Garden in the Snow

It still remains cold with the threat of more snow today. Darcy seems to love the snow, I have only been down the garden a couple of times to check on the greenhouse, but the garden is covered in paw prints!!!



The Cordyline and bamboo have been brought close to the house, which we hope will offer some kind of protection.



The Trachy, was seriously bent over the other day, so I shook off the snow, well the ones I could reach.



This is the veg bit



Frozen Kale and Brussels

In the greenhouse I have so many layers of insulation, its unbelievable, bubble wrap, then round the north side is survival blankets, plus draped across the roof some fleece. I also popped in one of the tube heaters last night and it seems to have a far more even temp.



I have run out of plug sockets, even though I have one more tube heater, so may bring the baby TRex out of the propagate and into the house to free up a socket if needed.





I brought both my tree ferns in this year, as I lost all of mine last year, so I am down and watering quite regularly. Only problem is the water butts are frozen so I have to lug the water down from the house!!

Bananas in big sacks, and the one in the big pot was enormous this year!!







from the greenhouse looking up the garden.



We wrapped the banana on the patio this year!

Snow

We love snow! We get it rarely, that it is great. I know alot of people moan about it, how it grinds the country to a halt, its just that this sort of weather for the UK is not the norm! I know we had it last year, but thats 2 years out of how many?????



People moan because they are so used to using cars to get around, what about those two things sticking out of the bottom of our torso, legs! Amazing they are, they actually move you around!



Well I have been using mine to take my little snow plough for a walk.

He has thoroughly enjoyed the snow, until today when by the time he got back he did not want to walk and I'm not surprised he had snowballs attached to his feet and seemed to have like ice burns on his belly!



He wears a coat, to help keep him warm, but what I forgot is that his belly has very little hair coverage, and having such short legs would explain everytime he stops he was shivering!



You can see the ice, building up in his beard.



and our Postman 'Pete' made it through with a smile!

As to Christmas, well I am totally disorganised this year, most unlike me. The tree is up, with thanks to K, the cake is made, thanks to my mum!! I have put marzipan on it! The presents are bought, still to be wrapped.
I ordered the meat at the beginning of December so we will have turkey, whether there will be anyone here to eat it is another matter. My mum and her partner are due to be collected as is our eldest daughter. The priority is to get Kathryn, otherwise she will be all alone!



one animal who always finds a warm spot, Tango, and yes T was asleep!!

Mincemeat

1st Batch made and it smells divine and tastes even better.



next batch underway, then onto Medlar Jelly!

Windfall Apples

It was a glorious day today, cold but bright and sunny, so I went outside and raked up the leaves and picked up the windfall apples, that have fallen from my neighbours tree into my garden... a bucket full.



So what do you do with a bucketful of windfalls????

Make Mincemeat, this is Lotties recipe (Allotment Lady) I have used her recipe for 3 years now and its so easy to do and so very scrumdiddleumptious,



this is soaking overnight then will be warmed up tomorrow then popped into jars.

But, what do I do with the rest of the apples?????



I think I shall make another batch.

A Bloggers Tea Towel Swap

Would anyone in Blogosphere be interested in having a Tea Towel Swap. Well thats what we call them in the UK, I'm not sure what they are called elsewhere, but basically its the towel that you dry up the plates and cutlery with, if you don't own a dishwasher!!

The plan, you buy a Tea Towel from your locality showing something about your town, the history of it or similar, it should not be plain. Fold it up with a short note and post it to your swap partner. To keep costs down do not include anything else in the packaging please.

If you are interested and would like to join in, please comment on here, then e-mail me your address, I will then stick all the swappees into a bowl, draw them out and forward the swap partner address to you.

Tea Towel Swap

I organised a tea towel swap on the Potting Shed forum recently, unfortunately being the organiser I knew who I was getting mine from. But of course I had no idea what I was getting.



I was thrilled when I received it, as I had never seen one like it before.

Although Bath is the closest City, Swindon is the closest big town and it is renowned for its roundabouts! This is actually a roundabout and when hubby went for an interview in Swindon in 1988, we crossed this and his words to me where something like 'what the heck was that!!

I Have found the Cable!

