Magnolia Tree..

.. I have ALWAYS wanted one of these.. the flowers are some of the most beautiful in my opinion and so I was delighted to walk out yesterday and see this lovely tree coming into full bloom.. I was a bit worried I would miss it whilst off on our holidays so very glad that I haven't .. Now all I need is Mrs Mallard (Fergie) to get those babies hatched.. I suspect we will miss them mind.. which will be a bit gutting.. Mind you given that Fergie was up and screaming for breakfast at 6:00 this morning forcing me out of bed at 6:30 it may not be a bad thing.. she is spending that much time sitting on the nest that she is getting very demanding when peckish ...

stunning 

Frost and Flower shows and everything in between

The British weather is bonkers for sure and in my new job as head gardener I have now become obsessed with it.. having planted out lots of my home grow little perennials I was horrified to then discover that we were due FROST!!!!!!! Not good and as I was away for the weekend steps had to be taken to protect my little leafy babies.

This is where my obsessive saving of anything I deem useful has truly come into its own.. bring out the excessive amount of bubble wrap I have saved.. all chicken protection was wrapped up and it seems that it may well have worked (touch wood)..

I have been concentrating on weeding the flower beds this week though it seems that as fast as I go new weeds springing up.. meanies.. but hopefully all the plants will be up and growing shortly and will disguise them :-) Weeding is one hell of a dull task for sure.. ground covering plants is the way to go me thinks! Its much more fun setting fire to things in the woodland and clearing all of that though its a slow process its nice to be able to see more or less instant results on the patch you are doing. 

I have been away for the weekend and whilst I always miss the house and garden, Mr Waen and the furry and feathery people I had a brilliant time. Got to see chums in Leeds, do a bit of work, have a nice lunch and dinner and then off to Darlington, on Saturday had the afternoon with my lovely God son and his Mammy and then off for a girls night out :-) and then on Sunday.... was the Harrogate Flower Show with my Mam..  Brilliant.. we had posh tickets that came with afternoon tea and parking in the blue car park.. which very handily is 10 paces away from the gate (handy for unloading our purchases). It was great to be able to talk to people about what plants I can grow in our various different patches of mad soil.. from clay to brick to actually not too bad and to get some ideas of what  to do around the garden.. 

check out this display.. a DANCETTE at the front.. hmmm I wonder

I reckon Mr W's Dancettte could be a feature 

Shaun in flower form.

Nephew of mine.. a picture for you which Nana told me to take...Spiderman 

and one for you Niece of mine.. Rapunzel in flowers 

Love these benches you can have any words added.. 

a living room in plants and flowers.. 

The scarecrow family on the grass couch 

behind the grass TV is a wire BARRY!!!!

afternoon tea.. by which point we needed a seat

YUM

My plant stash.. brilliant.. :-)

A brilliant giant carrot planter. 

It was a truly brilliant day and topped off when I got home by the fact that the E-bay welsh dresser had arrived and here it is with the new dinner service on.. though not all of it would fit! It fits perfectly in the space we planned for it.. it needs a bit of sanding down and waxing but that's a post holiday task.. all in all a bit of a bargain :-)

As is always the case though there is generally something odd happening here and on Sunday evening it was the wriggly worm coming out of the bath tap.. that was a new thing!

tap worm.. eurgh!

sun burnt hands..

...can you believe that today I have got sun burnt hands.. and only hands.. not arms.. not face .. not neck or any other bits of me that were exposed just my hands! most odd! Anyway that's not news really. 

