A Bit Of A Roundup.

Hello!

The warm weather continued but today we have had rain, hail, sunshine and wind! I certainly won't have to water outside this evening. I have been looking back at this time last year and things are definitely behind but hope they will catch up and not just fail.... I'm a worrier at times but so hate the thought that the effort I always put in may not come to fruit.

I have had a couple of good little harvests.

We have had first early spuds, my onions and garlic have not done as well this year but the round courgettes are great - 

had five of them so far. I pick a bit of kale every day or so and the same with the sugar snap peas. I have shelled climbing peas and have them in the freezer. The next, and probably last lots, of climbing peas are coming up both outside and in the poly house. I'm doing some last minute sowing as have put in turnips, radishes and spinach beet. I may give it a whirl with a few more carrots, you never know, and I have the next sowings of red n green lettuce showing and hopefully more kale soon, too. 

Jon and Alfie have now painted the summer house so it just nicely blends into the garden now; the paint sprayer is now Alfie's new favourite toy.

I can't wait to get it dressed and decorated inside; we did find a nice squidgy leather chair going for £1 at the tip the other day so that just needs a clean and a nice throw over it.

My tomatoes are doing very well as I have lots of flowers on almost all the plants...

 plus the first fruit!

I've spotted a cucumber and gherkin in the bed inside the poly house and I've had one of the the Goldena courgettes growing outside.

I decided to brighten up the poly house so I found some paint going spare and this is how it looks now, plus a few other places around the garden. Bit like the army, if it moves salute it and if it stands still you paint it! I know some people don't agree with tarting up potting sheds etc too much but I like a bit of prettiness around me so what the heck. Just need to put the hooks back on the door for tools etc.

The inside of the door along with my stool and under one of the benches and the outside of the door ...

plus the bench in the greenhouse - love that i can see the summer house from here.

Last Friday was the last day of school in readiness for the summer hols; it was also Harry's last day at primary school - my first born is growing up, fast. I can't believe they have been off for more than a week already!

He is 5ft 2, just 2 inches behind me, and I feel confident he'll be as tall as me, if not more so by September.


The two boys have gone to spend time with The Gramps and Nana as Jon and I dropped them off on Thursday afternoon on our way to our Christmas gift for each other. This was our trip away to Shrewsbury; we really enjoyed it the last time when we were house hunting. We had a lovely night out this time but the hotel was atrocious - don't get me started on it!! We are home and getting jobs done, an Airbnb booking came today for two nights so once they were settled Jon and I took a little ride to Aberaeron and had coffee and cake in a lovely tea shop.

A bit of outside news. The wild flowers in the chimney outside the polyhouse seem to surprise me with something different every week which is a nice welcome at the door.

I had to make a decision the other day. After trying to net them over I thought it best to take out my cabbages as they had been decimated by the darned butterflies. The chooks got a treat and I now have an almost empty raised bed and not sure what to put in it. I might try the late carrots there; if anybody is reading this would you have any suggestions as it is a nice little space.

On the positive side my first sunflower has come out! The stem is about three feet tall.

Jon has been busy, when is he not, putting me a stable door in the kitchen. I love it!

I hope to get it painted cream on the inside to match the kitchen cupboards.

Ooh a bit of exciting news. I have my interview published in Kitchen Garden out in the September issue. Here are some photos of the article but I think you can read it online from next Thursday at their website.

Ooops on the next photo as I changed my Twitter name in the meantime!

Very exciting!

Right, Jon and I are having a yummy tea and a few beers this evening and plan on watching a couple of films but wanted to get this finished in case anybody was interested in what is going here at our little homestead.

Take care and, as ever, I always look forward to seeing what everybody gets up to at the weekend. I hope the change in the weather is helping everybody.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

Out With The Old And In With The Old.

Good morning.

I am on it this morning!

