June in pictures

The first sweet pea of the year

I love the colours of these ones

My flower bed is filling up

My summer pumpkins are growing well

Morning glory, first time I've grown them

Fox and Cubs - yes I know its a weed, but its also a wildflower and it adds colour to the lawn

I need a bigger greenhouse

 

 

 

 

 

 

The "teenage gang" run around outside now

First spot of rain and the "gang" ran into the lobby.  As we had such a dry spring they hadn't seen rain before!

And finally - our first "chicks" now almost fully grown and lovely looking birds

Lunch, chickens, flowers and weeds.....

Finally I've got round to updating my blog.  I seem to spend every waking hour when I'm not at work in the garden.  My fault - I plant everything in pots or trays and then of course they need transplanting!  My greenhouse is not big enough, windowsills are still covered in trays and propagators....

The first cucumber of the year

I've given over one of my vegetable beds to flowers for the first time and I keep squeezing more plants in.  Hopefully once it all starts to grow a bit, it should be a mass of colour right through to the autumn - well thats the plan, lets see what happens.

The beginnings of a flower bed

I need a bigger greenhouse

The first lot of chicks, the marans are growing well and now live outside, and my "little chick", now know as "Lit-lun" is still as friendly as ever.  As soon as I pick her up she goes straight onto my shoulder.  No accidents so far!  She is with some of the younger birds and loves being outside.

Who needs a parrot!

Enjoying the fresh air

I've just read that I'm an "old school friend" - old..... sulk.  Through Facebook I got back in contact with a few of the people I was at school with and yesterday I had lunch with one of the most talented crafty people I have met in a long time.  I love her blog. http://nicksartystuff.blogspot.com/ Last week another of our "school mates" was over from New Zealand so I met him for lunch too.  Strange how you don't see somebody for many.... far too many years... since leaving school and they haven't changed a bit!

I titled this post "lunch, chickens, flowers and weeds" - well now for the weeds.  I have a back garden full of wild flowers - weeds to most people, which I love.  We don't cut the grass at this time of the year as it looks so pretty.  I have identified my favourite as "Fox and Cubs", part of the Hawkweed family, and in fact I managed to grow some from saved seed.  Another cute flower has intrigued me so finally I managed to trace it on the internet.... Common Vetch... oh.... and its poisonous.  And I thought it was rare!  Still more "wild flower/weeds" to identify...

                                      

They are far too pretty to be just weeds

                                           

A new venture - hatching chicks in an incubator

As I've got more time at home now that I no longer work at the Garden Centre, we have decided to finally start something we have been talking about for a while.

We have got a couple of incubators, bought some fertilized (hopefully!!) eggs and are now on day 4 out of the 21 days till they hatch.  We can't wait!  The garage has been partioned to make a special "chicken" area, and we are buying some new coups for them.  We want to eventually breed rarer chickens ourselves and sell them as either point of lay or as fertilized eggs.

At the moment we have Pekin Bantums and Marams in the incubator.  I love the really dark brown Maram eggs and look forward to rearing some hens.  Lets hope they are not all boys!

I've also been busy planting seeds and so far have a couple of trays of sweetpeas, broad beans, parsley chives.  My early peas went in the propagator yesterday with some french beans.  I love this time of year

Knitting and a bit of this and a bit of that....

How can it already be the third week of January?  This month has flown by so far.  So much to do in the garden but I am waiting for the weather to warm up/dry out a bit!  I am still picking sprouts and carrots which survived the arctic blast a few weeks ago but can't wait to get started with this year's planting.  My potatoes are in egg boxes "chitting".

Neil has been busy making bird boxes - they look very professional and hopefully we will get some birds using them this spring.

My hyacinth bulbs have now come into flower, a sure sign that we are heading towards spring.  They were meant to be planted outside and I was late buying them so I thought I would try them in water and they have grown really quickly whereas my bulb designed to be grown in water is still only a shoot!

Even the chicken run from the old house has had a revamp and is now going to be the summer residence for the rabbits.  They are rapidly outgrowing their existing hutch and this will give them much more room when they can't run loose in the garden. 

 

I've been knitting hearts over the past few months.  A few I have given away as presents but have now made some more ready for Valentines Day.

The small newsagents shop where I work has agreed to let me try and sell them.  Fingers crossed.  

I've also been knitting lots of fingerless mittens and am now working on some fluffy chicks.  Small projects seem to suit me better as I no longer have the patience for knitting garments.

I'm still trying to learn to crochet but its coming on very slowly - its much easier working with two needles rather than a hook!













 

Getting there, slowly!

Its been nearly three weeks since we moved in and slowly, very very slowly we are getting sorted out.  We still have a garage full of boxes (no idea whats in most of them), though I am still missing quite a few of my books.

I love the new kitchen/diner
- its my favourite room of the house. 


We let the cats out at the weekend after keeping them indoors to get settled.  They seem to love having the huge garden to explore.

Mitsy loves the long grass in the vegetable garden, and spends a lot of time chasing insects.

And I discovered a marrow which had been hidden under the foliage - 9lb 4oz, thats one hell of a marrow!

Bit of this and bit of that.....

Another busy week, work was hot.... but enjoyable as always.  I've learnt my lesson from last weekend though and keep covered up in the sun (and wear my silly straw hat at work).

