Flowers not showers.

My raised bed by the back door, again is looking good, I can never remember what spring bulbs are in here, so it's always a joy to see what blooms. For the summer I have a Fuchsia at each end, in the middle I planted a pale pink peony, which I am not expecting much from this year. Hubby made this bed back in 2019 when he renewed the decking. 

On the left is the Acer we planted into the ground a few years ago, it's slowly growing and will one day fill the space. On the right is my trio of Acers, which are in a huge pot, these are near the bottom of the garden, three different colours. So lovely to see new growth, different colours in the garden.

Spring pots are still performing, now the tulips are starting to bloom, so much colour, most bulbs grow better in pots and raised beds, our heavy clay rots most bulbs through the wet winter months. Top righ is my Chinese witch hazel, plenty of new growth and a tiny bright red flower forming. 

Olive tree and herb area are all coming back to life, we popped the mint into a big plastic pot, which was left over from a previous sort out, many of the herbs have new growth and my chives are thriving. They do well in pots through the cold wetter months. Both raspberries and blueberries are showing signs of growth, the blueberries have a few flowers on. 

These are all for the big raised bed in front of the greenhouse, I am hoping to move a few other things, and purchase some nemesia plants, which should fill the bed with colour. I do have two fuchsias along the fence side to soften the lines.  

I grew gladiolas in two big pots last year, it's worked but the blooms were too high, so I have over wintered them in the garage and soon it will be time to plant, I am thinking of popping them in the back of the red rose bed, it's a sunny spot. 

I spent a few hours outside yesterday afternoon, it was a lovely sunny day, I have sorted my raised bed, moved the big daffodils to the red rose bed, I scattered all the bulbs in photo above and pushed them into the soil, so most of the raised bed is sorted. I did transplant a daisy from the small black tub, it does look as if it has survived the winter, this raised bed should be full of colour this summer. 

I got 7 strips of bedding plants from the village, about 35 plants, I will split and pot them on and once they are a good size I can put them in the ground, but not for about 4 weeks, they are in my cold frame for now. I also got 6 strawberry plants, these are already in my strawberry tower, we should have a good harvest this summer. I only have a bag of begonia corns left to plant, but it's still a bit early for them to go into the pots.

I'm not going to the garden centre with sign group today, I will spend some more time in the garden, I'm hoping to get the wooden garden table out and all my ornaments which sit along the shelf by the fence over the side bed. I am going to move our bird bath from the garden and fill the area with plants taken from elsewhere, the bird bath will revert back to an alpine garden, which means I will need to go shopping for plants. 

 

April showers

 The flower heads on this Amaryllis are smaller than others I have grown, there are seven buds on the top bloom, others only give you four buds, as I said before, they are not as bright as I expected, but these flowers last for weeks, I love them. I do have to move them every time George visits, they are perfect height for him and like his Nana, George loves flowers and plants.

My new slippers and sandals arrived from Clarks Outlet online, I use this site as the savings are great. I have no issues with the size, they always fit, and I just get the design I like, they deliver very quickly. I was super pleased when they arrived, in their 'green' brown box, both boxes had no staples or glue, just as in years ago, the box folded up and you tucked in flaps, even the delivery bag is recyclable. They even send you a returns label so items can be sent back free of charge. 

All the main parts of my cardi have been knitted, now I need to sew it together, not a favourite part, then I can knit the bands and the collar, I am thinking of using silver shiny buttons, I am removing them from my scruffy big cardi, which I will throw away, it's not suitable for the clothes bins. I will have 2 balls of this yarn to return, it went further than the stated yarn on the pattern. Soon I will be working on my original start in the brown fleck.

Hubby has been changing our spare room radiator for a bigger one, it's a job he has done many times, but now being older it's not such an easy task, the floor boards run the wrong way, so he had to cut more than expected. He is an perfectionist, so even things which can't be seen has to be correct, this is the last bigger task required in this room and the house, this should help stop the damp which has appeared in this room over winter.

