Feeling waspish

I have retreated from the garden - my own this time - as I have had enough of the wasps 'bumping' into me. They have moved into the greenhouse, beneath the slate flooring my potting table stands on. I'd not noticed them initially until I saw a steady stream of buzzy things flying at knee level and dropping down to my feet as I was about to start potting up succulent cuttings.

On closer (!) inspection (on hands and knees and glasses on) I noticed that the buzzy things were wasps and they by then had 'noticed' me. That is when the 'bumping' started. So after grabbing a few essentials I moved my potting up plans to the patio table - where after a few moments, I felt that 'bump' again - they are definitely flying into me as a warning.

Any hoo - I removed myself from 'their' flight path and have spent the morning clearing the path into the garden, along the edge of the back lane and hanging washing out, essential but boring jobs. And now, I am inside, with the cat and the dog and a tall glass of cold juice. It is 28 deg c and muggy out there despite the overcast skies and light breeze.

I was working this weekend and had planned to jump in the van and head for the hills however, having got home, slumped on to a bench in our garden with a mug of tea and a fruit and nut flapjack (oh so delish), I realised how tired I was - so we spent a quiet weekend at home in the garden - we are so lucky to have this small patch of Eden just outside our back door and I am very grateful for it.

If you were wondering about the photographs - the top one is our hopefully work's 'winning entry' into the local sunflower competition. At seven foot I suspect it is not the tallest but hopefully an improvement on last year's entry when apparently they came last!

The middle picture is the lovely little coastal village of Sunderland on Sunderland Point, Lancashire. We visited it back in June and I would not mind a second look.

The next photo is Moss at work actively avoiding her splash pool - stoopid dog. Loves water, loves hosepipes, loves swimming, loves her own 'pawsonal' paddling pool....... however - ask her to trot through and look like she is having fun immediately became an issue!!

Any way - this post is more for me, to get me blogging again, so thank you for reading through this waffle, normal transmission will return (soonish?) well, I can hope can't I!

Moss and I can also be found HERE

July highlights

 

July - although not finished - has been a very full and busy month. Warm days with wall to wall blue skies and the occasional torrential thunderstorms. Work fills our time and we look forward to our weekends away in the van.

Work has been full on with the kitchen garden now producing things to harvest and the cutting garden suddenly in full flower. I absolutely love picking the flowers for the Saturday kitchen garden market. Last week it was armfuls of sweetpeas, daisies, astible, cornflowers, calendula, lavender, helichrysum, cosmos, fennel and grass heads.

We were lucky enough to share a lovely birthday weekend with Youngest's girlfriend, we spent the Sunday in Lancaster and the pair of them took us on a city walk - 7 miles later we'd seen so much. The Lancaster canal was obviously Moss' favourite part and we indulged her inner Labrador as she plunged in the cool clear waters.

Having the van has opened a whole new type of freedom for us and we still revel in the delight of brewing a fresh coffee or tea and drinking it as we take in the view. Apart from working and weekends, I have read, gardened, baked, stitched, played with clay. We've walked the dog and ourselves for miles and miles. I've summer pruned orchards and sown hundreds (and hundreds) of seeds, really excited to see them popping up.

So - here is to the rest of July, may summer linger a little longer, the nights be full of stars and the sunsets being fiery and fabulous.

Quick stop

 Morning all, 

The sun here is well and truly out and has been for a few days now - when the uk does summer (properly) it does it with a pinch of hot hot HOT🌞🌞🌞 - and that is saying something considering where I grew up!

My blogging mojo is still lacking at the moment - however I thought I would pop in and say hi and check on you and make sure you are all still ok 😊 I am afraid I am not getting round to reading all the blogs I follow - and those that I do - I don't always comment. I however do appreciate what you have written, the photos you have shared and your adventures, your stories and your thoughts.

My days are happily rather full and I suspect this is part of the reason for my blogger's block. I am not concerned and although I do miss sitting down and typing a bit of a waffle and adding relevant photographs I am not going to force myself to write and then delete a rubbish post.  

So - instead - have a few photos of our weekend. Keep well, keep safe xxx

Oh my dog!

Wen da wind ruffles thru my furs dat is da best an'  iz a happy dog

Not sure why, but not complainin',

 but wen she lifts me on her lap an i wears da seatbelt,

iz allowed to sniff da air - she sez only on da small lanes where dare is no ovver cars.

Oh my dog - she's got dat camera box fing again - she's alwayz pointin' it dat me ....

oh wells, shall ignors the box and her,

just feels da wind in my furs.

I likes it, I likes it a lot. 

PS 'she' here - we were trundling along a really small quiet little lane and on a whim I pulled Moss up on to the seat, clipped her into the seat belt and hung on to her collar. I needn't have worried, she just sniffed the air, had her paws on the window ledge and the shear bliss on her face was too good not to photograph. She did spot me and gave me a really good snidey-side-eye look - unfortunately I missed it and managed to snap a slightly less exasperated one - apologies for poor quality photographs, a combination of dog on lap, bumpy lane, photographing through a mucky window at a rear view mirror and using just one hand - but they were too sweet not to share 🐾

I also write here LINK

Sunday sauntering

 I am procrastinating - I should be at work but thanks to the weather it's been postponed. So I suddenly have a couple of hours free before my next garden - hopefully the rain keeps off.

I had toyed with the idea of working in my own garden however when I took Moss out, it is absolutely sodden out there, so now I am back inside with you lot thinking that I'll stick the kettle on and with a mug of coffee post about our Sunday adventure .... yup, think that is what I'll do. Back in a tick.

When we woke on Sunday morning, it was after a rather hot and muggy fitful night in the van, we had listened off and on to the storms as they continued to roll over the sea, sometimes crashing over the van.  At some time through the night a merry group of happy football supporters sang tunelessly home as they wove their way through the lanes. Then just as it became light we both finally fell asleep to awake again at 9am feeling a little groggy.

Throwing open Zeb's door revealed a damp view with more storms drifting across the horizon. The air felt fresh and we could smell the wet grass and it smelt cool and invigorating. We had our breakfast and tidied the van - we had a date to keep before meeting up with Youngest - we were off to visit a garden as part of the NGS. We used to do this a fair bit when the boys were younger and I decided on a whim I would like to start doing it again. So last week I, checked the garden was dog friendly and served teas then happily booked two tickets on line.

We parked alongside the very attractive Lancaster canal, walked down a lovely little street with cute houses and pretty front gardens, then beneath a rather impressive railway arch and arrived at Carr House Farm. 

The description and the website photographs did not do this garden justice. Although not our style of landscaping it was nonetheless an impressive garden which had obvious love and care and hours and hours of labour dedicated to it and it showed by the bucket loads!

We wandered around looking at the plants and hidden sculptures - some which were in plain sight and others that took a moment or two to spot.

The Italian influence could not be missed with huge urns, fastigiated conifers, avenues and statues.

Then equally there were hints of an Oriental influence - the one I particularly liked - the bowls of tumbling Soleirolia soleriolii - one I might try!

 

Throughout the garden there were water features filling the air with the sound of trickling or gushing which made Moss's ears prick up - we had to gently guide her away (drag her more likely) before she decided a dip was preferable to walking around the garden!

We stayed about two hours, stopping for lemon drizzle and fruit cake and tea before setting off to meet Youngest. I took a fair few photographs - I have only subjected you to a small selection! But I will leave you with some of my favourites .....

He's home now, the dog is delighted as is the cat - we have been demoted by them in preference to Youngest ... nice to know your place in the pack...!

Oh - it's raining again. hmmm.