Delia casts an enquiring gaze on proceedings...

"Excuse me...there doesn't seem to be a great deal of work going on round here!"

That quizzical look was enough to goad me into action again on the diary writing front.  Admittedly there hasn't been much to report, because as soon as I arrived back from Sheffield (dad now slowly on the mend, though it looks like it will be quite a long recovery time from his head injury), I came down with the most awful viral throat infection - not good on my last full child-free week before the summer holidays!!!

So I was forced to take it extremely easy - not that it was difficult, I was basically incapable of doing anything other than lying down and groaning in between school runs and 'essential maintenance' jobs (eg cooking the tea).  And with the searing heat outside as well, I kept forgetting that I had a searing temperature and then would suddenly realised why I was in a cold sweat all the time...

But it seems to have been the best thing to do, as by Sunday I started to feel distinctly improved - enough to have a wander around our village open gardens (and well enough to do my stint clearing tea trays at the 'Open Gardens cafe', sadly!)

Our scarecrow entry for the competition survived the storms a few nights before the judging:

Meet Minimus Gladiatorius Catcottimus - the smallest gladiator in Catcott

I don't think we won (in fact, I've no idea which scarecrow did win, or how to find out!) but the children were very proud of him, and he wasn't too bad for a first go, once we'd sorted out the initial knock-kneed problem.

The scaffolding appeared at last very late on Friday afternoon (accompanied by a reasonably grumpy scaffolder and more cheerful assistant, I think him in charge felt he should have knocked off by that point but had possibly had had a flea in his ear by my builder...)

L is still temporarily in the end bedroom at the moment - naturally the decorating of his room hasn't made much progress with everything else getting in the way, so much for the 'get it finished before the summer hols start' optimism.  Now he thinks that he has a personal balcony, and has to be firmly reminded not to play on the scaffolding at all.  The cats think its great though, a private lookout post and sunbathing spot!

Finally managed to get into the garden to make a start on my backlog of jobs....

Half the onions harvested and set to re-dry after being doused by the torrential rain on Thursday night...

Supposedly being guarded by Cobweb - with his eyes shut, it seems!

Quite possibly the hugest tomates I've ever grown.  These are Brandywine, and I do hope they make it as far as ripening so I can see if the taste is as good as reputation would suggest...unfortunately I've had a smattering of blossom end rot affecting the other plants - could it be the super hot, and unshaded greenhouse? Or could it be the reliance upon husbandly watering services whilst I was away/ill....? Just saying...

The bees are going silly over this patch of borage in E's little garden... it has unfortunately flopped over the other path so I have to go the long way round or chance stepping over it and upsetting said bees.

More gardening likely tomorrow, I will try to get some more photos, as well as a Treehouse Construction Update! xxx

Golden wedding anniversary celebrations - slightly derailed...

I had decided to treat my lovely mum and dad for their Golden Wedding anniversary (and dad's birthday) with a reminder of Somerset and all it's glories by sending them a Kitchen Table Posy of English cut flowers from the amazingly talented ladies at Common Farm Flowers.

I was a little disappointed that I wouldn't get to see the actual bunch itself, as they basically cut, arrange and send what is ready and lovely that day, although I knew the general feel would be relaxed and 'country flowers' style, there would be no way of knowing what different types of flowers and foliage would actually go into creating it.  Mum's getting better with her mobile phone achievements but I did think that trying to get her to send me a photo message might stretch her a bit too much!

As it turned out, I ended up being here when they were delivered...due to dad having a 'turn' of undiagnosed nature in the supermarket cafe, blacking out and collapsing, Delboy Trotter style, straight backwards and ending up in hospital with a fractured skull and severe concussion.  Thus resulting in an extremely late solo dash up the jolly old M5 and M1 for me to Sheffield last night, arriving shortly after 1am, to give mum a hand with sorting him out.

The flowers arrived promptly at 8am - poor unsuspecting delivery man, delivering to a household full of extremely bleary eyed inhabitants, who had completely forgotten all about the 'special occasion' for which they had been ordered...oh well, the stuff of life I suppose! 

But they are so beautiful, and the scent! It has lifted our day completely to pass by and see this thing of delight on the table.  As the day has gone on and the patient dramatically improved, we have appreciated them more and more.

It obviously takes more than a bash on the head to fell an ex-Royal Marine Commando...no medical explanation has been found for his random collapse but a heartfelt gratefulness for the thoughtfulness, swift action and care shown by the Asda staff at the Handsworth store as well as the professionalism, as always, of the ambulance service xxx

One room down...

...only 10 more to go!

