Summer and Garden Love

Last week was incomprehensibly busy, I think it always feels the same towards the last couple of weeks of term and, but at least I know that very soon we can all BREATHE again with lazy mornings and more relaxed days, which I am so looking forward to. Somehow throughout all the chaos I found so many things that made me smile and my little garden didn't fail to ground me.

My little veg patch is making some kinda magic at the moment and I am like a little child waiting with bated breath on its every move. Every morning I can't wait to get outside to see what magic the wonderful hands of mother nature has performed overnight. My first sweet peas have started to flower and I simply can't wait for the rest to follow suit. I always admire peoples sweet peas and now it feels so wonderfully grown-up to have planted more than just a handful for once. I have however already learnt that it might be worth attaching some netting against the trellis to offer a little more gripping options for both the sweet peas and sugar snaps, but that's the beauty of gardening, its very much a case of trial and error. Now these cheeky sugar snap peas appeared out of nowhere and its great to see little E's excitement every time she pops outside to see what's happening to them.

 

 

 

Cabbages are growing, but they have been under attack from the pesky (I mean lovely!) caterpillars and it seems that the Cabbage white butterflies has been really busy. So far we have already lost quite a few cabbages and this morning the next one seems to be under attack, and even though we are all for attracting butterflies and bees, says she whilst muttering under her breath, pesky little flutterby's! I have now removed all the eggs from the cabbages and also moved all the 'catties' as little Es calls them, to another piece of green, so we will see how it all pans out. Has any of you had any experience with this?

 

 

 

 

  

 

Loving the vibrant colour of the courgette flower, it certainly adds a bit of colour to the rather green looking veg patch. My very late planted sorrel seems to be coming to life, I love the taste of sorrel in salad, it just adds that lemon zing to it for me. In Jamaica they use sorrel with rum, sugar, water and ginger to make an alcoholic drink, which apparently is quite yummy, and for those wanting to give it a whirl you can find the recipe here. The pumpkins are slowly popping out and it must be really strange as a child to try and get your head around the fact that these tiny little yellow balls will grow into big pumpkins (well we hope anyway) in time for Halloween. Surely that's got to be magic, right?!

Loving all the beautiful succulents around the rockeries at the moment, not because they are a bit phallic (not saying more :-)), not because of their beautiful and very sweet flowers.

 

 

 

 

 

I am so excited to see my new David Austen's Strawberry Hill rose in bloom. After several years of rose envy, I finally purchased one this year and I am as pleased as punch! The second rose, is a climbing rose called Rosa Albertine, which I planted two years ago and last week it gave us our very first beautiful pink rose. I propagated this rose last year and amazingly it worked and it is now growing in a little pot already showing us its first bud. For any of you interested in propagating roses, you can read more about it here. I will add that I didn't leave mine outside, I put it in a small plastic bag to act as a little greenhouse for a week or two and then took it outside.

 

   

This glorious weather makes such a difference to lifestyle and we are making the very most of it by enjoying leisurely meals outside, it is amazing how a little sun can bring some calm to busy days.

 

 

 

 

We finally got around to clearing the majority of the wood away from this corner so we could get a tree swing up for the kids. Andrew collected this lovely piece of wood when they went for a walk and a couple of hours later there was a brilliant new swing for the kids to enjoy.

 

 

 

 

All things British, some flapjacks baked especially for the doh race on Saturday and will add here that he did really well, thank you for all your kind wishes. Not only did he finish the 30 mile fell race, he also managed to come 26th out of 90 odd people, so I am so proud of him for achieving this on the hottest day of the year. Moments of croquet in the garden with the kids.

 

 

No, not a sock tan, but my doh's legs when he came back from his 7 hour run, you can imagine what he would have looked like if it was wet and muddy!!

 

 

 

Last week I managed to do a little more on my first quilt by sewing my strips together and then cutting them up again, just so I can sew them together again, oh such fun. I am really enjoying the process and I am starting to appreciate just how long this is going to take me, with fingers and toes crossed I might have some warm snugly toes  by next winter.

 

I hope that you have all had a lovely weekend and that you were able to enjoy some sunshine where you are, even if it is a little winter sun. This week I am working on our contribution to the annual village scarecrow festival and fingers crossed I will get it done to get it up in time for the fete. This is such a strange, but lovely English tradition and I am not sure where or how it originated, but I love the effort people make. We are only doing something small, which I will share with you very soon.

 

 

 

In the meantime I am going to take a leaf out of Sinbad's book to do a little snoozing in the shade. Wishing you all a very happy and creative week.

 

Warm wishes

Hannapat

xoxo