Goodbye Google Reader :(

I have been a most terrible blogger I know, please don't throw your slugs onto  our plot or indeed send me any more aphids in the post! haha. 

As you all know the allotment is a place of therapy for me (Allotmentherapy/ Ecotherapy) but the fact is I have feel to well enough to go outside to be there and I haven't. It's complex; the Allotment is not an easy place for me, a place where my problems all disappear, often it's really tough. So as I say, I have been unable to go due to illness and therefore unable to write about it.

But.

I shall not be stopping and thus we get to the crux of this post.. following Grow Our Own or indeed continuing to do so.

Google Reader is going bye bye forever, don't ask me why, I don't understand the need to create such a stir and confuddle all our comfort. I fear change ;) With it going we will all lose the blogs we've merrily been following through Google reader and I won't let that happen to my readers or to the blogs I love. We need to stay in touch and the way I have done this is via Bloglovin'.

It's a huge and very popular (because it's so easy to use) alternative that's been around for ages. 

All you do is log on and create an account.......It will ask you if you want to import all the blogs you have been reading on Google Reader into this sparkling new account - say YES PLEASE by clicking the button :).........And ta-dah, you are done :) I'll be there and we can stay up to date, they even send you an email everyday to tell you which of your favourite blogs has put up a new post, clever.

I have even been able to put different blogs into different groups - it's an intuitive platform. And there's an App for it too, for all you super tech savy people.

This is what it looks like; very simple and clean - I'm a huge fan. So, if you haven't already it's time get a new reader, my choice is obvious Bloglovin'.

Hope to show you lottie stuff soon xx

Namaste

Sunshine out the Back :)

It's very close to being unbearably warm outside today - I can't believe I'm writing that but it's true. Maggie won't even stay out for long and she is a sun worshipper, always finding the best spots and laying out full length. Today she has been inside more than me and only sticks to the shadows unless she has 'needs' ie. 'toilet needs'.  Thank goodness I cut  her hair last Friday or I fear she would be dead - wearing a fur coat in summer just ain't right, and neither is eating some of the seedlings (naughty!) or drinking water from the fountain out there but hey, she is a free and wild little spirit..

I'm too hot to think of words to say , here are my photos - yep, now you know how to shut me up!  :)

 This is the view of the back that I get sitting here typing this now :)

 The cold frame with loads of babies all doing well, apart from maybe the mizuna lettuce there on the right which has bolted, oops!

Our new tree; it's a red leafed Norway Maple and the leaves are lovely and soft and floaty. Sadly the Cherry tree that was there wasn't very happy and despite Andrew's best medical care - it died :(

I love this view with the fountain all naturally stinky now and all those pebbles from different happy days out. Surprisingly the Acer is doing really well at the moment, though now I've said that it will probably drop all it's leaves just to spite me, it does that. On the back wall we now have a Boston Ivy that seems pretty happy - we want it to grow like mad and surround the salvaged stained glass window we got recently. Isn't it so pretty?? Andrew put a frame around it and a mirror behind it so the light really shines and look, a little friend sits atop of it ...

 Well here is my happy discovery - Andrew just went outside, saw it and proclaimed loudly 'oh a dead ladybird' and yes, he was right - devastated!!

From here there is a sweet little walk to the tea house which is in full sun and that lovely Birch tree is growing up really quick and providing even more privacy. The large bamboo got a little wind burnt but then we extended the fence upwards and conditions have definitely improved. You can also see the Wisteria is doing really well, I think next year there may be flowers - eeekk! This is where we'll be having dinner tonight again :) Happy days. 

That isn't just a random post on the right, by the way, there is a batoned roof above where I hang lanterns and where the Wisteria will eventually get all tangled around.

So there you go - our back garden in the beautiful Northern Irish sunshine - days like these really do need to be photographed and shared; come the dark, cold winter I know I'll never remember that days like this shall come again!

Namaste