I took the boys to school at 7.10am as they are away to Cardiff for the day. I have started my bread, got ingredients ready to make marmalade, watered the garden, fed the chooks and started a to-do-list for the garden.Just having breakfast so thought I would share a job Jon got round to doing for me last weekend.

For anybody actually reading this you may possibly remember we bought a Butler's sink. (I have discovered the difference between a Butler and Belfast is that the Butler's sink is more shallow than a Belfast.) It was bought around Christmas time and put in stock for when it was ready to be installed. Well....

here is what came out of the kitchen. Ever since we bought the house this has not been the right sink for the kitchen - it just didn't go and was the only thing in the kitchen I didn't like.

So....this is the replacement and I loved it as soon as I saw it.

Jon had to re-jig/re-build the frame as it is considerably deeper than the stainless steel one.

So after the job taking over both days of the weekend, due to varnish having to dry, this is the final a-maze-ing result!!

The cupboards underneath the sink are waiting for the doors to be cut down but I'm ok with that as it will be done this weekend.

I love, love, love the little drainer and small sink. The tiles for the splashback were found when we cleared out our neighbour's tractor shed and I think they are JUST perfect! 

I took the opportunity to clean down everything, including the very top shelf which I'm ashamed to say has not been cleaned since we moved in!!

 I am so very pleased with the final result and that the kitchen really is about done and dusted. Eventually I would like a proper wooden floor put in the top kitchen so we can take out the laminate but that is for another day.

Hope you are all well.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

It's Been A While...

Good afternoon, oh I've been away a while but we have been busy.

I'll have to do a bit of a photo summary and then I guess other bits and pieces will drip in as I go along. As usual this will be a bit hit and miss date wise but here we go.

From most recent events I now have some beautiful raised beds which Jon has made for the greenhouse along with a lovely high bench.

On the left I've put in some tomato plants that I had in the polyhouse, the right bed has the growing bags of sweet potatoes in but I think I'll plant them in there before they get too big.

The polyhouse, a full family effort in such hot weather, has now been covered YAY!! This means the temperature is more constant and there is less chance of wind, when we get it, affecting things in there.

We acquired a summer house and this has now been erected in a shady corner of the garden. It looks more like a beach hut at the moment but will soon be painted green and I have plans for making the interior lovely and cosy for ourselves or our Airbnb guests. Watch this space.

There has been some harvesting done, mainly climbing peas. I have taken down the first lot and re-sowing has begun - some direct and some in the polyhouse.

The dwarf beans, here, are coming along nicely as are the sugar snap peas.

I've also taken up a few onions, bit of a disappointment this year, and the kale is great, too.

Now, most people will know shearing has been happening recently so Jon and the boys were over the fence to our neighbours with his flock. They enjoyed watching, picking up the stray wool whilst Jon rolled up the fleeces and Alfie put the sacks on the truck to be taken away. 

Away from outdoor stuff Harry has been to his Pontio days for senior school and Aflie has been to taster days, too. We have had a number of Airbnb guests including a lovely young man from the Netherlands who was here with us for four days and we're booked tonight and two days at the weekend.

We are into the last two weeks of school before the summer hols when things go a bit nuts so there are trips out, the summer fete, special activities at school etc going on and of course we have had Sports Day, only had to be cancelled once this year instead of three as last year!

I do NOT need to tell you that we've had very warm, dry weather for the last four weeks or so therefore we have had a few trips to the beach which has been great. On the downside watering the garden has been a full time job; Jon put me a tap outside recently but is going to put a second one nearer the veg patches as it is not convenient to have the hosepipe in plain sight when we have Airbnb guests as it has to go past their room doors. I am practically doing a rain dance as we really need it, the poor sheep and cows are not getting grass as they should.

Oh, the piece I wrote for EGO magazine was published in the July issue so here is me on the left!

I am now spending some time deciding what can be sown over the next few weeks and looking, believe it or not, at overwintering things; I want to find a heater for the greenhouse so I can make the best of it in there.

Ok, I think I'm caught up. Time to get onto other things.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx