Wednesday 10th July

 Cardoons! They have been flowering in my garden for a week or so now;

They are much bigger and better than last year. The tallest ones must be getting on for eight feet tall! In the jumble of plants further back are a dark purple clematis, verbena which is also heading for over six feet tall and a yellow jasmine.

My current Commonplace Book is nearly full, so I've found a book that I vegan doing art in back in 2021 and am making a quick, as yet unembellished cover for it. I just need to sew the top and bottom edges and it will be as done as it is going to be.

Meanwhile I've also been giving consideration to next year's One Book To Rule Them All. I've bought a notebook with very fine but high quality Japanese Tomoe River paper.  The paper is thin, but extraordinarily opaque, considering how light it is, and lovely to write on.

I was testing the back page with various inks and pens, and also watercolours, to see how well it would stand up.

I think it's going to be good enough for what I want. The writing hardly comes through, but it's clearly struggling with Very wet  colours!

I've started ruling up the diary section, getting ready for 2025.