Awakening

Pots of beauty,

ready after a summers slumber

to bloom again.

Coming in from the cold

First frost of the season, this morning,

making us feel good about devoting some time to the garden at the weekend.

We cleared, filling up the compost heaps.

We dug, a little.

 O took time in creating some sculptures,

a delight for the eyes in the season of bare earth.

 And we brought in our last Harvest of the year.

Potatoes have been big and plentiful.

Courgettes, a great start but fizzed out quickly.

 The girls are still laying, a couple a day, even though we are down to 3 chickens, loosing Linda in the Summer.

 Tomatoes, have only managed to feed us in the, pick and eat way with not enough for our normal freezer stock of roasted tomato sauce, such a shame.

We grew as many plants, just a smaller crop.

Chillies, started in the greenhouse, then placed in a sunny spot in the garden.

A good turn out with pots in the freezer, ready for some fire in the cold, dark months.

And one pumpkin with many a baby.

Ground hungry, I think this will be our last year in giving room to these beauties.

And so the garden begins it rest.

Summer 2011 : 1

Life threw us some spanners and some rainbows, so blogging was put on hold.

The Spanners - A week each in hospital for K and I, different times and reasons.
My stay led to ear, throat and chest infections.
A week in Kuala Lumpur for N working, semi good for him ( well he was
working ) and very bad for me, fresh out of hospital.

The Rainbows - A day of Nurturing at http://http://theredthreadmotherscircle.blogspot.com/p/nurtured-family-nurtured-earth-2011.html
Weekend of fun in the Forest of Dean
Mother Camp in Yorkshire
Barefoot Festival
Celebrating 18 years of marriage

These events have all been wonderful, inspiring, revitalising, the true rainbows though,have been the people, friends old and new.
Time to sit, hold hands, laugh, smile, cry, listen and be.
Seeing children, growing, changing,blossoming.
Watching new friends, festival for the first time and seeing them indulge in every henna tattoo, face painting, glittery thing going.
Looking at my Love and knowing I did good.

Our garden, yet again, does us proud, Mother Earth, shares her bounty so willingly, even with us lazy, neglectful gardeners.
We topped up with a box of plants from Rocket Gardens http://http://www.rocketgardens.co.uk/?gclid=CK7u8sOksKoCFQoe4QodYVCqLw when we realised we had far too many bare spots.


And now we harvest, potatoes ( in our pjs of course ! ) courgettes, basil, lettuces, rocket, beans, peas,tomatoes, cucumbers, so many riches.
We make plans, thinking of storing, ready for the Winter ahead.
But mainly, for now, we sit back and marvel, give thanks and enjoy.

Summer Love to all x

First Crop of the Season

Planted with Daddy,watched and watered.

O has tasted and declared mustard 'licous

Back in the Garden

Opening up the sand pit was like unearthing new treasures for O and the girls, were very interested too.

Sunshine, seeds planted and soil beneath my nails, heaven.

Dish Washing Delights

Freshly picked from the garden.

Sat, brightening up my draining board, while I wash the dishes.

Waiting to be re-homed to another part of the house.

To admire their simple elegance.

To catch a hint of their stunning perfume.

To delight in their beauty.

Sunflower Sunday

Standing guard over the bean house, tall and proud.

Summer Sunday Sunflowers.

This week has been full of ....

the very best pizza making with the very best of friends,

body art,

jammin' with the grooviest dudes in town,

delighting in the growing garden

and harvesting.

The Bean House Grows and Grows

An idea,inspiration from friends ( am I too forward to call you a friend Sharon, hope not x )

http://abigsmile4.blogspot.com/2010/04/sunflower-houses-30-days-of-beauty-29.html

Less than a month ago, still new, still patchy but with so much promise.

http://abigsmile4.blogspot.com/2010/06/in-garden.html

And now, a garden delight, a mix of Sunflowers, growing tall, nearly touching the sky, French Beans and Runner Beans, providing cover, tangling their way up the poles, stunning red flowers, Sweet Peas, so fragrant, rainbow colours, so gorgeous and yet to show their smiling heads, Calandula ... a surprise to come.

A carpet of woodbark at his feet, a chair to sit on and view his kingdom from, O is a happy boy.

Make plans for this project next year, you will not be disappointed.

Sunflower Houses & 30 Days of Beauty : 29

Our new garden project has been inspired by the wonderful book Roots, Shoots, Buckets and Boots by Sharon Lovejoy, her lovely blog is here

http://sharonlovejoy.blogspot.com/ and spurred on further by this lovely bloggers post http://downinthemeadow.blogspot.com/2008/11/sunflower-house.html

A sunflower house for O, a secret place for summer days, to cool down, to play, a spot for lunch, a special place to be with friends.

We set pots out in a circle with a tepee of canes and cord for the plants to climb up.

Each pot has a sunflower and plenty of sweet peas.

We plan to add pots of runner beans to add cover and edible treats to hand.

The foundations are laid with rich compost for the plants to grow, now we hope with lots of love and care, plenty of help from Mother Nature and a good mix of both sun and rain, our Sunflower House will be blooming soon.

Moving in before it's finished.

Number 29 in my 30 Days of Beauty, our salad bed, nearly ready for a first picking.

30 Days of Beauty : 27

Hands, young and old.
Together.
Sharing.


Grandad and youngest Grandson.
Learning from each other.
Connecting.


Planting seeds and love.
Tenderness.

Big hands, Little Hands.

Loving Hands.

Round the Garden

We are joining in with this fun project, hosted by http://www.5orangepotatoes.com/blog/ and with the great weather we are finally having, who could fail to not want to get out and top their Vitamin D back up.

Our garden is approx 2500 square feet, within that we have a veggie patch, greenhouse, patio, tree house and a 14ft trampoline !

Facing to the South, it is a wonderful sun trap, thankfully our lovely apple tree gives us not only tasty apples but shade when needed too.

Our dog Sky shares this space with us, so it is far from pristine but a great spot for play, investigating, relaxing and star gazing.

Fairies love it so much, they have set up home here.

Stocking up the medicine chest, calendula seedlings.

Hours are lost playing in the sand.

All hands on deck for the annual out-door toy scrub down, not sure who ended up the wettest but know that O was certainly the dirtest, happiest little boy in our garden.

What goes on in yours ?

Stirring of the Seeds and some to share.

Celebrating Imbolc with the sowing of seeds.
A story to get us started, some songs and poems.

Loving his shouts of joy, as he sees, carrots, tomatoes and flowers, lots of flowers.
Which to plant ?



His little hands so very carefully sprinkling the cress seeds.

Covering them to keep them warm.

And pictures of what we've done to show Daddy later.

Celebrate the coming of Spring with us.

We have some spare packets of seeds to send out.If you would like a pack, please leave a comment.

We'd love to see a photo on your blog of you planting the seeds with your little ones.