Graduation 2009

What a fabulous few days we have had. K kindly let us stay at her place and we had an exceptionally early start on Thursday 5th November, as she and we had to be at Uni by 8.30am.



Once gowned we went to get photos done, which was a sensible move as the queues later where amazing.We then got on the coach for the short journey to Worcester Cathedral where, being early we had pretty good seats.



One very proud Dad and if you look carefully you can make out K in the top right hand corner!



T, Mums partner and one very proud Nana!




K's Media Group!





Celebrating

Later in the evening Mum treated us & K to a celebratory meal, a customer from a nearby table offered to take our pic!



My Mum



The next day K's boyfriend also graduated

Busy Day!

I have been trying to get myself into gear and motivated again! Most weekends now, is just hubby and I, as T is usually at her boyfirends.
So today we went out to do some shopping and came back with a lovely red rug! Not your usual buy I know but I used to have some red walls and I have recently painted over them as they where annoying me, but we lacked colour in the lounge and I'm a colourful sort of gal! So a rug was needed.



Then we decided as this could be the last decent day for awhile, that we really had to clean out the pond! Neither of us could remember when we last did it but suspect it was probably about 5 years ago.



So we bailed out into water butts and containers most of the pond water, carefully putting the fish into large buckets.

We then attempted to lift out the water lily and struggled badly as it had grown into all the pots and had created a mat of roots about 2-3 inches deep! All of the containers in the next pics where joined together!




We cleverly used two waterbutts, so having bailed some of the water out we where able to lift them to the side of the pond and turn on the taps, which ment all the sludgy stuff was left at the bottom of the water butt.



Anyway as you can see from the pics we managed in the end, and all the sludge and slime was put on the flower beds!

We where then able to do a census of the fish,apologies for the photos the fish where flapping!

1 Large Green Tench. We originally had 2 large ones.



1 Small Green tench.



1 Orfe, which is now getting a bit big for the pond, the net measures about 20 inches so that will give you an idea how big he is!



We have always had a fairly healthy pond and from the beginning have always had baby fish



this is them.

and this chap or chap-ess was not bought by us so must be a home bred and grown!

,

1 shubunkin, we used to have 3.



1 comet



So a total of 6 large fish and 12 babies. Disappointingly we lost alot during last winter as we used to have 19 very decent sized fish!!

Not Been in the Mood!

For quite a long while now I have just not felt like blogging or visiting blogs, its been getting to the stage when all I do is sit at a computer. This is not doing me or my knee any favours!
Its not I don't love finding out what you are all up to, I do, and I miss seeing whats going on but.................. I'm sure you know what I mean!!

Anyway, autumn was fast approaching





the caster oil plant has put out more flowers than ever before
and we even had the Rayburn lit,





and our only tree has decorated itself in autumn colours.

The greenhouse has been wrapped up



the foil is 2 survival blankets I bought off Ebay for a very good price, the back of the greenhouse is always chillier so I thought this might help insulate, as well as reflecting light!
Then 2 weeks went by and we have been hit by a heat wave, at night it has been 13C and the silly sparrows are nest building!! So the Rayburn is out, the windows are open and we await winter again!

But this allows me to view beautiful skies



and find hidden flowers in the garden!

A.W.O.L

I have been very random, over my blog. Sorry! I hope to be back to normal soon, have had a few problems to overcome!

New Best Friend

I thought you would like to meet my new best friend.....



no, sadly she is not mine :o(



she is my neighbours dog, a 'Parsons Jack Russell', and I dog sat her. To be honest I have never liked little dogs, I have always been a Labrador girl.



But this little lady has found her way into my heart! She is such a character!



and she maybe having puppies.
The plus is hubby likes her too!!!!

Greenhouse Preparation!

I have had to make this a two day operation, which is enormously frustrating for me as this is easily a one day job and that would have been both greenhouses as well!

The big one before it was cleaned, sits close to silver birch trees so does get that green stuff on it which takes some scrubbing to get off.



Afterwards having been 'jet washed' and scrubbed with a brush, inside and out, quite sparkling now!!



The next day I bubblewrapped it, I am quite meticulous on labelling each sheet as I take them off so they are easy to fit the next time. Its a fiddly job and requires



stupid little green twiddly things to attach it to the greenhouse and obviously alot of going up and down the ladder! This did my knee no favours. But its done now so if we have a sudden frost, we can whip the plants in and they will be fine!

The chimney sweep has been today so we can light up anytime!!

Frustration!!

I haven't been blogging for a number of reasons. I like to take pics for my blog and as you know my camera broke, so I am using K's high spec heavy weight one, which takes amazing pics, but is a bit of a pain to carry round as its so big. Every time I went out the door with my little one I would slip it in my pocket, so you got more 'random' pics! I have to think about taking this one out!
Also....
I haven't been able to do much as my knee can't take the extra weight of carrying or walking to far, it still keeps locking which is not only painful but downright annoying!! Although to be fair to the specialist, he never made any guarantees!!
I am currently working hard on building up the muscles in my thigh as they have deteriorated badly, due to me obviously favouring my strong leg over the last year!
Anyway enough moans and groans...

I started to clear out the greenhouse last week as we have had a number of exceptionally chilly nights and it is nearly time for me to bring in my tropicals



the tomatoes had really gone nuts and had I been able to leave them I would probably have got some more toms from them!



most removed, just need hubby to remove the grow bags



remaining tomatoes! I had amazing green growth but not alot of tomatoes this year, I may have to rethink how I grow them!!!



In the small greenhouse I have brought in some of the more tender plants



I also purchased a new one Alocasia Wentii, the upper side of the leaf is green



and the lower is purply green to purply black!



On the bench I use a reptile heat mat, I find they work well as they only heat where things touch. So the gaps in between the plants are cold, whereas underneath the pots are warm!



I intend to buy a larger one and will place it on polystyrene.



In the pond the papyrus has grown beyond all expectation!! The whole of the pond needs to be cleaned out, we do this about once every four years, and this year is it!!



Anyone any idea what this is?? its been growing in my veg bed and I have no idea where it came from, I have just been watching and waiting to see what happens.



Such a beautiful colour at this time of year!!



An Impatiens tinctura flower.



You can see how the leaves have shredded and are now turning yellow, nearly time to tuck them into the greenhouse for the winter!!

In the Jungle!

My hubby and I where totally alone last night, one daughter now lives away and the other was out for the night. So we took the opportunity to have a night in the jungle.



Hubby lit and cooked a lovely bar-b-que



I lit the chimnea..



we sat till quite late drinking and chatting



all in all a very lovely evening!