A dull day

I have been plagued with this Bursa for so long, injections haven't worked (the consultant said that they might not, and the last ones haven't)  I think it has addled my brain!

I am back to square one! doing physio three\four times a day, and back to not being able to drive, which is a real nuisance when you live in a village and want to go into town!  In fact, since Mr L bought me the car, I have only driven it once!  But although I am a virtual "prisoner", I can't complain about the "prison and surroundings"

It's an absolute gorgeous village that I live in, it has a little store with a part time post office, there's a fabulous pub, doctors, butcher, newsagent, furniture shop, chemist, two places to eat, 2 hairdressers,
doctors, baker's, and more!  But, I need help with my computer, my son is in Japan with his family and away for a few weeks so I am expert less!  (and there are none that I know of here)

So, until I work out what I have or haven't done,  "it's only words, and words are all I have......"  as the great song goes!

I've digressed sorry........


We needed help to move our shed (made of tin) which was tucked away by one side of the bungalow where the boiler and oil tank are. .  (We have three entrances to our garden, as it is wide rather than long very handy)

Our really, really, oil fired central heating boiler, despite years of resuscitation,  finally gave up the ghost! It was very thoughtful of it to wait until the warmer weather (you do realize that if it wasn't for my hours of begging each day for sunshine, and warmth, you might not be enjoying the summer that we are having! (Sorry, I'll leave out the back story of plumbers in laws)

The plumber is now coming on Monday, yes this Monday (fingers and toes and everything else crossed)

So we had to move our metal shed that is round that side of the bungalow to make room for the chap to work safely (I know what you are thinking but the original gargantuan old boiler is at the other end of the bungalow, hence the lovely space we had for the metal shed!

God blessed us with a dry day, and I slathered on my thick white cream, and covered all my extremities etc against the sunshine.  (Longer story short)  Conifer hedging stuck out too far to get the shed through without dismantling it (never again will I help erect a metal shed in a bad winter, holding the frame  up on my own in freezing rain, whilst the men were in the cosy garage trying to work out the instructions (Sorry, I digress, it would have been easier with the photos!)

Long story as short as I can make it...........the conifer hedge was in the way! Soooo a quick (ish) trip home to the other end of the village for the chain saw, and big trailer!  All started to go well. albeit dusty and dirty) until we discovered that our absentee neighbour, had tied up his 6ft tall fence (posts) to the trunks of our (inherited, ancient conifer trees!  So now we have a beautiful section of our garden with tall, unsightly conifer trunks, BUT, we don't have to look at them as our garden room extension hides most of them, for now!

At last the metal shed could be lifted high above the boundary, (by the three of us) and settled in the far corner behind the tall silver birch tree, and makes a nice feature of it)  And surprisingly the shed was incredibly light and makes a nice feature of where the compost bins were!  It's screwed down onto it's base, and I have already put the gardening tools in it that I use regularly, and some planted up pots around the front and side to make a feature of it!

One weary happy bunny, keeping her fingers crossed that it might deter the neighbourhood  cats from using it as through route to get the neighbour's and making her dog go bonkers!

Thank you for popping by!  I am off to solve the puzzle of missing photos!

My gardening saga

I have been plagued with this Bursa for so long, injections haven't worked (the consultant said that they might not, and the last ones haven't)  I think it has addled my brain!

I am back to square one! doing physio three\four times a day, and back to not being able to drive, which is a real nuisance when you live in a village and want to go into town!  In fact, since Mr L bought me the car, I have only driven it once!  But although I am a virtual "prisoner", I can't complain about the "prison and surroundings"

It's an absolute gorgeous village that I live in, it has a little store with a part time post office, there's a fabulous pub, doctors, butcher, newsagent, furniture shop, chemist, two places to eat, 2 hairdressers,
doctors, baker's, and more!  But, I need help with my computer, my son is in Japan with his family and away for a few weeks so I am expert less!  (and there are none that I know of here)

So, until I work out what I have or haven't done,  "it's only words, and words are all I have......"  as the great song goes!

