"That would make a good pond for my garden" I said to youngest granddaughter as we were looking round the Domestic and Rural Bygones sale. I've had butler sink ponds before and they always do surprisingly well for such a small area. " I'd like a pond in your garden" she said............
so I left a bid of £6 - the lowest possible bid, fully expecting for someone to outbid me but they didn't so I had to trek back during the week to fetch it. One of the porters put it in the car but how to get it out again?
Nearly doing myself an injury I hauled it out and rolled it down into the wheelbarrow which I'd lined with an old blanket to make a bit of a cushion and took it round the back. Next I need BiL with his grinder machine thing to take off the waste fitting underneath and I'll nip up the road where they are building the new bungalows and ask the bricklayers for a small dollop of cement to block the plug-hole. Then I'll need to dig a hole so it can be set into the ground a little. Photos to follow........eventually. It will need oxygenating weed and water snails and then we shall see what happens.
First tomatoes from the greenhouse this week - deliciously firm. Will there be 5 like this for the show in August? - Hopefully yes.
The greenhouse is full of green-ness. Peppers, aubergines, tomatoes, cucumber, parsley and one extra courgette plant that doesn't like being there. There's basil too but it missed the photo.
What else have I done this week? Ah yes, met up with Rachel-in-Norfolk for a catch up- she's already written on her blog about my soggy crumpets in Morrisons café - and no, that isn't a euphemism!
I've exercised body with the Keep Moving Group and swimming and exercised mind with the daily NYT Wordle and Sudoku . Also read "At Mrs Lippincotes" by Elizabeth Taylor which is a Virago Modern Classic so should have been good for the brain although it wasn't exactly riveting - not a keeper. (Good news for the brain is that Only Connect and University Challenge are both back on Monday evening.)
Some tennis has been watched of course and a while spent pulling up all the dead giant Papaver poppies out the front. There is more weeding to be done in the back flower border but my compost bin is full as is the council garden waste bin until it is emptied on Monday.
And I've eaten my own raspberries everyday for the another week which has been a real treat.
Have a good weekend.
Back Monday
Sue
Apart from beginning to create your garden pond feature, my week has been quite similar to yours. Manage the NYT Wordle most days, read some good books (Anne Cleeves at the moment) and am currently watching the Men's semis at Wimbledon. I also got in some exercise although it has been too hot to work out except early in the morning. Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteA nice mixed week is my favourite sort of week
DeleteSounds like a pretty good week! Crumpets. Yum. Only a month until I'm over and I'll be able to indulge. My sister buys them for me (now that Mum's gone) and I'll have them for breakfast - quite a bit lol. Have to eat a year's worth in three weeks!
ReplyDeleteThe tomatoes look wonderful. So glad you won the bid. Hope Granddaughter will like the end results of seeing it in the garden.
Don't eat them in a Morrisons cafe!
DeleteCan you sneak some back with you along with all the books :-)
Love Only Connect. Tried Lucy Worsleys puzzling game but she drove us nuts even though we love her in history things.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree more! We found the format of Puzzling quite... Puzzling! Why can't the teams have names? She has to call them Tom, Dick&Harry each time. Even just The Reds and The Blues would be better. Her threats ("I shall have to punish you") are bizarre. Bring back Victoria C-M!
DeleteVictoria back this Monday followed by Paxo-lite University Challenge.
DeleteGave Lucy a couple of shows but it's not for me ! Lesley
I watched two episodes of puzzling and that was enough - LW should stick to history!
DeleteWill be interesting to see how Amol Rajan gets on as the new presenter of UC. Lots of info about the new series in the new Radio Times
Lovely tomatoes! The butler's sink pond sounds an interesting project. Ponds add so much to a garden, as you know.
ReplyDeleteTomatoes are coming along nicely now. Hope I can get the pond sorted
DeleteYou got a bargain there with that butler’s sink! I have two, which I bought from a farmer 25 yrs ago and I paid a lot more than you did! I use mine for herbs etc.
ReplyDeleteI hope that your tomatoes do well at the show! Your greenhouse is certainly a hive of activity!
So glad that UC is back on the tv as we always watch it and then compare scores with my son! All good fun!
Enjoy the weekend! 😁
I think there are more of them around than 25 years ago since they became the in thing for kitchens
DeleteThe pond will be fun. Greenhouse is impressive. I'm afraid ours looks sad and needs sweeping and cleaning out as nearly everything is out now.
ReplyDeleteI love to see the greenhouse full all summer
DeleteYes, time is flying as usual. St Swithun’s Day today, so if it rains today (likely) will we have rain for the next 40 days? Your greenhouse is looking lush and a butler’s sink pond is a great idea. I realised yesterday it is only three weeks to our village summer show - must look out the schedule as I try and enter as many classes as possible. I enjoy Only Connect too and am looking forward to watching the women’s tennis final after my bookshop shift this morning. It’s been a good week here too, I think doing something sporty every day is essential for me and I am really happy to be back swimming after surgery. My husband who has Parkinson’s is really benefiting from our weekly swims. The raspberries are relishing the rain and I’m picking them every day now too. Collected The Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn for book group from the library yesterday. It’s a tome at over 500 pages in hardback so I hope it’s good. Sarah in Sussex
ReplyDeleteI watched the wheelchair matches rather than the women's final today
DeleteYou must be stronger than you look heaving the sink out of your car by yourself. We inherited one with herbs at one of our houses. Your greenhouse is looking healthy with all the growth and how rude of the basil to miss the photo shoot (smile). I didn't like Puzzler as I think it's more for cryptic solvers, (maybe Rachel would like it). Have you watched The 1% Club on a Saturday night? I'd recommend it
ReplyDeleteI watched some of the 1% club but got cross with it if I couldn't get far and kept missing the end as it finished past my bed time!
DeleteI'll be interested to see what your butler sink pond looks like when finished. Granddaughter did inspire a purchase!
ReplyDeleteI've been wanting a mini pond here since I moved in!
DeleteYour greenhouse and outside veg will supply you well. Everything looks like it is succeeding beautifully. The garden pond will add a nice feature to the garden. The sink does look very heavy. Is it stone?
ReplyDeleteDescription of how they are made -Manufactured from Fireclay ceramic, these sinks are made using a blend of clays, fillers and fluxes that are combined during the firing process. Fireclay is known as ‘high fire’ clay as it is heated to temperatures in excess of 1,220 degrees Celsius with soaking times of above 960 degrees Celsius
DeleteWe used to have one of those Belfast sinks in the garden and put a water lily in it when we altered the fish pond. It got left in the garden, filled with water and the water froze one harsh winter breaking it in half. I still have two butler sinks with rockery plants in.
ReplyDeleteThe sinks were in the country house when my parents bought it in 1954.
Belfast sinks are the deep ones, the butler sinks are wider but with lower sides.
I had a lovely stone sink at the smallholding with stones collected from various parts of the country all round - left it behind sadly
DeleteThat was from Jean,
ReplyDeleteYour little garden is absolutely amazing - good for you! xx
ReplyDeleteThe raspberries have been the best surprise - so many and plenty of courgettes!
DeleteYour greenhouse is a productive space. I am rather envious :)
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't want to be without a greenhouse now - had one everywhere I've lived for over 40 years
DeletePerhaps you could post pictures of some of your previous butler's ponds?
ReplyDeleteYay, Monday quiz night is back. If I get more than three answers right on either Only Connect or University Challenge I'm happy. What's the odds that you will have five matching tomatoes ... I hope you do. I once had literally over a hundred potatoes by the time I had dug up enough to have four matching ones for the Llanrwst Show.
ReplyDelete