Its been another busy week.. I am dashing about like a lunatic trying to get the garden in a state that it can be left whilst I trot off on holiday .. so lots of the greenhouse plants are now going into the ground both in the veg patch and flower beds and I am working on the final section of Money Falls as well as trying to weed everything and stop the sodding chickens from digging all the pebbles out of the pathway (new hobby of theirs).. we are now sweeping round every night because of the mess they make for 5 small things their mess is far reaching :-)

The garden looks even more bonkers at the moment with loads of wire chicken protective fencing around little bundles of new flowers.. but in a few weeks we can whip em off and hopefully all will be well  :-)

The wildlife is full of busy as ever.. our frog spawn has moved up a gear .. we now have tadpoles.. its dead exciting and Mrs Mallard (Fergie) is now spending much more time in the house so surely that means babies soon!!!! We are going to row over tomorrow and check on her lovely self. And we seemingly have a new pet squirrel who whilst is cute and he is cute is also wrecking the lovely weeping willow tree by biting off the branches! I spend my life trying to protect this lovely garden from feathered and furry folk.. oh well its a labour of love. 

All in all another good week.. lots of things are coming up in the garden and its showing up empty patches a bit but I have a squillion plants just waiting to fill those patches post holiday .. so all is good :) Its not however good around here for mice at the moment today in doing some weeding at the front of the house six dead mice were found.. its like mass slaughter now.. Archie has perhaps manned up a bit much now!

In other news.. we have been out and about truffling for treasures again and I think we may make Mr W's biggest son proud with our new finds.. we have bought a radio from the '60's to compliment the 'dancette'.. was a little bargain.. then we went to charity shops and found more singles for the dancette 'don't give up on us baby' by David Soul was my particular favourite (childhood memories a plenty) and we found an antique fabric shop which was relocating and selling loads of stuff off and got 2 gorgeous suitcases which just finish off the last spare room which I also managed to finally get decorated.

E-bay is our new chum too .. and we have bought a gorgeous dinner service with serving dishes, 12 place settings and a tea set too.. I am in love with it and am now excited to get the e-bay welsh dresser which is being delivered tomorrow!! Apart from that we also got some new plants for a shady and empty patch which we got from a lovely plant nursery we found and Mr W got a BBQ .. so of course being truly British we had that BBQ going on Saturday.. Yum :-)

Its been another long, busy and fabulous week at Waen :-)

The current mission.. finish money falls down to the bridge.. can I have a  member of the Money family back please?? 

Man BBQ

Man BBQ again.. note how all of the furniture was moved to accommodate it!!! and yet my Chimmnea  looks so much prettier :-)

its ace and it also works.. Radio Hafren.. not the best station  but hey!

the collection grows.. 

My new love.. 

pretty pretty pretty 

the lovely suitcases

with their original owners tag.. lovely

the last room all done 

fresh and snug 

shoes I will probably never wear again wellies are the new stilleto 

lovely pictures made by our lovely friend have found their perfect home 

my new method to get rid of garden waste.. granted I need one  the  size of the house but  it does a good job 

insane but chicken protected garden!

lots of green jumping through .. and these gorgeous girls  :-)

naughty squirrel wrecking our tree

but he does look cute 

Tadpoles (the little brown sick things)

Busy spring week

I was due to start work this week, but, due to the fact I have booked a ridiculous amount of time off to go on holiday, enjoy guests being here and to celebrate a big birthday my start date was put back to the 10th June, so I am using the time to get some serious tasks done in the garden.
We go on holiday in a few weeks and have a troop of fabulous house sitters coming so I need to get organised for them and make the garden look something like a garden.

You may remember that one of our fab guests began the mission of raking the lake of all of the dead stuff around the edges and I am ever grateful for that.. so this week now that we are snow less and frost less again I decided to finish that task.. Waders were involved which is not a good look but the results are great.. It wasn't as fun with one of me doing it and seemingly I am a bit slow as it took me 4 times as long to do the tiny bit which was left .. but never the less its done and no frogs or toads were injured.

