End of April garden watch.

Apparently it's National Gardening Week this week and this year is a celebration of growing your own produce so if you do and have photos the RHS want you to post pictures on social media using the #NationalGardeningWeek hashtag. We didn't know there was such a thing but let's face it, every week is gardening week in this house so I couldn't miss the opportunity to do a bit of an End-of-April round up of what's going on in our little patch.

J had a few extra days off this week so in addition to finally dropping a load of stuff off at our local charity shop (and acquiring a little table for the garden in the process), we've spent the last few days dead-heading and weeding, pricking out seedlings, potting on plantlets, shuffling spent bulb pots and watching to see if the dahlias would respond to being in the light. The achilleas, sweet peas, lettuce, rudbeckias and a few of the strawberries are all in new homes and the front grass paths have been mown. As the cowslips have taken over the back lawn that getting a couple of weeks reprieve and will be mown when they go over. The pots of scabious, strawberries, pansies, herbs and bulbs out the back have been weeded and the dead things have been emptied out ready for their pots to be re-used. The Babbington's Leeks that decided they'd rather be in the patio than in the pot have been cut ready for cooking with in the next couple of days. A couple of loads of washing have been dried on the line outside and J has spent some time in his shed working on a new bird table. And, in anticipation of a couple of wet days ahead a few of the prolific bluebells have been cut to fill a small jug in the living room. So how's your gardening week going?

After the weekend!

The achilleas germinated well

Now they have room to spread

First batch of sweet peas 

Dahlias emerging

Lettuces potted on

Peonies budding

Just the right height for a cuppa!

New Scavenger Hunt

Today I discovered that a fellow blogger over at Patio Postcards has launched a Summer Photo Scavenger Hunt. The Winter one was great fun and got me back into using my camera so I'm looking forward to trying to find the items on this new list and getting a chance to see how everyone else interprets the list.
Please check out the (easy) instructions on Patio Postcard's post for today  but in the meantime I'm off to wrack my brain for photos that will fit the headings in the list, just as well we have about 6 weeks until the first check-in!

2019 Summer Photo Scavenger Hunt - May 1st-September 30th
 
1. An Outdoor Clock
2. Single & Pretty
3. Repetition
4. Blurred Vision
5. The Word Summer
6. An Umbrella, open or closed
7. A Curving Path
8. Shells
9. A Bridge
10. Something Made of Stone
11. Fish
12. Something Crooked
13. Two Colours of The Rainbow in Any Combination
 (colours of the rainbow are: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet)
14. A Handwritten Sign
15. A Broken Chair/Bench/Stool
16. An Out of Season Treat Being Enjoyed
17. A Sail
18. Something That Should Be Found In Pairs 
19. A Funny or Meaningful Bumper Sticker
20. A Favourite Seasonal Scent

Alternates: 
A:  Bird or Bee House
B:  Fresh Local Produce

Slow TV

Spent the last few days popping in and out of a wildlife camera screening live footage from a Kestrel nest box on the Loughborough University campus.

It's one of many such cameras up and down the country, and indeed around the world that give you a chance to watch nature in action. The Loughborough Kestrels even have their own twitter account @Lborokestrels and at the moment you can watch as they begin to incubate 3 beautiful eggs. If you get hooked you can also check out the antics of the Leamington Spa Peregrines and the Dyfi Ospreys via the Wildlife Trusts in their area or on Youtube.

Even farther afield there's a camera watching the Brown Bears in Alaska!

Great for raising awareness and lowering blood pressure. Enjoy

It's hot out there....

