Sleep, Cook. Eat, Drive, Visit etc.........................

I have so much that needs doing and not enough time to fit it in! The jobs I need to do are BIG jobs, all day jobs, not an hour here and an hour there type jobs! The weather has been dry enough for me to do them to, which I need as I shall be using electrical tools.
All we seem to do is sleep, get up, cook, eat, drive, visit, drive back, water, maybe eat again, then collapse! Sometimes we do the drive, visit, drive bit twice and thats a 50 mile round trip each time!!



We are still none the wiser, they have still not done the scan, and oh! yes they started him on antibiotics today! What for? Who knows! As they haven't done the scan. So how do you treat something you know nothing about!!!
I am getting mad! If you looked at him and talked to him yesterday and today he looks as fit as you and I, he is taking up precious bed space because they can't sort themselves out.



I want him home, but he can't keep having these attacks!



I picked some of my French Beans yesterday, they where lovely and scrummy.




Bet your bottom dollar as soon as he is discharged it will rain!!!!

Chickens and Peas

This is just part of my neighbours paddock that my chooks are on holiday in



we had just moved them here from the top and next week we will move them to the other side of the workshop. They never use this area, he just sits on his ride on mower to keep the grass down



I really wish I had this as I can now see how much happier my hens are over here, I actually feel guilty already about bringing them back at the end of summer!



We bought the new plastic roosting bars for inside the Eglu, they are fantastic and so easy to keep clean compared to the wooden ones,another plus is theres now nowhere for the 'Red Mites' to hide!! I can't recommend these highly enough.
I have no idea the life span of a chicken, we have had them since May 2006, but when they go we shall either drop down to two big ones or four little bantams! Allotment Lady assures me that Bantams don't scratch, which means I would be able to let them out and about more!

Whilst we where moving the chickens, tango had found a lovely comfy spot on their bonfire pile!!




Everytime I go down to do my neighbours chickens at the same time as checking mine, he is there! He makes me chuckle!

I picked loads of peas yesterday, we have already eaten some



so we sat in the sunshine podding them. They make a very satisfying pop when you open them



and there are still more to come. Wonder if you can do anything with the pods? I'm sure you will tell me if there is!



all vacum packed and ready to freeze for that taste of summer in the winter! If they last that long!!!!!

Now for something beautiful



one of my Brugmansias has gone nuts flowering!!!

Busy, Busy, Busy!!!

Has five days passed since I last blogged???? I seem to have been so busy, yet I'm not quite sure what I've done?? We took T to visited Birmingham Uni and it was an exceptionally long day which we are all still recovering from. We have another Uni visit next week and one the week after too!

My garden is currently annoying me!!!!! Can you believe that! I seem to solve one problem and another occurs elsewhere! Which needs alot of thought and back breaking work to sort!!!! I don't mind weeding and double digging etc, but stuff that requires lifting slabs, digging out trees is now getting a bit beyond me! Which also annoys me to pieces!

So take alook across the patio


lots of growing going on here, I've moved all my Brugmansias up here so I can see the lovely flowera and benefit from the scent. Then turning round you can see how the patio has filled up

all mu indoor succulents are now outside enjoying the weather and growing like billy oh!!!
Through the arch to the veg part

the peas on the right are doing really well,behind them I have sweetcorn planted and they are underplanted with Gem Squash, I grew these for the first time last year for hubby. They where so delicious I have planted five plants this year so hopefully will be inundated with them! The climbing french beans on the right are coming along slowly, with courgettes and potatoes behind them.

Now we come to the part that is annoying me

my flower bed area in the veg patch! My neighbours hedge, which grows over continuously (well they do don't they)the top of there already enormous fence, but I have to cut my side all the time otherwise it makes all my plants lean and fall over, which is exactly what has happened, all the alliums are lying down, as did the poppies and now the lillies.

the tree in the middle of the bed with the yellow leaves is an Indian Bean tree, these are quite beautiful and the leaves are enormous so I think in the autumn I will move it so alittle bit more sun gets to this bed. The main reason I planted it here was that it needed shelter from the wind, which it has certainly got. So I think I will move it further up the bed towards the camera so it offers shelter to the seating area but the sun can get to the rest of the bed.
Further down the garden

then over to the pond


which since we fitted the new pond pump and filter and added some new fish is looking sensational!
In the greenhouse the tomatoes and cucumbers are growing well. I also have my first ever aubergine flower

I'm growing aubergines!!!
A beautiful pink

I can remember mum growing pinks, she always had them and lots of them too, this one reminds me of a clump of hers!!!

