Life is Bloomin’ Good….

We are in the midst of enjoying a lovely holiday back in the U.K.  A much needed holiday but I haven’t done much cooking.  Instead we’ve been enjoying the diesel gala and walking our pins off.  The weather has been absolutely wonderful and I’ve taken the opportunity to indulge in a bit of photography with my SLR.  

With the gala there were some pretty sweet setups with cameras, my husband teased me saying I had lens envy.  ðŸ˜Š.  True enough!  Though this post is a quick one to share some photos I took of flowers, I will be doing a post on the gala.  


The cat is a neighbourhood cat that is just desperate for belly rubs.  Soft thing.  Tomorrow we’re popping over to France by ferry. We’re in need of wine.

Walkabout As My Veg Grows

I get so excited when our garden comes alive and the blooms burst forth.  There is satisfaction to see the veg we plant flourish, especially the seeds we plant as there is always some breath holding until they poke up through the soil.  For the most part our garden is doing well.  The only issue is our tomatoes went into a bit of a shock because even though I kept an eye out on the nightly temps in the weather reports, the reports were wrong and it got much colder than it was supposed to.  It looks like most of them will recover as I really prepped the soil with nutrients but I will have to switch out some with the leftover plants we still have in the greenhouse.  It is hard not to worry over them like a mother hen.

Walk with me through our garden…

Garden 1 2014

Our black beans are half an experiment this year as half of the beans that we planted were from beans we harvested.  So far so good!

Garden 2 2014

Good old Brussels Sprouts.  Once these are ready to harvest I have a few recipes to try for my husband.

Garden 3 2014

I always look forward to the pea flowers.  So delicate.

Garden 4 2014

I was beginning to wonder when the potatoes were going to poke through but they finally did and they are growing strong.  We just picked one kind this year and gave each bit more space to see if we get a bigger harvest.

Garden 5 2014

These did very well this year.  Usually we lose about half of the seedlings but fingers crossed most will keep going.  Which will be great for our homemade stock.

Garden 6 2014

I think something has been nibbling the tips of our onions as there are quite a few that are suspiciously flat topped.  I’ll have to keep an eye on them.  Haven’t seen any telltale footprints though.

Garden 7 2014

This flower is so aptly named.  Jumps up everywhere but it is pretty and edible so I let it.

Garden 8 2014

We find the strawberry plants everywhere and we dig them up and put them back in the strawberry patch.  A bit like herding cats…

Garden 9 2014

I think these are ready to start cutting and make some crumble or tarts.  Which will make our son very happy.

Garden 10 2014

The weather needs to clear as we have a boatload more pepper plants to get into the ground.

Garden 11 2014

Life is good.  🙂

 

 

The bulbs are coming, the bulbs are coming!

Spring is in sight.  The depths of winter are losing their grasp with the warmer days.  We had a gorgeous day this past Sunday.  Warm sun was winning the battle against the snow.  I was pottering about with opening the greenhouse and doing transplanting when I noticed that our garden was waking up.

Spring bulbs 1 2013

I was so excited to see the bulbs coming up!

Spring Bulbs 2 2013

I did a bit of weeding but the ground is still very squishy so it was awkward crouching down to weed.  Don’t want to compact the soil!

Spring bulbs 3 2013

In this little plot we planted tulips, daffodils, and crocuses.

Spring Bulbs 4 2013

Won’t be long now before more of the garden will start stirring.  Of course the rest of the snow needs to melt. 🙂