spring

It is officially spring today....I am wearing A SKIRT!!!
I'm not going out anywhere as my legs have only had one coat of fake tan so are not fit for public viewing yet but...its a skirt!!!
I am working today...obviously ;)
Mum has 2 teeny boys so I can get on with 'patch' work....I do feel in limbo until the fabric arrives...and I'm getting excited about its arrival!! Not looking forward to writing the mahoosive cheque perhaps..but i may disappear for a day while I lock myself away with it!!! I am still getting the 'office' ready, we ordered from Ikea online for the big bits I need (popping to Ikea for me is a good 5 hour round trip!!) which will get us nearly organised before we can get to the shop in person for the essentials they don't deliver (like tealights and fabric lol!)
Anyway I have some boring paperwork to get through today, so I shall break it up with some nicer things...like.....
rosali bedding!!
Someone very very kindly offered to pop to Ikea to get me a rosali bedding set as I had heard a cheeky rumour the design was back in the UK...

she got me not one but 2 sets a blue and a pink/white :D
I am so smiley...now I don't claim to love rosali as much as this lovely lady...but *sigh* .......I keep looking out of the window at it blowing on the line!!
Now my intention was to cut and make but now its here...not sure I will be able to make that 1st cut!!!
Thank you angel cake for being such a lovely friend xxx
Now I need some green fingered advice..is it too early to plant out sweet pea plants???
I have started them off in loo rolls (better roots by all accounts) on the windowsill....and they are now getting too big....do I need to harden off before whacking them in the ground??
They are healthier looking plants than the ones I have previously bought in the garden centre, but any help for my next move gratefully received!!

the good life

When we moved to this house 4 years, we compromised a bit with things we wanted. Actually we compromised a lot! So we have no garage, no big garden and have had to have 2 separate
lots of building work to make it big enough!! But when I saw the fireplaces and sash windows, nothing else would do...

I have spent the last 2 years moaning about the small garden, and this year decided to embrace it. Okay so I can't have an orchard, or chickens, or a kitchen garden but I can do things on a smaller scale!!

So I set lovely husband the task of digging up the concrete path (only put in when we did the kitchen 3 years ago - not thinking about my carbon footprint for that one!!) and building me 2 raised beds - one for flowers and one for veg.

So thats the garden ticked off the to do list...until next door have rebuilt the wall you can see on the pics...imminent apparantly!!!

I'm definately not green fingered but I'm pleased with how things are looking.... We are never going to be self sufficient lol, but we will be able to grow enough to show the little boys that food doesn't always come from Tesco!

I planted a cherry tree and an apple tree, the apple tree and has no fruit on it, and this little red cherry was eaten by a bird! (this was taken a week ago and now nearly all the cherries are red so I am going to net the tree so the greedy birds don't get them all!)Again a week ago, this was what my little veggie bed looked like...a week on and you can't see the soil any longer. (you can see the sorry looking new apple tree on the left!)

We left it too late for planting so its all a bit random so next year I will start earlier and follow a guide I think. I have this Delia book that shows you how to plant a square foot garden - which maximises the space.

The tomatoes are doing well.... (not bothered if they don't all go red, I'll just make green tomato chutney!)

And......patience is a virtue obviously!! My pathetic strawberries are now looking like this .........well a week ago they were!! They went in the Pimms at the weekend :)

Strawberry Envy

Lots of you are harvesting your homegrown strawberries now.......I'm not and I'm jealous!!

I think this is the first year my next door neighbour has grown strawberries and look at these lovely red berries .....(hope they didn't see me taking that pic, they'll think I'm even stranger!!!)This is how bad it has got - zooming in my camera on my neighbours plants lol

I have grown strawberries every year in pots with reasonable success, I have planted in hanging baskets this year and look at this sorry lot

Check this freaky specimen out......what has gone wrong????

( lovely newly painted green shed in the background)

Looks like I'll be relying on the PYO or Mr Tesco's supply this summer....