General Stuff

Where have the last 2 weeks gone? I don't know, you do a few jobs around the house, have a weekend in Shropshire visiting the P's and suddenly 2 weeks of your life have rushed past!

I'm struggling to keep on top of all the jobs that need doing around here, the garden included, what with Illustration jobs, the Library and just general house stuff we never seem to get any time off! I must admit I'm looking forward to our Honeymoon in September!

Last weekend was pretty productive, I managed to finally finish planting up my latest parcel of stuff from Stephen over at Victorian Nursery's.



This lot arrived about 10 days ago, most of the stuff went in straight away, but we got send a varied selection of Chillies which have been sitting on the living room window sill for a week until I brought some more compost!



Anyway their now happy in the greenhouse with the Tomatoes which are shooting up! we have quite a few green fruits on them, I really am looking forward to home made tomato soup!



We also got 10 Chives to put in the dead space down the side of the bed with the Onions and Sweetcorn in like they have here.



We have been having some lovely weather here, just the right amount of warm sun and the odd shower, everything seems to be going mad, for instance here is the Sweetcorn about 10 days ago when I planted the Chives...



and here it is about 10 minuets ago...



It is now hip height, I really hope we get some veg off them!

There are some down sides to the bouts of wet we've been having, the army's of Slug and Snails seem to be massing under the Rhubarb and have once again decimated my brand new Peas! Here they where 2 weeks ago...



and now...



I've had to resort to the old slug pellets to defend the few plants I have left, we've managed to save 6 out of 20 plants! and that was all in one rainy night! Those slimy little b%*@£*$s!!!
Grrr (calming breath!)

We how also have some lovely Beetroot in where my Globe Artichoke was (another minor disaster, ants made a nest under it and eat the middle out of it. It was fine one evening and I came down next morning to find it dead and shriveled, and after I managed to save it from the slugs too!) So the Beetroot has taken over this part of the bed next to the Sweetcorn and seem to be doing well.



Its not just the plants who have been enjoying this nice weather, this little minx has been coming down the veg patch in the mornings to watch me jump up and down and swear when I find something else has been eaten during the night...



The sun has also meant that we managed to get the new shelving unit for the kitchen finished last weekend. After Rich hacked 4 inches out of the back it needed a fresh coat of paint, then the fun task of hang the bloody thing (Rich now has no skin left of his knuckles poor love!) here it is after most of Sunday morning and A LOT of colorful language...



and here it is after I finished putting all the stuff on it (see, I get to do the nice jobs!)



I really love it, and it goes so well with the oak work tops and retro fridge.



So a busy few weeks, although as ever you get 1 job done and there are still 600 to go! I shall go and calm down by looking at my pretty geraniums.

Introducing....

...Our latest crazy purchase, An Old Crappy Landrover!!!



Ok, yes its old but not too crappy! Isn't she great! and before all the Tree Hugger's out there have a go about useless gas guzzling 4x4, she's LPG meaning she shouldn't cost us much more to run than our KA. We already have a load of jobs we can now do with her, such exciting adventures include taking all the really old rotten wood to the recycling center, buying a new front door and getting a load of old floor boards to finish the stair case off with!

Sadly the arrival of the Landy means the KA will have to go as we really can't afford the running cost of 2 cars right now. I am a bit sad about it as I do get attached to cars but hopefully we'll find her a new home....anyone interested in a luxury KA with a cream leather interior?!

Richard is especially please with the new toy (its a V8 which he has always wanted, in fact as long as its a V8 I don't think he would really care what it came in, I think a bucket would have been ok if necessary...it must be a male thing?!)



Arrrrr look at him, he looks like a jaunty farmer! It must be Landy Love!

Another Busy Weekend

I think Rich and I are our own worst enemy sometimes, we get a few days where we don't have anything particularly pressing to do, no artwork deadlines looming or anything and we managed to find back breaking jobs to do! I think its all part of owning your own home, when we lived in a rented flat we just put up with stuff until the landlord could be chivvied enough to come round and sort it out!

Saturday was another gloriously sunny day, we went out for a quick look round some of our favorite secondhand shops, then made the mistake of going to the Landrover garage in the local village and got talking to their mechanic about old Defenders, this is going to lead to trouble I know it! In fact it already has with us going to South Wales tomorrow morning to look at an LPG Landy that's for sale. I don't think my mother approves!

Anyway when we got home ( all starry eyed about possible Landrover owner ship!) we made the crazy decision to clean out the shed (at 2pm! why, why??!!) The shed has needed sorting out properly since we moved in (3 an a half years ago) it had got to the point where I would quickly open the door, throw things in, then wrestle the door locked again and run away.

So after 6 hours of Rich doing battle with the junk and spiders and me cutting up all the useless wood we found in there to burn on the fire, Rich now has his tools all organized and neat and there is the possibility of being able to find what we're looking for in there.

Here is the amazingly neat looking wood pile once I'd refilled it with all the rubbish timber...



I would have taken a pic of the inside but as Rich pointed out, to the untrained eye it still looks like a bombs hit it, only we know the difference!

Sunday we got up as usual to going Car Booting, this week was a little disappointing but we managed to find a few bits...



