Mothering Sunday and the garden.

Mothers Sunday in the garden.

I’ve just had a great weekend. My grandson came to stay to help out in the garden. He was fantastic, we went grocery shopping yesterday morning and he carried all the bags, loaded them into the taxi, brought them indoors, unpacked the bags and then put all the groceries away. After lunch he started painting the garden fences. Needless to say I’m very impressed. 

He spotted the frogs in the pond. Yep my frogs are back!

First I saw one, then he saw two, which I thought was wonderful because with two frogs we get tadpoles. The grandson was fascinated by the frogs; he kept stopping work to kneel by the water. He wanted to catch them or hold them and wasn’t pleased that I wouldn’t let him. He seemed to think of them as some sort of novel ‘pet’, I don’t think he understood frogs don’t want to be touched. I warned him off because I didn’t want him scaring them away but it’s a bit of a shame how kids these days don’t seem at all in tune with the natural world. 

  Anyway he continued to sit by the pond on his self imposed frog watch and eventually he counted a total of eight frogs all visible at one time. I’m looking forward to a bumper crop of tadpoles later this year. I finally persuaded him to return to painting fences.

While he painted I set about my first tidy up of the year. I’ve removed all the dead foliage from last year, sorted out the strawberries and raked up the dead leaves. 

My garden looks a terrible mess over winter because I leave all the leaves and bits of dead plants rotting where they fall, but it doesn’t seem to do the garden any harm. Once I raked away the debris the snowdrops and daffodils looked a lot better, very cheery. 

I have something pink in flower. I think it’s the Japonica bush I planted a while ago that has, until now, done absolutely nothing. Anyway, what ever it is, and I do think its Japonica, it’s very pretty and has been in flower for a couple of weeks. What a strange time of year for something to blossom.  I seem to remember buying a Japonica bush a long time ago because I once picked quince fruit from a Japonica bush and made extraordinarily delicious jelly. Hopefully, if this is my Japonica bush that I’d forgotten about, and if it’s the right sort of Japonica, I’ll be making quince jelly later in the year.  That’s a lot of ifs and maybes but, I remember that quince jelly being utterly delicious.

These odd little purple flowers have been flowering all winter, even through the winds, frost and ice. Wow………….that’s impressive, brave little flowers.

This morning the grandson finished painting the fences while I did a bit more tidying up and then, we fed the birds. He was a bit noisy in his admiration and considering his excitement, it’s a wonder I managed any photographs at all. But we were visited by a sparrow family and a lone robin and they all hung around long enough for some quick photos.

And then it was time for the rest of the family to visit. It’s mothering Sunday and they bought cards, flowers, cakes, chocolates, wine and box of luxury toiletries.  I feel like a very spoilt mother and granny. 

Another very rushed catch up

Another very rushed catch up.

