The Weekend that Was.

Yesterday was pretty miserable, grey and overcast and damp, but only 15 mm of rain, so not going to make a lot of difference to the cracks in the garden.  

I did a short walk in the evening when the day brightened up a bit - 1.9 miles.

Today was brighter, although I didn't do much...still feel really tired. I'm not sure if this is because of my reduced steroid dose - which will go down another 1 mg tomorrow, or just that I'm tired.  It will be interesting to see whether my Folate levels have decreased when I have blood tests in September, as last year I was very low and had to go on a course of Folic Acid for a few months.  I have been off them a while now and I have noticed my hair is a lot drier again, and I seem to be very tired a lot of the time.

This morning I tried a new recipe - Lemonade Scones.  It only uses three ingredients, self-raising flour, lemonade and full fat cream.  Very easy to make and pretty much a success.  Trying to find lemonade without artificial sweeteners in took some doing though and eventually I had to use Fentimens Rose Lemonade.  A pretty expensive way of doing it, but all I could find on line that wasn't full of nasty chemicals.

I cooked them in two batches, hence the slightly different colours.  

Although perhaps they didn't rise quite as well as traditional scones, they had quite a light consistency and tasted pretty good.  I have frozen most of them, as there is just me and that way I can get one out as and when I want one.  Of course I had to try one (or perhaps more!) with some home-made gooseberry jam and clotted cream.  Delicious!

Of course then I felt I better go for a walk!

I walked along the top cliff path today

Leaving one of my painted Kiwi rocks along the way.

I believe this is the six spot Burnet moth

Total walked today:  3.5 miles

I haven't done any garden the last couple of days as just haven't had the energy to, hopefully will be back into it tomorrow.

A bee covered in pollen on the Hollyhocks.

I put up Trail camera - not sure if it is an ideal position, but will experiment a bit with it.  It might be better to put it out the back, but currently I have it in the front garden.

I hope everyone has a good week.

My son finally arrived home from being 'stranded' at sea for six months.  His company timed it just right as just after he left, they have put Malaysia (which is where their ship was at anchor) back into lock down.  Of course it will still be a few weeks until I can see him, but at least I know he is now safely home.

Thursday

Wednesday was a bit of a damp day and overcast so I spent it inside taking it easy and pottering.  Not really sure what I did apart from some knitting and watching Netflix! So not especially productive, but relaxing.

Today I didn't do a lot either to be honest, just had a wander around the garden.

The planters are looking lovely now that they are filling out.

Really pleased with how these have turned out as they looked a bit sparse when I first planted them up in March.

A nice lot of colour on the decking.

This boot was a Christmas gift from my son and daughter in law one Christmas that I finally planted up when I moved here.  Loving it.

Flowers in the garden.

 

Bumble bee busy at work

I am not sure what these two plants are with the big leaves.

This one is going to flower soon so will hopefully give me more clues!

Pond skaters.  Not sure what variety they are.

My book doesn't list different species/sexes.

Prince of Wales Combat Vessel sailing past yesterday morning.

Recently finished this book.  A nice enjoyable read of times past and the author's childhood in a seaside village in the early 1900s.

I finally got my Pashley bike back today.  Unfortunately the bike shop that we took them too are unable to do the repairs to the damage that the removers did to our bikes as apparently the paint sprayers have unfortunately gone out of business due to Covid-19 and they have been unable to find anyone else who will do them.  The other bikes will be collected tomorrow.

Fortunately my Pashley was the least damaged, and as long as I keep the damaged areas dry so they don't rust it should be okay.

I took it out for a ride this afternoon.  My goodness what hard work it was!  I wonder if I will be sore tomorrow.  What I thought was relatively flat when walking is a lot steeper when riding a bike.   

Murphy enjoying some dandelion leaves.

Gardening on Thursday.

A good afternoons work today in the garden.

A bee on the grass, drinking the moisture?

I managed to get a couple of photos before it flew away.

Growth in my raised vegetable beds...just not sure if this is something I have planted or otherwise!

I definitely planted this one, a bean is sprouting.

I've dug this over and put in two short rows of potatoes, partly as an experiment to see if they will grow there.

I've also started two potato bags.

I started work on this area today as I want to clear it and dig it over to plant more potatoes.

A lot of rubbish including old carpet dumped there.

I believe this is a slow worm?  I moved him to another spot.

Yes this is the carpet that was dumped and 'hidden' underneath weeds and rubbish.

I dug it all up and until we can take it to the dump, I have folded it up and stacked it in one place.

I dug over the ground in front of the compost bins, and raked up old branches, twigs, stones, rocks, and old bits of plastic and wire.  I moved the wooden bins over and put the two plastic bins side by side facing frontwards.  Funny thing now is though looking at the pictures I think I actually preferred the bins how they were in the earlier picture!  Typical!  Still this way will work better for easier access to the openings at the bottom, although in all honesty, it is just as easy to lift the bin up off the compost! 

 I think the wooden bins still needed levelling up a bit, so I might do that another day.

A pile of stones

The wood and twig pile.