More done than it seemed!

Last week was a pretty mixed bag, weatherwise, but despite feeling that we didn't get much done, more was actually achieved that I had at first thought.

I think I mentioned that I was going to relocate the old wheelbarrow from the other side of the garden across to the new patio?  I got it moved ~ no easy task as the front wheel is bent to one side! ~ and emptied out, ready for new plants to be installed.  I've ordered a selection of alpines (along with a few herbs for the back garden) from Shire Plants, as I'm going to make a mini rockery in the wheelbarrow.  I also wanted a couple of low-growing plants to finish off the black wooden planter on the right and I really didn't have anything suitable I could "shop" from the garden. 

However, I was able to use what I already had to finish off this side of the long raised bed.  Unfortunately we've had to put some of the netting panels from the old kitchen garden beds around some of the new ones as a cat (most likely Mr Grumpy from next door 😒) has been digging in it.  As I said, I got this side planted up and then topped off with bark chippings.  Although it's not a fool-proof topping, the cats don't seem to like to dig in it as much as they do in nice fresh soil!

The dwarf buddleia and erigerons were temporarily being housed in the planter on the patio.  The little variegated shrub (which has lost its label, unfortunately) to the left of the hypericum was in the back garden, in a bed which I am going to plant up with herbs in due course.  I was worried for a while about the little rowan tree, in the centre of the bed, that I had uprooted from the other side of the front garden.  It was looking very sad and dropped all it's leaves, but I'm happy to report that it is looking much better now and is putting out fresh new foliage 😊

I also relocated another hypericum from the planter on the patio, which has now planted in the other side of the raised bed, next to the hypericum which has been there for a little while.  The fencing is still in place around this side of the bed as I can't really get any more plants moved into it until I've dug up another rowan ~ which is still on the other side of the garden 😖

I moved another plant from the back garden, which I can't remember the name of, to replace the two wooden blocks that I'd put there to try to keep the cats from digging.  Needless to say, they took advantage of the freshly turned over soil and have dug in there again 😠  Much as I don't like to crowd out my plants too much, I think I will have to put in a fair few more to try to fill the gaps as much as possible.

We finally got the old wall border emptied out ~ of course, I've forgotten to take a photo of it in its bare state 😄  I really wanted to keep the lupin plant that was growing in the corner next to the escallonia and Adrian managed to dig it out with a fair bit of root still attached.  I drastically cut it back, just leaving these small, fresh, shoots.  I was amazed at how much liquid came out of the stalks when I cut them!  I didn't know that lupins retain such a lot of water.  The plant seems okay, though, so fingers crossed that it will survive being treated so brutally 🤞

The rosa rugosa, which we inherited when we bought the house, is going to have to go I'm afraid.  Lovely shrubs as they are this one was such a terrible thug, sending up new shoots all over the place.  I got it all cut down ready for Adrian to dig out at some point soon.

I had a "supervisor" whilst I was cutting back the rosa rugosa.....

it sat on my leg for a good couple of minutes before flying off.  I guess it just needed a little rest before carrying on with its day 😊

I also repotted all the new pond plants, something which I should have done when they arrived to be honest but didn't really have time right there and then, so I just plonked them into the water!  I was glad to finally get the job done, and I'm happy to report that the water is also starting to look much clearer now.  

I turned my back for a couple of seconds and found that another butterfly had taken advantage of somewhere to have a little sit down!  Good job I noticed before I sat back down on my gardening stool, otherwise it would have been a squished butterfly 😄

Carnage!

Again, I'm not talking about next-door's cat 😄 I'm sure he must have some nice sunny spots in his own garden, but I half suspect he regards this as his garden too 😏 

I left you on Tuesday, my lovelies, with the grand rediscovery of the wildlife pond ~ which by this point of the dreadful neglect inflicted upon it, was looking rather more like a bog!

Little-by-little, though, we cleared away all the detritus.  I have kept a few of the plants that were here but most of it was overgrown rosa rugosa, fuchsia and weeds all of which I most definitely did not want to keep 😉

This massive piece of sycamore stump was over to the right of the pond.  Once we'd cleared off the stuff that had taken root on it, we were able to roll it away.