The long weekend flew by -  after a Friday spent shuffling bulb pots and basking in the sunshine we spent the rest of the weekend sowing courgettes and sweetcorn seeds, making a couple of trips to the allotment, catching up with friends and sheltering from the heat of the August Easter Bank Holiday. Yes, it was a lovely weekend after the long grey of winter and sitting out in the warmth felt wonderful and life-affirming and thoroughly joyful. But, stop for a minute, it was 25℃ in the Midlands in the middle of April and this came on the back of last year's long hot dry summer and news of Spring wildfires in Scotland, the Peak District and Staffordshire and is something that we really should be concerned about, in fact it should terrify us, it should mean we're rushing to insulate our homes, reduce our use of petrol, gas and other polluting fuels, plant trees and protect habitats, refuse single-use plastics and all other non-essential packaging and dispose of all of our rubbish responsibly, buy only organically-grown pesticide-free foods and sustainably produced clothing, to only consume what we really need not what advertisers make us think we want. It means that when we watched David Attenborough's BBC documentary on Thursday night or heard Greta Thunberg speak  that we finally let the penny drop, finally decided to take action, to listen to what scientists have been telling us for years, to believe our own eyes, to finally acknowledge that the climate has already been affected by our actions and our in-actions, to take our blinkers off and own up to the fact that it is up to US to change how WE live now or risk huge damaging changes that will detrimentally affect the lives of millions of people all around the world - not THEM, not just the politicians, the multi-nationals, the conglomerates, the governments, the others but US.
The question is are WE going to change or WE going to keep looking around for Someone Else to do something?

Ideas on where to start:
 https://www.asustainablelife.co.uk/
https://transitionloughborough.wordpress.com/
https://www.thegreenlivingforum.net/forum/
https://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/
https://www.goodenergy.co.uk/
https://www.ecotricity.co.uk/
https://www.fullychargedshow.co.uk/

A Good Friday...

It's been a bit of a tired week this week, I think going on five weeks on antibiotics is taking it's toll. Still things are improving and the glorious sunshine of the last couple of days is helping. Yesterday was a shuffle plants and seedlings about and then sit in the garden day.

We took the early bulb pots out of the decorative planters at the front and planted up new pots with the pansies and violas we've been growing from seed. Not only is this a cheaper way of having lots of bedding plants, it also means we know that they are grown in peat-free compost and with no pesticides or herbicides added, so we've got guilt-free colour all year round. Dropping them into the decorative planters like this means refreshing the display is much easier and less wasteful. The bigger pots are still going strong so no need to worry about them for a few weeks yet. Mind you, we did have to rescue a couple of gaillardia that happily shared a pot with a delphinium last year but now it's established it wants the whole pot to itself.

Door pots - the scent is lovely

Fresh growth creates a lush corner - must remember to water

Lovely contrasts of red tulips against the green foliage

From tiny cutting to beautiful abundant flowers in just a few years

This is actually our neighbour's but we love that it's happy on our porch railings too.

Once done we decided to just sit in the back garden and enjoy. All around us the birds sang, bees buzzed and butterflies flitted, a lovely start to the weekend

Cowslip heaven

Re-making, re-purposing - necklace update

choker pendant as bought

Remember the choker pendant I wrote about a few weeks ago? Well, I've been playing around with it today to make a necklace that I can wear.

Three separate useful parts

At the weekend J used his hot air gun to separate the clasp and the cords which enabled me to remove the pendant. I'm planning on offering the clasp to the Hospice craft team to see if they can use it in any jewellery making sessions they have - I can't wear this kind of metal unfortunately. I'm still pondering on what to do with the cords but have a few ideas.

Ribbon threaded... 

... and knotted

I used some of the olive ribbon I bought on Friday and threaded the pendant onto it. To keep it centred and stop it sliding about I've threaded it over twice and knotted it on. Then I've knotted the top of the ribbon so there are no scratchy components to worry about.

So now I have a new necklace ready to wear and ermm maybe a few other projects for another day....

New to me..

and for another day....

Six on Saturday 13th April 2019

Hosted by The Propagator I came upon this meme a little while ago when admiring the photos on Karen Gimson's wonderful blog and again on the new to me The pink wheelbarrow so thought it would be nice to join in especially as the Winter photographic scavenger hunt has now come to an end. The Propagator produced a guide to participants way back in 2017 so if you fancy a play too then follow this link for instructions. I'm going to try for posting once a month but we'll see how it goes.

