My garden in April

This post contains an item that was previously gifted.

I’m not sure if it’s because we’ve been home more, or because the weather has improved but I’ve definitely got many more photos from my garden from April. The ruby stems of the rhubarb were promising at the start of the month, but I’m leaving the plant to rest this year again as I’m not sure it’s totally happy in this pot. I’ll use that time, to admire and plan where I can put it, which may be to move the pot and to try and remove the Lords and Ladies which seem more than happy there.

It’s probably not best positioned under the cherry tree, which is where it had sheltered for the winter. That said it would have had a pretty view of all the cherry blossom, which is now long gone. The pigeons have been keeping a better eye on things than me, and hopefully we’ll stick to our usual agreement of top for them, reachable branches for me.

The dandelions and mint though have no qualms about where they grow, nor where they enjoy the sun.

In the early days of lockdown we hoped for nicer weather, and evenings outside, but also more realistically we bought a new barbecue. When it arrived it was in the hugest box ever, which only just went through the front door. It was soon assembled though, and has been quite a savvy purchase. Especially right now. The evenings weren’t so warm, but we were craving fresh air, and while the skies were clear it was a great opportunity to sit around the firepit, previously gifted by Von Haus.

We also got around to replacing the willow screening, which has been up for many years and which disintegrated on touch. That at least meant it was easy to fit into the green bins, removing the rusty wire as we went. The new screening is up, and fits nicely along the two panels, neatly matching the green wired trellis which we’re encouraging plants to grow and cover.

There’s been some great light during the month, and I do love a good reflection photo and the one below doesn’t disappoint. The agapanthus are enjoying their temporary spot, and I feel bad about having to shunt them into a slightly less sunnier spot. They’re clearly enjoying their stay of execution, perhaps an attempt to persuade me, who knows?

There’s been a couple of real highlights - the laburnum, with it’s yellow flowers and our slow-flowering camellia.

And then there’s been the ferns. I could sit and watch them unfurl, well perhaps not literally, I don’t have the patience.

We also tackled the dead ivy and knackered fence, or what could be known as the prickly boundary. The fence was quite delicate, the ivy very dead and so more of the green wire trellis fencing was put into good use. It’s a really sunny spot, and I think the pyracantha, and the holly I found growing close by, will really enjoy it. The elderflower has grown quite tall and that was freed of jasmine, once it’s flowered and fruited, I’ll cut some of those tall stems back so we stand a chance of benefitting from both.

In the greenhouse my beans were racing ahead, they’ve since been planted out and as per usual, I can’t remember which are runners, which are french beans and which are borlotti. I’ve also sown seeds for basil (eaten), spring onions (no sign) and two types of lettuce mix (half eaten). I’ll be trying again and taking better precautions.

But mostly in April, it’s been the blue skies, yellow flowers and sunbeds that have been most welcome. And yes, sunbeds in April, that has been a treat.

Reflecting on my week #129

The good news is that the plants I had MOH saw in half last weekend have survived, and so my request has been seen as slightly less mad, which is good news. I think it’s a family thing as talking to my dad he told me he’d done the same with is dahlias, and they were growing too.

This week, even though the lockdown advice has changed to stay alert from stay home, we haven’t really changed our routine much. In fact, I think we’ve been out less, we’ve definitely avoided the local M&S. I did pop to the local parade of shops on Saturday and worryingly the chemist had one of the longest queues, second only to the local supermarket. So my trip focussed on the butchers, the greengrocers and the bakers - which definitely makes me sound like a 1950s housewife. Though if anything does come out of this, whether it’s making much more use of our local shops, or noticing our environment more then that can only be a good thing.

I think I’m usually quite an observant person, but even I’m noticing more of my surroundings. Saturday I walked the quieter, and slightly longer way back from the shops, pausing briefly to snap this picture of a yellow rose I’d noticed. I think it’s important to note down how things have changed for us, and what we’re noticing, and being a lover of lists I’ve been keeping one of my own observations. I hope to start to share them here soon, there’s nothing profound, I mean one of the entries is learning that husbands and pulses don’t mix so well, but they our experiences and as frustrating as lockdown can be, I don’t want to lose those thoughts.

This week Facebook scrolling threw up one of those weird things that only social media can. As i was scrolling through my timeline, I spotted a street scene that was all too familiar, the road of our childhood home. Looking more closely, the wall of the house looked oh-so-familiar too, reading the post it had been posted by one of the children who’d lived in our house (though obviously theirs at the time) before us. How peculiar was that?

That prompted a flurry of memories for, not only me, but mum and dad and my brother too. I looked through my photos of photos from mum and dad’s photo albums, but could only find this one of me outside the front door. Clearly before photos in your school uniform became the norm. Here I’m in my bridesmaid outfit for my aunt’s wedding, in Bristol. No idea why, but it must have been after the actual wedding as I have my bouquet, and that red pinafore was floor length and red velvet. I told you it was the 1970s.

I looked our old house up on Google Maps, and it seems they still have the same front door, and i’m sad to say the house looked a little worse for wear.

But the memories in our family Facebook chat were priceless.

