A couple of photos of my spring garden, sadly they don't look like that now, but as Mike has a few days off next week, I think we will get some work done on planting up my flowers arrangers garden at the front of the house.  The weather has made it almost impossible with being so dry, and the soil here when  dry becomes impenetrable, so as we've had some rain, next week (fingers crossed) maybe the time to get that job done. 

Nothing spectacular but they do brighten up the January to April!

Ciao
Sue
XX 

Monday 13th July

My Garden is Coming Along Nicely

I have tried to get some colour into the garden this year so here are some photos of my little patch. I am really pleased with how it is coming along. We don't have any garden so everything has to be in pots etc. The soil in MK is too clay and whatever we tried didn't work, so we had a lovely landscaped patio built by Geoff and we love it. Below one of my pots, the slugs are very partial to this one at the moment, petunia, marigold, lobelia and garden mums, all working well so far.

The trough outside the kitchen window, this is the best it's ever been petunia and lobelia, it's starting to hang and cover the container which is pleasing.

My favourite flower of all, the Lily and this one is a delicate pink, this is near my favourite sitting area, when I get the chance it's a nice place to sit and read. You can see one of Mike's touches, a couple of geezers from the Muppet Show, can't remember their names though, do let me know Mike.


Also near there are my sweet peas, sadly not doing too well, I wonder what I am doing wrong with them?

The hanging baskets are outside the kitchen window,



and are starting to fill out nicely with petunia, lobelia and fuschia.

Outside the back door, more marigolds and mums, in the other pot a petunia and some foliage, I am growing on to repot and grow for flower arranging, when it is eventually big enough to cut.

A close up of this one and I can't remember it's name but will add it when I find out again, I love the colours, hot and sunny and there are plenty of buds for it to keep flowering for some time yet.

And finally some new plants ready to go in, I will update on how these are all looking in a couple of weeks.

Ciao

Sue

XX

Reading challenge 4/16 - currently reading Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carol
Jamie's Reading challenge 2/12 - currently reading Bed and Breakfast Star by Jacqueline Wilson
SLYMI - 1/52

Keep Free Weekend - Saturday 27th June

This weekend is one of our keep free weekends, where we try not to put anything into the calendar and we can either be spontaneous or we can just chill out and not be committed to anything. We try to guard to KFW's very carefully!

So today was one of those days when we just chill out and have lazy breakfasts (coffee and croissants today). We just pottered on today doing little jobs here and there. I've been trying to get the garden into a nice place to sit, Mike will paint the furniture and bits in due course. I'm quite pleased with the way the garden is coming along so far. I've got my hanging baskets and trough in the back garden done, and hopefully the slugs will keep off them and I can show the progress of them through the summer. We currently have a serious ant problem in the back garden and I've been spraying them and pouring boiling water over them like mad. We've found a couple of nests with eggs too and the little blighters, whilst I'm boiling the kettle they are moving the eggs - fascinating but they eat my plants!

We watched the final episode of Robin Hood tonight, poor Guy of Gisborne and poor Robin, surprisingly I (and Jamie) were blubbing when Robin died but I was ok when GofG died. It was so sad when Marian appeared and told Robin she had been waiting for him. (And now sad for us because it is not coming back - Jamie and I had wondered how it would survive losing Robin and of course when those left said "we are Robin Hood" we though ok, that's how they are going to do but no - the BBC has now decided to end it and maybe that is the best decision). I hope they bring a box set DVD out with all 3 seasons, as Jamie and I have really enjoyed them all.

Binnie looking very cute in the garden and recovering well from her op.

And then it was the last CSI NY for this season too. But we had a lovely relaxing day!

Ciao

Sue

XX

Reading challenge 2/16 - currently reading T is for Trespass by Sue Grafton
SLYMI - 1/52

Thursday 23rd April

Busy old day on Thursday, caught up with lots and lots of housework, whilst listening to loud music, which means we can all enjoy ourselves over the weekend, doing what we want, rather than what we have to do. A few bits to finish off on Friday. Cleared all of downstairs and most of upstairs, so only washing to catch up on now after school hols.

Discovered why Twinkle hadn't eaten her food, as the cat flap had locked itself when it fell off again! So she was happy to come in, eat lots and then just crash for the rest of the day. And spent a lovely few minutes sat in the sunshine with a cup of coffee, enough for me to know I had been sat out without sun cream on later in the day. If I may quote Chappers, "I blame the ginger gene!". Note to self, must remember to go to Boots to stock up on sun-cream, as Jamie has my colouring too, it's a necessity!

Once Jamie was home from school, he wanted to be out on his bike. He seems to have gone super mad to be out and about on his bike now, and who am I to stop that, its brilliant. Well apart from the fact that his bike has shrunk and he has got much taller, so a trip for a new bike will have to happen in the next month. As I needed to tidy up the front garden, he played on his bike, backwards and forwards to the park and I got all the dead stuff off the garden and all the rubbish too. I was amazed as I ended up with nearly 3 bags to go to the tip. I had to lose a couple of Cordyline's which had not survived winter so they took up a bit of space. Jamie's friend Jack turned up, so they played in the park, rode their bikes and helped the paper boy with his paper round. I can now do the fun part of the gardening over the weekend and put in some new plants and colour , always my favourite bit. I need to get out with the ant killer, as they were everywhere, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of them. I am not squeamish, but there were so many of them they made me feel like I was itching all over and I enjoyed a very long shower later!

Mike and I caught up with the final episode of Season 2 Spooks, I hope it is not too long before they show Season 3 as I missed the whole Spooks thing when it was on originally, but I am so loving it now. Now would that be because Richard Armitage was in the latest series (maybe), I like him in Spooks but in his leather Guy of Gisborne (yes please!)