I've digressed sorry........


We needed help to move our shed (made of tin) which was tucked away by one side of the bungalow where the boiler and oil tank are. .  (We have three entrances to our garden, as it is wide rather than long very handy)

Our really, really, oil fired central heating boiler, despite years of resuscitation,  finally gave up the ghost! It was very thoughtful of it to wait until the warmer weather (you do realize that if it wasn't for my hours of begging each day for sunshine, and warmth, you might not be enjoying the summer that we are having! (Sorry, I'll leave out the back story of plumbers in laws)

The plumber is now coming on Monday, yes this Monday (fingers and toes and everything else crossed)

So we had to move our metal shed that is round that side of the bungalow to make room for the chap to work safely (I know what you are thinking but the original gargantuan old boiler is at the other end of the bungalow, hence the lovely space we had for the metal shed!

God blessed us with a dry day, and I slathered on my thick white cream, and covered all my extremities etc against the sunshine.  (Longer story short)  Conifer hedging stuck out too far to get the shed through without dismantling it (never again will I help erect a metal shed in a bad winter, holding the frame  up on my own in freezing rain, whilst the men were in the cosy garage trying to work out the instructions (Sorry, I digress, it would have been easier with the photos!)

Long story as short as I can make it...........the conifer hedge was in the way! Soooo a quick (ish) trip home to the other end of the village for the chain saw, and big trailer!  All started to go well. albeit dusty and dirty) until we discovered that our absentee neighbour, had tied up his 6ft tall fence (posts) to the trunks of our (inherited, ancient conifer trees!  So now we have a beautiful section of our garden with tall, unsightly conifer trunks, BUT, we don't have to look at them as our garden room extension hides most of them, for now!

At last the metal shed could be lifted high above the boundary, (by the three of us) and settled in the far corner behind the tall silver birch tree, and makes a nice feature of it)  And surprisingly the shed was incredibly light and makes a nice feature of where the compost bins were!  It's screwed down onto it's base, and I have already put the gardening tools in it that I use regularly, and some planted up pots around the front and side to make a feature of it!

One weary happy bunny, keeping her fingers crossed that it might deter the neighbourhood  cats from using it as through route to get the neighbour's and making her dog go bonkers!

Thank you for popping by!  I am off to solve the puzzle of missing photos!

Well I am still 'here' and have a new family!

First the boring bit, I am still suffering from the Bursa, so I can't walk far and still in pain.  On the positive side, the breath is still going in and out, so all's right with the world!  I have had another procedure at the hospital, "a really big ouch!" but it still hasn't worked.  So I am trying to keep myself perky, and what better way than buying some new little girls, after dear old Dolly popped her clogs!

Freckles looked so sad and lonely on her own, and my heart went out to her!

They have already found their way in to the delapidated old fruit cage, and are "cleaning up" all the black currants that didn't make it to the freezer.

At the minute they are like cheeky boisterous teenagers having fun and getting up to mischief! I can sit and look at them for hours!

Talking of sitting, I had an appointment at the hospital for another "procedure" to try and fix the bursa (after a nasty fall whilst working in the garden and catching my foot in some net fencing over a year ago.")

I have been spending hours every day religiously doing my physiotherapy exercises without fail!

I had all my hopes pinned on this (2nd) jab, so that I can get back to working in the garden, and trying to make some changes, and to be able to drive again!

No change yet, but I live in hope.

I had my heart set on making some changes in the garden, and having a dedicated Country Garden, in front of the studio shed,  fenced off! with a gate, so that I can sit in my sit in my 'studio shed' and look out onto a country cottage little garden, so that I can watch the chooks safely free ranging, collect cutting flowers from a dedicated area, for flower arranging, hopefully have a veggie patch and spend time just daydreaming!   I love my studio shed, I flower arrange in there, do a bit of arty crafty "stuff", and just sit and daydream looking out of the window, and not being smothered in my special thick suncream!

