How does the garden grow & here's Wally .......

I thought that I should do a garden path & allotment update, yes I have done some work in my allotment at last!

Firstly the path...

The daffs have gone over, the border is now full of muscari, tulips,hellebores, wallflowers, hyacinths. I love the way that the same border changes so dramatically in a matter of weeks.

Onto my allotment, I have dug most of it over and I know that I am later than most in planting but I have put in, jerusalem artichokes, broad beans, potatoes, carrots, fennel, radish, onions,shallots,chard, gooseberry & loganberry. I have revived my thyme, marjoram, mint, rosemary and have just got to finish tidying the strawberry beds and potting on the runner plants.

We live at the bottom of a lane but I did suggest to Mum that we should have a little stall and put a sign up the lane when we have excess, she also has "millions" of cowslips, foxgloves etc that we could pot up to sell.

In the shed I have also planted some sunflower seeds, lettuce in trays for cut & come again, chard in pots to grow on, in case my planted out ones get munched! Last year I grew chard for the first time in the beds, this time I have planted along the millpond bank as it grew so tall I think it will make a nice screen.

As always the gaffer was hard at it...

This leads me on to the latest addition to our tribe.......

Welcome to Wally.

My Mum has always had terriers since I was very young, also as a child her family had allsorts, a brace of bassets, staffy, terriers etc.

When her own last jack russell died she sort of inherited "Uncle Percy" who was a lovely old gentleman, then came the gentle old Poppy and now Wally.

The owners of these lovely old souls come into Mums life when they appear to be trying to find a new home for their beloved pets, when they know that they will be unable to care for them.

They come to live here and are loved and very well cared for in their last years.

Each one of them has a great individual character, but they all mess in together.

So here he is, our latest recruit, Wally, he's about 10 and can be a bit grumpy, but with me & Mum, Flo, and Daisy & Minnie (the day girls) he is a bit outnumbered.

Like Michael he will eventually learn where he comes in the pecking order!!

Have a lovely evening.

T

snowed in....and miss pom pom!

We had up until a few days ago missed all of the snow and really bad weather, Christmas week in Brixham was bright with some frost, but nothing like being in the Cotswolds as we are now.

Our tiny village has two exits, both on slopes and at junctions of roads where people drive too fast to give you a chance. Anyway because of the slopes and lack of salt/grit etc we are trapped (mechanically).

Michael and I walked to the next village this morning as I needed to post an application form for Tom, (he is hoping to study at Sparsholt College in Hampshire after his GCSE's). When we arrived at the shop, they had a few hot pasties left, so guess who indulged, I didn't have the camera out of my pocket quickly enough to record this event!

We took the dogs (Flo, and her friends Minnie & Daisy), who all love the snow.......

poor Flo has shaggy fur and she became clogged up with snow, (like sheep dags), she found it very difficult to run and even ended up walking as though she had her jumper on with broomsticks stuck up the sleeves, it was so funny! Michael being the kind soul that he is kept brushing her down. I just decided to call her Miss Pom Pom !

Walking back the view over the millpond of Mum's house and my potting shed seems a long way removed from the springtime, when the allotment and gardens are full of daffs & tulips & muscari & catkins etc, the only thing thriving in my veg patch at the moment are parsnips & celeriac!

And lastly, a field full of .... frozen veg!