A quick Autumnal hotchpotch!

It's a jolly good job that I've got that 'Slow Blogger' label on my sidebar or I'd be chucked out of here for my lack of posts of late! Anyway, here's a quick roundup of what's going on in the garden at the moment......

Kale, spinach and rainbow chard are going at full pelt at the moment ...but the salad behind them has bolted somewhat!

No idea what sort of squashes these are as the foxes or badgers broke and nicked the labels when they ate the sweetcorn :(

Yesterday's pick of the crop - and, yes, we have still got a few Autumn raspberries left, but that's the last of the flagelot beans.

The sedum is lovely this year.

A closer look.

One of the Acers in the Japanese garden is begining to turn. It'll be a stunning deep red in about 2 more weeks.

No-one told my new water lily (Nymphaea 'Denver') that it shouldn't be flowering at this time of year. I guess the recent very warm weather confused it!

There are lots of berries everywhere this year - is this a harbinger of another hard winter?


The next post will be interesting - I hope! It's going to be a book review on a new wild flowers book that comes out next month......! :D

Well - I'm floored!

I spent last weekend on our annual 'Mums Weekend' at Whitehall Outdoor Activity Centre in Derbyshire with 25 other women aged from 17 (not a mum!) to 65 (grandma!) all doing activities usually done by 10 to 16 year olds, ranging from canoeing, mountain biking, ropes and assault courses to climbing, caving and stream scrambling - yep, you read it correctly - stream scrambling AND climbing waterfalls under a deluge of icy water on a cold late September day and I enjoyed it!!! However, the associated aches, tweaked ankle and awesome bruise collection meant that a bit of R&R was deemed more necessary than gardening this week - but at least several hours immersed in the icy water meant that I didn't get huge swellings to accompany the bruises! Anyway, my enforced rest has given me chance to take you back to a weekend in late March of this year when it finally warmed up enough to work outside again ........


In Yorkshire the phrase "I'm floored" usually means "I'm amazed/astounded/gobsmacked.....!" etc, but today it means that my Tea House finally got its floor!

Himself added extra floor joists for strength and put batons in to rest the insulation on.

Batons in place.

First piece of insulation being slid into place.

Floor insulation complete - I'm going to be SO toasty warm in there!

Cutting notches out of the chipboard flooring panels to go round the vertical posts.

Checking for fit.

Last board in place as the sun starts to set.

Building the frame for the last solid piece of wall.

Me attempting to hold the outer waterproof membrane in place in a high wind whilst being about 4 inches too short AND stood on a wobbly plank over the water.........again!

Outer plywood panel in place and painted - job's a good 'un!

Himself is a star!

Whilst Himself was grafting away on the Tea House, I was busy in the garden and greenhouse. Here are some of the products of my labours, picked recently!

Apples - variety unknown as the tree was a freebie, given away when we bought 3 other fruit trees last year. They taste delicious.

Autumn raspberries still going strong.

A pear from a pear tree we didn't know existed until we took down a cankered apple tree on one side of it and chopped back the ceonothus on the other side of it. Given space, it has blossomed and born bucket loads of fruit this year!

My first ever string of garlic - it may not be the most beautiful or the neatest, but I'm strangely proud of it!

Heirloom tomatoes grown from seeds sent to me by Monica at Garden Faerie's Musings. Thanks Monica, they've been great.

And look what Last-Born bought me .........I absolutely love it and it certainly beats the skanky, tatty bit of paper I used to pin to the door! Thanks love :D

Yesterday's haul of goodies.

Meet Baaaarney, the newest member of the family. I found him for sale in Devon where he made me smile during another very wet walk round the grounds of yet another stately home.

...and he still makes me smile now!