Talking of daydreaming, I was sitting in there this week, thinking back to my childhood and the walled village I lived in.

http://www.barnardos.org.uk/what_we_do/our_history/barnardos_homes/barnardos_homes_london/barnardos_homes_london_girls.htm

I wish the photo was in colour!  It was beautiful, and there were huge flower beds and dozens of gardens.  I spent ages chatting to the gardeners, they were lovely.  I always remembered them after I grew up and left.  I think that is where the 'seed' was sown in me for growing "food", flowers, shrubs!

Here's my dream 'cottage today' in the rain!

Thanks for visiting.  I'll start updating this again regularly!

I'll be back soon!

  

Well I am still 'here' and have a new family!

First the boring bit, I am still suffering from the Bursa, so I can't walk far and still in pain.  On the positive side, the breath is still going in and out, so all's right with the world!  I have had another procedure at the hospital, "a really big ouch!" but it still hasn't worked.  So I am trying to keep myself perky, and what better way than buying some new little girls, after dear old Dolly popped her clogs!

Freckles looked so sad and lonely on her own, and my heart went out to her!

They have already found their way in to the delapidated old fruit cage, and are "cleaning up" all the black currants that didn't make it to the freezer.

At the minute they are like cheeky boisterous teenagers having fun and getting up to mischief! I can sit and look at them for hours!

Talking of sitting, I had an appointment at the hospital for another "procedure" to try and fix the bursa (after a nasty fall whilst working in the garden and catching my foot in some net fencing over a year ago.")

I have been spending hours every day religiously doing my physiotherapy exercises without fail!

I had all my hopes pinned on this (2nd) jab, so that I can get back to working in the garden, and trying to make some changes, and to be able to drive again!

No change yet, but I live in hope.

I had my heart set on making some changes in the garden, and having a dedicated Country Garden, in front of the studio shed,  fenced off! with a gate, so that I can sit in my sit in my 'studio shed' and look out onto a country cottage little garden, so that I can watch the chooks safely free ranging, collect cutting flowers from a dedicated area, for flower arranging, hopefully have a veggie patch and spend time just daydreaming!   I love my studio shed, I flower arrange in there, do a bit of arty crafty "stuff", and just sit and daydream looking out of the window, and not being smothered in my special thick suncream!

Talking of daydreaming, I was sitting in there this week, thinking back to my childhood and the walled village I lived in.

http://www.barnardos.org.uk/what_we_do/our_history/barnardos_homes/barnardos_homes_london/barnardos_homes_london_girls.htm

I wish the photo was in colour!  It was beautiful, and there were huge flower beds and dozens of gardens.  I spent ages chatting to the gardeners, they were lovely.  I always remembered them after I grew up and left.  I think that is where the 'seed' was sown in me for growing "food", flowers, shrubs!

Here's my dream 'cottage today' in the rain!

Thanks for visiting.  I'll start updating this again regularly!

I'll be back soon!

  

Thank you for your lovely comments............

Well I am now happy and come to the conclusion that I have made the right decision about giving up my allotment in October.

I had a very nasty fall almost three months ago and am still suffering from a bursa on my hip where I 'impaled' ,myself on a sawn off conifer branch (in the garden hedge)!  How silly was that!  So the decision was made for me really!

It convinced me that I have enough fruit bushes, and strawberry plants to keep us in fruit supplies most (if no all) of the winter!  I have some raised beds for next year's potatoes and other veggies,  and the fruit cage is absolutely bursting with strawberries, blackcurrants, and rhubarb!   I have already made lots and lots of jams, and am still freezing the fruit for winter!  When I can scrounge a lift from Mr Lottie,  I have gooseberry bushes groaning with fruit ready to be picked, (hopefully not already been picked by other humans up there, but hoping that the netting will deter them!)

So I'll be back as soon as I can with any further news I hope!  Thanks for popping in to see me!