We remembered building work to make the downstairs a ‘through room’ which was so very modern, the tortoise that kept escaping and who was once found in the middle of a neighbour’s manicured lawn, and no dandelion was going to tempt him to move. The tortoise, called Joey, was mine - but I didn’t like to pick him up - so our neighbour carried him home for me. I guess if you had a manicured lawn and a rogue tortoise in the middle of it, you would carry it home.

Joey was always the adventurer, and many years later learnt that swimming wasn’t his thing. We remembered dad painting the terracotta tiles in the porch, and having to leave the house via a plank while they dried, which my brother remembered as us being pirates. I’ve no idea what my nieces thought of it all. Though I suspect they saw a different side of their grandparents when they shared that when they moved in (in 1963) they didn’t have a back door key, so to start with had to access the back garden by climbing out the window!

Even though I’m close to finishing my Vintage Hearts blanket, I wanted a new project and one that (I hope) will finish more quickly. I was also keen to see how the colour combination would work. I bought this mint and pale blue cotton a while back, and didn’t use it as I’d expected. In fact, I didn’t use it at all. Taking a strand of each colour, and a much chunkier than usual hook, I’ve completed two squares for what will be a protective sleeve for my laptop. Yes, I’m already hoping that at some point I’ll be able to take my laptop out of the house again!

It works up quickly, and the colour combination is pleasing. MOH thinks it’s bright, i think it’s pastel and can’t help but think that the coral and bright pink combo I’d also thought of, might actually be bright.

We’ve spent a fair amount of time in the garden again this weekend. Working at home has given us insight into what goes on in our garden during the day, and during the week. We’ve learnt it’s cat central, with them boldly heading for a closer look through the patio doors. As soon as we move, our feline visitors scarper. Though it seems they’re getting more used to us, as I looked up after lunch today, this was my view - my very own cat traffic jam, but both of these are #NotMyCat

A TRAFFIC JAM OF #NOTMYCATS

Our gardening this weekend has been less frenetic, and our bins are less full, but that’s ok. The greenhouse seedlings needed some attention, and now the beans are planted out. Some of have joined the two broad beans tied into the canes with the toadstools on. The borlotti/runner bean mix (I can’t remember which are which) are already taller, or as tall as the broad beans. There’s another couple of pots too, as well as nasturtiums in a couple more. I’ve sown some more basil and lettuce, to replace those that got munched, and tried some spring onions again - I’m hoping for some to germinate this time round!

Another gin box arrived this month and we’ve broken into it this weekend. MOH cooked paella Saturday evening, and so that seemed the perfect accompaniment to cooking. Both were very good, and while we’ll have paella for lunch a couple of times this week, we’ll skip the gin, well until later in the day anyway!

So another busy week, a busy weekend, and still in lockdown - I think we’ll be here for a while yet, and thankfully the gin isn’t about the run out anytime soon!

Reflecting on my week #128

Well, my online shopping arrived with almost no fanfare and no drama, except for some very late omissions which I still haven’t received an email about. There were the expected omissions - plain flour, which seems to be literally like gold dust here at the moment. Today though our local shop had some self-raising flour, so now do I too.

I made a cake at the weekend - a coffee and just-about-enough-walnut cake - which used self-raising flour, so I’m happy enough. The no-show from the shopping which left me slight more perturbed was the lack of tomato ketchup, thankfully that has been easier to source (pun not intended, but I’m keeping it in as it amused me).

Fish and chips without ketchup, nope, not here. Especially fish shop fish and chips, which has in fact been our only takeaway during the lockdown, and which tasted so good (with ketchup).

The cake was in part to commemorate VE Day, and so out came the cake stand and I even added buttercup, with walnut decorations too, though less than the recipe said.

When you read, or listened to the stories from VE Day it’s hard to imagine the enormity and the significance of the day. It was definitely a day that should be marked, and had the planned events taken place I’m sure we would have seen them on the TV, even if it was long after they’d taken place.

And so, out came my flag, which I bought back in 2012 and took along on our visits to the venues at the Olympic Park. It hung in our front window the whole day, and proudly too, even forming the backdrop for a video call, or two.

Much of the rest of the weekend was spent in the garden. Some gardening, some lounging in the sun. It was too nice not to! We were even out gardening on Sunday, which was much chillier than the days before. This weekend the focus of our gardening was on yet another tangle of jasmine and pyracantha, this time with some dogwoods, ivy and a cherry tree thrown in for good measure.

It’s looking tidier, but as ever, there’s still more to do. Though as you can see, there was some time spent tying the jasmine’s new growth (and some of the older growth too) onto the trellis.

We split a plant that dad had given us a few years back which had grown and grown, and was threatening to take over the raised sleeper bed at the end of our garden. It had grown with two stems, but even so MOH didn’t seem convinced when I handed him the saw and marked where to cut.

Both halves retained good roots, and so I’m hopeful both will survive. One half went back where it came from, and the second into one of the pots we manhandled into place just a couple of weekends ago. I’m findings that more and more, gardening is becoming a large puzzle and tasks are counter-dependant, so we find ourselves in a chain or sequence waiting for nature to catch up with us and our plans.

We’ll get there, and hopefully our plants will too - especially both halves of the one I had MOH saw!