A Blustery Day, More Weeding. 11th March 09

Gosh it's been a blustery day today. Jim and I went out gardening but it wasn't particularly pleasant. We had a long afternoon coffee break and put the world to rights. Then we headed outside again. Jim was extending the 'snake rose bed' as he had a few more roses to plant to finish it off. I have taken a photo, but it's still very much a 'work in progress'. The edges need trimming and straightening or bending a bit more in places. The roses are still very small but are bursting into leaf so hopefully it'll be a picture in Summer!





Of course the grass is far too long but much too wet to mow. Also we cannot get the mower out of the barn with all the building equipment about! We have 29 roses in this bed now.











I finished weeding both of the arboretum beds. The second one is much bigger than the first and full of weeds so it has taken a bit longer. When Jim and I went out after our long break, we both put our balaclavas on and felt much warmer. Jim took a photo of me in mine but you're not seeing that! I look about 20 stone and have 6 chins! You can see this one:


The 'snake rose bed' is on the right. The 2 arboretum mixed beds are obvious, and I'm weeding the larger one. I am bent over clearing the last bit, and Buster is helping. You can see if you click on it and make it full size. And my wonderful balaclava. The gorse is out behind and the path leads up to the well head and then to our gates. On the left at the back is the fairy hill. You can see the bench on the top of it.



This is the smaller of the two beds. I'm afraid the rhododendron doesn't like our soil so the leaves are going yellow. It'll have to go in a pot with ericaceous soil.




The smaller of the arboretum beds. The little red tulip I took a close up of is about in the centre. Another is just coming out. The barn is behind and our cottage to the right.









Work very much still in progress. To the left of the photo you can see the edge of the smaller mixed bed.






We had just about finished working when Buster started making his real foxhound howling bark. We found him up the meadow and he was going mad at something. We think it was maybe a fox as he doesn't usually make such a persistent noise. He rushed round in circles with his nose to the ground. I'm sure whatever it was was long gone by then. We also get pine martins so it could have been one of those.

Dinner tonight? We had yesterday's leftover mince from a spag bol plus tuna mixed with sweetcorn and mayonnaise all with 2 jacket potatoes. It was delicious. Followed by a Muller double yogurt, strawberry. Apparently they have brought out a dark cherry and dark chocolate one. That sounds like one for me.

I had forgotten one special present that Jim brought back from the UK for me. On Friday 13th March it is Comic Relief Day or Red Nose Day. Every Year a vast amount of money is raised by doing 'funny' things and each year a different red nose has been produced. I have every one so far but of course this year I'm in Ireland and couldn't buy one myself, so here is my special present:









Isn't he super?








If you look at the photo of me bending over weeding, you can see that my right boot is very muddy. Well, I did my own comic turn earlier on and my foot and half my wellington boot disappeared down one of the cow holes which was full of muddy water!! Jim was laughing his head off and said 'where's the camera when you need it?' I had to pull my foot and boot out with both hands!

Off to bed shortly, happy blogging.

My Son the Poet, I get Presents. 10.3.09

If you didn't see my last blog entry, it was about Buster getting a new bed as his old one was too small for him. My big son J left this comment yesterday:

Buster's Lament by Jason Green

Why oh why, I cannot seem to lie
With my head in my bed, oh my.... oh my.
It's not that big, "dog head size" I'd say,
But I poke it inside and it flops out all day!
Oh deep joy, it seems my problems are solved,
A huge doggy bed from England I'm told!
Now I sleep soundly, after running amok,
It fits my dog head and my small doggy bot!
My sleep is so peaceful no longer so tuff,
Snoring all nite, to get up not so "ruff"!

I reckon that's one cool poem!! I told Buster that Uncle Jason had written one about him! He said 'woof'.

Our poetic genius obviously runs in the family.

Our first job today was to empty the car, which was packed to the gunnels with 'stuff' from the UK. The new bathroom suite, 'Innocence' it's called, is in the top barn with a large roll of polythene for the polytunnel, plus sundry assorted boxes for the bathroom suite, taps, traps, you name it.

Jim bought me a pair of new Wellington Boots. Now these are your straight forward black ones, but they fit a treat. I also received some new gardening gloves, highly essential when I'm brambling. 6 little delightful conifers came too, plus a pink deutzia shrub. Also a pot of varnish for my papier mache creations then 3 months supply of contact lenses (I'd run out) and my prescription medicine. I need that as it's my anti depressants. Not exactly a present, but highly vital all the same. Jim also brought back the plants in a basket that I had bought him for his birthday. All the little daffodils are out now and it looks a treat.
The builders have been busy all day and this is where we are up to now:



Martin waving and Joe climbing up the ladder
There has been much noisy drilling today as they have been fixing the roof joists to the wall of the cottage.