I had thought that maybe I had planted too many sweetpeas (5 packets) but no, I've decided you can't have too many sweetpeas.  I'm picking a whole vase full daily, and still they come.

My peas are hanging heavy on the plants, they are so sweet to eat, and the potatoes are delicious. 

Work is progressing inside the house - the plasterers are finished and the walls are drying out and are ready to paint.  The kitchen floor tiles are going to be laid today, just got to decide where to start!

I've even found some time to do knitting this week, finishing a dishcloth for someone at work.  Its a beach umbrella, honest - pattern is from the July 2009 KAL I belong to on Yahoo.

Last night we went over to see the reindeer - Horace has a really impressive set of antlers this year, but trying to get him to lift his head away from grazing was impossible!

And finally, a picture of my Cordyline in my existing back garden.  It started off in a small pot in 2000, was planted into position in 2002 and has grown a lot...!  The scent from the flowers is amazing in the evenings, and it is great for attracting the bees.  I will be sad to leave it when we move.

Sunburn, vegetables and Prom.....

Yesterday was far too warm to be stuck indoors painting ceilings, so we were busy outside in the garden.  Lesson to be learnt for the future - don't do the gardening in shorts and bikini top unless you want to get bad sunburn on your back!!!  Ouch....


I collected another trug full of vegetables, and I had to pull up the rest of my Pak Choi as its all gone to seed (the chickens and rabbit are happy though). 

 Neil decided to dig the soakaway for the garage, crazy in the heat, and he also made me some brick ledges to put my pots on (I think he was fed up having to move all my pots when he wanted to cut the grass).  They look much tidier.

One of my birthday presents from my brother was a herb dryer, so no more trying to dry herbs in the oven (and leaving them in too long to incinerate...). So far I'm drying Oregano, Basil and Mint.

Michael had his School Prom on Thursday, he looked great in his tuxedo.  Here he is with his friends acting the fool as usual.  He is in the centre.

We have paint...... and huge potato plants.....

Yesterday we started painting upstairs at the new house now that the plaster has had a chance to dry out.

It was horrible watered down paint as it was the first coat, splashed everywhere, but the rooms look far better even just with one coat of wishy washy white.

The plasterers are back working again this week, but they still have all of the downstairs, plus the landing and stairs, so there is a lot left to do.


I left the men to paint yesterday so that I could work outside in the garden for a while.  My early crop potatoes are just coming into flower, but they are so tall, they obviously like the soil.... They are waist height already.
My pumpkin plants have baby pumpkins on them and in flower, plus my cucumbers and tomatoes are all flowering now.

And finally - any early birthday present from my eldest, a Trug, something I have always wanted.... Peas and lettuce picked yesterday.  They laughed when I took the photo, "what a surprise, she is taking a photo of it". Cheek!

Fresh vegetables from the garden....

Tonight I've been over to the new house watering the garden and picking some lovely fresh vegetables.

I picked peas, pak choi and pulled the first of my carrots.  They are an unusual rainbow variety which produces carrots in colours from white, through yellow, pale orange through to dark orange.  There is a good mix of colours here.

Growing a variety of vegetables is still new to me as until now I've only grown tomatoes, beans and peppers due to lack of space.  Its amazing how you can lose a couple of hours just messing about in the garden.

The baby bunnies are still getting through even the tiniest holes (including through the slats of the gate) so tonight we are fighting back - with another layer of mesh, much finer this time.... hopefully it will work.  Why do rabbits ignore the tough outside leaves of the cabbages and just go the the developing hearts????

More progress.....

Its been a hectic couple of weeks at the new house.

Ceilings have gone in and the outer walls have been drylined to create a cavity.   Dining room (above left), second bedroom (above right) and main bedroom (right) are looking much better - the rooms are actually starting to look like somewhere you would like to live in.!  They just need a coat of plaster and some paint.

Yesterday we had sand and plaster delivered so the builder can start plastering the walls soon (hopefully).  Now that the weather is getting warmer (??? is it???, ok so not much warmer yet), we can soon paint the outside of the house.  The smiley face was originally going to be painted over in the autumn, but the weather changed and it was too cold.  I will quite miss him when he has gone.

The blossom in the orchard has been beautiful.  The cherries have finished now, but the apples and pears are in full bloom, I had never realised they would look so lovely.







My vegetable garden is doing really well.  I have cabbages, sprouts, Pak choi, garlic, onions and parsnips in one lot of beds, peas and beans with marrows in another, pototoes, sweetcorn, courgettes and pumpkins.

We had "rabbit proofed" the vegetable part of the garden with a sturdy wire fence with gates which had worked - but then the baby bunnies arrived.  They just love my peas and beans (which are now covered in a thick black mesh) and I have also planted some "Scardy Cat" plants, Coleus Caninus, which are supposed to deter rabbits too.  They stink, hopefully they will work. There is also another layer of wire on the bottom of the fence - its a bit like Fort Knox now, so get through there if you can!

My greenhouse is still full, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, chillies lettuce are all ready to be planted out later on.

I am trying the "hanging basket" tomatoes this year so as to save space in the greenhouse for the normal upright ones.  My first two packets of tomato seeds didn't germinate so I planted two more.  I reused some of the compost for other things.  Now of course all of the new tomatoes have germinated, plus I have tomatoes popping up with everything else - that will teach me to reuse compost!

More to follow......