whether one male has had two babies by different lady blackbirds or, even rarer, one lady blackbird has had two. Blackbirds do lay two eggs, but one

after the other, with the male teaching the firstborn while the female brings up the second baby.

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26th MAY

Roses and swallows

It feels like the roses are out really early this year; it's probably because it's so cold and still feels like April, but they are out and smell divine. I took some rose cuttings last spring and most of them took, so I have lots of new ones to enjoy. They are only a few years old but they should all flower this year. I never realised how easy rose cuttings are to do: literally snip off a fresh shoot below a set of leaves that need removing, snip the top off too so you're left with a pencil-length stem with just a few leaves at the top. Poke it in the ground

and keep watering it until it takes root. Leave it a year before lifting it into a pot to grow on until it's ready to go in its final growing position. Just as I was taking this photograph of an amazing rose, the swallows flew overhead, chirping and shouting as they announced their arrival, a sure sign summer is nearly here.

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29th MAY

Workshops and Cultural Trips

After the success of the fayre I have had so many new creative ideas, as mentioned earlier, but I have also had the idea to do a Photoshop workshop and I've had the really crazy idea of organising a coach trip to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The Photoshop workshop was suggested by someone and I thought with the overhead projector at the village hall I could do a workshop via my computer to explain something simple, like how to make a compliment slip. There is a free version of Photoshop called 'Photopea'

which functions in an identical fashion, so I think this could be a great workshop. As for the coach trip, I thought it would be great to hire a coach with a DVD player and take a group to the crafters' haven that is the V and A. We could watch films like 'A Room with a View' on the way and spend the day researching crafted wares from throughout history from around the world. There is a lot of research involved in this, but it would be such fun.

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