Lazy days

 We had an us day on Thursday, firstly in our local town we did some pottery painting, both deciding to decorate a mug, hubby had no idea what to do and looked in their corner of aids to decorate. I do like his, he is very pleased.

I knew how I was going to decorate mine, I took loads of Q-tips to make dots, mine does look busy, will have to wait and see how it turns out, I forgot they had the fineline colours, which would have made it better. 

We also popped into Waterstones, I still had a gift card from Christmas, the gardening year is a book to add notes throughout the year, it has space for 5 years of notes, each month has 5 pages allowing a weekly entry, I will start it on 1st of April, the wildflower book was very pretty and a complete indulgence for me, I only had to pay £3 for both books.

Another new author, I enjoyed this clever book, another story where the outcome is hiding in plain sight, after a horrendous marriage and the death of the husband, she starts to engage with village life, making new friends, but at home in her cottage strange things happen. Book 25 read this year.

We had planned lunch out on Thursday, but we were not that hungry after having a mid morning coffee and cake, so we came home and had an early evening meal. I spent time outside in garden, not doing much, just enjoying the sunshine. Friday we did some other end of town shopping and popped to daughters house, Molly had her swimming lesson after school, George had ran around the last couple of times creating havoc, so we sat with the boys whilst mummy watched Molly swim. 

Saturday more time outside, I planted a new grass in Kurt's head, the last plant died, hubby has drilled a couple more drainage holes, the wind is still cool. Sunday was another day of rest, more laundry was done, I sat at watched wildlife, there are loads of butterflies and huge bee's this spring, The small birds are nesting, Magpies hover hoping to get to their nest, I always make a noise when I see them to move them on. Having very little to do in the garden is very new to me, I'm not good at sitting still. It's gotten much cooler this afternoon and cloudy, shame, it was nice whilst it lasted. 

We both needed a few of rest days, each suffering with back ache due to the tasks completed on Wednesday, we have had a couple of early nights, we are now both awake at 6am, a bit too early for me to get up. I'm feeling rested as is hubby, sometimes you have to avoid everything and look after yourself. Luckily George is behaving a bit better, daughter took them to the park for 3 hours to play with their friends, so a great weekend all round. 

This life

 This is Lola, she is my mum and lives with the small people, my human visits often and comes back smelling of her, they are still missing Frankie, my brother. I have the same lighter patch around my mouth, I am the closest in the litter to looking like her.

I can just about fit into my spot here, I'm tucked behind the sofa, I can still see all of our garden.

The nicer weather she promised me has arrived, not everyday, so I am outside more often, I love the garden.

I have been climbing on the fence beside the messy garden, there are lots to watch, a fox lays on the summerhouse roof at the bottom, he is big and watches me, she has shouted at the fox twice as it started to move towards me. She tells me to stay away, I do like to watch everything, I an very nosey, she watches me when I'm on this fence. I don't climb on the other fence, the nice ladies big dogs bark at me.

I now leave the garden, always over our back fence, there is nothing scary there, I'm never gone for long, she was threatening to pop a camera on my collar.

I was very unhappy when they put me in my carrier earlier in the month, I thought I was going to the cattery, I like Jackie, but I don't like staying in a cage for so long. They took me to the vets, after a wait sat close to too many dogs, I was let out my carrier, the vet said my weight was good, she listened to my heart and lungs and gave me a jab, last time I was here I got a treat, maybe this time she forgot, they gave me treats once I got home as apparently I passed with flying colours. Ask Janice at Jabblog, if you want to know what that means, she has done some great post about such sayings.

Spring bulbs

 Last year I purchased some different bulbs, all popped into pots, I'm happy with these blooms, it's good to see something new to me along with old favourites, these have not all bloomed at the same time, bulbs are an important source of colour and nectar at this time of year.

The pots of spring bulbs look good in front of this bed, they add welcome colour. In the back right corner my forsythia I moved last year is full of yellow buds, I hope to keep it the same size as the Chinese witch hazel in the other back corner.

