Our Garden in June

 

 

 

 

I 've taken mases of pictures of our garden... because its so wild and wonderful. There are areas of planting and areas overgrown with weeds and brambles and I love it because of this. The children are equally drawn to the raspberries as they are to the neglected patches which is interestng because as adults we would tend to overlook the wild places. The Big Boy's fasination with these wild places is, I think, because he feels he owns them more so than the tended areas. He has full rein on the creatures which he discovers there. They hold promise as potential BMX ramp building areas or perhaps and area where a den/swing/gun/fort/hide could be constructed.

I take lots of pictures of our garden in June and July because I can't think of anywhere I'd rather be at this time of year. I have little time to potter but when I do I brim with complete happiness. When I sit on the bench at the front of our house my back is warmed by the sun's heat which has been absorbed by the house walls and my nose is bombarded by the fennel and lavender surrounding me. It's bliss...just what I need after a busy day.. perfect after Big Girl's leavers' assembly which was emotional and I can't believe she is off to Big School. However the summer holds lots of promise.

We plan to:

Master the art of cake decoration
Build an insect hotel
Have a photo taken in a photo booth
Create some first prize canival costumes
Celebrate multiple birthdays!
Catch more than 160 crabs in one crabbing session
Light loads of outside fires
Go on loads of bike rides
Learn how to take lavender cuttings
Learn how to play Canasta

Watch this space for July garden picture update.

Pond Dipping

 

 

 

One of the Big Boy's favourite things to do is fishing for Bullheads and Crayfish in any stretch of stream or babbling brook. Much of our summer is spent in a river and we never fail to find something interest. Sometimes we see things and we don't know what they are and the children love looking it up in our identification book.

Some fishing expeditions are spent in the pouring rain with few catches and a pot noodle, however this weekend was a wonderful assault to the senses. Our back were warmed by the July sunshine, our feet cooled (frozen) by the stream and our noses bombarded by the sent of the limes along the wall.

The Big Boy had his friend, Alf, with him. They lit fires, cooked pancakes, set fire to things and had a thoroughly lovely time.

Frilly Pink Knickers

 

 

 

 

I heard two pieces of sad news today. Firstly, I found out that a couple we know well are separating and then the window cleaner told me his partner (who's only 36) has got a really aggressive form of breast cancer.
Such sudden and shocking bad news makes me thankful for small pleasures like this bunch of beautiful peonies which came from the garden my friend Alex looks after. I can't stop looking at them and The Little Girl can't stop touching them..perhaps because, like Alan Titchmarsh says, they look like a drawer full of pink frilly knickers! She suggested I put some Lady's Mantle with them and the billowing acid green really does look stunning against the barbie pink blooms.
The other pictures are of The Big Boy's radishes which we harvested today. We've never grown them before and they were ridiculously easy. We sliced them with one of Alex's cucumbers and some snippings of The Big Boy's Wild Rocket but I was the only one who ate it as it packed quite a punch! Incidentally if you are thinking of growing rocket make sure that it's 'wild' as other varieties tend to bolt instantly. You can keep cutting wild rocket and it will grow well all summer and for £1.50 for a pack it's great value. Other small pleasures today include picking raspberries and strawberries, watching the Little Girl and her friend play beautifully without shouting at each other, watching Springwatch with the Big Girl, smelling the Big Girl's special homemade rose petal perfume (an annual event), feeding another Blackbird family, making flapjacks with the Little Girl... and then being able to sit and relax.

 

This is one of a few examples of cut lettering which live in my garden.

Unlike the other pieces, which are drawn and cut by hand, this one was drawn by hand but machine cut. It is one of the pieces which I will be selling on notonthehighstreet.com...eventually!

I've had quite a few pieces in my garden over the winter and they seem to have made the baron winter garden even more so...in a captivating sort of way. As things have starting sprouting, and now fully in bloom, the pieces have added a different dynamic to the flower beds which gives me so much pleasure. My life is so busy at the moment that there is little time just to 'be' but when I do I like to sit on the bench next to this piece and watch the sun go down.

In and Out of the Dusty Bluebells

 

We love going to the Arboretum in Westonbirt. We especially love going with Alex who knows what everything is and is also mildly obsessed with lichen...which I think is fantastic!
She also does silly things with plants which the two little ones thought was great. We made little mouse ears with Magnolia petals and bound the childrens legs with Sticky Jack, we found flowers which looked like fairy cups and probably reseeded all the dandelions for next year. The Little Ones made houses under dripping Hollies and 'hid' behind sticks, delighting in our complete inablity to find them!!

It was quiet and sunny and so beautiful. Under the trees were carpets of bluebells and billowing cow parsley. We saw little blue butterflies and were deafened by birdsong.

My friend Sarah joined us, feeling a bit harrassed, and left us feeling full of the joys of spring. What a lovely day!

A Beautiful Birthday

The Big girl has had a fantastic birthday and I can't tell you how glad I am. Last year she had a tummy bug on her birthday and spent the whole of christmas in bed with suspected swine flu. It was a bit touch and go yesterday when she came home from school with a head ache...was it going to develop into anything? Could it be the curse of red letter days that had blighted her two most favourite occasions? After a glass of water and a packet of calpol she was feeling much better. She woke up early this morning with a spring in her step, delighted in her pressies, big (a bike), and small (some 'moshi monster' stickers) and skipped off to school in a birthday bubble of happiness!

The Little Girl and I made this cake for her which contains a rather delish filling: 25g icing sugar, sieved, mixed with a teaspoon of vanilla extract, 250g mascapone, 250g squashed raspberries..yum! We made a topping with icing sugar, orange juice and pink colouring and scattered with raspberries and daisy wafers. Big Girl was delighted! We sat in the garden with best friend Rose, Granny and Grampy and scofted a big slice each.

On another note, the abundance of wildlife in our garden has been both a source of delight and horror over that last few weeks. Today a kestral flew into our chicken run and got stuck so flapped around for about an hour. Despite the bird's obvious distress, is was amazing to see it up close and personal like that. Grampy managed to shoo it out and it went on it's way only slightly ruffled.

We've also taken great pleasure in the nesting blackbirds in the trees around our house. They have been teaching their fledglings the ways of the world this week and have been using our garden as their playground. They've become so tame that one even landed on the Big Girl's leg! We also have barn owls, hedgehogs, masses of goldfinches, long tailed tits, swifts and swallows, tree creapers, mining bees, lesser spotted woodpeckers, bumble bees, butterflies and buzzards...to mention a few.

The 'horror' part occured yesterday with an unwelcome visitor. I went to open the chicken run and found our bantams dead...along with our big orpington cockeral. This time not a fox but a suspected mink or stoat attack. It was really quite horrible and so sad. The worst thing is that I would love to get some more hens (ex battery hens preferabley) but I cannot take then on with the risk of subjecting them to even more trama. I would want their time with us to be full of the happiness they deserve but how on earth can I stop a mink? They can squeeze through tiny little holes... can any thing be 'mink proofed'? I think I will have to consult my oracle and fellow Girl Guide Leader, Ann, who knows all about stuff like this. Maybe we could trap the stoat/mink and release somewhere else? I'll keep you posted...

The Royal Wedding

 

The last few weeks have been so busy that it was quite a treat not to celebrate the royal wedding by having a big do/street party/getting dressed up. Instead we stayed in our pyjamas, on the sofa with duvets. We ate scones and drank tea for our wedding breakfast as we watched the events unfold. The boy was really only interested in the protective weaponary carried by the soldiers and armed police and wondered how many of the vehicles were bulletproof. The little girl was most put out that the focus of everyone's attention was the TV and not her, so got progressively more disruptive throughout the proceedings! The big girl LOVED every minute of it. She was mesmorised by The Dress, fascinated by the ceremony, pomp and history. Mr Wild Ink and I were bombarded with questions of which we took the answers for granted. These included 'Who was Lady Diana?' 'Is William the Prince of Wales?' 'Are all weddings this long?' 'Was your wedding like this, Mummy and Daddy?' 'How much money does the Queen have?'...etc. It was lovely to be together for such an historical event which we will all remember.

The photos are of our bunting, scones etc. Please note the commemorative royal egg reinactment created by the Big Girl for her school easter egg competiton. The original piece had bunting, flags, and a bantam egg bridesmaid!