We have managed to find a plumber willing to do all the heating and bathroom suite, towel rails, etc, that's one worry removed. He seems very pleasant but speaks at about 100 miles an hour and he has a strong Irish accent. I just smile and nod.



The first of the miniature red tulips is almost out. Luckily the cows missed these. Can you see the weeds? They've all gone now. I weeded this bed this afternoon and half of the other bed on the arboretum. The ground is so wet, it's really hard work.




Jim spent some time trying to lose the cow holes. It was funny watching him jump up and down trying to flatten the grass. I tried to catch him in action:




It does look much better already











Jumping Jim. Where's your horse? I washed his very filthy red coat while he was away. It positively shines now.






While Jim was in the UK he went to see all 3 of his children and of course his first Grandchild, the lovely Poppy. Here are 4 of the photos he managed to get while she wasn't crying!




Hasn't she grown? If you look carefully you can see Jim's birthday basket in the background

















She has a wonderful surprised look!

















A bit of a smile here













'That's the best I can manage' says Poppy











Time for a bit of blog reading.

9th March, Jim comes home. Happy Buster

The builders have been very busy today and all the roof rafters are now on the extension. By the end of the day, though, it was pouring with rain, so I didn't take a photo. Perhaps tomorrow.

I spent a lot of the morning reading blogs. The trouble with following art blogs is that you go from one to another! Each one has comments on from other artists and you can be there all day. They're all different and all fascinating in their own way.

I went out but it was cold and windy so I gathered wood for this evening and then went into the barn and had a sort out. There's always loads of sawdust about on the floor from our sawing, so I swept all that up and bagged it ready for the compost heap or the strawberry patch. Then I snipped quite a lot of the old willow for kindling. Martin and Joe had a bit of a chat then gave up for the day as they'd finished all the roof rafters and the rain got really heavy.

I made myself a 'leftovers' dinner, spaghetti, ham, 2 sausages and grated cheese plus half a tin of baked beans. It was delicious.


I could have done with a bit of green or red in it! Looks a bit pale and wan but tasted super. Lots of black pepper too.







Buster was worn out this evening and retired to bed fairly early for him. He has outgrown his bed with the bow but I think 'Daddy Jim' might bring a present with him tonight:




He really doesn't fit anymore!








He tried to put his head in but a few moments later it flopped out again.









I was idly wondering what I could put in my blog when I spotted the 'finds' from the garden, which I have stuck with blue tak to the kitchen cupboards or rather shelves. I have found lots of bits of lego and my latest find is the cute little green bottle on the shelf. I imagine the little girl out on the allotment with her Daddy, gradually losing bits of toys over time. The 'farmer' or whatever he is was a good find, and the penny:
It's a bit blurred. I liked the dart flight. The little purple thing is a bead and the long blue stick a piece of lego I think. I have found lots of kitchen things, pans, cups and saucers and other bits of larger lego. They have all been washed and are in a box upstairs for when Jack or any other child visits! They're too big to go on the wall. It's fun finding objects owned by the previous occupants, it still seems like treasure to me.

BlackJack took advantage of the fact that Buster was trying to use his bed instead of the chair and has been on that chair all evening. He's still there now:




He seems to have come out a bit of a BrownJack this evening! Happy cat, Happy Buster. Sandy's asleep upstairs.






I was expecting Jim back at midnight but he arrived early at 11pm. He brought with him the bathroom suite, polythene for the poly tunnel and lots of other things for the extension. We'll unpack all those tomorrow. But most importantly, he brought:
Buster's New Bed!!

Buster has hardly moved from it since it was put down, having given Jim lots of loving first. His old bed rather conveniently sits inside it and there's a blanket underneath that. He's in doggy heaven.
It's lovely to have Jim back. We're the kind of couple who both like our own space and are quite happy to go away for a while on our own, but it's always good to get back together again too.

Jim's just looking at my blog and the cow damage pictures. Lots of 'Oh God' and 'What a mess' coming from up in his room! Ah well, we'll sort it out. That's about it for the day. Car emptying tomorrow and trying to find 'homes' for everything.

Invaded by Cows and a Bull, Chaos, 7th & 8th March 2009

What a day I had yesterday. For a start, it was raining and the wind was so strong it was blowing the rain sideways. Needless to say the builders didn't turn up - who can blame them. Buster wouldn't step outside until I donned a coat and had a walk round and stocked up on more wood and peat blocks. I noticed in the primrose bed, made just a week ago, that there were some deep cow prints. I assumed one of Martin's cows had escaped and wandered about. They do sometimes. I went and shut our double gates in case they/he/she/it returned.

I took the wood inside and had a good old spring cleaning day. Swept and washed the kitchen/diner floor, hoovered our bedroom and the snug and that's all there is to our house until the extension is finished. I looked out of the window while I was floor washing and there was a whole herd of cows, plus a very large white bull wandering around our 4 front lawns.

I grabbed a stick from the porch and shouted at them and tried to open the gate. I was so cross I didn't have time to be scared of the bull. As I moved towards the gate, the herd ran up to our vegetable area. There is a slope up to it which I grassed last year, now there is no grass left after they'd trampled up and down there. They trailed up to the top area, where we have a few fruit trees planted and another lawn. Well, it was a lawn, it now has huge hoof holes in it too. The bull kept himself at a distance from the cows but eventually moved off after them. I tried to steer them towards the gate but they turned right at the bottom of the veg plot down past our stream and up into the meadow. There is a path up the middle of the meadow that Jim has made over time with the mower. It's taken months to get it in shape. Again, it is now grass full of deep holes, some of them as much as 18 inches deep. That bull is very heavy.

I decided at that point that if they stayed on the meadow they couldn't do too much more damage and headed down to our neighbours' house to see whether she had any of the local farmers' phone numbers. I was a bit upset by now, Jim's still in the UK and I was horrified at the damage the cows were causing.

Hilary, bless her, scooped me up, donned her wellingtons and we all piled into her car. Me, Hilary, small son Tom and Millie, our dog Buster's girlfriend. Buster ran behind. By now the cows were heading down from our house and turned right, which meant they were probably Kevin's. He has built a large barn but there isn't any fencing on the roadside there. Hilary drove them along the road in her little car and they duly wandered off to the barn. We drove to Kevin's house, a bit further along and knocked.

Hilary had warned me that Ireland is the land of 'Never apologise and take no responsibility'. Sure enough, Keven ummed and aahed when I told him his cows and bull had destroyed our garden. Oh really? What, the bull? Oh, I'm surprised at that. I guess I'll have to lock them in. And he closed his door. Ye Gods, they are a funny lot. Hilary ran me back up my drive and we wandered around inspecting the damage. She tried to reassure me saying it's not too bad. At least they were gone and my gate was shut. By now it was 6 pm. I walked around despondently.

The evening was OK, I watched a bit of tv, had my dinner and painted the insides of the couple of containers I'm making. I read lots of blogs and played Lexulous on Facebook then went to bed. Inspired by Ces's blog, I had a go at pen and ink drawing whilst in bed. I eventually fell asleep around 5am! I will not show you my efforts.

Today the weather was even worse, although I did have a couple of bouts of sunshine, very briefly. I took photos of the damage and as it was sunny at that point, of some flowers. That cheered me up a bit. On and off it's snowed and hailed and the wind has been really strong, there are gale force warnings around Ireland. I hope it's calmed down by tomorrow, when Jim has to come back on the ferry.




Cow foot prints, well, just deep holes really.











An ex lawn














There's plenty of this about. Cow poo!














This lovely slow growing conifer's in a bad way. Some branches have been eaten off but I'll put some string round it and that might help.












Buster smelling where the cows had been. That's the churned up path to the vegetable garden.



















Probably the worst part, this is the mowed path up to the top of the meadow. Might take a bit of work to sort that out.











On a lighter note, I did take some photos of the flowers as usual:



A real 'host of golden daffodils'.


















These double daffodils are up by the gate, which Jim has now painted








The painted gates. Buster on the wrong side of them as usual. Can you see the lake on the right half of the photo? That's Lough Graney. I love the shadow of the gates here.











These pretty primulas are just to the left of the gates. I built a small rockery there last year.


















Our little stream is fast running with the rain, hail and snow




















These little daffodils are so dainty. They came over from our UK garden in the pot holding the Ginkgo Balboa and have thrived ever since.










Best of all, at tea time today, Hilary called round just to make sure I was ok. Wasn't that kind of her? She had the 2 boys with her, who played rugby around the garden for a little while. Danny, the eldest, feeds the cats for us when we both go away together. They are a lovely family.

I have made a couple of little pots for Jim. He said I had to make him something for his birthday as I can't get to the shops! Nothing very exciting, but I've had fun doing them. I need some more varnish to finish them off, which Jim is bringing from the UK.














































It is covered with rich coloured eastern spices, some hand enhancement and the inside is a textured finish in a colour I mixed. No idea what he'll use it for. I also covered this bucket. We are always finding odd nails and screws, washers and such around the place, so I thought this could be used as a handy receptacle for them.





























