Just a suggestion of sun ..

It was dry and sunny for at least two hours today ..and after weeks and weeks of looking at the garden , quagmire ,with a heavy heart and then closing the door or running out to see to animals then running back in and shuddering , I went out today .. For at least half an hour ..followed by very nosy girls and I dug a little , turned over some soil with worms in .. Sighed .. Stayed , chatted to chickens then .. Spit , spit spit .. Argh no , ok , back in ..but it's a start , it's a beginning ..Seeds are arriving by post as are empty wine boxes to be used as planters but until this rain ceases , nothing will happen .. Patience x

Posted with Blogsy

For the love of mud ...

I'm pulling this blog up by the roots and starting afresh , so many plans last year all brought down by the devastating news that we had cancer in our home .. I went into survival mode .. The garden sadly came last and that coupled with some very urgent work needing to be done on the house meaning our chicken ladies had to be moved out onto the lawn for a while and well ... The picture speaks for itself ... Depressing eh ? .. But I have renewed energy and dog eared determination to go for it this year .. Seeds are gently being ordered , lessons have been learnt and off we go xx

Posted with Blogsy

A word about bolt ...

My cabbages and rocket have succumbed to bolt . I can only assume its down to the fluctuating weather situation we have been having but it's a nuisance nevertheless.. one of the downsides of gardening .. I will treat my ladies to them and start again .. frustrating but there you go .. On the subject of my ladies , we have had them for three weeks now and they have settled in lovely . I don't know I have them really .. we have a pack leader (Jenny J ) my light Sussex but she does no more than express vocally her wants and needs on a regular basis and often jumps onto my window ledges to look in to see what we are doing .. they continue to make me laugh on a daily basis !

The arrival of the ladies ..

Chickens have been part of the plan for a fair few years here but we haven't been at the point to get them so after a lot of research and planning and waiting for what seemed liked ages we finally went and picked some up .. Unfortunately all didn't go quite to plan as the birds had not arrived and my boy was very unsettled by this.. whilst I was sorting him out my mamm had a word and we agreed that coming home empty handed after all the preparation involved was not an option so in the end we came away with two pure breeds at a fraction of the price ,one Gold Laced Wyandotte .. info here and a cream crested legbar info here . We will go back in a week to pick up two hybrids to join them.
They have settled in quite nicely and are quite different in their little characters .. Spottie Dottie is a shy and quiet lady , content with gentle scratching and looking around , her cluck is more of a peep and we hardly know she is there..Mrs Norris on the other hand is a busty , bossy vocal madam who likes to be noticed .. No eggs yet .. but that's fine as the eggs are a bonus for myself as I really just enjoy their company and the enjoyment of watching them .. 

Mrs Norris on the left , Dottie on the right..

Out the front progress ...

I have been enjoying the sunshine the last few days , it's beautiful and all the plants are rocketing on , we have today , had a massive de weed out the front and given all the dandys to the rabbits , they were very grateful indeed . This year the front will be slightly different to last year in which we had an explosion of courgettes that took over in a trifid style fashion ! We currently have garlic in and a thyme chive border , but after reading so much about our poor bees this year I have decided to combine , bee friendly plants with cabbages and kales in between , as well as beans up the wigwam pole I want to include some sweet peas again for our bees .. , that's the plan anyway , I'm sure the slugs have a different one ! X

 

Posted with Blogsy

Hurry up ... !

A friend popped over to see me yesterday with a tray of lettuce he had left over , and I was very thankful , but it made me think... I'm all behind ! Peeping out of windows , waiting for this awful weather to stop and Spring to come , the amount of times I have wanted to get started and haven't because it was just far too cold ! We go away for a week and suddenly , we are all behind .. quick get sowing xx 
Today we are going to get out there and clean up the garden ready for the growing year and I have sown Tomatoes , peas and radishes .. I feel like I'm catch up duty xx

Warmer weather...

I don't know about you , but I'm restless , really restless , I want to get on , let's face it we had a dire Winter ..wet ,and more wet and I'm desperate to get out in the garden , but every time the sun shines , I think it's time to go , but the lack of shoots and the chilly breeze brings me back in ... This week is promising to be warmer so the boy and I have chanced a little sowing . Salad into the propagator and Broad beans , straight into the ground .. What the heck , throw caution to the wind and let's try ... eeek .. hope it works x