In January I started a MONSTER task to clear all of the bank sides right to the bottom of the garden .. MR W reckons all in all I have cleared 800 square meters of land.. Not bad eh.. but giddy aunt thank god its done.. It was full of old brambles and bracken and 15 million tonnes of leaves, the soil underneath is amazing has had all that mulch on forever. The plan now, even though the brambles will make a slow return (they are mean and evil), is that I get some wild flowers in there so I have bought them in bulk ad when the threat of frost has passed I will start sowing.
There has been a car in the stream for some years and in the course of clearing the bank sides and digging out parts of the stream which had got bocked and with my HIGHLY excited sister we have uncovered a lot more of it than before.. My sister was carrying on like she was on time team which was cute to watch.. she was easily distracted from clearing bank sides for sure and just squealed at every new bit of metal she found :-) Anyway it was a good find and now looks like a cool feature.
You may remember that I got 25 KG of daffodils and narcissus for my 40th birthday and so with a little help from my dad they are all now in this patch and so next spring it should be looking a lot better. There is as ever lots more of the garden to sort, tomorrow we are tackling all the fallen wood from the trees with chipper and chain saw and YES I did say WE!!
We need a spruced up woodland ready for the wedding :-)
I am loving being able to really crack on.. even though the weather has turned bitterly cold its lovely to be able to make a good garden start.. One of my other birthday gifts also finally made an appearance.. its a lovely bird cage, I have planted it with 2 ivy plants in a pot and hung it outside.. the idea that it gets all lovely and weathered and the ivy grows like mad all over it.. give it a few months and will look amazing :-)
In other news the WI have played our last darts game of the season and surprisingly we didn't make the final but had a blast anyway. So our next challenge is the spring show.. 3rd May 2014. I am in for 3 classes.. Basket of knitted vegetables no more that 10" x 12", Gardeners apron and vegetable Pizza.. I have 2 out of 3 finished :-) hysterical.. loving country life.
Last night we had stage one of the LONG awaited come dine with me between Myself, Mr W, and 2 of my farm job chums.. It was me up first.. so I created the following;
Pork and Prawn meatballs in aromatic both
Fish Tagine, Orange and red onion salad and cous cous
and lastly
Chocolate and chilli mousse with Mango.
I have to say it wasn't a disgrace and we had a fun night. And now its the weekend.. more playing outside for me :-)
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| The come dine with me table.. with my flower arrangement - clearly was not listening at that WI class :-) |
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| what will be my rusty Ivy Birdcage .. watch this space |
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| Raked and de brambled bank sides |
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| and more |
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| this i the next patch to de bramble :-( |
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| a bit of the car |
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| more car |
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| and more |
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| oo.. and a bit more |
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| My sister AKA time team even found the number plate |
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| bank sides ready for wild flower sowing |
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| W.I. spring show entry 1.. the gardeners apron with 2 pockets and 2 loops to hang tool from |
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| Beetroot wine brewing away.. getting ready for xmas |
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| Bramble vodka.. well the starting point anyway |
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| a basket of knitted vegetables.. WI entry 2... aubergine, sweetcorn, leek, carrots, peas, tomatoes and a big mushroom :-) |
