Monday 16 April 2018

Everyday Ordinary - Last Week ...



Monday ... it rained ... I blogged, did laundry, balanced my bank account, made soup and cooked mozzarella meatballs for tea.

Tuesday ... it rained ... I blogged some more, did some more laundry, prepared a profit and loss account to help with my tax return for HM@No27 and cooked a cottage pie for tea.

Wednesday ... it rained ... I made a bag, it took all day so Martin had to cook tea when he got home from work.

Thursday ... it rained ... I changed beds and caught up with ironing.










Friday ... Martin was off ... it rained ... we had lunch at newly discovered garden centre cafe, went grocery shopping and hunted for embroidery threads and a hoop for my next project.















Saturday 🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞 quick, get up and get in the garden

9.00am ... I wandered round the garden in my dressing gown taking photos ...
There's a fair amount going on, Spring is most definitely here, despite the weather. Stuff is finally coming into flower, be it a little later than the norm. The Summer snowflakes are weathering the rain, the snakeshead fritillary is looking fab and the prunus has finally come into blossom.
The camellia and the flowering currant are also beginning to look good.

There are lots of signs of more to come ...
The raised bed is looking very green and lush. The erythronium from Lesley's mum's garden, which I transplanted from a pot into the garden last year, are going to give a fab show and Martin's astrantia is making a good start.
The white agapanthus is starting to come to life ... this may get moved into the raised bed as we want to plant that all in white. Last year's new hydrangea has actually got tiny flower heads on it and the tree peony, also from Lesley's Mum's garden, has its usual one flower bud ... I don't quite know what to do to try and encourage more, but for this year, it looks like I have to be satisfied with just one again.

I believe these are honesty. I sprinkled some seeds that I sneaked into my pocket during a garden visit with a friend last year ... Fiona, if you are reading, you will know where these came from 😄
The magnolia is still looking fairly good, though this week's rain and wind have taken it's toll ...
And there is a ever growing pile of pots of new purchases just hanging around waiting for whatever life may hold for them next ...
An evergreen white clematis for the raised bed, three dogwoods that we want to fit in at the bottom of the garden to give some Winter colour, two pots of sweet peas we picked up in Asda and three pots of giant snowflakes we picked up for next to nothing in the local B&Q 'dead zone'.

This first ladybird sighting had me sending Martin for the macro lens ...
Early morning photography completed it was time to get cracking ...

10.00am ... I did some deadheading of the daffs and polyanthus in the front garden and we weeded the front pavement for us and our elderly neighbours ...

11.00am ... We potted on the verbena cuttings that we took last year ... it must be the right time as Monty did the same on Gardeners' World this week. I think it's fair to say that one pot has done better than the other ...
It was very strange ... it's the first time I've taken cuttings and out of 12, we lost 7, 2 had lovely healthy roots, 3 had healthy looking growing tips but no roots at all, they looked just like they did when I took the cuttings, we potted them on anyway ...

12.00pm ... We got rid of a dead azalea, saved a stack of baby foxgloves that had seeded in the pot and then refilled it with some of the sweet peas we bought from Asda on Friday. We then had a good shunt around with some of the pots on the patio so we could place them by the back door ...

1.00pm ... All the easy jobs were done, there were just hard ones left so we were starting to flag a bit ... time for lunch ...

2.00pm ... Friends popped round and we were more than happy to be distracted.

3.00pm ... Time for one last push, I finished digging and weeding the bottom border and Martin sprinkled Feed and Seed on the grass ...

4.00pm ... Time for me to abandon the garden and head for the for shower and for Martin to water the Feed and Seed in and pack everything away.

5.00pm ... Martin finished packing up, totally shattered ... could not face cooking tea, so chippy it was.

Sunday ... the rain was back, well it was too good to last. We were off out to a local antique craft centre type place for a recce of their regular monthly craft fair. We wanted to see if looked like it would be worth me having a table for Hand Made at Number 27.

On arrival it looked very promising. In spite of the weather being pretty bleak there were loads of cars on the car park, far more than we visited a month or so ago.

We wandered past The Red Barn and had a sneaky look inside. It looked really pretty, with lots of bunting and fairy lights and we were excited to explore but first ... brunch. A big fat breakfast for Martin and a prawn sandwich followed by colossal piece of chocolate cake for me, two thirds of which was boxed up to take home.

We then had a quick look round the antique shop before heading for the craft fair ...
There weren’t lots of shoppers about but there seemed to be a steady trickle. There were about 25 stalls, none of which sold the kind of bits that I make so it looked quite promising and we decided it would definitely be worth giving it a go.

We couldn’t come away without calling in at the garden centre where we just had to buy this little beauty for a new shrubbery area we want to incorporate at the back of the new pergola.
On the way home we called in at our favourite nursery and came away with a few more bits ... a chaenomeles, that Martin has been hankering after for a while, a flowering currant, , a potentilla and a variegated grass. They have all been added to the growing collection on the patio until we are ready for planting. Hopefully we will get round to it before the ground dries out and turns rock hard.
There was time for a quick call in at friends on the way home to view their latest projects and talk more garden plans before getting home.

Once back, I emailed to try and book a table for the craft fairs in May, July & August before having a good hour or so on chores ... cleaning the lounge and dining room for me and making a pizza sauce and boning a lamb joint for Martin ... we sure do know how to live 😀

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2 comments:

  1. you sure do know how to live not boring 😀

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    Replies
    1. We certainly are very lucky Elena, to have the time to be able to do the ordinary everyday things that we both love 💜

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