I wasn't sure that anyone would be interested as it's a hefty beast, but one of the chaps who took about half of the other logs happily took this as well.  It was quite the feat though for him to get it out of the garden and into his trailer, even with Adrian's assistance 😲

It's not easy to tell from this photo, but the ground does slope away from the wooden retaining wall, so that helped in moving the "giant economy sized" piece of tree stump.

Eventually we will be making a new wildlife area, complete with a (possibly larger) pond, so I have kept a few of the logs to reuse as insect habitat.

Then came the none-too-pleasant task of emptying out the old pond ~ it was a tad stinky and slimy 😒  We were both surprised at the depth of the pre-formed pond we'd used ~ we definitely don't remember digging out quite such a deep hole!

By the time we'd got to this stage, we were both knackered and the area looked like a bomb had hit it 😳  We decided to let the debris from the pond dry out for a couple of days so that it (hopefully) wouldn't be quite so heavy when we bagged it up ready to be taken to the tip.

We can now more easily see what needs to be done in order to bring our plans to fruition.  Our first task of course will be to thoroughly clear the area of weeds, etc, so that we are starting off with a nice clean slate. We then plan to level off the ground as much as is possible ~ that pond hole will come in useful for raking excess soil into 😄  We currently have another little soil mountain out in the back garden (from where we emptied out the raised beds that were previously in the new patio area), so no doubt we will be making use of some of that to finish filling in the pond hole.

Step one of the garden rehash will be to get the raised bed built along the wooden retaining wall.  We have quite a lot of wood stored away that we can hopefully make use of, so fingers crossed that we won't have to spend too much money!  It will also be interesting to see how much of the soil mountain is left once the bed has been filled.  I probably won't relocate any shrubs until later in the year, when we've got the hottest weather out of the way.  There's also bound to be weeds lurking in the soil, so it will be useful to clear out as many of the pesky little blighters as possible before planting any of the shrubs. 

We have a pretty good idea of what we're going to do in this part of the garden but rather than inflicting "information overload" upon you, I'll tell you more about our plans as we go along 😊

An overgrown mess *sigh*

 

No, not next-door's cat obviously!  He likes to sun himself in our garden and doesn't seem at all bothered by the weedy, overgrown borders ~ he just plonks himself down regardless 😄

This, my lovelies, is the actual overgrown mess to which I was referring 😳  I was talking about having to get it sorted out early last year but we just didn't get round to tackling it.  Somewhere in there, believe it or not, is a little wildlife pond!

Having to have the wall rebuilt gave us the proverbial kick up the backside that we needed, so once George had finished we made a start.

Because we want to build a raised bed along this wooden retaining wall, the only sensible option was to raze the whole area to the ground 😖

It's been pretty hard work, as you can no doubt imagine by looking at these photos!

There was originally just ONE rosa rugosa planted in this side area, but omg the bloody thing spread all over the place 😮

Eventually, though, we found the wildlife pond ~ hurrah!

We had edged the area with pieces of wood from the two sycamore trees we had to have removed when we first moved here, but I didn't realise just how much of the stuff we had made use of 😄  It was quite the pile, as you can see, but I'm happy to report that I advertised it on our local Facebook market page as "free to take away" and it was snapped up in double-quick time ~ one less thing to have to worry about getting rid of!

Pootling about

If you substitute tea for coffee, then the above meme can certainly be applied to your's truly 😉 February was a wishy-washy sort of month, where I didn't really get anything much done to be honest.  I just seemed to have "stuff" whirling around in my head but couldn't seem to get my arse in gear to get on with things.

I know the fact that we had a bloody rat in the walls and roof space again didn't help matters, although I shouldn't really complain too much I suppose as it was the first one for a good five years to try to make itself at home.  Mice are bad enough, but rats really creep me out *shudder*  John, our pest control guy, said that it's been a really busy time for him with rats in particular ~ he said that the good summer had lead to quite the explosion in vermin numbers.  Then, of course, we had a long spell of really bad weather which lead to the buggers looking for cosy places to shelter.  Adrian found what he thinks is the way it got in and has now, hopefully, blocked that route off 🤞 When we eventually have the living room refurbished, we are seriously considering having a concrete floor laid like we did in the downstairs bathroom, which will hopefully stop the vermin getting through into the walls. Plus, of course, we will be able to get a damp-proof membrane and some insulation down beneath the floor.

