beautiful day…

…..well that’s how it started but as I write this in the afternoon it is raining and there is a cold breeze…..

 still I’m glad I went out as I did get a couple of things done while the sun was out, I took some photos, the sun makes me feel like taking photos,

 

the rosehips are starting to turn red,

 

these are a couple of the dogwoods they are growing nicely now, I love the reds now the leaves are turning, you can see how negligent I have been by all the grass around them must get rid of it before next spring,

there is a michaelmas daisy growing under one of the alders and due to the cover the alder has made this year ~ at least some things enjoyed all the rain ~ the daisy has had to push up a long way, had better move it when it dies back,

I was surprised and pleased at the amount of foliage on these willows, I thought last weeks storm winds would have stripped them,

this is the other side of the same shrubs, leafless, the only way I could get this photo was looking into the sun hence the flare, I also found the rabbits have dug tunnels along that earth and stone wall so that’s another job to sort out!!!!

this willow shows the leafless south west side and leafy east side, it also shows the true colour of these willows,

 

the hebe still has a few flowers on it,

I know some of you like to see the view so this is the view from beside the hebe looking to the atlantic ocean,

cuttings, currants, carpet and a cat

I took several cuttings from my mum’s garden and have potted them up, not sure they will take but it is worth a try,

Tuesday was a good day and so while the opportunity was there I thought I would attack some of the weeds……

I filled the organic compost bin and have hardly dented the weeds and grass, I did find the flowering currants I planted in Feb ’08 which should have been moved last winter so I really must this winter or it will become impossible, I also found some blackcurrants that had self seeded in among the flowers so I transfer them here at the beginning of the year good to see they were still surviving,

while I was doing the weeding I had a visitor…..

 

I don’t know who it belongs to but it is beautiful and very playful, he/she kept jumping and chasing imaginary things, lots of pouncing and high twisting jumps :o)

 

as I have filled the organic bin I looked for something else to do, not hard as there is so much needs doing, this was heather but I cut it back last year when it looked like the rabbits were burrowing, this is where the south westerlies hit,

I am trying some New Zealand broadleaf cuttings (if anyone knows the official name I would love to know please), I weeded and put some old carpet down to suppress further growth, if just half take in a few years they will make a good wind filter (should have done it years ago….sigh),

before I covered with the carpet I added some composted loam, I was digging it from the pile of composting turfs when I was surrounded by beautiful white tailed bumble bees, I had disturbed the nest….. I have quite a lot of bee visitors in the garden, I hadn’t known where any nests were before, I will leave that area of the pile,

weather became wet again today so spent the afternoon dreaming of plants I’d like to buy………..

on the Edge in York

I’ve been on the mainland helping my mum pack up her treasures for when she moves yet she still doesn’t know when that will be, it’s nice to be back home,

 

I thought I should post something textile but have not got many photos just now, must take some soon, I am a member of Edge textile artists Scotland and we have an exhibition showing at the Quilters Guild York  just now, the work is from the Out of the Blue exhibition in Edinburgh last autumn, the exhibition is on until the 23 December 2009 

allium detail

another day in the garden

the weather was dry with just a little breeze so I did some more work in the garden, this bed is also in the front near the house so get little sun, there were not so many weeds here and a large clump of drumstick primmies which I split, the brown leaves on the shrub are from Tuesdays gale, the twiggy stick is an Olearia cutting I stuck in earlier this year and it has taken, I will trim it down in about a month,

  

looking west

 

the pebbles had become half buried and messy so I took them up and was going to put a line of sand then replace most of them but instead I made a dry cement mix and placed then on it, in time they will become fixed, I am hoping this will keep tidier,

looking east

nice day and bit of play

it’s hard to believe that less than 24 hours before I took this photo we had a force 9 gale with winds of over 70 miles an hour, 

calm after the storm

today was lovely and I had a little walk in the castle grounds, I liked the pattern and shape of branches on this tree,

branches

I thought I’d play with it so gave it a neon glow, I love it,

neon glow

I then followed the instructions to make an old fashioned photo,

sepia look

revisiting my garden

I have neglected my garden this year, I became very low about it due to the rabbit infestation, infact I have been low for much of the spring and summer not interested in doing much of anything, I would get spurts of enthusiasm but it never lasted long,

 

I started reading blogs again and found I had subscribed to Zen Habits, I must have done it as I stopped reading and had forgotten, I was reading Zen habits this Sunday and decided to try some of the things suggested to get me interested in the garden and my home again,

 

As yesterday was nice even though a bit breezy I made a start on some weeds in the garden, there are loads and as ZH says ~ one small step at a time, so…..

 

I thought I’d start with this area, it is at the front of the house so north facing which means that due to our northern latitude it gets no sun in winter and lots of sun in summer as the sun is directly above (well that’s when we get summer sun),  I have not had much success with the plants previously put here as the soil is very peaty too, last year I gave it a good digging over and added some compost (something I do not have a lot of), I then planted some Johnson Blue Geraniums, I have lots they grow like weeds so I thought they might cope with the conditions, they have and flowered beautifully this year, I never got around to planting anything else there so weeds grew in the bare soil and it looked like this…

weeds before

one hour later I had this….

weeds out

 

and now it looked like this….

clean bed

now I knew if I left it the weeds would take over again, I have learnt the hard way that you must never leave bare soil, as I was weeding I was thinking this over and also noticed that some plants near there are becoming over grown….

thugs

so the simple solution was to move them, they can be thugs and I am hoping they will be to stop the weeds and grass, I cut them down before moving them and I know I probably should have waited a couple of months when they are dormant but I have done that before and found with our very short winter days (about 5 – 6 hours of daylight) I don’t get time, before planting I dug in some grit to help with drainage, so this is what it looks like now…

planted

I felt satisfied I had achieved something and felt enthused to do more, I did some more weeding and then had to get ready to go out in the evening, I was looking forward to doing more today but this morning lay in bed hearing the wind and rain lashing at the window, so no gardening today,

 

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mainland

I’ve been away on the mainland visiting family which is why I have not posted on either of my blogs for sometime, I had a lovely time with my son and his family, then I spent a few days with my mother, I love them all but the south east of England seems to be rush, rush, rush, it is so nice to get back to island life where the only honking you hear are the geese flying overhead………

 

Proud grandma photos, this is the youngest who is a star wars fanatic but likes cooking too,

Older grandson who loves art and craft things :o) we walked to the village store and I said I was not buying sweets but they could choose a comic and this lovely boy chose an Art magazine for children (with all the star wars stuff I was soooo surprised),

One day we went to Battle, east Sussex to the museum of yesterday and I highly recommend it for all age groups of children, as well as the museum there are gardens with a lovely play model village (children can go in the house, shop, castle, etc.) great fun, there is a tearoom but it is only open in summer, not to worry as there are several tearooms near by and we had lunch in one just along the high street which had good food including children’s menus,

 

Inside the model village church,

I really seem to have slipped away from sewing/art etc. and would like to get going again, the garden has been neglected too but part of the reason for that is the weather, wet, in previous years I have been able to do some winter work in the garden but not much this year, if global warming means wet, wet, wet, I would rather have cold, a good downfall of snow and some fairyland frost,