More Gardening

 

Back in August Amanda had a friend come to stay for a week.  Now he just happens to be a tree surgeon and very kindly offered to prune our trees for us whilst he was here.  This delighted Mick as he is not very keen on trees unlike myself.  So on the Thursday whilst Amanda recovered from having all her wisdom teeth out the day before (bless her) Liam set to work on two of the trees, the Eucalyptus and the Elm!!

Before - as I left for work

 

 

 

After - when I got home

 

 

 

He did an amazing job and it has let so much more light onto the flower bed below and the two rooms at the that side of the house, I didn't realise just how much they were blocking out!!

 

Mick and I were left with the clearing up to do which was fine.  We hired a chipper and spent a Friday evening and all day Saturday, chipping and disposing of the chippings around the garden and in the lane next to us (which is not a problem).  Then the following weekend we spent chopping the branches up into logs for Mick's brother ready for their open fire.

 

 

 

Still it is all done now and apart from a couple of bags of manure for the veg plot and that is the garden sorted for the winter.  Must be a first lol.

Winter preparation.

I haven't managed to get out to the garden for ages and every time I look out the window it has been annoying me.  Every thing has been neglected and it is a mess.  So on Friday I decided that I would spend Saturday tidying it up, it would do me good both physically and mentally. Mick was working on the roof so that worked out well.  I also made a conscious effort to take before and after photos with the intention of writing this post.

 

Dead tomatoes and cucumber plants, canes waiting to go to a friend. The remains of ant powder on the floor as I had an invasion during the summer.

 

 

Dumping ground, dead flowers which I wanted to photograph but never got there. 

 

 

 

 Pots galore with weeds  in!!! Apart from the fuchsias.

Runner beans gone over as not picked!! 

Marsh mellow plants over grown and collapsed on the dalia's squashing them!

 

Several hours later, seven compost bags of garden waste, one compost bag of general rubbish, second compost bin filled and a large amount of waste compost thrown in the field behind us and this is what I had.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To top it al off I took all the garden waste to the tip this morning, so that is not hanging around. To say I was happy with my day's work would be an understatement.  It was also a good chance to try and focus my thoughts on what I was doing and not have my head running all over the place.  Still smiling each time I look out the window at it all now.  Just some lonely onions growing out there.  Still have the other side of the garden to do but that was not as bad.  As that was weeded when the tree cutting was done a few weeks ago, another post I will make the effort to write.

Signs of Autumn

Joining in with Lucky 7's in 2014 this week - signs of Autumn, decided to kill two birds with one stone and make it my daily photo for this week as well, plus a few extras lol  The garden hasn't been as colourful or as successful as I would like this year but that has given me a chance to review it and decide what to get rid of for next year and what to plant. 

 

Tomorrow Yvonne and I are off to Exeter for a couple of days, looking forward to it, this is in place of our weekend of crafting due to my not being able to get any time off work this summer, so having to go on my rest days.

New Beginnings in the garden

The garden is starting to grow again.

 Crocuses,

 

 Bluebells,

 

 Narcissus,

 

Hydrangea

 

Some photos from my Daily Photo project of 'My Home'

Nothing special today

Yesterday I blogged about my beetroot smoothie  Eileen asked me what was in it, so here you go

1 small beetroot, 1 large banana, 1.5 cups of water, juice of half a lemon, 1 mandarin, 1 small apple, then zapped in the blender. 

 

Today I made my first gluten free cake, for Amanda as her birthday cake ready for tomorrow, I can't believe my little girl will be 19 - where does the time go.  It looks OK but guess we won't know until it is cut and tried, fingers crossed.

It has been horrid outside all day so I have not ventured out other then to take my daily photo and I will go out later to work.  So having baked the cake, I cleared out another two kitchen cupboards and washed the floors.  Then I have been over on my photo blog writing this post all about finding your motivation again. Please pop over and have a read if you fancy. 
 

Here are some bulbs starting to poke their heads through the water logged ground.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A productive weekend.

Saturday was a very successful day in the sense that I washed my car, dug up the sweetcorn from my raised bed and managed a 3.5 mile walk and a quick cuppa with Yvonne, all the things I wanted to achieve so very happy.

 My car before and after - the mud is due to the farmers dropping large amounts of mud on the road and not cleaning it up, then the rain comes down and the roads are like mud baths making them very dangerous at the moment.

 

 

 

 My raised bed before and after - the sweetcorn was from a packet named baby sweetcorn, mine was not baby!!!

 

Sprouts and leeks left in - need to decide what to put in next.

Last link of the week to Lucky Snapping.  As most of you know I turned 50 in May and decided that I would do something every month for a year to celebrate the year.  Not always something big but just something that I have either been putting off or would normally say no to.  So May saw me completing the London Moonwalk, June Mick and I went to France to visit family war graves, July, Mick and I spent a couple of days walking along the west coast down Lands End way,  August we went to the Bristol Balloon Fiesta, September I had a weekend away with Yvonne, crafting, October Mick and I went to Westonbirt Arboretum, November I am going to stay with Bernadette and have a shopping spree and go to see the Wildlife Photographer of the year exhibition, December I am going to finally treat myself to a pedicure and manicure, January - not sure yet, February I am hoping Mick and I will get our act together and go to Iceland for a few days to see the Northern Lights but not sure if I have convinced him on that one yet!! March - not sure, April going to see Fiddler on the Roof with Paul Michael Glaser (from Starsky and Hutch days) and that will bring me back to May.

 

 

 

Lucky Snapping catch up

7th August,

I went over to Charlestown Regatta in the evening with the intention of trying to take photos of Ben (from this post) dancing.  It turned out that I knew a few of the girls who were dancing with him from my netball coaching days.  So I had plenty of bodies to photograph.  It was a great learning kerb, low light and very fast moving dancers, I was exhausted just watching them, even the little ones were fantastic.  So here are a couple from the event.

This is Chelsea and I have to say she has a lovely voice and did a great job of singing in between dances.

 

 

 The senior group (Ben on the left, only boy, surprise surprise!! )

8th August
We headed off to Bristol to the Balloon Fiesta, on route we passed these

not what you normally expect to see on the A30!!

 

9th August

 

We had a walk around the balloon site which turned out to be just one big fun fair, which was a bit disappointing to be honest. So we then walked into Clifton and met up with Bernadette and her boyfriend and had some lunch which was lovely.  These Gromit models are dotted around the place in Bristol, there are 80 altogether and at some point they will be auctioned off for charity.  Apparently the Japanese are showing a lot of interest in them at the moment!! Bernadette was not impressed that I took a photo.  Maps have been produced and people are having days out going in search of finding them all!!! Hmm, must admit they are cute and all decorated differently. Abit of fun.

 

 

 

10th August

 

A day indoors for me as the walking from thurs evening and Friday did not go down well with my leg. So spent the day editing photos. So here are two from the night glow at the Balloon fiesta. It was packed and apparently Thurs was the quiet night lol.

 

 

 

11th August

 

A spot of gardening today.  Can't remember if I told you that Mick finally gave in and built me a raised bed in the garden so I could grow some veg.  Well I got a little carried away with what I put in.  I honestly did not expect everything to take - it doesn't normally!! Anyway I bought a packet of baby sweetcorn and they have sort of grown and have taken over to say the least!!  There are sweet peas behind the sweetcorn! Think I shall give them a miss next year. lol

 

 

 Linking up with Lucky Snapping