The fleabane daisies are starting to grow and will soon fill this bed, the hyacinth bulbs in the middle add colour, the new flowering plants in the chimneys are doing well, I'm just waiting for the astilbe to come back in the centre back, then the look will be complete. 

The seating is now back being used this warm sunny weather has started our garden living, this year is about enjoying the outside space we have created, no big or even little jobs, I shall have to learn how to sit and rest. Tuesday we sat outside to eat our lunch, first time this year, we both have everything crossed for a good summer, again we had lunch outside on Wednesday, by early afternoon the sun is behind our neighbours house and it's too cool to sit anymore. I dug out my oldest composter, I now have 2 bags of good compost, hubby cleaned all the gutters and then the windows, both dirty jobs, so an early shower and relax inside.

Both my acers are in full bud, the triple at the back now has small leaves forming, I have 4 forsythia bushes, they are all in bud as is my pomegranate. The strong winds blew off the few remaining buds on our magnolia tree, leaves are now forming, often this tree flowers throughout the year, so I have hope to see plenty pink blooms in the coming months.

This week I found a frog hiding in one of the grasses around my wildlife pond, I am beyond happy, it was the correct thing to wait for creatures to arrive naturally, we decided to leave the pond as it is, I was going to try and raise the front corner, best not to disturb anything.

I popped to daughters so she could attend Will's parents evening, he does not enjoy a couple of lessons at the moment, and can be difficult on mornings when he does not want to go, it's hard for daughter, but she insist he has to go to school, anyway, mummy came back happy, he is doing well, his teacher and school are very supportive and are actively helping to get him back to loving school, whilst his attendance has dropped his work levels have not.

Fruits

 Fruits are a perfect crop for a small garden, most of the berries grow up, therefore not taking to much soil space, my raspberries are showing, I have made a bigger frame for them to grow up with chicken wire over the rounded tops, in hope of make harvesting easier. I already had everything I required to make this tunnel, I have planted a few new roots, which popped up elsewhere in the garden. I have some flowers in this bed to help keep it looking good. The obelisk is no staying here.

My strawberry tower is full of new growth, I feed these each spring, I'm hoping for another bumper crop this summer. I moved my blueberry tub to the other end of this bed, it gets sunshine most of the day, I have cut them right back, so I'm not expecting a bumper crop this summer, they fruit on second years growth. My rhubarb in the middle is almost ready to pick, this is it's third year, it's looking healthy. In front is a small gooseberry bush, again it's the third year, as yet we have not had any fruits, I'm hopeful for this summer.

I trimmed back the blackberries, these are perfect along the garage walls, these were one of the first fruits planted and is a thornless variety, doesn't look much now, it will fill out soon. The vine runs along the side and back walls. 

Fruits are very easy to grow once established, most only require a trim or cutting back at the end of the season. Last year I used small net bags over the strawberries to stop them being nibbled, which worked, I will need a net for my blueberries, I don't cover the raspberries or blackberries, the birds don't take too many, so I'm happy to share. The only fruit I don't have is an apple tree, we both love braeburn, they are sharp and crunchy, good for eating and cooking, I have looking into a miniature for growing in a pot, but I don't think its practical in our small garden. Last year daughter was given a big bag of windfall apples which we used, we have some in the freezer.

We were woken up in the early hours of Sunday morning, a crash and then foxes screaming, at first we thought they were in our garden, later we found our fence panel was broken, on checking (looking over the fence) loads of pots and rubbish all thrown beside our panel had been knocked over, we now have one part of the panel broken, hubby was able to fix the hole to stop it breaking further. It's on mad cat woman's side, so no point is saying anything, we would only get abuse back, she considers it's her boundary and the fence is hers, regardless of the fact we paid for it. 

Monday I sorted my side of our garage, I've popped loads of my bits back outside, the children will love finding all my resin animals, it was cool and dry. We did pop to lidl for a food shop, the total was again higher than expected,  the prices are not slowing, I do feel for low income families, having said that we are on a fixed income but thankful for our private pensions.