Another Week at Home

Hi there everyone 😀

Our third week at home was another busy one. After a Monday morning doing errands in town we managed to pot up all of the Impatiens and the herbs that I’d accumulated, before ending the day with our first garden BBQ … be it that we actually ate inside …

The Impatiens are the only annual I am buying this year. As we are away so often it is just too much of an effort to keep everything watered but I did feel the need for at least a splash of summer blowsiness and these will do just nicely.

We’ve planted most of them individually in small pots for the plant stand … but we have put three in Martin’s mum’s old bread pancheon which we have drilled drain holes in the bottom of …

Tuesday started with a hunt for some suitable plywood to use to replace the rotten stuff on the canopy above the front door … which is looking really shabby against the new windows …

We ended up at the local wood yard, which is always a real treat for Martin. There is just sooo much wood and the equipment they used for cutting our huge board of plywood down so we could get it in the car was just amazing … it was done in no time …

Back home I finished off tidying up the front garden which had been abandoned in favour of the Sunday afternoon BBQ at David’s, whilst Martin gave the plywood a couple of coats of wood preserver.

The back garden is actually starting to come together quite nicely now … there’s still loads to do but our time at home, coupled with some good weather, has helped us to take our time and just keep tackling things in ‘sizeable chunks’. This has meant that we’ve actually quite enjoyed some gentle pottering … getting bits done slowly, but having time to enjoy the sunshine too …

On Wednesday I was at food bank and Martin did another big chunk of jet washing and on Thursday, after Martin dropped the car off for the annual service and MOT and I supervised the window fitters replacing a broken window pane, we spent pretty much all day pottering out back in the sunshine.

The main objective was to plant the self set ferns that we’d potted up last year. We have a bit of very shady border where we have tried planting all sorts to no avail. We thought we’d cracked it when we planted a few small shrubs and hoped that would be it, but none of them thrived and we have now pulled out the last of them.

There are a few things that seem to do well there so we’ve left those and dotted the ferns in between … it is supposedly the ideal environment for them so fingers crossed this is the last time we end up replanting there …

On Friday we got the blinds back up at the new windows and actually went on to have a fairly lazy day. The grass got cut and our plans are now to rake again and then overseed and see what happens.

On Saturday it was another early start as one of our friends came round to help Martin have a go at replacing the very shabby looking canopy above the front door.

It actually went a lot easier than we all expected and we are just left needing to give it a couple more coats of wood stain … and I am hoping for a much better finish than the first coat looked, as it’s dried a bit patchy …

We got on so well that we had time to put the electric rake over the grass again and overseed it. Lawn seed is not something we normally have much luck with but we have been very generous with our sprinkling and are hoping that the birds will leave some to grow. We have everything crossed on this one and it will be a tentative few days and lots of watering before we know if our efforts will have been worth it.

On Sunday we decided to head over to mum’s whilst she’s away and do a bit of bush trimming and a bigger bit of jet washing. She been asking us to do it for ages but we’ve just had so much other stuff going on this is the first really chance we’ve had …

Four hours later and very tired we’d managed to cut back two very overgrown shrubs and finish all of the jetwashing …

We are now hoping for a few relaxing days before we head off up to Yorkshire for our annual get together with some of my old work friends … though we may try and top dress the lawn and give the canopy another coat of wood stain before we go 😜

*******************************************

Time at Home

Hi there everyone 😃

After we got back from the lodge at the beginning of the month we have the luxury of three weeks at home before heading off for a long weekend, meeting up with old work friends, in Pickering.

Our first few days back were spent unpacking, washing, shopping and just generally trying to get organised as we knew we’d got a couple of busy weeks ahead.

We came home on the Wednesday and it’s always amazing at this time of year what a difference a couple of weeks makes in the garden. It had really filled out and was starting to look more like the garden we know and love …

The self set ferns that we’d dug out of some of the pots and planted up were going great guns. We added the job of planting them out into the garden onto the ever increasing list of garden jobs …

The grass had looked a bit of a disaster before we went away … having had a bit of a moss treatment and rake …

Normally it looks more like this …

When we got back it had made a valiant effort and looked like it might just be salvageable …

Inside … the spider plant that had been gifted to me as a baby was thriving. Not only has it had offspring of its own … each tiny new plant actually has flowers … they are tiny but perfectly beautiful …

On Thursday we did shopping and errands for us and our elderly neighbour. We also took mum, as she’s been unable to drive for a couple weeks following the first of two cataract operations. 

On Friday I did an extra shift at food bank as they were short … whilst Martin bottled some beer. When I got back I made up a batch of peanut butter granola and a speculoos tray bake for the freezer so it all felt quite productive. The grass also got its first cut of the year.

Saturday was another productive day. I spent a couple of hours at craft group working on an embroidery project that must be in its third year …

… and Martin fixed the downstairs loo which had stopped flushing … so needed to be taken to bits and have a new part fitted. It will be nice not having to go upstairs to use the loo or, alternatively… keep filling a bucket to flush

When I got back from craft group I did some more batch cooking. This time it was chilli and bolognaise for the freezer, whilst Martin raked more moss out of the grass … sending it back to looking a bit of a sorry state.

