Little words of wisdom

 

Before we went away...

image from Magnific.com

we managed to do a little more out in the garden ~ small steps, certainly, but progress nevertheless. 

I rather drastically cut back the rosa rugosa and the hypericum, which made it much easier for Adrian to dig them out of the wall border.  I then planted them into the third bed.  Hopefully they will settle down and forgive me for moving them at this time of year!  

Getting the two shrubs moved meant that Adrian could set-to and take up a couple more pieces of the sleeper edging along the old wall border.  He was going to leave it until we got back from Dad's birthday holiday, but in the end decided to get it done so we could get on more quickly when we got home. 

I did a little more "shopping from the garden" and got a few more plants put in the bed, including the sambucus nigra Black Lace that was in a pot in the kitchen courtyard ~ it's not easy to see it against the colour of the soil, but honestly it's there in the middle 😄  I forgot to take a photo of the bed before we went away, hence the evidence of where the local cats have been digging in the bloody thing ~ I suspect the most likely culprit is the cat that lives next-door 😒  I need to browse around the other borders to see what I can find to fill the bed up to deter the little bugger! 

The "holding bed" only has about three plants left in it now.  I shall probably put a couple of them in the latest bed and depending on how well we get on with relocating the next one, whatever is left may have to be temporarily moved into large pots.

Adrian got the last of the kitchen garden beds from this side of the garden lifted today, and has got half of it re-stained.

I suspect this will be the last bed we manage to get moved this year, even though we will only have one more to do.  He wants to replace the old railway sleeper edging along the border at the far end of the garden with new sleepers and to give us enough space to work in, we won't be able to get the last bed in position until that's been done.  We are going to set the new sleepers further in so that the border is 7" or 8" narrower, which will make it a little easier for me to reach across to weed, etc.  Whether or not we manage to get that done this year will depend on the weather, of course.   

I'm sorry to report that the pond is still green and murky but the little waterlily doesn't seem to care, as it is putting out a pretty pink flower 😊 

It's a long way.....

.....from Orkney to Norfolk ~ and a marked difference in temperature, too 😬

We travelled down last Monday, with our lovely friend Phil getting up at what seemed like the crack of dawn to drive us to the airport, collecting Beverly en route.  It was a long day, with a good few hours between our arrival from Kirkwall and the onward flight to Norwich.  We deposited our suitcases in the left luggage section at Aberdeen Airport and took ourselves off into the city for a couple of hours to kill some time.  The flights themselves were quite short, to be fair, but it was the hours between the two that was a tad mind-numbing and tiring 😖

The heat hit us when we stepped off the plane at Norwich Airport, with the temperature well over 10℃ higher than when we had left Kirkwall earlier that morning 😧  Thankfully we haven't been hit with the heatwaves that England has seen in recent weeks, so it came as something of a shock to our systems to find ourselves in temperatures so much higher than we'd had up here!  We had booked a minibus to collect us from the airport to drive us to the Potters Resort at Hopton-on-Sea, where we were staying to celebrate Dad's 90th birthday, and it was waiting for us when we arrived.

Dad, Amanda and Liz, and Adrian and I all had penthouse suites, whilst Sam and Beverly had deluxe rooms.  The suites in particular were very nice but all the accommodation was extremely hot, despite having balconies with patio doors.  Personally I think that Potters could do with installing air-conditioning in the penthouse suites at least, as they were up on the top floor of the hotel and the difference in temperature on the different floors was quite extreme!

The resort is ideal for families as virtually everything is inclusive, but with it being August there were of course an awful lot of children running about.  To be honest, it's not somewhere that Adrian and I would have chosen to stay had we been just going on holiday ourselves, but it was a good choice for us as a family group.  The main thing was that Dad had a lovely birthday, and was very happy to have us all together on his special day 😊

Dad's birthday was on Thursday, so the table was decorated all day 😊

Birthday breakfast...

the "birthday boy" opening his gifts...

and the birthday cake 😋

And finally, a little photo of Beverly and I sitting in the shade near the prosecco bar ~ you can see how hot I look 😄

Peace...

www.allposters.co.uk

Father, Mother, God,

Thank you for your presence during the hard and mean days.

For then we have you to lean upon.

Thank you for your presence during the bright and sunny days.

For then we can share that which we have with those who have less.