Another storm lantern, a HUGE opium Poppy for a staggeringly cheap £1.50 and a sweet Kew Red Lavender (we have to much Lavender in our garden but its one of my favorite plants and puts up with being baked in the summer sun!)



While we had been clearing the shed on the Saturday we came across an handmade plate rack Rich mum and dad gave us over 2 years ago, they had had it made for the kitchen off one of their houses but unfortunately who every built it, whilst obviously being a very good carpenter had never tried it with an actual plate in, as they just roll straight out of the slots! Anyway we ended up with it, then shoved it in the shed and forgot about it (as you do!) Rich decided whiles being total pants as a plate rack it would make a good shelving unit...



It was however too deep and stuck out into our very tiny kitchen too far, Rich being the clever so an so he is took it outside and spend the rest of the day hacking 3 inches off the back of it. It now looks great but needs repainting, so hopefully in a few weeks we should have some lovely new shelves for me to keep my vintage cans and jars on! Hmm love recycling!

While he was doing that I spent a happy hour picking and shelling peas for the new freezer...



Then spent the rest of the day pottering around the veg patch...



I'm pleased to say the Onions and Sweetcorn are doing really well...



I've planted the Sweetcorn in a block and the next door neighbor has planted his level with mine, so we've hoping they'll pollinate each other.



I wish we had a few more but as I've mentioned before we lost a few to the mice!

The Tomatoes are loving the warm weather and are growing inches everyday, I so cant wait for home grown toms in my sandwiches, store brought just don't taste of anything!



And finally as I promised Stephen over at Victoriana Nursery I would, here is a pic of our Molly's Cottage Garden Mix it's coming on really well, can't wait to see what flowers we get!

Green & Easy

In one of my previous post I was bemoaning the fact that out lovely little retro fridge had decided to pack up, after nearly a month of putting up with milk going off and not being able to freeze anything we finally bit the bullet and forked out for a new fridge freezer. Ok I realise this isn't a particularly garden oriented post but the company we got our shiny new toy from are an extremely good little business which I thought was worth a mention.



We found Green & Easy while randomly searching the web for retro cream fridges ( which are apparently not as popular as they where 3 years ago. Note to self: do no design whole kitchen around hard to replace appliances again!)

I am always slightly sceptically about buy large items off the net, I always worry it will turn up and not look a thing like it did on the site, but as we couldn't find the type of fridge we wanted at any of the regular chain stores we had very little choice (the other option being to fork out a horrendous amount of money for a vastly overrated Smeg, which would have involved one of us having to sell a kidney!)

This is the Fridge we wanted to replace...



So sad only 3 years old and in perfect condition other wise, why don't white goods manufacturers make their products to last anymore!! one fridge retailer told us your lucky if they last 18 months these days as they want you to came back an buy another one, grrrrrr!

Anyway if we where going to have to buy another one I wanted one with a separate freezer for storing produce from the garden...



Isn't it pretty! ok I realise its just a fridge but as out cottage is open plan you see it all the time so it was important to us that it looked nice.

I was hugely impressed with Green & Easy, there on-line ordering was really easy, I placed the order at about 7.30 at night when I got home from work and was called back 10 mins later to say thank you the order and they would email me a delivery date the next day! How good is that!

Now I always dread having stuff delivered to out cottage, we are hard to find and up an unmarked road, and there is also a 100 foot up hill path to contend with when people do eventually find us. Needless to say we have had a fare amount of abuse from delivery drivers who refuse to help carry stuff up the path for us.

The delivery guys with our new fridge however where brilliant! very helpful and manfully struggled up through our garden, through our very narrow cottage and even unwrapped it in the kitchen so we could check it was ok. Curry's and Argos's delivery guys have never done that!

So all in all, I'm really impressed with this little company, if you are looking for appliances or anything else for home or garden give them a look!



Mmmm nice cold milk!

At Last...

...some of our own home grown food!



We had Spinach and Radishes with my home made lasagna and Strawberry's for afters, yum!



I'm very glad we rescued some of our Strawberry's from the slugs this year!

Birthdays and Finding Treasure!

Phew, another busy few weeks! Sorry for the slight lapse in posting, it was a combination of having a week in Shropshire doing vital wedding prep, both our Birthdays within 5 days of each other and a long awaiting visit from Rich's lovely Mum!

So the wedding stuff is coming along well, I finally got most of the invites out (thank god!) and all that's left is to sort a band or DJ for the night.

Things in the garden are going crazy as it always does in May and June, everything seems to be in such a race to get huge and the wonderful weather has helped, although as I type this its just starting to rain (thankfully, my water butts are almost empty!)



The Rambling Cascade Strawberry's seem happy in their baskets, their handing from the front of our cottage, which is really warm and sunny.

The Strawberry's in the big bed down on the veg patch are also coming along nicely, there's quite a lot of fruit on them so last week I spent an afternoon putting straw done and netting them.



I must remember to change the straw regularly so it doesn't rot this time, and end full of woodlice and earwigs!

