A Teeny bit of Pottering About.

Standing firm against the gales of storm Henry, Artie and I ventured out into the back garden while the winter sun shone with the promise of longer, warmer days to come. In fact today was quite mild, dare I jinx it and say the whole season has been wet, windy and mild?!

It may have been just a brief half an hour that we were outside, but it was time well spent. At present I am feeling rather cooped up! So today when I saw the sun shining I knew that I should spend my lazy morning tending to my spring shoots.

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Hellebore

The first thing that catches the eye is the white and purple flashes of Hellebore flower heads. I love Hellebores, or Christmas Roses, they are such good growers and always a welcome colour in the more shaded areas of the garden.

With Goldfinches squeaking at me to leave the garden, so they could have their breakfast of sunflower hearts, I noticed many tips of green shoots breaking through the damp soil! There are a number of tall Tulip bulbs sprouting and I think I have some welcome Snowdrops (they never grew last year), but they seem to be getting eaten by something so I never get to see them bloom!

The Hyacinth has been going strong since Christmas and has a twin growing along side it now!

I managed to replant the sad looking Lavender. I took it from its patio pot and placed it where there is some space in the main garden area. In front of this I also replanted some seedlings of the Poppy seeds I had growing. I hope they take to their new home and flourish!

With all this replanting, I have made space now for five patio pots to be free for when I attempt to grow some vegetables later in the year.

Last year I bought seeds for Spring Onions, Green Beans and Peppers. I have not attempted to grow my own vegetables before so I wonder if any of them will survive?

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Vegetable seeds.

Have you ever attempted to grow your own vegetables? Did you get much harvest? Have any tips?

Christine x

Flowers and Butterflies.

The past weekend proved to be busy, more so than previous weekends.

On Saturday we drove to North Wales to escape the rain. We (David, his cousin Keith and myself) did not have any ideas on a destination. We just thought we would drive for a bit, find the rain was all over the North West and come back home again. How wrong we were!

We drove on towards Anglesey and the clouds lifted and blazing sunshine and blue vistas surrounded the island! We stopped off at Holyhead and watched as the Irish ferries came into port. There was a brown tourist road sign saying ‘RSPB South Stack.‘ I checked Google and the website said it was one of the best places for wildlife!! So we decided on going there.

We spent the next three hours walking the coastal pathway, wandering down uneven steps (me, in a a dress and heels!) towards South Stack Lighthouse and spotting some butterflies flitting about the wild flowers.

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Amongst the days highlights included: A Puffin, an Osprey, Stonechats, Silver Studded Blue and a Meadow Brown Butterfly.

The Sunday was my nephew Nathan’s 5th birthday party! 5 years have gone by so quickly! David, Mum and I went to his garden party. The children all had a visit from Olaf, the snowman from the film Frozen!

Olaf

Olaf

As you all know I have been gripped with anticipation on the budding of my Passion Flower. Today, Wednesday, coming home from work. I looked out of the kitchen window and there blooming before my astonished eyes was a flower! Two flowers in fact! I can’t wait for more to flower, the plant is covered in buds! 😀

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