And thank you for your presence during the Holy Days.

For then we are able to celebrate you and our families and our friends

For those who have no voice, we ask you to speak.

For those who feel unworthy, we ask you to pour your love out in waterfalls of tenderness.

For those who live in pain, we ask you to bathe them in the river of your healing.

For those who are lonely, we ask you to keep them company.

For those who are depressed, we ask you to shower upon them the light of hope.

Dear Creator, You, the borderless sea of substance, we ask you to give to all the world that which we need most.....PEACE.

Maya Angelou

(4th April 1928 - 28th May 2014)   

Happy 90th Birthday!

Happy 90th Birthday, Dad...

 your two favourite daughters are looking forward to sharing the big day with you 😍

Little words of wisdom

 

Peace...

www.allposters.co.uk

Father, Mother, God,

Thank you for your presence during the hard and mean days.

For then we have you to lean upon.

Thank you for your presence during the bright and sunny days.

For then we can share that which we have with those who have less.

And thank you for your presence during the Holy Days.

For then we are able to celebrate you and our families and our friends

For those who have no voice, we ask you to speak.

For those who feel unworthy, we ask you to pour your love out in waterfalls of tenderness.

For those who live in pain, we ask you to bathe them in the river of your healing.

For those who are lonely, we ask you to keep them company.

For those who are depressed, we ask you to shower upon them the light of hope.

Dear Creator, You, the borderless sea of substance, we ask you to give to all the world that which we need most.....PEACE.

Maya Angelou

(4th April 1928 - 28th May 2014)   

Reading round-up: July 2026

image from Freepik

The Private Patient (Inspector Adam Dalgliesh Book 14): PD James

The Maul and The Pear Tree: The Ratcliffe Highway Murders 1811: PD James and T.A. Critchley

To Die For (The Hidden Norfolk Murder Mysteries Series book 9): JM Dalgliesh

Fool Me Twice (The Hidden Norfolk Murder Mysteries Series book 10): JM Dalgliesh

The Raven Song (The Hidden Norfolk Murder Mysteries Series book 11): JM Dalgliesh

Angel of Death (The Hidden Norfolk Murder Mysteries Series book 12): JM Dalgliesh

Dead To Me (The Hidden Norfolk Murder Mysteries Series book 13): JM Dalgliesh

Blood Runs Cold (The Hidden Norfolk Murder Mysteries Series book 14): JM Dalgliesh

A Litter of Bones (DCI Jack Logan Crime Thrillers Book 1): JD Kirk

Thicker Than Water (DCI Jack Logan Crime Thrillers Book 2): JD Kirk 

Slimming World August/September 2025

July was a surprisingly productive month for reading, considering the big garden job we're currently tackling!  It's been rather nice not to just veg out in front of the television after dinner, reading instead ~ my poor 'ole body may be knackered, but my brain is still raring to go 😄

I have reached the end of the Adam Dalgliesh books, which is sort of a shame.  However, I think his story has ended in a good place so that's really nice.  So many stories seem to end with death and destruction so it makes a change for a series to finish on a happy note!

The Maul and The Pear Tree just popped up in the "suggested for you" bit on Amazon, so I thought I'd give it a whirl.  I have occasionally read real-life crime books, but I must admit that I found this one a bit dry and hard-going in places.  Still, I persevered to the end and to be fair it was quite an interesting case.

I'm still really enjoying the The Hidden Norfolk Murder Mysteries and there are still more left in the series for me to read 😊  As you can see, I've come across yet another series of detective novels.  The Jack Logan books are set in and around Inverness, which is an added attraction for me as we fairly regularly travel through the city when we go south to visit family and friends.

As for whittling down my magazine pile ~ well, I managed to read just one this month.  Still, at least that's one more than I managed last month 😏

Drunken fairies!

The fairies look like they've had a night on the town 😄  We've had some rather windy weather so I left them laying down for a day or two, rather than risk the poor little buggers ending up being blown into the pond!

We got this next bed lifted up ready for staining and being moved to its new position.  Thankfully it was very much easier ~ and a good bit lighter ~ than the bed when the pond now is 😳

We put it on top of the bed at the far end of the garden, which made it much easier for Adrian to tidy it up and apply a couple of coats of wood stain. 

