National Gardening Week 2015

From 13 to 19 April, the UK has been celebrating National Gardening Week and I took even more photos than usual in the garden. But that's probably because everything is shooting up so quickly that if I blink, I'm worried I'll miss something.All these photos were taken during the National Gardening Week which probably means that my Seeds and Stuff post will be a bit shorter this month.

The Charlottes are in, but I still haven't planted the Pink Fir Apples. That's one of my many gardening jobs for tomorrow!

The camellia has been beautiful although I've noticed it's going brown now - we've had some cold nights and frosts, which is what damages the flowers.

Don't think I've ever noticed these little flowers on the pieris before now. But, actually, I've chopped its neighbour, the Alnwick Rose, right down and the pieris has really come into its own this year - perhaps it just needed some more space?

My little garden helper!

My garden has been taken over by violets - among other things which have appeared. I didn't realise how many I'd got and this little clump was in danger of being torn up by Finn tearing around the garden, so I lifted it and put it in a big planter at the bottom of the garden. Since doing so, I've noticed lots of little clumps around the garden so fingers crossed I get to keep them for a few years.  

Another plant which has taken over my garden is the forget-me-nots. It is everywhere! I love it but even I have admitted defeat and pulled up a few clumps to throw on the compost heap. Such a shame, but I needed room for other things!

The pear blossom smells gorgeous.  I hope it produces lots of fruit this year.

Primrose and muscari.

So, that's the National Gardening Week tour - the garden is looking beautiful at the moment.  I've been over to the garden centre today and bought a dozen strawberry plants for the front garden, together with six large planters for the six lavenders I brought last week.   And, because I'm planting up more spuds tomorrow, I've bought 180litres of compost.  I have been using compost from my bin, but there's not enough rotted down yet for everything I need to do. 

Up The Garden Path - Prep

Spring is sprung and it's time to get my arse in gear and finally make my mosaic path.  The path I have been talking about and planning for at least two years now!   The existing path in my back garden is so untidy now that I really do have to do something about it. Two years ago, we had a really cold winter and lots of snow and the water got down between the tiles and froze and pushed the tiles up, so they were beginning to rise a bit, which means they're really easy to pull up. (I also have a rather large incentive in that a Norwich salvage yard is willing to pay a quid a tile, so I need to get as many unbroken ones up as possible.  I've calculated I could potentially get a £100 return on my tiles which will pay for the materials to make my new path. Gotta love a negative cost to something!)  I'm about half way with pulling the tiles up now, so fingers crossed I have my beautiful new path by the end of May.

In the meantime, I've been researching beads and pebbles and how to actually make the path.  It's caused much hilarity in the family - I was panicking that I'd need to buy all the bags of pebbles in advance in case - like wool - when I went to get the next bag of pebbles, they were a different dye lot to the first and not the exact colour.  Apparently pebbles are pebbles and I'm being ridiculous!

These are the ones I'm going with.  They're sort of reddy browny orange but I have to say they look better when they're wet. Like pebbles at a beach that are somewhat washed out when they're dry, I may have to water my path when I'm out watering my veggies in the summer? Strictly speaking, I probably shouldn't have these - but, in my defence, the bag of pebbles was already open when I went to B&Q so I just snuck these out in my pocket, for research purposes.

And these are pebbles I've collected from various locations while on holiday - there's some Welsh slate there from Snowdonia, there's some stripy stones from Crackington Haven and Widemouth Bay, and there's even a tiny bit of Scafell Pike there too!   These will be shoe horned in somewhere along the path too.

And for the sheer joy of them, these will also be making an appearance in the path. They are TINY! Really tiny, so won't make much impact at all. But I'm hoping they will sing out as a little pop of colour every now and then.  I love them.

I've also got some clear glass beads to put in too.  I had wanted some green and blue glass beads too, but that's when I found the millefiori beads instead which are perfect.

And here's a selection of the whole lot. I'm still pondering whether to get some glow in the dark stones so we've got some interest in the evenings too? They're readily available in pet shops - they are sold primarily to put in fishtanks. I still need to think about that - apparently they are quite expensive and I'm still not totally sold on the idea anyway. I have already got some solar lights for the garden, plus all the lanterns which I put tealights in. So perhaps I'm going a bit over the top with it?

So, that's the procurement almost done and the prep is coming along nicely - not too many tiles to take up now. Progress photos to follow.  Exciting!

Tada! "Build Me Up Buttercup" Jumper

This jumper has been a year in the making. In fact, this is actually its second reincarnation - I'd knitted this yellow cotton up as a different pattern previously, although I cannot, for the life of me, remember what? THAT is how long I've had this cotton!

(And an extra bonus of having no head in this picture - bloody self timers!)

I loved this pattern since I first got the magazine - October 2009. But it's taken me until now to finally make it. This cotton is beautiful - I love lemon for spring and summer - but cotton is much heavier than the wool I usually knit with, so I had hardly anything left from the 600 grammes I bought. It's a good job I leave such long ends when tying in another ball of wool, as that was pretty much all I had to sew it all up. If I make it again in cotton (and I have already found a lovely mandarin colour cotton which I think it will look beautiful in), then I will buy extra yarn to be on the safe side.

The jumper is knitted in two distinct patterns - a lacy stitch for the bottom which gives it a floaty feel, and then a tighter knit rib for the top parts. 

This picture shows my new hairdo as well - new posh girlie cut!

I really like this jumper, I think it's going to get a lot of wear.

Easter 2015

It's been ages since I've had the family over for dinner. The plan originally was to have Rat and Pam over for dinner, but, as we'd plumped for the Easter weekend, it wasn't too much of a jump to have everyone here! Sadly, Nicholas couldn't make it due to work commitments - and we ate so much that he didn't even get a doggy bag, despite sending Amanda over with their own tupperware! I spent Good Friday and Saturday morning running around doing housework and prepping before everyone arrived for Saturday lunchtime.

As well as some old favourites - spinach and cranberry quiche and cheese and apple pasties (which turned out to be a disaster - how do you make gluten free puff pastry?!) - I tried out a chorizo tortilla, which went down really well.   This was a recipe (no photos sadly, it didn't last long enough!) from Raymond Blanc, who's latest TV programme - Kew on a Plate - is my current favourite.   I managed to find gluten free chorizo too which is brilliant.  

I also made a plum and apple crumble - gluten free obviously - with fruit picked from my garden last year - hurrah for self sufficiency.  (Almost!)

While doing the housework, I actually changed the room around so that we could all sit round the dining table. When I first moved here, I had planned to use the window seat as extra seating, but it's just a wee bit too high which is a shame.

Finn, sensibly keeping out of the way!

Bunch of comedians!

Sid, being Sid!

He's not very good at hide and seek, I'm not sure he really understands!

A really funny day as always.  And now I'm off the hook for a little while at least!

Tada! "Anarchy in the UK" Pyjama Pants

These pyjama bottoms are anarchic for two reasons.

1. The flags are sideways, which might also be treasonous!

2. They are also cut on the cross grain, breaking all rules of sewing.

To make sure that the pattern is matched all the way round fronts AND backs, if you cut it on the cross grain, using the selvedge as the top edge, it can't fail to match.

Check out this front seam - I LOVE it! This obviously works much better on a very structured pattern - I don't think I'd be this bothered if it was a random pattern of flowers, say.   These were made for my brother for Christmas (although didn't reach him until late January!) but I think I might have to get some more of this fabric to make myself a pair. THAT is how much I love them!

Seeds and Stuff - March 2015

March has been a cold month so there hasn't been much progress with the seeds I've already sown this year - except for the carrots.  Hundreds of carrots!   I think I probably need to thin them out before planting out, but they're not going out yet - much too cold.  I've still got my heating on and it's usually turned firmly off on 31 March each year.  Not likely yet though.

The March seeds are mainly all foodie with a couple of flowery things thrown in for good measure.

Mary and Jim gave me a couple of fruits from their passionflowers last year, so I've sown those seeds too. My plan had been to sow them directly outside (in the walled bit with the kiwi fruit which was destined for the compost bin this year, but has miraculously thrown out shoots, so has won a stay of execution for now). However, it occurred to me that I wouldn't know what they looked like as they produced seedlings and I might be inclined to pull them out, thinking they were weeds. So they are in seedling pots in the outhouse and I will plant them out when I can recognise them!

The garden is coming along nicely - still loads of tidying up to do, but one half still looks much better than the other.  I think I'm going to have hundreds of foxgloves this year - they are everywhere.

There are hundreds of buds on the camellia too - this will look beautiful, when they're all out.

Finn has been helping me in the garden again - little tinker gets in all the small spaces that I need to be!

The primrose has got much bigger this year and is still flowering well, despite lots of flowers having gone over.

This is a first for me - I don't remember ever seeing little flowers on the azalea before now?  

The forget-me-not is taking over the garden which I'm not at all cross about - they're so pretty.  The above picture is forget-me-not and Finn's paw - he always wants to be in the photos and I was trying to push him out of the way - not very successfully!

The front garden is looking lovely too with plenty of flowers.  I've been giving the two conifers and the tamarisk a bit of a haircut - they are threatening to overhang the pavement so I give them the occasional haircut to protect passersby.  I would like to cut them all down, but I'm too sentimental about the tamarisk - it was originally a cutting that Dad took from their garden in Bacton up on the North Norfolk coast.  They've moved twice since then and I loved that garden.  I might try and take some smaller cuttings myself - this one's got a huge great trunk now and is pretty ugly all year, except for a beautiful burst of pink in May/ June. 

I'm not at all bothered about the conifers going, but one of them seems to have a steel pole growing inside it - I think it was probably used as a stake to make it stand upright when it was first planted, but the tree has grown around it, so I'm not sure how long the pole is.   I guess I will have to keep that one.   The other one seems unencumbered by scaffolding so should come down quite easily?  It will leave a massive hole out the front but, as it stands beside the arch, I think it would be nice to have a fragrant climber covering that?   So many plans!

The pink geranium has hundreds of buds on and looks beautiful plonked in among the hyacinths which give a lovely waft of fragrance when I come home from work.

I don't remember planting all this muscari so I'm assuming the bulbs have split and made more plants?

This is not a great picture! The climbing hydrangeas are taking over the walls of the house now which is fab - the flowers will make it more interesting than the bare bricks.

I've also got wild garlic out the front, flowering beautifully.  These came from Mum and Dad's garden in North Walsham and have survived the journey very well.

So, that's the March horticultural progress.   Everything is moving so quickly now but the clocks went forward last weekend, which means I've got at least an extra hour every evening after work to be busy in the garden.   I think I'm going to need it!