However, that day has been pushed back even further now as we've had another major expense crop up *sigh*  We have a long garden wall which runs alongside the shared driveway and it became horribly apparent recently that it needed some serious renovation work.  I'll be sharing more of this latest little tale of woe in a future post!

It's been hard to work up the enthusiasm to do much of anything, to be honest.  My reading goals have drastically slowed down, as have the crochet and sewing projects I had been planning.  Oh well, hopefully better weather will soon be with us and perhaps then I'll feel a tad more cheerful 😏 

Snow days and dishcloths

We've had a fair bit of snow recently, with yellow weather warnings (which are still in place 😒) and one day with an amber warning 😳  Both of us tend to avoid going out when the weather is like this ~ as we get older, we are much more conscious that a fall could result in broken bones!  I haven't been totally idle, though, as I decided to restock my dishcloth pile using up some of the cotton yarn in my stash.  I like to have a good stock of dishcloths as they are chucked into the washing pile daily, waiting to be washed with the next lot of towels.   As some of the older ones have now gone in the bucket under the sink to be used as cleaning cloths, the dishcloth stock was starting to look a little depleted!

In case you were wondering, no I haven't sewn Beverly's jumper together yet 😏  I keep putting it off but will definitely have to stop procrastinating and just get the bloody job done!

Anyhoo, back to the stash-busting dishcloths, all made with oddments of cotton yarn from my stash...

The first one is just a simple square of treble stitches (US double crochet).  Normally I would start a row using three chains to equal a treble stitch, but recently I've discovered that using just two chains tends to make a straighter edge.  I think it's a particularly good idea if you don't want to add a border, as the edges look nice and neat.

I used two double knit yarns held together for this cloth, with a 5mm hook.  The blue is Sirdar Cotton DK and I think the beige is as well as it looks to be the same.  I had a look on my go-to yarn store, Wool Warehouse, and they do still carry this yarn.  The shades on the website are named, though, whereas the blue yarn I've used just has a number so I don't know if it is the same.  The beige I used has long since lost it's label so I have no idea if it was named or just numbered 😄    

Next I thought I'd try my hand at a knitted cloth, and this is the result.  The pattern is called Grandmother's Favourite Dishcloth Pattern but I'm afraid I can't remember where I found it 🤷  As you can see, knitting doesn't come very easily to me 😉  It is a simple pattern, though, just garter stitch worked from corner-to-corner with yarn overs to create the lacy edging.  This batch of dishcloths have mostly been made with leftover oddments, and this was another that had lost it's label.  It's a thicker-feeling yarn than the blue and beige used above, although all my cotton stash is double knit.  I used 4mm knitting needles but think it might have made a "stiffer" fabric if I'd used slightly smaller ones.  The pattern called for increasing on each row until 44 stitches were on the needle, then to start decreasing.  I wanted a larger cloth, though, so continued until I had 64 stitches.  It would probably look a tad better if I'd blocked it but as I've told you before, my lovelies, I never bother blocking dishcloths ~ although I expect I would if I were making some as a gift.

I may well have another go at this pattern using finer yarn and smaller needles, as I think it would make a lovely little dolls' house blanket.  I also think it would make a rather nice shawl using bulky yarn and much larger needles.  Whatever yarn was used to make a shawl there wouldn't have to be any decreasing to turn it into a square, of course, as I could just keep going until I had a triangle the size I wanted 😊  I suppose if I really wanted to torture myself, I could attempt to make a dolls' house-size shawl 😏

This rather jolly dishcloth was made using Stylecraft Classique Cotton DK in the shade Poppy.  I don't know if this yarn is made anymore, it certainly doesn't seem to be available on the Wool Warehouse website.  I made this in half trebles (US half double crochet), working into the back loops of the stitches.  It's a nice "scrubby" texture for a dishcloth but I think on reflection I should have made it a little bigger!