Goodbye Allotment

I have decided to give up my allotment plot at the end of the year.   Things have changed up on the site.  More people, which isn't a bad thing, but petty thefts/destruction, and lots of discontent.  It's just not the happy and easy going place that it used to be!

But the good news is that I am now growing quite a bit in my garden.  I have taken cuttings of fruit bushes, rhubarb, etc, and they are all growing very nicely.  I will only grow enough for the two of use, and not spend a lot of time processing the crops, cooking and freezing them. 

It's time to spend more time just having fun.

I'll be back soon with photos from the garden 'plot'.

Thank you for visiting.

R.I.P. Daisy

 

Daisy - my much loved and most favourite Pekin Bantam that I have ever had

died yesterday at the grand old age of 14 years.  

On Monday she was the last one out of the nest box, but I didn't think anything 

of it as she was getting so old.  She spent a fabulous day in the sunshine

catching insects and sunbathing with the others.

Yesterday I was up and out early and she was enjoying sitting in the 'ground floor' nest box in the sunshine in the run, and didn't come running out for food.  Off I went for my three mile walk, then back again to load my car up for my trip up the allotment.

I had a look at her and she was asleep snuggled down in the Hemcore in the sunshine.

I stroked her before I went and she didn't move.  It was then that I realised that she had died.

Oh how I loved her - what joy she gave us - she was such a treasure, but she 

lived a very very long time for a bantam - the longest lived chicken I have ever owned.

We have some lovely memories of her - and great photos - and scrummy eggs over the years.  So whilst I do feel sad (which is rather silly you will think) I am so happy that she lived a long, peaceful and healthy life right up until yesterday.

 

Me 39 He 30

 (click on photos to enlarge)

We had heavy rain all weekend (luckily after we had  been up the allotment very early Saturday morning. 

Today we made another visit to tackle

 The Comfrey plants.  With all the rain this year they are shoulder height!

 We have just finished the last of last years old potatoes.

I mashed the old spuds that were left a few months ago, 

and put them into containers  and popped them into the freezer.

Instant toppings for Shepherds Pie or Fish Pie, Bubble and squeak

and so much more!   We were unwilling to buy some supermarket potatoes, 

before ours are ready to dig up!   It was then I had a Eureka moment!

 Last year I covered up the big bed at the other end of my plot.

Mr Lottie was too ill, and I didn't have the time or energy to work on it.

I noticed a few weeks ago that the heavy covering had a couple of bulges in it!

So I made a cut and found evidence of a little bit of potato foliage which grew bigger

over the weeks.

I persuaded Mr L to investigate which he did so reluctantly

 Underneath the plastic clean and dry, not even needing to be dug up

 Were two varieties of potatoes

Some big 'jacket' potatoes.  By the time we eat these 

this years crop will be ready to start digging up! 

RESULT!

Meanwhile

 I was cutting and composting the comfrey

I am so pleased with the end result - I even mowed the lawn path!

And, and, and, at 6am this morning I did my 3.5 mile walk and did the same walk in reverse tonight!   Anything to get away from the neighbours howling hound!

Have a good week everyone.

Allotment hours worked. Me 37 He 29

Wow - I have had a busy week up the allotment - fruit picking!

I have at least 25-30lb of strawberries in my freezer.  We have eaten pounds - literally over the past few weeks, and I have made lots of pots of strawberry jam for those winter days - you can't beat a thick slice of toast on a winters evening lathered with butter and strawberry jam.

My black currant and red currant harvest at the plot has  been negligible - my fault entirely. This time last year Mr Lottie was so seriously ill and when it came to harvesting my fruit bushes I resorted to cutting off their branches, and bringing them home so that I could pick  them here and look after Mr L. So this year there is almost zero berries -well just a couple of ice cream tubs full.

The strawberries have more than made up for the shortfall though.  I picked and froze another batch of 13 lb of strawberries, and have a couple of ice cream tubs full for desserts in the fridge.

