Saturday Round-up Again

It's been so good this week to have a few warmer days, Wednesday was the best as the East wind dropped away making it warm enough to sit out a while in between gardening and grass cutting. My gardening mojo came back with the sun - thank goodness and I spent a while clearing a huge patch of hooligan "foreign" bluebells out of the oval rose garden. What started as one small clump two years ago had got to an area nearly a metre round. They are pretty but just so invasive. I've replaced them with the rose "Thinking of You" that friends had sent last year when Colin died. Also started the big job of edging round that bed...........it has two rows of bricks, laying flat set into the ground that grass and weeds grow through........ and I'm also weeding in the quarter circle muddle - it's full of aquilegia again, they are invasive too but in a nicer way.

 My shabby-chic ladder isn't so shabby this year as I gave it a coat of paint before putting it away in the autumn.

 It's almost planted up, I managed to drill holes in the clay flower pots (which were here when we moved in) to thread a wire through so I could wire them onto the ladder sides, that saved me spending more money on things to stand on the ladder. Just 50p spent on the two little square baskets from a boot sale. Must find something for the bottom rung -  perhaps 3 pots wired together.
To the right of the ladder (dreadful photo - I was in a hurry) are my two small Blueberry bushes that came with the bargain offer from T&M earlier in the year. One is looking better than the other but both are much healthier and bigger than when they arrived. Above are the two flat backed baskets waiting for Tomato Cascade to be planted. I'll need to put something else in to hold compost as the Poundland coir liners aren't big enough. Some plastic at the back and sides should do it.
 I was pleased to see a frog return to the mini pond, hadn't seen one in there since I hauled out lots of oxygenating plant last autumn

It's only a tiny pond but keeps a couple of frogs happy.

 Swimming early for the last few weeks  at a general swim-for-all session is working well, aiming to leave home by 7.45am, in the pool by 8.15 and out before 9,  home by 9.30. With plenty of morning still left to get some housework done. Such a good way to start the day, if I lived within walking distance I'd go every day............maybe.

It was nice to catch up with friends for coffee during the week, they are off out to the States in June for 4 weeks to Pittsburgh where their eldest son, wife and two grandsons live. They go out every year if they can. Their eldest is the same age as my eldest daughter and while living next door to them in 1981 we both had our second child within a day of each other! and they became godparents to our son.  I'm so glad I kept in touch through the years we were across the other side of the county.

I finished reading the excellent "The American Agent" crime fiction by Jacqueline Winspear. Such a good series, the first pubished in 2003 and set in 1929. This new book - the 15th - takes the story through the 1940 London Blitz. It re-introduced a character from three books past, which I now need to re-read because that was back in 2016 and I've forgot the circumstances in which Maisie first met the American of the title. I really recommend these books if you haven't come across them but it's best to start at the beginning with the first..... "Maisie Dobbs".


Thank you to everyone for comments about the photos of the houses we rescued. I'm sure everyone thought we were mad to keep moving but we were young, had no money but plenty of energy and didn't stop to think of the problems, we just wanted to own some land and be as self-sufficient as we could. All the house restoration programmes that are on TV now weren't thought of back then so there was nothing to put us off!


This week I'm grateful for

• A few warmer days
• The garden to keep me busy 
• Coffee with friends 

And finally........
Hands up if you have ever got up one morning, gone in the kitchen and found a mole limping across the floor toward you?
T'was  a bit of a surprise,  Polly cat must have brought it in, makes a change from mice.
I won't tell you what I did with it as that would upset animal lovers!

Have a super-duper weekend wherever you are and whatever you are doing.

Back Monday
Sue

The Bargain Fruit Parcel

That bargain fruit plant offer arrived, luckily it came last Friday midday giving me all of the lovely sunny afternoon to sort everything out.

 The 12  strawberry plants were planted into pots, given a good watering and left in the greenhouse. 3 Gooseberry bushes and 6  raspberry canes were stood in water  for an hour before planting out and cutting back. The 2 blueberries I left in the pots they were in as they were very wet and had almost no root system.
Several £s worth of seeds but mostly things I don't want. So they will go in the car boot box.
200g of fruit fertilizer will be used on the new raspberry bed.
Even without the seeds I think still a good  value purchase, although it might be a year or two before I harvest the amount of fruit shown in the ad!