Well, E is back in her own newly pea green room and very happy about it, so I thought it might be wise to take a few snaps for posterity before it gets any more untidy.

Hmm... pictures still need to be hung (as opposed to balanced on the tops of shelves!)

Still waiting for her chosen fabric to be delivered before I can make the blind, so the old curtains had to go back up for now

Her 'desk corner' is still in progress - she would like a long deep shelf (like mummy's in the office) above the desk running along the white wall.  But Daddy has to finish the treehouse first (and rather urgently - only 12 more sleeps until the school holidays start...argggghhhh)

As is always the way, there are still a few things (some larger than others) that need to be sourced or finished, like a nice white cupboard for the overflow clothes which now don't fit in her drawers...

And the decorating circus is already rolling on to L's wee room as its new target:

Its so small it was almost impossible to photograph! But the fillering and sanding is well underway, so I predict ceiling painting may indeed be imminent.  Will I get it finished before the holidays start? I hope so...

But for now I need one of these:

xxx

Better late than never?

Hurray! The leeks are in!

A bit of rain over the last few days has meant that at last quite a few of the jobs which have been waiting - desperately - for some moisture in the soil, can now be tackled.  Trouble is, the dry period went on so long that there are far too many jobs stacked back!

I managed to get the edge weeded around the shady area of the veg patch...and that inspired me to think perhaps waiting for the perfect time to lift the cardboard and weed the heavy, damp bed at this end was never going to happen - after all the cardboard has been down 3 months already! So I decided to try the old Dowding no dig here too - I put on an extra layer of cardboard on top of the old tatty one.... and then topped the lot with 2 inches deep of the Viridor green waste compost that I still had left after doing the 2 new veg beds:

And doesn't it look so much better? The wood around the edge is just placed temporarily whilst I was barrowing the soil, to keep an even depth all the way across the cardboard and so it didn't keep spilling over onto the path when I raked it about.  Once the cardboard underneath has moulded a bit and the soil has settled I will take the wood away.  For now this bed will stay like this, just to knock out the light and continue killing the weeds.  Then perhaps I might use it to set out my nursery of baby wallflower plants etc... we will see how it goes.

I remembered to take a few snapshots of plant groupings in the circle bed which I particularly like and may need to remember to keep:

Fabby lavender blue and lime green alchemilla flowers

More lavender with hot fuchsia coloured Geranium psilostemon clambering through it

That hot pink short geranium I didn't like the colour of in May? I like it now it's associating in a more relaxed way with the lime green alchemilla froth to temper it...

Just to remind myself that these plants might have potential (with a little tlc and pruning and space!) Hydrangea (its a good job I seem to be developing a soft spot for all these hydrangeas, isn't it?), violet blue hebe, I think, though poor thing is dreadfully squashed...and i'm not sure what this variegated wee thing is, a myrtle perhaps? Either way, its quite a muted variegation and looks nice.

Hurray for lunches from the garden!

After a solid morning sowing more beetroot, general pottering and starting the mammoth task of setting out the leeks from their home in the seedbed, into their final positions, I was ravenous! And not a morsel of bread to be had in the house...

But then I thought - doh! And rustled myself up a (rather oversized, it has to be admitted), omelettes aux fines herbes, with a side of cooked beetroot. I felt so virtuous!

Perhaps I should try to challenge myself to do this at lunchtime every day? I'd love to be able to have at least 50% of our tea ingredients from the garden too - and it could probably be achieved, given how well everything seems to be performing at the moment - but unfortunately the small fry would go into meltdown if I presented them with that many vegetables...How have I raised such carb and meat obsessed children???

Fruit overload imminent!

All I can say is - if I have to top and tail another gooseberry, or de-string another redcurrant, I will have the screaming abdabs and have to be carted off in an excessively tight jacket!!!

So far today, I have prepped and frozen:  6 lbs of redcurrants (!)
                                                               5 lbs of gooseberries
                                                               2 lbs of raspberries (to add to the 4 full freezer bags already in there, never mind the quantities of lovely warm fresh ones that got eaten almost straight after picking with lots of cream (and the occasional peach)...

The plan is to prep and freeze them now, and then defrost and process them (jam, jelly, cordial, whatever I can think of) at my leisure.  To save my sanity.  Because just picking and prepping them all at the moment is taking me the best part of 2 hours a day...

There's definitely a case forming for reducing the number of redcurrant bushes from 3 to 2 (or even 1?)

Off to bed now to try and relax my aching neck and shoulders...

xxx

 

Burgeoning growth revisited...and the great 'cut-back' commences...

Ok, I've had my strop and sulk and my gardener's natural optiminism (fatalism?) has returned.

