Well that was February

I missed these two photos taken the 28th January.  A beautiful sunrise.

and then a few days later we were into February...which was pretty wet and dismal as well for the majority of the month, with the odd dry sunny day or usually afternoon here and there.

I slipped on our driveway and hurt myself, so hubby spent several hours pressure washing it.  We do have some special stuff to put on it, but it has to be dry afterwards, and we never have long enough dry weather to put it on.  Needless to say we are still waiting for several days of dry weather so we can put the moss/slime killer down.

Beautiful varieties of snowdrops by our pond.

A caterpillar...this is I believe an Oak Eggar caterpillar which was on our buddleia plant I was pruning.

The 18th February was one of the few lovely days we had this month.

So a productive day was spent in the garden.

Beautiful berries.

Primrose

The grass is getting long, but it was still too wet to mow.

Fortunately a couple of days ago (now 29th February) we had a couple of very windy days with no rain which dried the grass enough to cut.  

We have also spent a couple of days (not in a row due to the terrible weather) when we have been able to get up into the orchard and do some hedge trimming, apple tree pruning and more buddleia cutting!  Oh and even managed to get the back lawn mowed - yes after those high winds. Two days of lawn mowing, which hubby did thankfully.

My Valentine's Day flowers.

So that was the month of February.  I can't believe it is March tomorrow!
So much for my blogging more regularly.

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I finished several books in February:

Mere Christianity by CS Lewis.  I also watched Shadowland which I enjoyed.

The Penguin Lessons by Tom Mitchell

The Bullet that Missed by Richard Osman 

 

Books to Read 2024 & the Garden

Gosh we are almost at the end of January already, and my idea to do a blog post at the beginning of the month just didn't happen.  

On January 2nd I got the news that my dear Mum had died after suffering with Alzheimer's for at least 16 years.  Absolutely heartbreaking.  The last time I saw her was in 2019.  

We then had almost 10 days with our son, daughter in law and little grand daughter which was absolutely lovely and a good tonic.  

I've started reading properly again.  I always used to read a lot and have recorded the books I have read for a number of years on my blog, but the last couple of years I haven't read much at all.  I have a nice book journal that my son set up for me, and I will also record the books on here. I will have to include photos of my book journal in another post, as I just have photos of the books I have read, and planning to read at the moment.

The first three books I read were Jeremy Clarkson's Diddly Squat Farm series. 

Nice easy reads, humorous in parts, but also irritating in other parts.

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The next was:

I've been meaning to read this for years, and after the slow start, it became quite enjoyable.

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After that was a goodie, a children's story:  Shadow the Sheepdog

Having had rough collies I enjoyed this very much. 

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In the next group, I have  so far read Meadowland, and really enjoyed.  My father will too, so I have ordered it to have it sent to him.

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Of the two below, I am currently reading 1984 and am about 2/3rds the way through.  It is hard reading as the print is very small, so I need good light.

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Following on from these two are the latest Daniel Silva books that I didn't realise had come out.  I have a vague recollection of perhaps being slightly disappointed with the book that was published in 2020, and that might be why I hadn't bought these, I hope that is not the case as I have always enjoyed this author.

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The three books below I picked up in The Works.  Peter May is an author I have read before, the others I don't know, so they should hopefully be interesting reads.

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The books below I picked up during 2020 and although I have read bits of them, I want to sit down and read through them properly.

These might be the books I read after finishing 1984.

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This book is a favourite of mine and I have read it before.  An absolutely charming story about the life of a Dunnock.  I will enjoy reading it again, probably inbetween one of the 'heavier' books.

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To finish off three photos of the garden just after we got home.

The dreaded badgers got in again while we were away and made a mess of the garden again.

Snowdrops flowering (actually I don't think these are strictly snowdrops, but a look alike)

My wondering NZ Hebe, that I have had since moving to the UK. We have moved it with us, although his is a cutting from it as it is still in Hertfordshire where my son is now living, and it has taken really well and looking lovely.

The Year that was 2023 - from July to December: A Catch Up.

The Year that was 2023 - I am not even sure if anyone is reading my blog anymore, so sporadic my posts have been.  I am hoping that I will get back into more of a routine of blogging next year, as I am aware of how much I miss if I don't record it. So just a brief update since my last post in June

JULY

I think this was the first of the garden produce.

Courgette, Cucumber, Dalmatian Beans & Peas

AUGUST

We had two new sheds built this year, one is a train shed for my husband, and the other is a crafting workshop for me.  It was going to be for guinea pigs, but it has been 18 months since I have had any, the longest time I have ever been without guinea pigs.  So in hindsight we have changed the use,  as such we probably should have had it lined with a different door, but it is what it is.

The sheds...the door on the left hand shed had to be replaced as they ordered the wrong door, so that is why it still has the 'wrapping' on it.  

The pond lilies looked as beautiful as ever

I took the following two photos when we went to Sandown Zoo...why no animals, who knows?!

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SEPTEMBER

Early September we saw this wonderful steamer go past when we were down at the beach

The garden was relatively productive and we had beans, courgettes, radish, spring onions, peas, some tomatoes, although not as many as last year, pears, raspberries, and the usual glut of apples most of which I gave away.  I need to work harder on it last year as it really wasn't as good as it could have been.  This is partly due to lack of motivation since the tragic loss of Percy last year which I am still finding it very hard to come to terms with.

OCTOBER

The last two beans on the vine in October this year!

A Jay in the garden.

A rather large moth.

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NOVEMBER

Amazing sun rises

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DECEMBER

Amazingly we had two kiwi fruit on our vine this year.  A real surprise as we have to cut it back hard every year as it was planted (not by us) in the wrong place and it completely takes over and covers our bedroom window and makes the room very dark.  

These are the two from our plant

On either side of them are shop bought kiwi fruit.  Ours are quite a lot bigger, but more the size that I remember them being when I used to get eat them in New Zealand

CHRISTMAS

Christmas was a quiet affair with just my husband and myself and our younger son who now lives locally to us.  It was a nice day.  We will have a second 'Christmas' in early January with our other son, daughter in law and baby grand daughter when we go up to stay with them for a week.

Fresh Fruit Salad & Pavlova

We didn't even decorate inside this year, but did have lots of lights outside.

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OTHER RAMBLINGS

I have got into the Dolls House hobby properly since April this year and it has been quite absorbing hobby at times as I make and craft furniture and accessories for them - yes plural, I have more than one!  I still need to work on the Dolls House that is my 1940s family history project and hope to make a proper start on that this year.  In the meantime I have decorated and made furniture for a couple of 1930 - 1950s Triang Houses, and a couple of 1960s Triang houses, plus I am working on restoring an antique dolls house from around 1915.  

The pups are part of the household now, although have been problematic at times... they have started peeing/marking inside the house (the kitchen) which is driving me insane, and Peter is still an absolutely nightmare to take out if he sees other dogs...a bit hard to avoid.  This means I have to take them out separately, as he sets the other two off and it is just too much to cope with.  As a result, I probably walk less distance than if I could take them out together and do a nice long walk.  I am planning on remedying the walking side of this next year, by dedicating at least three days a week to taking one dog on a lovely long walk on different days so I can relax more and actually get back to enjoy walking again.  Back in 2019/2020 I was walking at least 100 miles a month, now I walk a mere fraction of that.