And finally, dishcloth number four is made with all the little bits of leftover oddments that I had.  It's just a square of trebles (US double crochet), made using a 3.5mm hook to create a slightly thicker cloth than 4mm would have done. 

The closest I've got to the great outdoors for a good few days now ~ standing in the safety of the porch doorway to take a photo 😄

Christmas Every Day: Days 2, 3, 4 & 5

image from Freepik

As promised here are the gifts for days 2, 3, 4 and 5 of Beverly's CED:

She has two cats, so virtually anything cat-themed is a safe bet!  This was one of the little gifts I bought when we were in Leeds visiting Sam in September, and it sits squarely in the "simply decorative" box...

the first of the "fancy toiletries"...

some more "edibles"...

and a piece of "kitchen paraphernalia" that ticks the "practical" box, too 😉

More to come next week!

I woke up at stupid-o'clock yesterday and just couldn't get back to sleep, not least because my nose decided to be very annoying by sneezing and running in never-ending copious amounts 😒 Being the lovely wife that I am (😄) I decided to get up so that I didn't keep Adrian awake.  It's not often that I'm up early enough to see the start of the sunrise, even at this time of year, so thought I'd better take a photo to commemorate this unusual occurrence 😉  

And there it was...

all gone!

The wind and rain disposed of the snow, thankfully.  Snowy scenes are very lovely to look at ~ rather less lovely to try to get out and about in!  And now that I'm in my 60s, I'm much more conscious that a fall could do more damage than it might have done a few years ago 😳

I mentioned in a post a couple of weeks back that there were still a handful of flowers to be seen in the garden.  Before the snow arrived the patio roses were putting out some new buds, and Eustacia Vye had two that were opening.  All the unopened buds seem to have come through the snow unscathed but the two above are looking a tad brown on the edges of the petals.  I deliberately chose repeat flowering roses, and I'm really pleased to see them living up to their descriptions of flowering into early winter 😊

With the snow all washed away, I had no excuse for not getting out to the craft room yesterday 😄 I just took a handful of photos to share, as it really doesn't look like I've done anything much out there at all ~ despite working for a few hours both in the morning and after lunch!

I mentioned previously that I'd bought some vinyl cloths to cover the old work bench and the new work tables.  The cloth on the old work bench is in a grey linen effect, and makes a nice surface for the dolls' houses to sit on as it sort of resembles concrete.  I think I will buy some more pieces to lay beneath the houses that will be displayed on the other cabinets.  It'll probably be better to get the cloths bought sooner rather than later so that they match the piece I've already got.  Wow, look at me ~ thinking ahead for once 😉   

It was a tad chilly in the craft room, so I wheeled out my trusty little oil-filled heater.  I haven't used it very much since I've had it so I had to have a good look at the instructions again 😏 It's very efficient and soon warms the room very nicely indeed.  It isn't in the most convenient position here, though, so I think I will shuffle things around when I've got more space cleared.

The two new work tables are now covered with vinyl cloths in a rustic brown oak plank effect.  You'd think it would be a simple job to just chuck some cloths over the bloody things, but there was a fair bit of tugging and shuffling involved to get said cloths laying how I wanted them 😒 The cloth to the right is all tucked up, by the way, as I decided to leave my Dremel scroll saw permanently clamped to the table.  I may scoot it along more towards the middle of the table, though, as it's rather close to my working area.

The two little white (bedside!) cabinets fit perfectly beneath the table, with some space left on top of them for storing other things.  I've had them for a number of years and the drawers are very handy for storing smaller items, although I was thinking yesterday that it might be a good idea to label said drawers with their contents 😄 

This was another "little" job that took absolutely ages to accomplish.  All these odds and ends had been just stuffed haphazardly into a cardboard box previously.  I've decided that if I'm going to make my craft room a comfortable space to work in, then I first need to get to grips with sorting and tidying everything in there.  It's very frustrating trying to find things that I'm sure I have but just can't find.  Anyhoo, all the pieces in this crate are now taped like-with-like, and the oddments are all together in a separate pot within the crate.  I also placed another plastic box in the crate as well to keep the lengths of wood better corralled.  It actually started life as a shoe box but the front flap broke ~ I simply flipped it on it's end and it became perfect for the job 😊  (Further up the page you can see a second repurposed shoe box, again due to the front flap breaking, which I'm using for dolls' house wallpaper beneath the old work bench.)