The hail-damaged plants haven't died yet... so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they will laugh in the face of their attacker and grow even more lustily.

So time for a quick round up of the ridiculous burgeoning growth around the garden, which both delights and threatens to overwhelm me at the same time!...

Charlotte potatoes finished flowering - I've dug just one plant so far and got 4 meals' worth!

Broad beans 'Green Windsor' cropping better now the rain has come, though the pods often look enormous, the beans inside aren't so big.  Ms Raven's Asolo lettuce mix about to go over...

E's precious 'Blue for the Bees' bed - the first time I've ever managed to enjoy a cornflower from seed

Looking down from the 'Blue Bee Bed', past the carrots and onions, towards L's pumpkin wigwam and general sunflower heaven

Onions 'Snowball' and Carrot 'Nantes 5' doing nicely

My favourite - Perpetual Spinach - I'm building up for my first pick this week, even though the leaves were quite battered by the hail, I know this is one plant that will shrug it off!  Takes more than a bit of hail to kill these...

Tomato plants already reaching the (admittedly quite low) roof of the greenhouse

With tomatoes on! Though not ripe yet...

Second cucumber so far

Raspberry and redcurrant overload

Dahlias flowering now, but I'm still trying to identify them

I love this unknown variety Day Lily - looks very much like the usual 'Stafford' but that's fine with me! Just the right colour against my favourite purples and blues.  

This clematis is actually more of a pale pinky-mauve than it appears here... lovely, but for some reason hiding round the back (east) side of its support, so you have to climb into the bed to see them..

It's neighbour, this gorgeous velvety character, is doing the same.  I wonder why?  It could be more sheltered I suppose, away from the prevailing westerly winds, but still, you'd think the flowers would seek the afternoon and evening sun rather than the morning sun which is dappled through the trees?

Sweet peas flowering at last

Couldn't resist another pic of this beauty!

Lots of ideas are starting to formulate in my mind's eye about the shape and direction I would like things to go in in the various beds and areas....I hope I can manage to translate them into words properly in my little 'plans and ideas' notebook, but we have at least made a start on the 'big prune back'....There are lots of places where very mature shrubs and trees desperately need crowns lifting, or odd overhanging branches removing back to the trunk to let essential light in below.  It's going to be a big, ongoing job, some of which I can tackle myself in the daytimes, and some requiring the assistance of the Engineer and his toys:

There he is! Shortly before getting the chainsaw stuck in the tree and having to take the chain off to extract it (with very poor grace)

It's amazing how much material just 2 branches produces

 Of course, pressing action of this kind is needed all over the garden...but I had to start here, the ash tree is overwhelming the old apple tree, and crucially, seriously overhanging my washing line!  Priorities, ladies...

I've earmarked the next candidate for the 'big boy's toys' action aleady - these very low hanging branches of the big copper beech, which have resulted in very odd growth in this otherwise very promising bed.  Once the light can reach in underneath more, I can prune here and start reviving these plants.

And here's the same offending branch busy being detrimental of the other side....

A visit to the library last week gained me some lovely garden design books which I have devoured with enthusiasm.  In particular, several photos have helped me start to capture my feelings for certain areas which will hopefully prove useful later when I try to keep my desired ends in sight over the winter:

I soooo want the circle bed to look more like this!!!! (At least I have the alchemilla mollis there making a start...)

This is the most useful picture I have found, making me realise just how far thick a wall grown pyracantha should really be, as opposed to 2-3 feet thick and threatening to depart from the wall! The ferns growing along the bottom associate really well, though of course my pyracantha wall faces south, but shaded by the big copper beech which is opposite, for most of the morning. 

I want my shady areas to look more like this...That clematis is astoundingly beautiful, it makes me want to cry (especially as i have no idea what variety it is)

I saw these topiaried cones of different sizes here, and thought - that's what the circle bed needs, much more evergreen backbone.  I always thought my preferred 'style' of garden wouldn't allow something as formal as geometric topiary...I would definitely say I'm not a 'formal' style person (though I love to enjoy it in other's gardens)  but interestingly in this picture, mixed with the relaxed forms of the japanese anenomes and the grasses, I started to wonder if I had been too hasty?

I'll finish with my 'Plant love of the Day', a hydrangea in the north west corner of the circle bed that is almost hidden underneath the spread of the magnolia (not for long!!!).  It caught my eye in the evening light and I was entranced.

The flowers are very white, much purer white than the different, but vaguely similar hydrangea right next to it - the outer flowers are like triangular stars in comparison to the more typical rounded shaped of the other one.

Perhaps someone might know what it's called?

xxx