Once we'd cleared out the first section of the wall border, he was able to remove the first of the sleepers that we'd used to edge it.  

This gave us enough space to get the newly-renovated bed moved into position.  It took a bit of fiddling about to get it in place but again, it wasn't as hard as that first bed had been!  As you can see, we are stepping the beds down to accommodate the slope.  Now, in the interests of transparency, I feel I should confess that we decided in the end to set the bed so that it looks "right" to the eye.  We did attempt to do this using the spirit level but it really looked more than a little odd, to be honest.  Now this may well come back to bite us on the proverbial bum at some point, of course, but it is what it is 😏 

We put a layer of the rubbly soil in the bed first, then we used the soil from the old rhubarb bed on top of that.  That completely emptied the rhubarb bed, so we'll be able to move it round to the back garden in due course.

There wasn't enough to fill the new bed, though, so we started to empty out the one beside the old rhubarb bed.  I'd been using it as a temporary home for plants that I moved last year, half of which have now been replanted.  This left enough clear soil to finish topping off the new bed.  I will be moving the hypericum and rosa rugosa from the wall border at some point into it, then I can go shopping in the garden again to see if I can finish planting it up without having to resort to buying new plants 😉

It's possibly not that easy to tell from this photo but the pond has started to go a little green and murky...

but fortunately, the pond plants arrived at the end of last week 👏 I bought them online, from Puddleplants, a company I've bought from previously.  Once again, I was very pleased with my purchases and hopefully the water will clear in due course now that there is some "life" in there 😊  

The lovely little delosperma sutherlandii in this pot seems very happy.  I can't remember what I planted in the little pocket above it, but it didn't survive the wet and cold winter.  I may see if I can divide the delosperma and put a section in the pocket instead of a different plant.  I must also try to remember to put the pot under cover this winter, as I don't think they really like to be very wet!  

Little words of wisdom

 

Will the mystery finally be resolved???

Amazingly the "mystery plant" is now sending out a flower 😳  I keep looking at it feeling like I know what it is ~ but I just can't put my finger on it 😏   Hopefully once the flower opens it will become clearer and the mystery will indeed finally be solved! 

We're still plodding along with the garden project.  I moved the rest of my little garden knick-knacks from the back to finish off around the pond...

and also got the far end of the bed planted up ~ shopping from the garden, of course 😉  As I've already mentioned, I know that this isn't the best time of year to be digging out and relocating established plants and shrubs.  However, I really do think that I will simply run out of time before the winter weather arrives if I don't get on with it now.  I can tell you from previous experience that it's definitely not fun trying to dig things up when the soil is cold and claggy 😒

I can't remember what this shrub is called but when Adrian dug it up from the wall border for me, it rather conveniently split into two pieces ~ so two-for-the-price-of-one meant that I could put them in two different beds 😊 

The wall border is starting to be emptied out.  Eventually we will have a stone chippings path running beside it virtually all the way along.  Whilst we've already moved stones up to the area near the pond, we will leave the path until after we've got George in to re-do the mortar in this last section of the wall.  Hopefully we'll be able to get that done some time next year 🤞 

Then it was back to shopping from both the front and back gardens...

to get this second bed planted up.  So far, whilst some of the plants did sulk at first, everything seems to be okay.  We have had some warm weather up here but also a fair bit of rain too, which I'm sure must help the plants to settle into their new homes ~ even if it delays us from getting on with the job in hand!

And to finish off this post, I thought I'd show you how nice the raised bed on the other side of the garden is looking 😊

Peace...

www.allposters.co.uk

Father, Mother, God,

Thank you for your presence during the hard and mean days.

For then we have you to lean upon.

Thank you for your presence during the bright and sunny days.

For then we can share that which we have with those who have less.

And thank you for your presence during the Holy Days.

For then we are able to celebrate you and our families and our friends

For those who have no voice, we ask you to speak.

For those who feel unworthy, we ask you to pour your love out in waterfalls of tenderness.

For those who live in pain, we ask you to bathe them in the river of your healing.

For those who are lonely, we ask you to keep them company.

For those who are depressed, we ask you to shower upon them the light of hope.

Dear Creator, You, the borderless sea of substance, we ask you to give to all the world that which we need most.....PEACE.

Maya Angelou

(4th April 1928 - 28th May 2014)