Saturday - An OK day

Wow, I really didn't think I would get to write a title like that for a heck of a while. However today was indeed, OK :) The depression did not win and the anxiety was under control - maybe it was even BETTER than OK...

** To begin with we slept in late, oh I love my sleep ;) Then we had breakfast, made coffee and started our hour of birdwatching for the RSPB Birdwatch Weekend. This year we really did have a good time which sounds so geeky but I swear it was glorious so see the crazy amount of feathered friends that come to feed in our garden. We had seeds, peanuts and fat balls and all stations were busy.

** After that we visited Ballylagan organic farm, farm shop and tea room that (to our surprise) is just up behind Carrickfergus; embarrassingly it's been open since 1999 but we only heard about it earlier this week. Yep, it was the ever knowledgeable Mamma G that pointed us in the right direction. It's fabulous and for purely academic reasons we had to have cake and coffee = thumbs up.

** Then the best bit - we went to the Lottie. It was my first time there this year to actually work and not just to glance round it and go home. I had my lucky favourite socks on, many layers and my farmers' hat (or flat cap, that I bought in the farmers' shop). For only being there an hour, when the sun went down, we managed surprisingly a lot, well I did, Andrew did a lot of chatting to a friend ;) In his defence though he is the head gardener and has been there a few times already this year.

** His other, earlier visits have seen the apples cut back and training started, the autumn raspberries cut down and the whole back of 24a mulched. 14b also has lots of new Blackthorn hedglings planted and a windbreaker all a long the left side. It's becoming annoying to my brain that that plot is spilt in a different way than our other one.

First before and after photo of the year :)

** I focused on the flower bed and got it almost completely weeded and removed a plant of two that weren't happy. More to do tomorrow. In the plans for this season (our 8th year!) is for me to have 2 long thinner cut flower beds and I'm going to learn more about their care and maintenance :) The new plans will soon be drawn out to share with you, you know I love a good plan.

Home to a steaming bowl of tomato and chilli soup, a shower and a wee whisky..
hugs,
Carrie
xx

Duality of the allotments

Over the past few days I have been taking Maggie for a walk right the way up the road and through the allotment gardens, out the bottom and along home again. It takes us about 25mins and has definitely been a huge step for me personally. It's funny how one's own fears and anxieties can be pushed to the side when you need to help another being - Maggie has developed arthritis in her back leg and needed a little more light exercise to ease the stiffness...she now has medication too, poor darling.

So on one hand the allotments are a great aid to us; somewhere quiet to walk and take our time, undisturbed and I think we'll be back tomorrow.

from my instagram account

However, no matter how much I try to enthuse about the place and remain optimistic our two the plots, only one is filling me with any joy these days. 14b is a weedy nightmare yet again with the damned plots around us casting all their blasted weed seeds into my lovely virgin soil yet again. It's enough to make a girl scream.

So permit me to just show you 24a; it's really maturing and we are loving it. This is by no means all that is happening there but just some highlights. In fact it's only the 2 beds on the right of 24a ('A' - for awesome!) Though of course Andrew only sees the things that aren't perfect and which he hasn't had time to do which puts a downer on things..

broad beans, garlic, mangetout

********

The spuds doing good so far :)

Tomorrow I'll share with you all about our Celeriac seedlings :)

* Now * - the most happy news of all.....the bird box I made years ago now has it's 3rd family of bluetits. That's a family every year in a row :) I am so terribly impatient when it comes to taking photos of birds - sorry....

I swear I made this by myself, with my dodgy vision and wonky handsaw skills, so basically anyone can do it. Here's the link to the RSPB website which shows you how to do boxes like this....nestboxes for small birds

Hugs and love
Carrie

Big Garden Birdwatch - Live!

*a tongue in cheek, fun, survey write up*

We are bird lovers in this household :) Though they may steal some of our finest produce at the lottie and always got the strawberries before us (we don't grow them anymore) we have ample feeders and trees/bushes for cover in our garden, not forgetting the little fountain for water and a bath at times.