Mixed with other meager pickings of various odd berries here and there I managed to make another four and a half pounds of scrummy mixed berry  jam.  It is made of strawberries, black currants, raspberries, red currants, jostaberries, gooseberries and loganberries.

 All of which the birds would have eaten.

 It tastes so scrummy - yes I do confess to scraping out the jam pan

and eating the 'dregs'.  Well you just have to don't you!

And froze another batch of 12.5 lb of strawberries

I check over each strawberry, clean them etc. Cut the huge ones in half

then open freeze them on large metal trays.  

Once frozen I use a spatula to loosen them off the trays and pack them in 1lb bags.

I have taken the netting off all the remainder of my berries - I just can't keep picking it, so the  birds or whoever can help themselves!

It hammered it down with rain over night and today - so I feel very virtuous at having spent the hours I did this week up the lottie - and makes it all worthwhile!

 

Me:31 hours He:29 hours

 Whilst getting ready to load my car and go up the allotment

I thought you might like to see the early morning rituals of my 'girls'

 This flower pot outside my back door was filled to the brim with Forget me Nots

Once the flowers died back, the chickens ate the seeds then

decided, if they kicked out the dead plants, that it would make 

the perfect dust bath.  So first thing each morning it is a rush to

see who gets first go at the bath!  It is so funny to see them pile on

top of each other, shoving and pushing for 'pole' position, throwing dusty

potting compost all over their backs, wings, rolling on their side to dust

their tummies and under their wings!  All five of them have a go!

 Almost two hours of picking strawberries

 Eat one, pick three

How could I resist!

But somehow I managed to resist quite a few in fact 12lbs today!

I also picked 17lbs of gooseberries the other day too, and half a pound from my garden yesterday,

I got distracted by a huge Hercules Bomber doing what seemed to be a slow fly past just for me and Mr Lottie

 By the time I dashed to my car to get my camera

It was on its way over the village towards a mystery destination.

It flew over the Mall on the Queens birthday together with lots of other planes

including the famous Red Arrows absolutely awesome

 Meanwhile whilst I was picking stawberries, red currants, and a few stalks of rhubarb

my darling Mr Lottie did what he does best - dug up the remaining weeds.

Another few hours well spent.

Home again to a lunch of home grown salads, and chicken grown for me by my farmer friend, some new home grown potatoes too!

Makes all the hard work worth while!

I bagged up the strawberries and popped them in the freezer.  

Made a strawberry, gooseberry, redcurrant, blackcurrant, rhubarb crumble for Sunday lunch

and flopped down for the rest of the day!

Thank your for visiting

Oh - I forgot to add that I made another 4lbs of strawberry jam too!

Monday - Me:27 He:24

Yesterday I spent some time 'pottering' around in the garden, and early this morning I did some more work in the fruit cage - this time pruning the currant bushes which I have grown from little stick cuttings.  It looks like that I will be getting a nice crop from them this year.

Whilst in there, I noticed that some of my squash/pumpkin plants were now a healthy size to transfer up the allotment, so I dashed off up there before the rain set in and set to work.

This bed has been deep rotorvated, and weeded and dug over by me twice already - I forgot to take a proper 'before' photo - this is all that is left of the deep rooted thistles.  It is just astonishing how they sprout up so quickly despite my digging down deep to get all the roots out!  It's quite soul destroying at times - which is one of the reasons why I have reduced dramatically how much of my plot I keep covered (about a third of it) plus areas of this veggie bed covered up until I need them too!  - But I ran out of plastic so had to leave a couple of areas exposed.

It took me ages to deep dig this bed again

 Remove all the weeds -(wheel barrow full)

 I had to get my skates on - the skies clouded

 And it became quite dark and ominous - I was the only person up there in the entire field!

 I used six wheel barrows full of well rotted horse manure which I had to weed first 

 It was as black as coal and very wet and heavy so I am suffering the consequences now with a bad back!

It was made worse as the rain hammered down whilst I was doing it!

I also managed to do a bit more weeding of the bed that Mr Lottie was working on last week, and it produced some new potatoes which we had for lunch!

