Winter Time

I wish I could say I had chosen the right time of year to stay inside and recover.
To an extent I have, it is winter after all, a little frightful outside at times.
But on the other hand we are having a really nice winter with brilliant blue skys

and then the occassional morning of fog

However the warm temperatures are making it really nice to be outside during the day which in turn is reeking havoc with the plants!
Ok so June 1 was officially the start of Winter and Sept 1 is officially start of Spring, so that makes us slap bang in the middle of winter......so why do I have daffodils already in flower??

the white plant is ornamental kale

Which means the vegetable garden is going crazy

and I finally have my first 2 limes on my tree

but on the other hand we have all the mystery of winter happening in the garden with the spiders leaving cute little webs all over the grass each morning

I don't do cold very well but I am loving being at home this winter.

Invaded

Last year we purchased 2 swan plants, 1 each for the boys. Thought it might be fun to hatch a few monarch butterflies in the garden.

Unfortunately it looked like a bug had got at the plants and they didn't seem to developed into much at all. However we left them where they were and ignored them for a while.
Well both plants grew and grew and still no monarchs came anywhere near our garden.
Then this summer, whilst the swan plants are now both over 1.5m high (!) we suddenly have butterflies for Africa!

A few have successfully laid eggs and we have had a few caterpillars, unfortunately the wasps have been out in force and not many have survived to growing to full stage to be able to turn into butterflies.
Several however have for some reason took to hanging off the garage wall rather than the plant itself, so we have had full view of the chrysalis doing its thing.

2 of the butterflies appeared on the same day. 1 minute they were in chrysalis and the next we looked...all of 10 mins later, the butterfly had appeared and the chrysalis was empty.

The boys have enjoyed having something happening in the garden and we have had lots of monarchs fluttering around all summer.

However with the summer weather comes other bugs and sadly we have managed, without trying I may add, to grow a nice amount of pantry moth in funnily enough of all places ..... the pantry!! Yes we have weevils in all the rice, oats, seeds etc
I can tell you, not what I wanted to do on a weekend...empty the whole pantry, throw away all dried food that is riddled with bugs web etc and start again with dried food in the pantry.
Last night we had chicken curry for dinner, I didn't realise at the time that they had successfully invaded the rice bucket as well and when it was finally cooked I found 2 dead maggots in amongst the cooked rice. Let's just say I had chicken curry without rice last night as for some strange reason I had gone off rice last night!!

Great Idea

I attended a craft fair a few weekends ago and came across a gorgeous little garden attraction.

Ok before I talk about that, I know our garden looks like a rain baren desert! It is a work in progress at present, at least it is looking flat. We are in the process of leveling so hopefully we can sew grass seed in the next week or two. Will keep you posted on that progress.

Now on with the main reason for the post!

The above picture is of a bird feeder, made from a cup and saucer/bowl.

They are screwed and glued into the top of the green pole and then you place in garden and watch the birds happily eating or even bathing in the saucer part if water is placed there!

The boys are able to fill with bird seed and the cats are unable to get the birds!

The birds are loving their new treat, hopefully when we do sew the seed they will leave it alone in favor of the tasty treats in the cups? Here's hoping?

Garden Update

We moved into our house here 4 years ago.
The back garden was a complete mess. Still is really although we have done a lot of work on it.

When we moved in there was a large area of tarmac out the back for no reason. There were large ferns halfway down the garden that cut off the back area.

Before any work

Of course we started, very slowly I will have you know, clearing the ferns and other rubbish from the area. As you can see there really is life at the end of our garden, another house!

After a little large amount of clearing, which was very slowly done! We got rid of the ferns and all the other rubbish. This included all the tarmac that was once in the back garden where the play set is situated in the above picture..
We have stuck a retaining wall at the very end and are slowly filling in with soil. Seeing as there was a difference of 75cm between the lowest point and the highest point, then we are requiring a rather large amount of dirt.

In December last year a friend put us in touch with a Bobcat owner who regularly had truck loads of soil to be dumped. So he came and visited and agreed that if he had anything to dump in this area then he would dump with us rather than taking to the council dump way across town. Win win for all really.
He dumped a few loads before Christmas and then everything went quiet.

Of course we then hit winter and weather has not been the greatest for digging out plots of land etc.
So last week Steve decided that we could maybe look at buying the final cubic meters that we required.
My first question was "Where the hell do we buy that much dirt, cheaply?"

So I called the bobcat owner and asked if he could help, did he know of somewhere we could buy soil cheaply and could he also help us deliver it? Sure he said and suddenly we have dirt coming out of our ears.

Seems he called a few earth movers in the area and found one of them had just started a job in the local area. So I came home on Tuesday to a pile of dirt on our front verge.
Next afternoon came home to another pile of dirt, so Steve and the boys decided to start moving it round the back. However whilst doing this Wayne showed up with yet another truck load of dirt!

Don't ask me how he managed to get the truck down the side of our house, it is so tight, although the only advice we gave him was please take the hedge out before the house!
The boys were once more in their element and helped at every possible moment.

Whilst writing this post this morning, Wayne has already arrived with yet another truck load. It is dumped out the front and he will be back either tonight or tomorrow morning with the bobcat to shift it all round the back for us. All he is asking is money towards his time, nothing for the dirt!
If it is anything like last time he used the bobcat here, then the boys will be in for a real treat again.

At this rate we will have grass seed planted in a few weeks and maybe a lawn to play on by February! Wow

War is Called

There is war in this house, well there was until the weather took a slight turn for the colder moment.
It was definitely a war that was going to be won and I was going to win it. The opponent did not stand a chance although they fought long and hard!
Outside I have a lovely flower bed at the edge of the front deck. I try to keep some colour in there in the winter prior to planting our annual sunflower competition.

This is a closer look at the Kale that I planted this year. Never planted it before and had seen it around. It looked so cool.

No this is not who I have declared war against. This is our cat Prenzel who loves to be with you if you are outside at all.

This on the other hand is exactly who I have declared war against.

Little green caterpillars who have decided that the Kale is their new pantry. I don't think so!
So I have been regularly checking the plants and removing said bugs, and squashing them, they ooze green when you stand on them too.
I seem to have beaten them and they seem to have made a hasty retreat back to whence they came from, wherever that may be?
Although the really cold weather we are having at present may also account for the lack of them as it is just way too cold for them to want to snack on my lovely plants!

L is for Lemon & Lime

For my 40th birthday nearly 2 years ago someone actually brought me a lemon and a lime tree for a present.
I thought it was one of the best gifts I received.

They have both since been planted in the garden and we have watched them grow so well over the last 18 months.
The lemon tree is in full bloom with fruit.

Not sure if they will ever turn yellow but if they do I will have more lemons than I can handle. Will have to find plenty of recipes for lemons!

The lime tree is growing but has not fruit. Not sure whether this is normal and that they take longer to get fruit on first time round or not. But it is growing well, is still nice and green and seems very happy, so will not panic that it has no fruit as of yet.

G is for Garden

Even though our garden is a continuous work in progress we do still try and make the parts that are sorted look good.
We seem to have mastered a few spring / summer veggies to grow and these are part of our annual plan now.
Last year we planted some potatoes, first time of growing them, we were really successful and although we didn't plant too many, we enjoyed the fruits of our labour, although like all things we are already trying to better enhance the system to make it better.

Steve actually did as someone recommended and cut the plants when they died back and left the pots in the ground, we dug them up and they were still perfect, this has now given me loads of ideas as to what I could do with potatoes!

We have never been big on autumn / winter growing veggies, although each year we do try to find something to grow. This year we are getting sorted with plenty of time so we have planted leeks, onions (brown and red), spring onions and carrots, oh and a little spinach to add to the mix.
Not sure how it will all go but if we don't try we can't learn from it.
Will keep you posted on how we are doing and the fruits of our labour in a few months time.

We have one flower bed out the front that is the first thing you see when you come on to our property, so for me this needs to always look nice as otherwise the place looks so bare!
In the spring / summer time we plant sunflowers. these have done so very well in the last 2 years. This last summer we grew tall ones and at one stage they were up to the roof. It gave us a lovely natural curtain to block the road view from the living room. In fact at one stage we opened the french window in the living room and watched the world go by but no one could see us!

When these came down it left the bed looking very bare, so we planted some winter colour.
I also slipped in a few daffodil bulbs so as the colour is dying back we will get the odd shoot coming through giving us more colour until we plant some more sunflowers.

The boys also wanted a swan plant each, so we have to work out where to place these and then maybe we will see some lovely butterflies in the garden after we have watched the caterpillars change.

