P Fest

One weekend last summer, I left Finn at home with Amanda and travelled down to Bristol on my own for the music festival at Andy's local pub.

We knew it would have been way too rowdy and busy for Finn - with all the dancing, and singing and shouting.  And mainly drinking!

It was a fantastic event with six or seven local bands playing - covers by Oasis, Elbow, James, Snow Patrol, etc.  All the stuff Andy and I love singing and dancing to anyway.

As we were in the west country, we also had a Wurzels cover band!

Such a brilliant day - really family friendly.  I don't remember ever dancing this much!

Other People's Gardens - July 2019

I haven't done so much work in other people's gardens in July - due to some health issues and anticipated minor surgery, I packed up gardening in the middle of July, with a view to starting up again after the August bank holiday.   I'm hoping that's still the case, despite the fact that the hospital procedure got cancelled in mid July, and I'm actually due in again tomorrow.   I hope I've given myself enough time off to feel able to start gardening again.  What a palaver!

One of my customers had recently been to Gardeners' World Live and had bought herself a garden plan for a 2 x 3 metre bed and enough plants to fill it.  She actually sent me a message from the Show to let me know and to warn me that I'd be digging out a new bed on my next visit!   The top photos show progress of the bed - it was previously turf so it did need some leg work to get it all up.   We marked out the area of the bed with a garden hose, which we weighted down with bricks - that then gave me the line I needed to dig.

As I was halfway through - it took two visits to finish it - my customer came and asked me to dig out another bed in a very shady area of the garden as she was planning on sowing shade loving wildflowers - this bed was significantly easier to dig, being in the shade rather than full sun, for a start!   This bed didn't take half as long as the original - so when I get back to work, we just need to treat the soil and do all the prep, ready for the planting and sowing in the autumn and spring.  

This garden is looking beautiful - so lush and, apart from the odd bit of dead heading and a bit of weed control, it's pretty much under control.  I know that we're heading towards the autumn when I'll be needed to cut back the apple trees again - these are then wheelbarrowed up to the village green for the annual bonfire and firework festival.

The lady who owns this garden has told me that I MUST rest up after my surgery but could I please get better quickly as her garden is beginning to need me again!

Seeds and Stuff - July 2019

I really think it's time for a garden overhaul - following the lushness of May when the garden is overflowing, after that there's not an awful lot going on - there's a lot of green, but the shrubs haven't flowered so well this year.   I think it's time to dig out the things that aren't working - including the hydrangeas.  Perhaps I'll just replace them?

The lilies have been beautiful but they never last long enough.   I do know that I need to lift and divide them and perhaps spread them around the garden.  

The Buddleia was gorgeous this year but, again, it stopped flowering really quickly.  Perhaps it's the weather?

The Passiflora caerulea, however, has been a huge success and has been saved because it's been so fabulous - my plan had been to dig it out and move it, but it's been fab and I know that there are birds nesting in amongst it, so that alone saves it.  The more birds we can encourage to the garden, the better.

The Agapanthus have also been a real success this year, although it's very windy right now so I might need to get out there and stake them.  

A mixed year and perhaps I need to spend the winter planning for next year.

Odds and Sods - July 2019

July has been so hot that I haven't really wanted to move about very much.  In addition, I need to have some minor surgery which was scheduled in a few weeks ago - at which point I cancelled all my gardening jobs as I need a wee bit of recovery time.   However, on arriving at the hospital, I was notified that my Consultant had taken some last minute annual leave so I was sent home!  (I suppose I should have been outraged but, as I work for the NHS, I'm all too well aware that our Consultants at work do this all the time.)   Anyhoo, as it's so hot and I'm feeling so uncomfortable I haven't rebooked my gardening jobs - I will be back working outside mid September, all being well.

In the meantime, I've been doing LOTS of knitting - I'm cracking on with birthday and Christmas presents already, and am being very productive.

This is the temperature blanket - and because we've had such high temperatures, I'm looking forward to some very hot colours when I eventually get to catch up with it!

This is Mum's cardigan - to match Dad's cardigan.  When I originally ordered the wool for Dad's cardi, I managed to get the wrong colour and I really wasn't sure he'd go for a purply colour with pink flecks in it!   That's when I had a lightbulb moment and decided to make them one each.  (They've both since been delivered for their birthdays and they seem very pleased with them.)

While these buttons don't match exactly, I found them at Fibre East wool festival and thought they were beautiful.  Luckily, Mum thinks so too.  

Speaking of Fibre East, my purchases this year were much more restrained than last year.

My fair isle obsession continues and I am now making mittens as Christmas presents with specific recipients in mind.  However, I'm also putting them on Folksy and then, if they don't sell on there, I'm taking them to the craft fair that we're doing in November.  If I sell them, then I will have Christmas money spends for buying gifts and, if I don't sell them, then the original recipient gets them as planned.   It's all a bit stressful for me as I normally like to have everything sorted ages in advance so I have a relaxing run up to the festivities, with feet up, sherry and mince pies!   I'm torn between wanting to sell them but also not wanting to schlep around Norwich two weeks before Christmas!

I've also been working at the sewing machine, making seat covers for the Caravan of Love.   The plan is to make a couple of sets so that, whenever I'm down there, I can swop the clean ones over and bring the dirty ones home to wash, much as I do with the bedding.  

And I've been a domestic goddess in the kitchen too - cooking and baking with my own home grown ingredients - blackberry crumble and flans which include my courgettes.  

Finn, bless him, has also been suffering a bit from the heat and we've been having lots of afternoon snoozes together, which I love!