We have a really small back-garden but try and provide different habitats in different areas. Today a peek at the bottom of the garden

1. Our family apple tree has three different varieties grafted on to a single rootstock. I have no idea what the varieties are but we have a lovely sweet little eater that comes along fairly early in the season, a versatile smallish cooker that is quite late and makes great apple pies and another that sort of sits in between them. We always leave the last few apples on the tree for the blackbirds to enjoy but this time of year it's all about that blossom just watching and waiting for it to burst - it won't be long now.

2. Underneath the apple tree our mini-woodland garden always looks it's best in the spring. It's a mix of inherited from previous owners, planted deliberately and "leave-it-and- see-what-it-is' ".

3. Peek through the trees branches from the path and you get a glimpse of the bank behind the little wildlife pond where colour is just starting to emerge from the many different greens. The dustbin is of course a compost bin.

4. Over on the bank the inherited red tulips that have lived here longer than we have are highlighted by geranium foliage brought from my gran's garden and cornflowers from the allotment, ferns and privet. Dead tree chopped and left for critters to colonise but the cleavers, snowberry and sycamore seedlings are less welcome ... 

5. Further along the bank the bluebells are just starting to flower, we'll need to do battle with the snowberry again soon as left unchecked it dominates everything.

6. Finally for today,  next to the pond the violets are starting to give way to the dandelions and the herb robert and grasses are starting to grow. The dead-nettles and forget-me-nots continue to delight and provide food for whatever needs it.

Bye for now.

Friday pottering...

Pottering continues to be the name of the game at the moment. This morning with the help of J and the trundle trolley I managed to walk up to the little fabric shop that is a short way along our road. It's not far but seems a long way when you haven't been out and about much for a few weeks! But I had a goal in mind and needed the exercise so off we set.

Freedom on 3 wheels - the trundle trolley

It's a proper little specialist shop - a mix of dressmaking, upholstery, curtaining and quilting fabrics, a whole host of ribbons, threads and beautiful buttons and other sundries with expert staff to boot. Now as much as I admire these things I'm no stitcher (as previous posts will have shown) but I did want some cord or ribbon for my necklace project. Unfortunately but not surprisingly the cords were for upholstery so had fabric edging for stitching on to seating covers but the choice of ribbons meant this didn't matter a jot!

Just the right shade

So I'm now the proud owner of some lovely olive ribbon ready for remaking the necklace next week, oh and some purple and a bit of burgundy and maybe some navy too plus a pack of needles with bigger eyes in than my current supply and something called a snagging needle which caught both of our eyes and will hopefully help repair a few knitted jumpers in our collection that have got caught on brambles, thorns, rosebushes, or the myriad of tools that J carries around on his belt and in his pockets! There may also have been a few very beautiful buttons that I admired but I did resist - the idea was to buy things that would help me make better use of what I already have not start a whole new stash of things! So all set for playing next week.

Bundles of prettiness

New tool

Citizen Science

There is now a growing movement ( well I've become more aware of it anyway!) towards lots of individuals all across the country observing, watching, trialling or deliberately looking out for things and then feeding that information back to Institutions, Membership Organisations, Universities or even folk like the BBC so that scientists can get a widespread picture of seasons, wildlife, pests and diseases or in our case how well a particular seed type reacts to different growing conditions. Most of you will have heard of things like the RSPB's Big Garden Bird Watch that I wrote about back in January so you know the sort of thing I mean but there are loads of other examples too so if you fancy giving it a go why not have a hunt around and see what's out there.

This year we signed up for 3 different Garden Organic experiments as things were ticking over nicely and we didn't think they would pose too much of a challenge if anything happened with my health. Luckily we have managed to complete two of them already and still have a little time left to kick off the third without skewing the data too much.

The first test was one for J - he had to run various quick and easy tests at the allotment that in theory, help determine what soil type we have. This he duly did one cold day earlier in the year. The odd thing for us is that we have been using our allotment for 10 years or more so we're pretty familiar with the vagaries of it's soil - it's very clearly, very obviously skin chaffing sand!! -  but it was interesting to see how the tests panned out and hopefully our feedback will help the organisers refine things a bit. We look forward to seeing the outcomes when then are published later this year.

