Green Manure
The raised beds have come to fruition in our garden and are now sprouting their first crop, a green manure from mustard seeds. The seedlings are now big enough to see from the house, a few days ago,...
View ArticleFind the root
Waiting for a new chainsaw chain, as I have worn the current one out. I could sharpen it myself but need the right files etc. to do it, and end result might be debatable. To pass the time after the...
View ArticleWet day blues
Left a job for today expecting it to be dry this morning, but forecasters were wrong, and it was raining about 4 hours earlier than predicted. Yesterday new chainsaw chain arrived, fitted it and it was...
View ArticleHouse invasion- or how to entertain the grandchildren
Since the last post we have had a houseful - both my son and daughter have been visiting bringing two grand kids each, which is very nice, and is a diversion from the garden activities and other...
View ArticleOne down, one to go!
One cupressus hedge is scalped and the branches cut up and transported to the recycling center. One of the bits of growth cut down was nearly 10 feet long, which meant in total the top was about 19ft...
View ArticleFan club of Rosie
As a break from hedge cutting E and I decided this morning to go to the Heavy Horse and Country Show on Rede Farm near Bury St Edmunds raising money on behalf of the Millennium Farm Trust. This was...
View ArticleA hedge to far?
It was time to tackle the second hedge in the garden- if anything more overgrown than the first one, and bounding the neighbours garden.Duly bought a large board as per earlier post to mimic the...
View ArticleHedgerow Bounty
I feel the touches of Autumn in the air today. This could be because it is damp and overcast, or it could be that nature is in advance of itself this year.As part of the walk pattern for Rosie, one...
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"Slogin"
On our recent caravan holiday break we came across a really bounteous discovery of a blackthorn tree, absolutely loaded with sloe berries- more than we have ever seen in one place. In a lane only used...
View ArticleHotter still.
Over the weekend I purchased two replacement radiators and new valves for two cold areas in the house, one in the bathroom and one in a now larger hall since the house extension was built. The...
View ArticleHotter update
Well, discovered yesterday that draining the central heating system also turns the boiler off- DoH! I should have figured that out beforehand- it was only when E said that she had to re-adjust the...
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Apprentice piece and garden update
Having been very busy over the last two years before retirement the mosaic hobby I started took second or even third place to other tasks, especially last year when the house extension was built.Last...
View ArticleMowing strip
We created a new lawn which earlier in the year to rejuvenate the front garden after house extension work last year. A neighbour suggested putting a mowing strip around the garden edge to define the...
View ArticleBlast from the Past!
It is funny what a simple reminder from the past can do to conjure up memories.Yesterday I received an e-mail from an ex work colleague from the 1980's/1990's telling me his daughter had found in an...
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Spherical Balls!
No not that sort - but three dimensional objects to use for a mosaic exercise. This weeks mosaic lesson was on how to create a design on a three dimensional object - we had a clay flower pot and a...
View ArticleLawn edging update
As we are struggling to find a fence colour we like to re coat the now much longer fence and then find enough of the one we chose (it is end of season for this type of thing so shelves are de-stocked)...
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Cave Canem
Means roughly, "Beware of the Dog".This is the subject for my mosaic project- all the lessons are learnt, now to make something of my own choice.First saw Cave Canem in Pompeii, in an early spring...
View ArticlePea sticks and other animals
A few weeks back we planted winter pea plants, variety Twinkle, and with this warm weather recently, they have started growing well- so well in fact that they are twining themselves together. According...
View ArticleBeen busy..
Busy time since last posting. Working on developing my mosaic project- on the fiddly stage now, background fill in.We need an area in the garden for a cold frame and storage that is out of the way, but...
View ArticleMemories - make sure you write them down.
Today is a day of remembrances. Both E's and my fathers served in the 2nd World War, mine at sea on an air-craft carrier as a meteorologist, E's was land based in the medical corps. Both of them ended...
View ArticleBack from China
No posts since November 11th as we set off to China for 3 weeks and no Internet access. What a great place to see- Travelled 5000 km from Shanghai to Beijing passing through Chengdu and the Panda...
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Scenes from China
A few key pictures from the China trip.The route we took- 21 days in totalThe weather was expected to be cool to cold, instead it was warm and humid in the South, Cooler in the Middle and very cold in...
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Christmas potatoes
In the late Autumn, to make use of one of the newly made raised beds, we planted Charlotte seed potatoes, 9 in all, although one was small and did not thrive well.Due to the warm weather the greenery...
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More of China holiday
More pictures from ChinaSpeed of the Maglev train from Shanghai centre to Pudong airport. Max speed 431km/h (267.5 mph)- this journey took just over 7 mins. Once the maximum speed is reached the train...
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What's happened recently?
It took a request from a reader of my blog to remind me that I have not updated recently, and I was surprised to see it was January the last time- I thought it was more recent than that!I have been...
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