I got some more peas while in Shropshire (as the mice who think my greenhouse is McDonald's eat all mine!) these have gone in with the others i started form seed, as the wood ash thing worked so well on the toms in the greenhouse I have tried using it again, just till the plants are a bit more established, and I have to say so far its worked a treat.



Despite it not be the most attractive thing to look at, although in my opinion its better than looking at little blue pellets every where.



Look at those healthy Tomatoes, I cant wait to taste them, I thing Tomatoes are my favourite veg as they always seem to put so much effort into what they give you.

Rich even got time with all this lovely sun to mow the Orchard, i had been waiting for the Cowslips to drop their seeds before I let him. I love it when its fresh cut and I can walk through it and check the trees out properly.



my b.day happened to be only my second day in my new job with the library and I thought it was As i mentioned the week before last was my Birthday (my 28th, groan I feel old!) Unfortunatelyprobably a bit to soon to be calling in sick! so I worked 9-7, and spent all day looking forward to my prezzies!

luckily all my blatant hinting here had payed off...



and among other stuff I also got these...



See, you know your with the perfect chap when he buys you a new handbag and a spade for your birthday!

For my Birthday treat we went out to a National Trust garden the next day, its a tiny little garden in the village of Holt not far from us call The Courts which was beautiful, all full of Irises and Poppies and the cutest veg garden...



I want to put Chives along the paths in my veg garden like this...



I wish we had the space to make an apple arbor like this...



and these Poppies are just beautiful...



Jealous!! This garden is totally worth a look if your in the area, small but perfectly formed!

We got to do a good bit of Booting last weekend with Rich's Mum who was staying with us, I thing she was impressed with the caliber of the Bath boot sales as she brought loads of good stuff! Here's some of the rubbish we dragged home...



A very cute brass watering can (the lady wanted £10, but we got it for £5!)



The biggest Foxglove I've ever seen for £2, here it is all planted up and looking great...



and the bargain of the day where these 2 vintage filing cabinets for £8...



The look fantastic next the Rich desk and are now holding our entire CD collecting (which Rich has alphabetized!!! ) I love it when the weathers good it brings out all the best junk!!

It was Rich's Birthday last Wednesday (his 30th ooooh!) so we had another day out to celebrate, Rich picked to go to the Haynes Motor Museum down near Yeovil, I must say I really wasn't looking forward to it that much, I like cars but I wasn't sure I could stand a whole day of them. As it turned out it was actually quite good, not too many cars for me but enough to keep Rich happy, he found one he wanted to take home straight away....



and I found one I would have quite liked to have driven home in too...



Hmmmm Landys! Will have to see what I can find on ebay, I wonder if anyone would swap a luxury KA for an old Landrover?!

Vintage Recycling

That title is just a way of making "buying old junk and stuffing in the garden to rust quietly" sound good! So what goodies have we scrounged up this week?

Well for starters we managed to get just over 4 meters of this lovely old metal border edging last weekend from the even bargain packed Gardenalia in Bath...



Isn't it great! I'm totally in love with it and have to keep wondering down the garden to look at it, we've got it edging the orchard (my Mum insists that its very Jane Austen?!) Rich recons our stupid cat will get her head stuck though one of the loops! This was a bit of a treat for Rich and I as we don't really need it, but it was just to pretty to leave there (and at £2o a bargain)

I also got this from the same place a few days later...



I've already got 2 of this old zinc plant numbers, I just love the way they look and at £3 how could you say no! This is the problem with walking past Gardenalia on the way to work, I'm always tempted to nip in and see what new treasures he has.

We went to another good car boot on Sunday, this time it was the Castle Combe Race Course one, which is held roughly once a month so its usually pretty big. As I have mentioned before we are on the look out for stuff for the wedding and this weekend didn't disappoint...



We got 2 more storm lanterns, still in their wrappers (£2 each, down from £3!) and this lovely old stop clock that Rich really liked, its in the most lovely shade of duck egg blue!

I also got this great old bucket for £3...



This was planted up with more of the Molly's Cottage Garden Mix and few of my Opium Poppy's.



This one and the other metal tubs I planted up last week will all be used at the wedding reception as decorations (fingers crossed!) The other tubs are starting to sprout little green shoots...



I can't wait to see what flowers we get. At the moment their all crowed round the pond up by the front of our cottage.



Another wedding bargain was these 2 beautiful Lavender bushes, their from the supermarket where I work (but only for a few more days thankfully!) and where in a state from not being watered so I got them at a knocked down price. They will have ribbon wound around the stems and little lights in them and will be on either side of the door into the reception hall.



And finally, things you can do with an old BBQ...



This old cast iron pot bellied BBQ belonged to our neighbours, one of the legs had snapped off so they where going to chuck it, I cheekily asked if I could have it and they said to help myself! Whilst moving it I managed to snap the other legs off (very cheap cast iron!) so I have put it up off the ground on an old chopping block and decided to us it as a planter...



Most of the belly is filled with old crock and polystyrene to help weigh it down and give good drainage, then I filled it with compost...



and planted with with a few more of my Poppy's and some trailing Lobelia I brought the other week. Much better than it moldering away in a landfill and free, so I think this classes as the best bargain of the week!