I don’t remember how I ever had time to go to work. I seem to remember the last thing I posted was a description of the new bathroom and a tale of how I had been virtually evicted from my house while it was being fitted. I was allowed back home late Monday night. I spent all day Tuesday and Wednesday cleaning away dust and builders debris and then Wednesday evening; I went back to my daughters house to look after the dogs and the house while they went to Ireland for a few days. I ended up taking my other daughters child with me because she had to work and couldn’t find child care. The house I’m looking after is about 5 miles out of town, two bus rides away and in the middle of the country. I’ve been busy looking after the dogs, amusing the grandchild and keeping the two wood stoves going to ward of the chilly country air. An inconvenient coincidence is that today; while staying in the country, I have to be in my own house all day to wait for the all important phone call from the electricity supplier to discuss how much they are going to increase my monthly payments by. Granddaughter and I were up at the crack of dawn, sorted the dogs out, raked the stoves, loaded enough logs to burn until we return this afternoon and were sitting on the fist bus before eight this morning. I’m dreading this phone call, apparently there was something wrong with my electricity meter, it was not accurately recording what I used, they replaced the meter, recalculated what I owe and are about to call me to give me the bad news. I then have to take the granddaughter back on two buses, hope the stoves have not gone out, feed the dogs, feed the granddaughter and get an early night ready to do the whole thing again tomorrow.
Tomorrow I have another inconvenient coincidence; the washing machine repair man is coming to look at my machine. In the midst of cleaning my house and washing curtains and sofa covers, the machine stopped working and tomorrow was the earliest day they could get someone out to fix it. This means I have to be back in my own house again tomorrow to wait for the repair man.
My daughter is coming back from Ireland late Sunday and I should be staying back home from Monday morning. On Monday I will only have twelve days before leaving for France. During those twelve days I have optician appointment, dentist appointment, eye hospital check up, visits to sick friend in Dundee and another friend staying with me for three days. I think that leaves me with about five free days to do all the things I need to do before going to France. I’ll attempt some work in the garden and maybe even hang the wall paper in the bathroom which will completely finish it off.
I still have a garden full of builders’ rubble and the old bathroom set plus, lots of assorted junk from my two sheds (thought I would take this opportunity to empty the sheds of years worth of accumulated rubbish) all waiting to be taken to the tip. I’m not sure exactly when that is happening but the daughter who is in Ireland is going to arrange the trip to the tip sometime next week.
A rather shifty looking young man driving a white van pulled up outside my garden and asked if he could have the old taps. As well as the taps from the bathroom there were about four other sets of old taps turned out from my shed. I said sure just take what you want; it’s all going to the tip anyway. He then sorted through every thing and took all the assorted taps, an old shower, a complete set of pine bathroom accessories, cabinet, mirror, towel rail, loo roll holder etc, an old TV, an old vacuum cleaner, a pile of childrens videos (who has a video player these days every one has DVD’s?), a pile of old wall brackets plus the pine shelves they support and he even detached the pine toilet seat from the old toilet and took that. He opened every bag of builders rubble, old tiles and stuff to check there was nothing of value in any of them. My kids thought I was silly to let such a ‘shifty’ looking person into my garden and sort through the rubbish but I don’t like sending any thing to the tip if it can be used and was quite happy to let him take things away. In fact I doubt I would ever have turned my shed out and agreed to so much going to the tip if they had not ‘encouraged me’. The bit that made me laugh was when he finished taking any thing that could possibly be of any use to any one, or had any sort of resale value, he then asked if he could take the rest of the rubbish to the tip for me for a small fee. I did think that was a bit of a cheek.

At the moment; much as I would like to, I’m not getting the time to go round visiting and commenting; and if things carry on like this, it may be another month or so, (when I get back from France), before I settle down and get back into visiting every one regularly. I can only apologise, I never imagined the first couple of months of retirement would be so busy. I’ll keep you posted and try my best to get round and visit before I disappear off to France for the Month.

The handsome looking chappie at the top is a fine looking garden ornament, described on the box as ‘’ a decorative bird, a stylish eyecatcher for every garden made from corrosive resistant metal’’.  My granddaughter spotted him while we were out doing some grocery shopping. If I ever have time for gardening this year………..he is destined to stand next to the pond. 

17 days post op and feeling better

17 days post op and at last……………I’m beginning to feel better. My sight is far from normal and I still get very tired BUT; I’ve vacumed and mopped my floors, done some ironing and even spent an hour in the garden. That may not sound like a huge achievement, but it’s a lot more than I’ve been able to do recently. This evening I’ve even bottled some of the onions and now I’m in the middle of doing the beetroot. I have to admit, I’m tired now and need my bed, but its even good to be tired. When you can’t do any thing, you don’t get properly tired and then you don’t sleep and then you end up permanently tired but unable to sleep because you’re not physically tired...........

 I’ve even updated my garden blog……………here

http://trespasserswillbecomposted.blogspot.co.uk/

June 2, 2009, Multiply, weekend in the garden with no camera

This weekend was the best so far this year and I managed to spend quite a few hours out in the garden.

It was one of those absolutely beautiful hot summer days when the sun is so strong it shines through the plants and lights up the leaves leaving gorgeous dappled light patterns every where.

On days like this I miss my camera so very much.