Now speaking of toads it appears that its mating season for them.. they are all over the place sat on top of one another.. and they take an AGE.. I have had two toads in the porch most of the day.. at it!! as one of my friends just said they are Tantric toads clearly  :-)

 The garden is really starting to wake up .. I have been planting some shrubs and climbers and having to find ways to stop the chicken's from nibbling everything.. Mr W bought me a book about the subject and as is typical of many such books there are a few bits of good advice and a whole load of waffle.. however having cut through the waffle  I have learnt that its the soil's pheromones that attracts them when you dig a hole so the thing to do is fence off the new plants until the soil settles again and they become established plants.. Now granted the garden may look insane for a while but still it will stop me wanting to choke my feathered friends when they wipe out yet another plant.

Tantric Toads

and more.. 

new strawberry tree .. with chicken protection 

Lovely new climber.. with added chicken protection

 Mrs Mallard (Fergie) is still sitting on her eggs.. we rowed over for a visit and she has thrown 3 aside (they do that if there is something wrong with them.. duck eugenics it would seem) so no idea how many she is left looking after .. it should only be a week or so before we see. Meanwhile our girls have been trying their hands at laying eggs.. so far a complete failure (soft shells or broken up) but still they are growing up.. Mr W did some research and we have now added oyster shell to their diet (yum.. not) so lets see what happens there.

The lambs are doing well in the field.. down the road from us the sheep are numbered and their lambs have a corresponding number.. on my way down to the dump the other day lamb number 8 had managed to get out of the field and couldn't get back in.. I was not entirely sure what was the right thing but decided as he was getting a bit stressed that he should at least be with mammy who was looking on with a worried sheep face.. so I hopped out of the monster truck scooped him up and popped him back over the gate.. that was a nice few minutes.. lambs are just beautiful and that 30 second cuddle was a bit lovely.

Number 8 lamb (middle) and number 8 mammy (will let you work that one out)

Not number 8's but funny anyway.. man behind me in his car not seeing the funny side though.. was in a suit .. men in suits rush too much  :-)

Sophie and Blueberry's first eggs. Good start girls but more to do.

The kitchen garden or allotment as I call it is now in full swing.. Mr Ws dad was a fantastic help last weekend when he finished digging over the last of the beds and swept and tidied better than I can for sure.. for a man in his 70's he certainly shows me up and probably half of the British population for that matter .. he has set the standard in tidy allotment.. I now must make sure before him and Mr W's mam do their house sitting stint that its all smart and shiny. 

I have started to sow seeds outside and some of the seedlings too.. so far we have the following growing; raspberries, loganberries, redcurrants, blueberries, honey berries, gooseberries, rhubarb  various herbs, carrots, parsnips, peas, French beans, beetroot, onions, shallots, red onions, cabbage, sprouts and leeks well they are in the ground .. in the vain hope that they grow. 

 There is more to follow when I get a mo :-) The greenhouse is still full to the brim of flowers and other vegetables the veg will go out before I set off on holiday but the flowers need to get a bit bigger otherwise I may as well just hand them straight to the chickens. 

Mr W has been lending a building type hand and has made me a fab strawberry cage with push up sides for easy watering and picking (was told I had to add that bit) and he also constructed the Chiminea that my sister and the children got me for my birthday last year and made me some frames to cover the beds so that other birds don't eat the seedlings.. Is it just me or do I spend 1/2 my life protecting plants from birds. Hey ho.. its not a bad life spending my time trying to outwit feathered things. I am eternally grateful to my dad for putting a gate on the allotment   :-)

Mr W's frames

The frames we already had .. I am told they are NOT as well made as Mr  W's 

Pea's and their wig wam thing 

in that green house are 4 little green houses and then a serious amount of shelves.. all covered in flowers waiting to grow up so that they don't become chicken food. 

Herbs  :-)

The strawberry cage ...

... and its all important lifting sides 

Its certainly nice to be out and about and seeing everything starting to green up.. happy spring everyone .. we certainly waited long enough..

spring has sprung 

And finally a photo for the instigator of the lake rake (before the second batch of snow hit us) .. here you are the green is winning .. thank you xxx

the lake rake