Mrs Tiggy-Winkle

A little girl named Lucie lives on a farm called Little-town. She is a good little girl, but has lost three handkerchiefs and a pinafore. She questions Tabby Kitten and Sally Henny-penny about them, but they know nothing. Lucie mounts a stile and spies some white cloths lying in the grass high on a hill behind the farm. She scrambles up the hill along a steep path-way which ends under a big rock. She finds a little door in the hillside, and hears someone singing behind it:


Lily-white and clean, oh!
With little frills between, oh!
Smooth and hot – red rusty spot
Never here be seen, oh!


She knocks. A frightened voice cries out, "Who's that?" Lucie opens the door, and discovers a low-ceilinged kitchen. Everything is tiny, even the pots and pans. At the table stands a short, stout person wearing a tucked-up print gown, an apron, and a striped petticoat. She is ironing. Her little black nose goes sniffle, sniffle, snuffle, and her eyes go twinkle, twinkle, and beneath her little white cap are prickles! She is Mrs. Tiggy-winkle, the animals' laundress and "an excellent clear-starcher". She keeps busy with her work.

The laundered clothing is tied up in bundles and Lucie's handkerchiefs are neatly folded into her clean pinafore. They set off together down the path to return the fresh laundry to the little animals and birds in the neighbourhood.
At the bottom of the hill, Lucie mounts the stile and turns to thank Mrs. Tiggy-winkle. "But what a very odd thing!" Mrs. Tiggy-winkle is "running running running up the hill". Her cap, shawl, and print gown are nowhere to be seen. How small and brown she has grown – and covered with prickles! "Why! Mrs. Tiggy-winkle is nothing but a HEDGEHOG!"

This weekend we found our own little Tiggy-Winkle, but alas there was no pinny, shawl or cap.
What we had instead was a very live hedgehog lying on the driveway by the car.
It still moved when touched and was sniffling around.

We do have hedgehogs in our garden, seeing as the garden has 2 great big hedges down either side, then it is not a shock to find one in the garden, usually we hear them scurrying around in the night.
However we were quite concerned as this was 4pm in broad daylight and that is unusual for these creatures.
We showed the boys and they were quite interested in our new found creature.
When Steve appeared from the garage with a large spade, I was quite shocked especially as he was in the process of telling us that "all these creatures need is a good whack with a spade!" turns out he was getting the spade to be able to move the hedgehog to the hedge in the garden.

It was fascinating to see the defensive mode it manages to go to when feeling under threat.
Its head and feet well protected under its spiky outer.
We moved the hedgehog but it still seemed a little unsure of where to go or what to do.

Eventually, after we had shoo'd the cat away several times, it scurried into the hedge and we left it to its own devises.

However this morning Steve informed us that our little friend was now curled up in a ball, still breathing, on the front lawn.
It strikes me as very odd and weird.
I myself sadly do not think that it will be alive when we get home. I do not think the cats will get it, but for it to be out in the daytime and in the open space as well strikes me as not good. I think something is wrong and sadly it is dying.
So we may have to have a little burial in the back garden tonight, otherwise the cats (mainly the other ones not ours) may play and the last thing we need is a played with hedgehog on the front lawn.

Vegetables

Each year we plant some vegetables in the garden.
Usually tomatoes, courgette, pepper and lettuce.
This year we managed potatoes, garlic, tomatoes, pepper and courgettes.
Due to rearranging and flattening the garden then out normal veggie patch has had to be moved, so all the vegetables are growing in mishap places around the garden.
Although the courgette seems to be loving its new position.

Here it is after having been growing for about 2 weeks

Dec 4th

Dec 4th

2 weeks later this is what it looks like...

Dec 18th

Can you spot the courgettes? There are 4 of them, they all have flowers on the end of them.

We have had so many courgette off this plant so far that I have had to take some to Judo to give away, cause we just can't keep up! It obviously loves its new position and has found some growth hormones from somewhere.
You only have to look at it to see it growing! Some of them are doubling in size in 2 days, you see one growing , think ok will pick it in a day or 2 cause it is just not quite big enough, you go back 36 hours later and suddenly you have a marrow instead of a courgette!
Man you have to be quick around here to get nice size ones!

This also means I have managed to achieve another of the challenges I set myself last year. Even though I didn't manage to achieve all the challenges throughout the year, I am still going to work away at them and slowly complete them.
So this post shows I have managed Challenge #43 - have a veggie patch and give something away from it.

But while we are on the sublect of Challenges, I did also complete #37 - pick some lavendar and place in your bathroom. I will take a picture for proof when I remember.
So 2 more completed.