Gardening help and Wassand Hall gardens

Will write the blog early today as I will be visiting Sarah and David in a bit. This morning I went out and turned the bed with the fruit bushes in over again and levelled it off and then planted out the two courgette plants I got yesterday. Tina and Darren came out to remove some stumps from the bed behind the greenhouse.

In the end they cleared a good space of the layer of ground elder, that will make it easier for me to dig it over.

I took a photo of the very pretty small clematis on the patio.

I got dinner for one o’clock today then this afternoon Tina took me up to Wassand Hall to have a walk in the gardens. Will just post a selection of photos now.

It is a lovely place and a lovely afternoon but the wind was still pretty chilly. We bought a couple of plants so hopefully I will get then into the garden tomorrow. Tina is off to Mirfield this evening for a few days, it will do her good to be away from the parish for a break.

A better bird tale!

We left for the boot sale at 7.30am as we guessed it would be busy and Darren had an appointment to give blood in Hull later in the morning. It was heaving already when we got there so we wore masks the whole time after we had had our breakfast. We were in the minority with the masks but we were happy to be wearing them. There was a man playing a portable organ there today, for charity, he was really good too.

I just bought a crazy clock and two courgette plants!

I started thinking about a design for another piece to do on the machine but Pandora had other ideas!

I took a book out into the summer house this afternoon, had to take a blanket because it was actually quite cold. The next few photos show the good bird story of the week. A visiting pair of ducks roaming around!

After dinner Tina drove us up to Mappleton.

I took a slightly closer photo of the beach so that you can see the family down there. The tide was coming in and already at the cliffs near the slope. Tina phoned the coast guard to warn them, but in the end she had to phone them back as they did make it out although the children were wet up to the knees.

Darren and Tina plan to dig out the tree stumps it the bed by the greenhouse. Then I will be able to dig it over when I have the energy!

More walking today

I decided yesterday that I need to get more actual walking in my routine. I get plenty of exercise with the gardening but haven’t been doing a lot of walking lately. So thought I would walk up to Freeport and would have the option of busing back if I felt like it. I got up early no went out to feed the birds as usual. After breakfast I went into the garden for a bit with a drink and puzzle book! Then I thought I would just do a little weeding of the rockery which was getting very overgrown, the story of my gardening life!

After the shopping had been delivered and unpacked I set off for Freeport. A lovely morning so I didn’t need a coat. I walked along the road that leads to the cemetery and then along Polly’s Path, both very green and lush.

I had a coffee at Freeport and tried to return some slippers for Tina. Made the mistake of saying I was doing it for someone else and they wouldn’t let me even though I had her card! Didn’t visit any other shops and did take a slow walk home. Took these flowers in the front garden because they are so pretty.

The bird food in the greenhouse was getting too hot, so I got the stool and recoated the pains with Calamine lotion, then I made a card with my last piece of machining as the aperture cards arrived.

These alliums are opening and looking great.

My sitting room is being overtaken!

I went into church with Tina for a while to help her set up for tomorrow.

After dinner the three of us had an ice cream and short walk by the sea.

I lovely evening but the wind was actually quite cold.

So, have managed a bit more walking today.

Bruise, wren and boring garden pictures!

I mentioned how p ai full it was when I had the blood test on Tuesday. It is still painful and the bruise pretty impressive, she obviously did something wrong!

I had been a bit depressed when I fed the birds as there are so many places in the garden that need attention, so I decided to get stuck in and try to get some of it worked on. We got a Gtec strimmer about a year ago and I didn’t get on well with it, so this morning I found it and the charger and read the instructions again. When I went out into the garden Pandora shot past me and caught a baby wren. I was shouting ‘no’ and she ran into the kennel near the back door, then she ran out without the bird. Then she was chasing what I thought was another one, it’s shouting at her and chasing her around and then Blue appeared as well. Luckily Tina came out then and we managed to get the cats inside. The baby wren wasn’t in the kennel so must have come out when I was chasing Pandora! As newly fledged wrens cannot fly for the first 24 to 48 hours so we have kept the cats in today. They are not amused. I haven’t spotted any baby wrens so we will let them out tomorrow and hope that the danger has passed. Then I got the strimmer and firstly  three paths I made with turfs that cannot be mowed.

After that I decided to try and cut back the jungle that has grown by the greenhouse.

There was light rain when I was strumming and I was absolutely smothered in specks of grass and weeds. My clothes lower down were really smothered.

When I came in for lunch my latest veggie box had arrived. Very pleased with it again.

The next area to attack was the bed where the rhubarb and fruit bushes are.

Quite a bit of digging this time.

The strimmer is pretty powerful, this was a tennis ball!

I was having a rest when I remembered there was a letter to be posted, so I put a light coat over my dirty clothes and walked down the road. On the way back ther was a dancing unicorn!

The other area I was worried about was the walled garden as when the weeds get bit the frogs hide under them when it is damp. So I did some very rough clearing out there as I was flagging a bit!

That’s enough for today, will see if I can do something interesting tomorrow,