New Shoes

Hurrah for new shoes!  Much more comfortable than my last green pair, and just as smile inducing.

Boo Hiss to the clover, dandelions and other weeds that make up 80% of my lawn.  Don't mind the daisies - they can stay.

And on a final and completely unrelated point, my littlest one is making me smile this afternoon by mispronouncing vanilla.............it is manilla apparently.

A garden bore?

I am at risk of becoming a garden bore.

The symptoms are as follows:-

• Clutching a copy of Alys Fowler's 'Edible Garden' wherever I go around the house.

• Skiving off maternal duties to grab 5 mins to read above book..........like it's some sort of guilty pleasure.

• Stolen moments thinking of my garden and my next move - be it hoeing, planting, watering........ throughout the day.

• Luring the children to the garden centre after school with the promise of Pick n' Mix (even that no longer seems to be working - they are bored)

In short, I can think of little else.  Progress on the house has come to an abrupt halt.  In fact seeds and compost are literally spilt over all my windowsills. Even the Queen of Clean has admitted defeat and joined in......and turned a blind eye to the housework to keep me company.

So here we are....I feel the need to share.  As you can see it is nothing magnificient, but it is my little corner of the universe.

My garden in May...........

I'm rather obsessed with the garden at the moment, and thought I'd use this space to capture each month in my little patch.  This little montage of photos has no rhyme or reason - simply things that caught my eye today whilst mooching around the garden..........

.........this Bleeding Heart in white, didn't realise this colourway even existed.  Just adore these perfect little white hearts, and I'm told they don't mind being planted in the shade (fingers crossed!)

.......some more shade loving hostas and ferns.  No slug damage yet, but note my over zealous application of the blue slug pellets. 

.......apple blossom that seems to be disappearing as quickly as it has arrived.

......this mystery plant that I certainly didn't plan for or have last year.  I recognise it from Sarah Raven's Cutting Garden book, think it is a Cerinthe?  Obviously travelled here by seed, and it is of course most welcome.  Love the almost silver/purple foliage.

.......the veg patch coming along slowly but surely.  Including these little radishes below...........

And in this recent garden obsession I have discovered lots of lovely new blogs - my absolute favourite which I must share with you is Carrots & Kids.  I spent a blissful afternoon reading through these archives, if you are into gardening do check it out.

Things that have happened since I last posted..........

I have turned 33.

I have driven on my own for the first time ever on a motorway.  (M1, then M6).  I am beyond proud.

These hosta in my garden have made an appearance.  Every year I think I've lost them, and every year at the last minute they appear.  Like reliable friends.  I think my excitement at their appearance is probably considered excessive by the rest of my household........am even dragging unsuspecting visitors out to inspect these new arrivals.

Raised beds (.........or giant litter trays?)

Sorry I haven't been around here much.  I had nasty food poisoning last week and then I kind of lost my flow.....

But we are very proud of what we created this weekend.  And it really is a shoestring project (unlike some of my recent posts).  I'll even cost it out for you.

I mentioned here that we were going to build some raised beds, and eventually this weekend our plan came together.  The Queen of Clean had some free wood from work (packaging for electrical cabinets all the way from Minnesota) so there was no excuse.  We decided two rectangles would work best in our little plot (essentially as I couldn't commit to anything more elaborate) and went ahead and built them - one Friday evening and one Saturday morning.

I don't have any pictures of the building and painting as it all got a bit heated - I was accused of poor project management skills by my husband when I announced  Saturday lunchtime that they had to be painted cream (same colour as our playhouse), but I couldn't source any cream paint and was just popping out to get my haircut.  Poor project management skills, I ask you?! Needless to say it all came good in the end - I found cream paint in the fourth shop I visited (and now have nice hair).

We built the little path in between the beds from roof tiles that we found in a corner of our garden when we moved here.  This means we'll be able to access the beds even if the grass is wet.

And this afternoon we planted:

Mange Tout
Radish
Carrot
Dwarf sweetcorn
Onion
Broccoli

.........and tried to persuade our kitties that we had not just built them two giant litter trays! Eugh - eventually resorted to green netting across the top, just until they get the message.

Here is a picture of the before (taken end of Feb I think).........it really was an eyesore this patch of the garden.  A huge heap of rubbish and a neglected apple tree.

And here is the now (complete with netting to discourage kitties). The other side of the beds we have put grass seed down as funds won't stretch to the shed I had planned for. 

As promised the cost for this project:-

Wood = Free
Soil - 9 x huge bags = £36 (could have sourced cheaper than the garden centre I'm sure but blame my poor project management skills!)
Cream paint = 2.5 litre can was £19.98 (but also got enough to repaint my playhouse so am costing this at £10)
Labour = Free (although I did have to make several cups of tea to keep Queen of Clean digging)
Roof tiles for path = Free
Fancy wooden plant labels = 10 for £1.98
Netting = £4.00

Total = £51.96

I must also admit I was extremely stupid and let the kids paint these beds without changing their clothes first, and lost some decent jeans and t-shirts in the process.  But will not include these in the cost tally above! 

The finished result

I wanted to elaborate on the picture in the post below.  We had a real adventure on Saturday.  Yoyo and I, along with my parents went to see the Cinderella ballet at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

I'm not sure if Yoyo was more excited about going to London on the train and the thought of a taxi ride, or the ballet itself.  She had spent most of Friday morning making a necklace for the occassion (that's what she's concentrating on my last post).  And here is the finished result.............

And, the ballet, well the ballet was magical.  Stuff of 6 year old girls (and 32 year old girls dreams).

{this moment}

{this moment} 

A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment.