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