Most of the days have been wet, so we did not venture out much, just a quick dash to the village for milk on Saturday. I have had my sewing machine out, attaching all the badges to the blanket, it's a job I dislike, but the little lad who this is for, will love wearing it to scouts camp out nights.  I kept my sewing machine out and finished the badges, I have bunting to make for the garden, but my back was aching, so they won't get made yet. 

Nothing has been done in the garden, the lawn is covered in huge pink magnolia flowers, the wind has almost stripped our tree, no wind damage else where, which is good the winds have been strong. Two of my lovely terracotta pots have been cracked in the cold spell late last year, I will use a plastic pot for my mint in the herb section. The other pot has now no bottom, I will put it in a corner of my garden and use it as a raised bed, until the pot completely breaks. 

How do you do it

We have been using the Monday market trader for all our fruit and veg, they have not been there for a couple of months due to ill health, but to keep an income they have been delivering, not only is the fruit and veg the best quality, but other than soft fruits, they use no plastic, the delivery comes in a cardboard tray, which they received the bulk veg in.

We are using the butcher for some of our meats, this photo of his window shows a good fast moving business, so much choice, we only eat meat 3 days a week, we have fish twice and eat plant based twice a week. We buy chicken breast when we need them from Lidl's, we often have their individual pies as well. We are also eating Quorn again as a substitute for mince beef, which I dislike. 

I follow Dilly Carter on Instagram, she is part of the team for the program Sort your life out in 7 days, with Stacey Solomon, Dilly is the tough member and sorts everything.  I have not asked for this book, as I don't think there will be anything much new to me. It is great to see the message being given, stop buying stuff you don't need, use what you have, clear your space have room to live. 

At the end of each month I post the round up for the month, I am always saying how little we waste, the very good reason for so little food waste, is we purchase the quantity we need, so at the butchers we purchase just 5 sausages, and the fruit and veg, just the weight we need. Supermarkets sell you their preferred packet sizes, mainly aimed at a family of four, often the fresh produce does not last for more than a few days. Purchasing items locally is more expensive cost per  weight, so we don't save money, we get great quality and very happy to have no waste. 

We have been living with less for years, down sizing our home 14 years ago was the big eye opener, retiring from work as well gave me the insight into how much we were holding on to, just because we have spent money on purchasing it.  Saturdays was spent shopping, coming home with loads of bags, often filled with stuff we did not know we needed. Clearing my wardrobe of so much clothes was brilliant, I can see everything I own, I should have another clear out soon, I do have loads of items I have not worn for years. Sorting my craft items, I can see what I own and use it, I have less of everything and more money in the bank.

I am not perfect, I recycle and reuse imperfectly, some things I could change but choose not to, I am aware of our global crisis, I can't change it on my own, but if we all do our little bit we can help. Each year I post about Overshoot day, it's the day each year when our country used all the renewable sources for that year, ours is  in August, so the resources used for the last four months can't be replaced. Already this year, some countries have already hit their overshoot days, often these are countries which don't have huge natural resources. 

March Round-up

It's that time of year when I am thinking about the garden and I start to purchase plants and bulbs, I also got compost, sand and pea shingle, so my spend is rising, I had plenty of craft to do here, which included using my stash. I am really pleased with, I did get Aran yarn, it was 10% off.

Purchasing 2 coats have taken my spending up to half of what I spent last year, but both were needed and both were bargains, one half price and the other a third of the price, they will last me for years.

Another expensive month, the cost of the fence and post has like everything else rocketed, but I think hubby would have struggled to do it himself and a our garden is perfectly private again. We did make a huge saving on the blinds for our front windows, but more importantly we did not throw away working parts, less plastic waste.

Again no food waste, we have our shopping and cooking worked out well, we are still using things from the freezer, but we don't want to run it too low. All the leftover food from Mothering Sunday lunch daughter took home, the kids ate through it all quickly. 

My steps were better this month, no weight loss, but last year I put on 4 pounds in March, this year I managed to stay the same weight, so I am taking that as a win. My Pilates class is going well, I also do excise on Monday afternoons, just for an hour, I mix up what we do in class.