Garden Work in Progress

This was the garden last summer. Far too many overgrown large shrubs that seemed to be just GREEN all year round. There was a sense of it all getting too enclosed and making the garden look smaller. Drastic measures were called for!

By the end of last (wet and horrible) summer we'd got to this position. In actual fact I've been working on all of the garden but it was this bit that I'd chosen to focus the camera on to show the change

This morning we got to this point. Much clearer and more open. Its nice to be able to see the chickens from the house. The bench will be moved to sit under the tree once I've dug the area over and sown it with grass seed.

This last picture in particular shows the openness of that part of the garden and how the view has been changed. The corkscrew hazel is yet to be removed

Now to work on the other side. I will be replanting borders along the side of the garden but gone will be the bamboos, conifers and grasses and instead I plan to introduce roses, fruit trees and cottage perenials and annuals.

Stealing a day from winter

Beautiful sunshine this morning as we awoke. No frost, snow all gone - perfect day for getting something done up the plot.

First job was to repair the polytunnel after the snow and winter storms. It is looking a little sorry for itself but hasn't quite got to the stage of being more tape than polythene! It feels warm in there and I was able to harvest a little lettuce and some early brocoli. Now its all repaired we're tempted to sow a little something in there to get the new season going.


Tim then rotavated the empty bays of our plot and had a grand bonfire to deal with all the resulting rubbish -men and flames, huh!


Meanwhile at home me and the boys cleared out the greenhouse, emptied pots in there and swept it out. I mowed over the wild flower patch at the end of the garden and had a good old rake over of the area.

I'm continuing with my work to remodel the back garden. I got so far last year with removing a lot of old and over grown shrubs before I was stopped by such a wet summer and breaking my toe. So this weeks nice weather has enabled me to make a positive start on the project again.

I have to keep reminding myself that it is only February though

Half term outing

Just about finished half term here. I felt the boys were quite tired after the long winter of cold weather so we weren't in a hurry to go rushing about. I think children should be encouraged to make their own amusements during some of the holiday rather than me planning endless (and expensive) trips out.

But we did have a fascinating day out to Cowley Road in Oxford. This is a vibrant part of the city, full of Asian grocers, Chinese supermarkets, Russian and Polish food shops and a whole world of eateries. So although it was a drizzly and rather dismal day we had a lovely discovery sort of day
Street art is a feature of the area with sides of houses and upper floors of shops brightly painted.

After going in just about every food shop we saw we came home with a lovely haul of interesting ingredients. Mooli, 2 sorts of chillies, baby aubergines and okra plus Russian biscuits, Jamaican fried chicken spices, chapatis, lychees, and pepper sauce.




Now I know how easy it is to get to I shall be back to be enticed by other unusal and unique ingredients - just have to work out what to do with them!

Little purse

Made this whilst snow prevented doing much else. My knitting is still on the basic side but a strip of plain knitting lined with calico and stitched up in to a little press-stud fastened purse will stop me having to rummage in the bottom of my bag for my house keys :-)

Snow Pictures Feb 09