Wednesday 29 October 2014

Horses

I don't usually post two blog posts up so close together, but my horse mad daughter has just shared this on facebook



Thank you for dropping by and leaving yesterday's comments. I googled what 'sfs' means - the best answer was 'Shout for Shout' - apparently it's if you press the 'like' button on somebody's site then ten to one, they'll press the like button on yours. So there you go. Have a good week. Molly

Tuesday 28 October 2014

Thank you Amy (2)

My special friend Amy has nominated me for a 'lovely bloggers award'.. Amy, thank you and I loved reading seven things about you as well. Amy's Blog  And not only, but also our best blogging  buddy has started the ball rolling with seven lovely things we didn't know about Cro either... tada...Cro's seven  I'm a bit like Cro and I don't usually do 'Blog Awardy things' either but this is a special one  for Amy -
Seven things about me  - (not that lovely mind)
1. Going to start with Cro's no7 - he says every morning he wakes up happy. Every morning I'm happy to wake up.

2. I have never eaten hummus in my life. Didn't even know what it was and I had to look it up on Google - Hummus - it does actually look very healthy eating - so well done Amy. I cook our main meal mid day and it's usually chicken and vegetables, sausage stir frys or some sort of fish.

3. I love learning new things - did my first grocery internet shop last week and was so pleased. I hate supermarket shopping - crowded alleys, bumping trolleys, crass music which does your head in, looking for stuff I can't find and coming home without it, long queues at the till, humping bags into the car, humping them out again, tripping over ravenous cats, trying to feed ravenous husband and having to pack it all away. No, this was definitely, definitely a lot more civilised. Just put another order in for tomorrow.

4.
Chip basket/ garden sieve

Loo roll centres/ seed incubaters


I am really into recycling. I needed a new chip basket and discovered that my old one made a brilliant sieve for sieving soil for my seeds. I save every cardboard toilet roll holder. Make cuts at one end about 2" deep, bend the ends over. Hold them under the tap to dampen them and then dry them out. Fantastic for growing bean or sweet pea seeds in. In the Spring, all you have to do is to plant them, carton and all.

5. My family mean everything to me. I love it when they just drop in on me unexpectedly. I like to think that I'm loyal to my friends. The worse thing that can happen in my book is to betray someone or to be betrayed. I hate anything false.

6. Red is my favourite colour

7. I saw the abbreviations SFS on something and didn't know what they stood for - I do now. Do You?

Like Cro, I'm not passing this challenge on to anybody, but would love you to join in the fun if you want to.

Tuesday 21 October 2014

Adiós Gonzalo

It's been a strange sort of day today - one minute blazing sunshine, howling gales,  an ominous black sky and stampeding rain the next. I was so glad that I'd invested a tenner's worth into Rhino tape from Coed-y and hunkered the poly tunnels down as much as I could the other day. Amazingly enough they are still holding together (only just) and my plants have survived (so far). But we've been lucky - not so good  in West Sussex and all along the west coast, right across up to Cumbria,

Brompton Stocks and Antirrhinums.
At the end of August, I collected up quite a few  seeds from around the garden. I sowed them in margarine tubs, pricked them out into seed trays and they  are coming on quite well. Will over winter them and plant them out in the spring, (she says). Our son and his partner are planning to get married in July/August next year so I've offered  to grow  flowers  for the pending 'do'.  J said that she would like to do her own flowers, so I told her that she can have the pick of as many as she wants. (If she wants them). I love weddings.


This was one little patch, earlier on in the year - a bit of a mish mash of all sorts.


My friend brought me two baby holly hock plants last spring. They were gorgeous and have produced loads of seeds. I've planted a sea of little seedlings from them. Hope they survive the winter. Looking quite good up to now.

Aquilegia and Pinks
Another scrambly border. This pic was taken in early summer. I spent yesterday cutting everything back and rooting out all the weeds, I've taken some cuttings of the one in the front so I hope they 'take'.

Canterbury Bells, lupins and a little oak sapling I found growing in the middle of them.

Holly hocks,  lupins, primulas  and  stocks



Still got a few runner beans hanging on. Hope there's enough to make a meal tomorrow.

Musselburg Leeks

Carrots


Beetroot
Marrows
The wind seems to have died down at last so here's to tomorrow. Have a good week
Molly

Wednesday 8 October 2014

A Pile of Bricks


I feel a bit bereft today. Well, to tell the truth, O/H as well. The house in the picture belonged to a much loved neighbour of ours. Our house is the one in the distance below. We often used to walk up the single track up the hill to visit him. O/H had known him all his life and he'd lived in that house for as long as I can remember as well. We used to take our grand daughter for a walk up there when she was little. He always had a tin of sweets on the sideboard and the kettle on the stove.


He was well into his nineties when he died a couple or so years ago.


Old Jack  loved all his animals and had three cats and a sheep dog which he adored.
The house was subsequently put up for sale and sold to a successful local business man. When we looked across up the hill today, the house had gone. All that was left was a JCB digger grinding away and a pile of bricks.