The weather continued to be sunny on Saturday and Sunday but still chilly. People who have been able to sit out for coffee or lunch are very lucky! and must have very sheltered gardens although it is often colder in East Anglia in the spring because we stick out into the cold North Sea.
 I got some more grass cut  Saturday with the small mower as well as going out -  which is for tomorrows post and in the afternoon there were two rugby matches on TV which I watched while writing posts and loading photos.
Spent ages on Sunday trying to find a photo of the inside of the greenhouse on the blog to see what pots were used where last summer. Reason being because I started sorting the greenhouse, just putting the big pots in place  with the trays they will stand in, for cucumbers,tomatoes, aubergines and peppers. But I ran out of big pots before I ran out of space - very odd - what pots did I use? where are they now? No idea as I couldn't find a clear photo anywhere on the blog.

What I did find was this list made last August, after just 3 months alone and puzzling how I would get through the winter.
Well, I got through the winter OK so added some ticks to all the ones that have been done. ...Feels like success!

• Clear the garden✓ 
• Clear the greenhouse and wash down✓
• Wash all the used pots ✓
• Clear the patio pots of summer stuff and then✓
• Plant up some pots for winter colour✓ (Although everything has died off now)
• Keep swimming✓
• Keep going to monthly craft group (No, too gossipy! anyway it clashed with swimming day)
• Sort through Colin's clothes and send to charity shop/clothes bank (I cleared his chest of drawers several weeks ago because I need to move it but the wardrobe is still full) (Almost finished)
• Make a memory box for the grandchildren. A lovely idea that a friend (who was a Cruse Bereavement counselor) gave me.(Started)
• Go through Col's books and sort.......... to Ziffit/Charity shop/ keep/donate to Mid Suffolk Light Railway Museum ( I've actually made a start on this already)✓
• Go through Colin's DVDs and CDs and sort as above✓
• Visit more churches in Suffolk ✓
• Day out in Bury St Edmunds ✓
• Day out in Felixstowe (It was too cold to linger when I went)
• Make lots of birthday cards - I've stocked up on 3D Decoupage sheets ready to get started✓
• Start the HUGE job of sorting out all the might-come-in-handy stuff in the workshop. I have no idea what a lot of it is anyway. Sort into crates for selling at Auction and stuff for a skip. (ongoing for many months I think)
• Help at a charity shop? ✓
• Read (goes without saying!)✓
• Visit local NT properties that are open. (Haven't got to any as Sutton Hoo has been closed all winter- waste of membership so far)
• Chop kindling and pick up twigs for fire lighting.✓

I had completely forgotten about that list so it was good to find it.

Hello and welcome to some more followers and thank you for all the comments on Saturday's post

 Back Tomorrow
Sue

A Fruity Temptation

Every Wednesday the email from Money Saving Experts arrives in the inbox, sometimes I open it to have a look, often I don't bother.
Last week I looked and spotted something that looked interesting .....................

£18 Berry Plants Bargain

And this was the bargain

If you go via this MSE Blagged Thompson and Morgan link you can get a bundle of 23 berry plants plus some vegetable seeds for £17.94 delivered (normally £56.95). You'll also get 200g of Incredicrop fertiliser. 
The offer ends at 11.59pm on Sun 3 Feb, or when 4,000 plant bundles have gone, which ever is sooner – so go quick if it’s something you want.
The bundle includes:

• 12 Strawberry bare root runners
• Six Raspberry bare root canes
• Three Gooseberry bare root bushes
• Two Blueberry potted bushes
• £10ish worth of vegetable seeds, in at least 3 different varieties
• 200g Incredicrop fertiliser

Now this IS a bargain that appealed. The raspberry canes will replace some that didn't survive last summers dry weather. The strawberry runners can be potted and kept in the cold frame for an early crop. If  the seeds are ones I won't use they will go in the car-boot box. There's room for the gooseberry bushes in the middle of the fruit bed and the blueberries will be a real treat as it's many years since I owned a blueberry bush.

I now need to stay here for at least 2 more summers to get the benefit of this bargain buy!

Hopefully they will arrive in good condition very soon and I can get them potted up. Just need some ericaseous compost for the blueberries.

Back Tomorrow
Sue