This would actually be a more convenient place for the heater, so I may see if there is enough floor space to squeeze the crate beside the left-hand work table.

The contents of these two crates had been in one very much larger crate.  I'd just used it as a dumping ground for odds and ends of wood ~ or so I thought.  Once I'd decided that it would be more workable to have a couple of smaller crates rather than the big one, I obviously started to empty it out.  Yes, there were indeed the odds and ends that I thought were in there.....along with quite a supply of dolls' house windows, doors, and stairs 😮  I was very annoyed with myself, as I bought a load for Augusta Lodge that I wouldn't have needed to had I been keeping everything tidy 😒  Oh well, I suppose they will be made use of at some point with other kit-bashing projects 😏 

Hopefully I'll continue to make progress in the craft room this week, and have more to show for my efforts!  In the meantime, I'll leave you with the beautiful sight that greeted me when I opened the bedroom curtains this morning 😍

A little here, a little there

As well as spreading out tons of stone chippings and building flat-packed wardrobes, we have also been doing bits and pieces in various parts of the garden ~ little bites of that elephant 😉

I took a little time out, though, to take a couple of photos of the beautiful hips on two shrubs in this more shady border in the kitchen garden.  The photo above is a hypericum...

...and this is, obviously, a rose.  I'm pretty sure that it's Rosa Rugosa Alba but I really didn't fancy getting in amongst all those thorny stems to double-check 😯 

Our latest garden endeavours have mostly revolved around sorting out the old fruit cage area, as we've decided it needs to be totally overhauled.  The plan is to take out the central bed entirely, just leaving the two on either side.  We're going to set out a little seating area here in due course.  

Along with the weeds (!) in this bed there are a couple of holly shrubs, a couple of ferns, and three (I think) alchemilla mollis.  The alchemilla obviously like it here, judging by the growth they have put on!  I am going to relocate them to the back garden, so let's hope they will like their new homes as much.

Once the centre bed has been cleared out and dismantled, we are going to use the pieces of wood to make an extra layer on this right-hand bed ~ it will give us somewhere to put at least some of the soil so we don't end up having to make another soil mountain out the back 😄  I shall have to temporarily dig out and pot up the hollies and ferns in this bed whilst we do this so that it's easier to build up the new additional layer and, of course, put in the extra soil to fill it up.

I drastically cut back the blackcurrant bushes in this bed to make it easier to move them.  Just look at those weeds!

They've now gone in the back garden to make a short row of blackcurrant "hedge", in the bed with the bay tree.  The straggly-looking plant on the right is a piece of escallonia that I decided to leave where it was when I tidied this bed a couple of weeks back.  It doesn't look like much even now, I know, but is looking way better than it was before LOL

Only one of the redcurrants have produced much fruit...

...and we got almost two pounds from it!

The two redcurrants which were at the front are now in the bed with the fruit trees.

At the back of the old bed was one redcurrant which I bought as a standard, and a tiny piece that had broken off from one of the other bushes.  I've now put the standard redcurrant (which rather surprisingly didn't have as much root as I was expecting to be honest) in a large tub, which I've positioned in the kitchen courtyard between the bay tree and rosemary.

The tiny "bonus" piece was really too small to just plonk down in the garden, I felt, so I've potted it up to let it grow on.  Hopefully it'll be large enough to plant somewhere in the garden next year.    

Moving into the greenhouse just for a quick look, I'm pleased to report that the tomatoes are now fruiting rather nicely.  I noticed earlier in the week that one or two are also ripening up, so fingers crossed that we'll get a decent crop 🤞

And to round off this post, I thought I'd show you the photo of a red admiral butterfly I took last Friday.  There wasn't any sunshine so I think it must just have been having a little rest rather than soaking up the rays 😊