On Sunday it was bank accounts and paperwork for me and the first stage of jet washing for Martin … followed by a bit of planting … peas, French beans, zinnias and morning glory. We also managed to pot up a clematis that we’d bought before we went away and some dahlia tubers …

On Monday I had a nice summery and healthyish breakfast …

… before getting cracking on my third lot of batch cooking … cheese leek and potato pies, whilst Martin jet washed the brick edge round the grass. We then had an afternoon of potting and pottering, with lunch in the garden in the sunshine with mum … getting to use the first of the salad leaves …

Tuesday was time for a visit to the dentist and a little bit of gardening once we got home … weed and feed on the grass and a bit of cutting down. It was lovely to see the first of the Rhapsody in Blue rose in full bloom …

It was a nice easy tea … home made lasagne with some of my batch cooked bolognaise from the freezer … which actually ended up feeding us for two days which was a real bonus. 

On Wednesday I was back at food bank and Martin did a marathon pot saucer washing session … a job that we didn’t get round to doing at the end of last summer. 

Thursday and Friday were taken up with new windows being fitted at the front of the house. Something I’ve been really nervous about as, after much deliberation, I’d decided to switch from hardwood to UPVC. Whilst I would much prefer wood again there were just too many benefits to having UPVC to make it a viable option. 

Obviously it’s always a bit disruptive having any ‘men’ in to do a job but it actually went fairly smoothly and I am pleased to report that I am pretty happy with the final result. I’m even more happy that it hasn’t really resulted in any additional jobs being added to the list. Don’t you just hate that? You get something done … only to find you’ve created another stack of things that need doing …

Whilst they were doing the windows Martin and I did manage to get a few bits done in the back garden. Staring with repositioning some of the pots …

It is actually starting to look quite nice out there now with quite a lot of the early summer colours starting to show …

On Saturday we were off out to see Alison as The Lady of the Lake in Spamalot, which was fabulous … even though a lot of Monty Python humour just passes me by. We went to the matinee with mum. David and Bobby and had tea at McDonalds and then went back to David’s for an evening of game playing …

Sunday was the first kind of free day we’d had in ages and the plan was to get the front garden tidied up, following the window fitting. There were lots of forget-me-nots to pull up and daffs to dead head. We were set for a good day of gardening … only to wake up to the family WhatsApp group full of messages offering the option of an afternoon BBQ back at David and Alison’s … celebrating ‘The Lady of the Lake’. Well that was too good an opportunity to pass up so we had to limit our gardening to the morning.

We did actually get on quite well and managed a good clear up of the borders and gave the box ball bushes their annual trim …

We did have to be very careful of this little guy though … who we stumbled upon quite by accident …

We spent a lovely afternoon at David and Alison’s. The whole family was there and it was lovely to spend a bit of time together just generally eating, drinking and chilling in the sunshine.

Now it’s Monday and we have been to the opticians for eye tests and shopping and we are just building up to doing a bit more potting on. 

The house is a tip and the ‘to do’ list is still long but I guess we will gradually work our way through it … but whilst we have sunshine we will definitely be making the most of the chance to spend time outside. Here’s to another productive week 🍻

*********************************************

Exploring :: The last of the sunshine

Hi there everyone 😃

After our day out at the Nefyn Show on the early May Bank Holiday Monday we had another lovely day of sunshine forecast for Tuesday and we decided we’d have another bash at finding Penllech beach. 

On the map it looked a beautiful long stretch of golden sand and we’d seen it from a distance when parked up at Porth Colmon on a previous meander. 

As far as we could see the only way to access the beach was by walking across the fields from a car park conveniently placed on the road. It looked like it was about a 10 minute walk along the Penllech Beach path and it looked like the path finished with a gentle slope down into the beach, which all felt eminently doable … even with Martin on his crutches. 

We'd passed the car park before and knew there were no facilities so we had a sneaky quick pitstop at the Towyn Farm camp site as we were passing. The car park was quiet and we were soon parked up with this as the view ...

It looked stunning, but yes ... there were cows. From the car park it looked like the footpath was in a different field and they all looked very quiet and peaceful anyway so we decided to give it a go ...

It is a lovely footpath but we were a little nervous as the path did go right through the field of cows ... be it that when we started out they were on the other side of the stream ...

We were soon through the cow field and through a gate into a field of sheep ... which give us no worries at all and the stream soon fell away into a waterfall down towards the beach ...

It was a glorious day and a really lovely walk. With stopping to take photos and Martin on his crutches it only took about 15 minutes, so definitely easily doable. The path down to the beach was, as we hoped, a nice gentle slope ...

We couldn't see a single soul and decided to head left, towards Porth Colmon as there were lots of interesting looking rocks, which looked like they would do well to perch on ... but first we had to negotiate the stream via one of the handily placed 'bridges' ...

We had a mooch along the beach through the rocks ...

... before finding a good perching spot ...

... where we just sat awhile taking in the view ...

It was an absolutely stunning beach and would be perfect for paddling or rock pooling ...

We decided to head back the way we had come and were soon back at the cow field ... they weren't on the opposite side of the stream now so we made our way very tentatively through ...

... and back to the car park ...

We'd been very good and took a picnic with us so decided to drive a bit further along to Porth Colmon, hoping to find a nice spot to eat and we got very lucky in finding a bench with the most fabulous of views ...

We had definitely a few more favourite spots to add to the list and will definitely be back again ... hopefully next time it will be warm enough for a paddle 😀

***********************************************************************************