The second test was more fun for me - we had to try to germinate 60 pea seeds of the same type using 3 different preparation methods 20 just popped into a compost tray and watered; 20 pre-soaked over-night and then popped into a compost tray and watered and the final  20 "scarified" - hard outer coat sanded and then popped into a compost tray and watered. Over the next 3 weeks we have had to check them each day to see how many germinate of each type - the ultimate aim is to see whether ether of the preparation methods actually make any appreciable difference to the number of seeds that germinate and the speed they germinate. The bonus is we get some really pretty salmon-flowered pea plants to add to the plot. Our new garden shelves came in really handy for this as I could keep an eye on them without having to slip and slide down the garden too often.

19th March 2019

30th March 2019

10th April 2019

The third and final test we have signed up for is a trial of lentil types to see how viable lentils are as a garden food crop - we have two different varieties and we have to sow some in April and some in May and then check them at agreed intervals. Hopefully J will be able to get that one started this weekend providing I keep the dramatics to a minimum...

Monday morning botherations

Well today's post was supposed to be a lovely cheery photo-filled peek at the front garden where this year's new bulbs are coming out beautifully, the clematis is starting to flower, the roses have lots of lovely fresh red and green leaves and the flowering currant is alive with bees. Well so much for planning ahead - it seems my camera SD card has decided it doesn't want to play anymore and is refusing to acknowledge it is in possession of my photos! Luckily I back them up pretty regularly so it can only hold yesterday's pictures hostage but it does mean I'll have to wait for the rain to stop before I can take anymore.

Things continue to improve here and hopefully when I go back to the clinic on Wednesday they'll decide I don't need the IV antibiotics anymore and my cannula (midline) can come out and I can have a proper shower at last! (TMI I know but I promise I have been washing properly in the meantime!!!)

Today I intend to sort through some papers for a while before I heat up lunch - luckily whilst I was feeling good over the last few months I made extra portions whenever I cooked a stew, soup or similar meal so now all I have to do is defrost and reheat something each day until I feel like cooking properly again.

I did manage to take a couple of snaps on my phone of our seed-sowing session yesterday and will finish updating In the garden page later. So we're back to no flat surfaces but lots of lovely flowers for the cutting garden, a second sowing of broad beans and some salad leaves.

Bye for now

Gently doing

Slowly getting back into a routine here and feeling well enough to start looking around for projects and pastimes for when Mum heads back home next week. The day I fell ill again the Hospice had a little pop up shop and so I couldn't resist a couple of new shawly scarves - lighter weight for the changing seasons and oh so pretty - a quick wash (thanks Mum) and they were ready to go. But that wasn't all...

Strands and swirls of green 

My eye was also caught by this pretty choker type pendant - it has a metal lobster claw clasp and cords and in it's present form I can't wear it - the metal will bring my skin out in a rash and the cords are too short and will catch on various scars. So I can hear the question - why on earth buy it then? Well, it has the loveliest disc pendant with peridot green coloured stones - one about 1cm diameter and the other really tiny, a couple of olive coloured patches, a tiny emerald coloured stone and a little patch of diamantés in a really pretty abstract "celestial" design. All for only £1.50.

Pretty, shiny and in my favourite shades of green

My current plan is to remove the cords and clasp and either find a longer, thicker cord that I can string the pendant onto but it will need to be fairly soft cord so it doesn't rub or use a ribbon instead so it becomes a lovely wearable piece. And as for the rest of it - well if I can find a way to remove the clasp without damaging it I'll see if the hospice can add it to their craft supplies and then there are several possible options kicking around my mind for the cords - plaited key ring cords, plant ties or maybe a twisted cord bracelet - but we'll see how far my skills match my imagination later on.

Link up to the other Photo Scavenger Hunt photos

Eileen at Bracelet of Days has created a post for everyone who has taken part in the Scavenger Hunt to add links to - Follow this link to see the other photos 

Slowly returning to normal here so back to more regular blog posts soon I promise
Bye for now Tx