Today, as we have for the last 7 years, we are partaking in the RSPBs Big Garden Birdwatch and trying to count the number of the various species that visit our back garden for a little something to nibble on. The time period is one whole hour and you have joined us after a hearty breakfast, Maggie out of the way, the seed, fat balls and peanuts topped up and coffee to hand....

It has been 11 mins and after a feeding frenzy from the Sparrows and Tits, it has started pour down which is affecting visibility. Mamma G has just arrived and is now distracting us at the perfect moment - nothing is happening out there - plus we now have boiled cake, sausage rolls, sweet mince pies and wheaten. Mamma did her survey yesterday and it's funny to see both her and Andrew getting so excited at the great tits coming to see the egg seed feeder.

Our Robin is here - 28 mins late! He's here everyday all day but seems to be shy today...must be because I have my camera, birds and I don't get on.

Oh the rain has stopped and the sun is shining...umm shining right in my eyes and making it almost impossible to see the laptop screen - plus I'm in my dressing gown, it's white and reflecting - arrgh. We've decided to take a break for 15 mins anyway as Mamma has has her arm twisted and is going to have a cuppa with us :) I hope taking a break isn't against the rules!

Maggie has sneaked in and the birds don't even care in the slightest - I guess she isn't seen as a threat, haha.

Blackbird - oh goodness how I love that gorgeous yellow break in contrast to the black; they love the seed feeder that is low in the garden hidden behind the Winter Box. There's only ever one at a time in the garden, I wonder if that's normal.

Sadly we are at the end of the hour and no really exciting finds, no peregrine falcon (a pair live nearby) and no pheasants (from the big estate) nor did we have a visit from the long tailed tits, they will probably come now, such is our luck.

So, Andrew is now filling in the online form - the RSPB is awesome and fully embraces technology so there are no goodly reasons not to take part! They are on twitter @Natures_Voice and this is the birdwatch webpage.. https://www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch/

 I shall simply list the results here...

Did you take part, were you one of the 136,000+ people who did (so far)?? Any interesting results?

Hugs and love

Fancy Food for Feathered Friends

Oh I am on fire today with the alliteration blog titles :) Oh yes the Queen of the Geeks!

I'm going to ease myself into the Grow Our Own blog writing again with a little post on keeping our feathered friends happy, healthy and fat in these cold and dreary winter days. We all love it when birds come a visit our gardens  - little feisty fellows looking for scraps to take back to their nests and munch away on. My all time favourites (apart from the Robin!) are the teeny tiny Wrens - oh they are small but mighty and so bouncy :)

Anywho, I am waffling.

On Saturday I was at the RSPB NI Headquarters as a stall holder for their first ever Winter Craft Fair, you can read about it here. In a wee quiet period I ran over to the stand showing how to make Bird Cakes but the volunteers had (quite understandably) gone on a wee much need warming drink break. So I only got to take photos of the ingredients they were using and yes, they are Cheerios - who knew??.....

But clever girl that I am I logged on to the RSPB website (which is fab) and have gotten you a recipe to make sense of the whole thing> here. Oh my the birds in this pictorial guide are so happy it just makes you want to make some right now!

Funny, Andrew bought a load of fat balls a week ago so we have them out at the moment anyway, but this would be a fun and messy way to entertain kids or indeed yourself on a blustery day.

Andrew also bought a gorgeous feeder 'Egg' at the fair which you just fill with bird seed and the birds have been all over it today (apart from when I took this photo - I scared them and hadn't the patience to wait for them to come back). Plus it is so gorgeous, a little piece of sculpture in the garden that also has a use :) It's made by a company called The Nuttery and you can get them online, all different colours, I think they're lovely. Being weather resistant porcelain, aluminium and stainless steel they can stay outside all year round and can be thoroughly cleaned too = happy me.

Oh, have I shown you a little of the garden! eek, you excited, you want to see more??...come back in a couple of days ;)

For now take joy and fuzzy warmth from this.... Yes, Maggie (she's still my 'wonder dog') !!!

LOVE AND HUGS x