So desperate was I to capture this summer day and the moving patterns of light and shadow,

 I resorted to taking photographs with my mobile phone.............no substitute for a 'real' camera, but the best I can do right now.

delete reply acousticeagle wrote on Jun 3, '09 Makes me feel warm just looking at those. As you know, here on my side of the planet, it's winter. Brrrr. Drizzly rain today, foggy on the mountain over yonder.

delete reply dianahopeless wrote on Jun 2, '09 ~sigh~ I just love all the blue in and around your garden. It is so beautiful and calming. And these are great shots to have been taken with your phone. I think your garden would be a great place to put a tipsy pot or two. I've done 3 of them so far. My next will be made out of blue and white pots. I need more of them though to make one that is tall enough.

delete reply veroniquemariquita wrote on Jun 2, '09 Have you ever noticed , Loretta, that even with the best of cameras somehow you just can't seem to bring that magic indoors. You got some really great shots.

delete reply djdx wrote on Jun 2, '09 Lovely! What luck to be able to take photos anyway.

delete reply sandycaar wrote on Jun 2, '09 ty, loretta, for sharing your garden with us,,beautiful plants you have,,and although the pictures may not be quite as good as with your digital camera, they are very good,,don't give up on using it until you can get a new camera,,happy gardening :)

delete reply greenwytch wrote on Jun 2, '09 i LOVE the blue fence! really nice photos, ma'am. ; D

delete reply veryfrank wrote on Jun 2, '09 Considering that these are mobile phone photos, they are quite good. When my camera was on loan to a friend, I bought a disposable digital camera and was quite surprised how good the pictures can be.

delete reply brendainmad wrote on Jun 2, '09 These are good photos, Loretta. I think I'll try to take more photos with my mobile phone!

delete reply bennett1 wrote on Jun 2, '09 I miss your camera too. You are such a great photographer. Your garden is lovely and I have always loved your blue fence.

delete reply msowens1 wrote on Jun 2, '09 what a wonderful garden..... can't say we have had any summer here yet..... but hopefully soon!

July 27, 2008, Multiply, I'm Composting

I’m Composting!!

 The recycle & compost system where I live is supposed to go like this; we all have green boxes collected at the kerbside every week for glass, plastic bottles and paper (no cardboard), we have big green bins for compost waste shared between two houses and collected every two weeks, we all have big black bins for the little bit that’s left over and they are collected every second week. In reality this is what happens; very few people bother to recycle anything at all. Most people fill their big black bin with every thing and when it’s full they start to fill the big green bins (the ones intended to be shared and used for compost waste). The result is; every one complains that the black bins get too full and should be emptied every week not every two weeks (they would be fine if people used the system properly),  the council workers refuse to remove the big green green bins because they don’t contain compost waste, and most importantly, and to the point……….…..

I had no where to put my compost waste!!

Well now I do, I am the very proud owner of my very own, brand new, compost bin!! This all started a week or so ago when a flyer from

‘NATURAL SCOTLAND’ & ‘WASTE AWARE SCOTLAND’

Came floating through my letter box. I was very impressed, the smallest and cheapest compost bin only cost £6.00, I ‘phoned immediately, ordered over the ‘phone and had delivery within the week. They even sent me very nice little leaflets (all printed on recycled paper of course), explaining what you can compost, how to compost it, what to if it’s too dry or too wet, how to tell when the compost is ready to use and lots more.

                                                                                    . The bonus is, apparently you can compost paper AND cardboard, which means there will be more room in my big black bin ‘cos I’ll compost the cardboard and more room in my green recycle box ‘cos I’ll compost the paper. On top of all that, I shouldn’t have to buy potting compost next year, which is such a bonus. They even sent a little silver bin to keep in the kitchen to collect the kitchen scraps ready to go out to the compost bin.    

                                                                             The little kitchen bin comes complete with plastic liners made from potato starch which can be removed with the contents and thrown into the compost bin. WOW…… that bit I really liked, how good is that?? Plastic liners made from potato starch and designed to be thrown straight into the compost bin!! Seems there are all sorts of accessories I can buy for my compost bin, an aerator to turn it with, think a big stick would probably be just as good, a sieve to fine sieve your compost prior to use, liquid and powder activators to speed up the composting process, replacement potato starch liners, and even a little book to tell you all about composting.