I covered the bucket in spring flowers. The top band has a crackled effect. It, too, will look better when varnished. I love using old containers, changing them in some way. The ultimate in re-cycling. The top one was a bubble bath container with the top half cut off. I think the bucket came with peanuts in it. Who'd be married to me, eh? Sorry it's a bit of a long post.

Friday 6th March, One Very Old Man's Birthday!

How cruel am I? 2 more years until Jim's 'official' retirement, although he's already retired, wound up and closed his company. I sent him a basket of growing plants, so they can come back to Ireland with him and be planted in the garden. I had a bit of trouble getting them delivered. Firstly, Jim said it was so lovely he was going to go for a walk along the sea front. Ok, so I rang the florists in Worthing and said could they delay delivery until 4pm. Fine. Jim then rang a bit later and said he'd decided not to go out but to do some sorting in the garage. The car, which was in for a service, should be ready about 4pm. Aaaah! Rang the florist again and asked if they could deliver asap in case he changed his mind again! Luckily they did and Jim rang me, saying it had brought a tear to his eye. Aaah, so it was all worth it. All his children sent text messages and 2 of mine wished him 'happy birthday' on Facebook, plus there are cards here waiting for him. Son Russell is taking him out for a drink tonight, so at least he'll have some sort of celebration.

Jim emailed me a photo of the basket. Isn't technology wonderful?

Tom Thumb daffodils (still in bud), primula, a gorgeous white cyclamen and 2 little euonymous. That's a bit of an in joke as I love them and put them everywhere! And I shall have the basket..








It's been very exciting on the extension front. The roof timbers have been going up today. Joe was back to help Martin. Now it's really looking like a building:




Joe posing for the camera








Joe is laughing as Martin is trying to stand tall enough to be seen. Can you spot him? If you click on the photo you can just see his head and glasses! (It's like 'Where's Wally'). They've even threatened to come back tomorrow. Saturday! Unheard of.













On goes the next roof timber.





I have been busy too, more weeding and some planting. Jim bought 6 little hebe plants and I weeded the bed with the 'Liquid Amber' tree in it and planted them there. I still have the rest of that bed to clear of grass. Maybe tomorrow's job.

I also had a purple Phormium tenax to plant and that went at the top of the fairy hill. It looks rather splendid. Then I started weeding there, trying to get rid of some of the dandelions and buttercups. As usual, I got a bit carried away and cleared a big patch. The fairy hill is in front of the Sleeping shed, pictured yesterday. Having chugged up to the compost heap with my motor barrow, I saw the big pile of bonfire material and decided it was a good evening to be a pyromaniac. The fire blazed merrily for about an hour and almost all the heap was burnt. Can you believe we had midges? I had to go back inside and put some anti bug stuff on. In March.

Gnats and Bitey Things
by Gina Deen

I hate those bitey things
With their tiny little wings
Biting common folk and kings
Leaving pale flesh full of stings

I've tried the deadly deet
Even put some on my feet
Bust under socks they creep
My tasty blood they seek.

I'd like to squish them flat
Put their innards outwards, splat!
Then feed them to the cat
No - I'll toss them to a bat.

I hate those bitey things
With their tiny little wings
I hope some day they'll cringe
As in Dante's place they singe!

They are, to me, the very worst thing about Ireland, or more particularly, where we live near a bog. I am obviously especially tasty as I get bitten all the time.

On a lighter note, I received an envelope today from Rachel, aka Leatherdykeuk. She had put some of her delightful water colour paintings for sale on Etsy and there was the illustration of me when I had burnt my fingers. Of course I just had to buy it and today it has arrived, beautifully mounted with the poem underneath:



I must find a suitable frame and it will go on my new playroom wall. If you haven't read the poem, if you click on the picture, you probably will be able to.













In the same package there was also a lovely Jasfoup Fridge Magnet. What fun!













Now Marianne, my new blogger friend who does Mandalas and ATCs was amused and somewhat curious by me saying I make 'odd shaped papier machee' things. So I am posting these photos of the 'thing' I made for Jim for Christmas. Forgive me if you've seen it before:





The odd paler colours aren't on the actual container. Must be from the flash




























It is almost 12" tall at the back, so it is quite big. We daren't leave it around in case Buster eats it, but it will eventually go in Jim's new office.

That's about all for today. A productive day as I've also just patched my favourite old pair of gardening trousers.