I hope you are all OK, I will try and get round to visit you this week, but to be honest, I'm not sure I can blog for a few weeks as our diary is so full. So I haven't popped my clogs, just taking a short break!!

Fruit & Veg!

As you may know I am always on a diet. K wanted to lose weight over the hols so joined me. Everyone was tucking into Choc Ices and we felt left out so here is my recipe for a slimming ice lollie!!!
Weigh and wash 1lb strawberries

Whizz them up

add some lowfat yoghurt of similar flavour, I used Muller Lite

Mix until a marble effect

Pour into lollie thingys

Freeze, then enjoy

I didn't add sweetner but you can do if you wish!!

We had some of my homegrown potatoes on Sunday



they where so scrummy, then I got the Dobies catalogue through, telling me about the winter crops I could be growing, late potatoes, cabbage, cauli etc. Now my small plot is normally empty over winter but I think I may have a go. They also mention autumn onion sets, would I have to cloche them? How successful have people been with any of these?
I wish I had an allotment, did I tell you I'm having another go at growing cauliflower, we are big eaters of cauli, its basically the only veg T eats apart from peas and sweetcorn!

Through the Lens of the camera!

The plant in the last post was an Arisaemas as is this one too, apparently they have a habit of facing away from you!!!! This one could grow to 5ft!!!




These next pics where taken by K, I sent her down the garden and said lets see it through your eyes...........
this one was actually taken about a month ago by me..

this one by K, how things have grown....

This rose is a from a cutting I got from my Dad, who has been dead since 1982, it has black spot as you can see and I can't bear to part with it!

Babs as you can see is fully recovered from her broodiness, so I recommend the 3 x 12 hours in a cage to break the habit!

Oriental poppies such a cheerful flower but a very floppy plant.

The Gunnera, gets bigger every minute I see it, I'm surprised the fence is still standing

Hubby raves about it and says it is one of the best plants in the garden.

The pond has had a bit of a tidy up, we are going to give it, its four yearly clean out in September.

My cucumbers with there new frame which attaches to the greenhouse, I think this will be alot sturdier than canes shoved in pots, just have to construct something to go across the roof, as thats how far these plants grow.

I found these seeds in focus for 49p, so bought them for K, she trots down each morning and has a chat and checks whose grown, they are sunflowers! You can never have enough sunflowers!!

The banana at the bottom of the garden!


Now some more pics by me...
This is my Egg Yam, remember it taking over the greenhouse, well it got so big I HAD to put it outside and now its really taken off....

How sad am I to be measuring leaves at this time of year!! Currently 54cm, incase your interested!!!!

Not everything is rosy in my garden,I currently have a serious problem with the banana on the patio.......

after consultation with my Hardy Tropical friends, it appears my soil may be too alkaline!!!

How soil changes in a season I will never know!! So sequestered iron and foliar feed, but how I get up there to foliar feed, will have to be worked out! I will keep you posted!

Finished! Well maybe not!

Its all done and planted, bless my hubby, what a treasure! Just one or two things to go in that have still to come out of the greenhouse, but now we wait for the growing to begin!!!



Tango in his supervisory position, on the warm coal bunkers



More crozier's



these are so much fun to watch, they literally unfurl infront of your eyes!

Just to prove I do other types of gardening, although I believe not very successfully .....................



Sweetcorn just planted, Heritage peas on the right and at the end a new tomato for me Sweet Olive



Sweet peas on the left, chard in the middle and French Beans on the right.



Here we have garlic all around the edge, big bunch of chives, blackcurrant bushes
in the soil closest to you is supposed to be carrots, they've been in for ages and nothing showing, new pack of seeds as well!!! Under the frame I am supposed to have beetroot, spring onion, pick and come again lettuce and radish. I only took the cover off yesterday and the only thing to come up is the radish. I do not have much luck with salad stuffs.



Now this has been emptied of most of its brugmansias, I now have 3 different tomatoes, at the far end peppers. Once the final brugs come out I am putting some aubergine plants in that space.



The small greenhouse is full of brug cuttings and various other seedlings, my cucumbers will go in here as this is the cooler of the two greenhouses.

Finally, my current 'sitting down job' painting the graden furniture


I have a nifty little sander I use. The table top propped up on the right has been teak oiled. I have my coffee and was ready for a session of painting, but when I opened the tin it had gone all manky, so finished my coffee, changed my clothes and off to the shops for some more!!!