Even though my garden is small I do have this tiny area right at the back where I allow it to go wild. I have a little blue wooden garden divider just to partition off that part of the garden and I’ve recently put big pots behind the garden divider to stop it leaning and falling over. This seemed like the perfect place for my compost bin, so here it is……………….

Comment deleted at the request of the thread owner.

delete reply paulishd wrote on Sep 6, '08 I do composting too, in a small plot just past my garden, kind of like what you have. I love not having to put raw food scraps into the disposal!

delete reply veroniquemariquita wrote on Jul 28, '08, edited on Jul 28, '08 If I am giving a garden tour, I sometimes throw a tarp of a nice natural color over the mess just to camoflauge it a bit, but all my friends are gardeners so they understand.

delete reply veroniquemariquita wrote on Jul 28, '08 I live way out in the country and have my own self-designed waste disposal system. I am not overly concerned with appearance so I just have a large rectangled area sided up with cinder blocks (three high). anything that can be composted goes in there and just waits to break down. It is divided into two parts so each spring the uncomposted stuff can go into the other side to expose the black gold. All kitchen waste goes to the chickens (Sixteen of em) This keeps them happy and they give me from 12 to 14 eggs a day. We do have trash pickup (all in one) for the stuff that doesn't fit either of these catagories.

delete reply veryfrank wrote on Jul 28, '08 Hello to natural Scotland and waste aware Scotland from the naturally wasteful USA. You have such an advanced recycling program, and to include composting too. It is such a shame that people will be lazy and ignorant and not follow the rules. We have many recycling efforts here, some good, some not so good. We also have the same problem with people, few of them 'get it' and play by the rules. People can be lazy, ignorant and apathetic, but must we have so many like that? There are pigs, goats, sheep and buzzards; I am not still talking about the people, they are all among nature's recyclers. I have decided that a real goat and potbelly pig might make good neighbors, at least they recycle, whereas the look alike pair now there, will not recycle. I am most impressed with your compost bin and the accessories. I have not heard of such an all encompassing program here. If there is one, you can bet that what you paid for the bin, wouldn't begin to even cover the postage. But I believe that such a full and hopefully functional program is really priceless. Thank you for the very nicely organised blog post.

delete reply greenwytch wrote on Jul 28, '08 congratulations, and happy composting. i am also a composter. ; D

delete reply brendainmad wrote on Jul 28, '08 Your composter sounds really nice. I really don't understand why people can't put things into the proper bin. It doesn't take a great deal of intelligence nor time to separate it, not to mention that in doing so we're helping our environment. I open the yellow bin to put in cartons and tins (unfortunately in a plastic bag) and smell onions!

delete reply kathyinozarks wrote on Jul 28, '08 thats wonderful! I compost all of our food scraps, mostly in a big pile as I live in the woods, but I also have a really nice compost tumbler too-will add you to healthy mondays-

delete reply kentuckydeb wrote on Jul 27, '08 WE ALL SHOULD DO THIS. ITS GREAT FOR FLOWERS AND THE GARDEN. I DIDN'T PLANT THIS YEAR . THE PICTURES ARE PRETTY.

delete reply driveonac wrote on Jul 27, '08 Hurrah for composter! I've got a neat little bin just at the end of the stairs to my deck, and a big pile (horse stall sweepings) in the back of the property. It all gets used one way or another. Better for all of us than burying in a landfill somewhere or dumping in the ocean.

delete reply darkdecember53 wrote on Jul 27, '08 I know many people who wouldn't be without a compost bin. One in particular has a huge one and very beautiful and lush grounds. We already have good soil here in the northeast U.S. but I can see the benefits would be great for clay soil. Be prepared for the odor though lol. You may think a stick will do but as time goes by, the smell can really become so pungent it might knock you over lol. WTG and best of luck!!! I plan to get one next year as part of my new project to revamp my backyard into a perennial paradise. My Dad always told me to use fish bones in the garden and I can attest to that sound advice. His grounds were always rich and the grass was thicker than a carpet.

delete reply bennett1 wrote on Jul 27, '08 I have never had a compost bin, but I have a compost pile in the back part of the property. That is where all my kitchen waste goes, and in the spring I always have nice organic material for my clay soil.