The heavens opened, the rain hammered down and I got drenched to the skin, looking like a drowned rat.

The plot is looking pretty good!

And I am sitting here - having showered, had lunch, a bit of a rest, and a choc ice!

Not a bad way to spend a day huh?

How did I ever manage to work full time.

It's not all bad being old!

Allotment hours: Me 25 He:24

A trip up the allotment was a must after our little break in York. 

(Well two trips actually)

As usual it was a bit of a shock at the amount of weeds that had grown in just one week!

  Feel free to click photos to enlarge

The first thing we had to tackle was the rampant growth of the fruit bushes on the left hand side and more weeds - which was a mammoth task and took us 2 hours to accomplish.

 The blackcurrant, redcurrant and loganberry bed has been weeded, and harshly trimmed so that they all fitted comfortable back under their netted framework - the birds had already started on the redcurrants!

I have weeded yet again the now tidy strawberry bed, and picked the remaining rhubarb at the back - so whilst not looking the perfect of cages - at least it is secure from marauding birds (and other 'night time' visitors of the human variety!)  It's too much trouble to pull up the stakes and get under the netting to pick my crop - at least I hope that this year it will be!

I have already picked almost 5lb of strawberries - eaten most of them with ice cream or yoghurt, but last night whilst Mr Lottie was out bowling I made...........

Five pounds of strawberry jam.  And yes, I know, the  bottom left jar has a little bit of the 'froth' in it - but actually it seems a waste to wash it down the sink, as it tastes lovely just like the strawberries and does not in the least detract from the flavour of the jam - in fact when spread on crusty bread and  butter, you can't even notice any difference from the rest of the jam!.

Mr Lottie was working hard weeding this bed

Before

After - although I didn't give him quite enough time to finish it as I have a strict allotted time that I can stay out in the sun - with everything covered up and prescribed factor 50 sunscreen on my face which is so thick and white I look like a clown! Yes really!

Some surprises amongst the weeds were some lovely little new potatoes - grown from any tiny ones that missed the harvest last year!  We had some today with home grown salad and boy were they buttery and delicious!

 The squash were in dire need of a drink

 So we soaked them

 

Admired the new potatoes  and........

I picked the remainder of the gooseberries off one of my two bushes

(I had already picked some before we went away, before someone else did)

In just a week they had gone from small to.......,

 

4lbs of very large gooseberries - now topped and tailed and in the freezer.

A very busy four hours over two days - but very rewarding.

 Off to have some home grown fruit salad with lashings of thick yoghurt!

TTFN

                                                         Thank you for visiting

A sneak peak of my garden today

Since my last post I have been very busy working in the garden at home which is looking really lovely this year.  It's great to have got on top of things and having got everything under control again.

This time last year, Mr Lottie was very very seriously ill, and awaiting a life saving operation - so gardening and the allotment didn't feature too highly on my list of things 'to do'.   It was all that I could manage to do the basics.

The lawns are looking good (I did some weeding and feeding which has improved them) and of course the chooks work hard fertilising them eating the bugs!

I bought some wire edging fencing for around most of the beds, and much to the chooks disgust, it has so far foiled all their plans to use the beds as dust baths.

 Just a glimpse of some of the many flowering plants this week

 The Alstromeria are doing well this year

 I have different shades of yellows and other colours dotted around

 I have a couple of urns of succulents which are, at last, growing this year

 We went away to York for 5 days and whilst we were away the Phormium sprouted two flower stalks!

 Just on of several clematis flowering their hearts out

 One side of 'Kath's Garden' flowering alongside the garden room

lots more to flower yet too

 Pretty pink cranesbill geraniums

 

Just a glimpse of my blue border

I have been working hard up the allotment today so that's all for tonight.

More catching up to do tomorrow.

We escaped our nasty neighbour's howling dog for a few days in York - such bliss!

Back to the howling today though - such stress

(click on photos to enlarge)

Thank you so much for visiting