I made a concerted effort to find the cable this morning and after much digging and delving I found it!!!

My sister and her husband came to stay for the weekend at the beginning of October, for two reasons, 1. it was her birthday and she deserved to be spoilt, 2. they where having our small greenhouse. They brought their dog along,



and as you can see Darcy and Daisy are now very good friends!!

I then did a spot of chutney making



this is Red Pepper and Chilli Jam, I also made, Hot 'n' Spicy Tomato Chutney and more Date and Banana Chutney!!

Then we sold our Dresser, which meant that the contents have been scattered around the house on any available surface




K, had to downsize from 2 bed flat to house share



so her bits and pieces are slowly being packed away or freecycled!!

I have been up to visit my mum, nieces and great niece



she is not yet 4, and is so much fun!

Came back and the first night back we where hit by a bad frost





so what normally takes a weekend was in fact done in a day. The greenhouse was bubble wrapped, plants dug up and placed in my remaining greenhouse.





Fortunately they fitted. This year I have even fitted my tree ferns in, I lost them all last year!



If 'Folklore' is anything to go by, we are in for another bad winter as the holly trees and bushes are laden with berries!!!!

The tiling round the Rayburn is now finished and sealed, and we are thrilled to bits.



In between all of this we are fighting a proposal to have a sand quarry built about 400yds away. If you double click on the pic, at the bottom you can see Stockley, just to the right of the word about 2 cms is dark outline of trees around gardens, this is where we live!! The black holes are the closest proposed sand quarries.



Sadly not the only ones that will affect us. Out of 35 proposed for this county, 18 are around the town of Calne. Most of these belong to Lord Lansdowne, of Bowood House. If you live in the country it is still very 'feudal' everyone tugging there forlock to the Lord!!!! We are fighting, with banners, posters, leaflets and car stickers. We are reguarly in the paper, provided it passes the Estate Managers say, yes he appears to have a hold over the local paper too!!! We have a website www.sandstoppers.co.uk its worth a look.If anyone has any further ideas on what we can do, please let me know!

Shambles!

Thats what my house looks like at the moment!! The Welsh dresser went and the contents, glasses, china etc is spread through out the downstairs on any available surface!!!!!!!!!!! The new dresser will be with us either the first or second week of November.

My eldest daughter K then had to downsize from flat to shared house, so we had a load of stuff brought back here, most of which has been stored or Freecycled!

I have been to mums and got back at the weekend..... she has been having a hard time financially wish, a new roof, new oven which then blew up, so was replaced under guarentee, new radiators but the heating is still not sorted... then when I got back the weather had changed and a hard frost was due that night so had to dig up all the tropicals and get them in in under a day!!!!!

The tiling round the Rayburn is done and looks fab!

Somewhere in the house is the cable that attaches the camera to the computer so I can download pics, hence no pics, cos I can't find the flippin cable!!!!!!!!!!!!

Aaargh!!

I will try and find the cable cos I have some super pics, back again soon.

End of September.

I love this time of year, especially if it doesn't rain. I can actually work in the garden without getting into a muck sweat!!



The bananas have grown massively this year, so we now can't see the bottom of the garden, I love it when its like this. The phormium has really shot off and is looking impressive, definately fills a gap, lower down!

The brugmansias alwyas go mental flowering, I wish it was warm enough for maybe one more bar-b-que with the chimnea lit, so we could appreciate their scent.





I found this little clematis at a garden sale it is gorgeous and all the more so for flowering now!



This is one of the bananas I mentioned earlier, it is one beast, and we purposly left it in the pot so we could move it easily into the greenhouse!!! MMMmm maybe a task!!



this is the middle



and the top must be some 12ft tall now. Even though we have had 3.5C at night a couple of times, it doesn't seemed to have bothered them!



Isn't this a pretty coloured leaf, abit like patchwork.



Meanwhile further down in the veg garden for once I am organised



winter onions,



Kale type Brussel Sprouts.



Kale



Cabbage, Cauli, Brocoli.



Big changes afoot here!!



Emptying big greenhouse.



Small one is going!!



The most beautiful bloom on the Arum Lilly it is actually bigger thank my hand!



and one of my bromeliads has flowered!!