Growing, always

It was a very tentative step I took to the allotment today. It's been a while, as you know, and my nerves were on tender hooks.

Ecotherapy works and is (with yoga and the joy of novels) my light in the ever present darkness. However the interpretation of the word Ecotherapy has changed recently for myself; the world of hiking, passively immersing in nature has been my life recently.

I have grown a lot this year with hiking and a walk now has to be over 13 miles to feel good. Only a week ago I completed the northern half of The West Highland Way with my hubby. We walk together and it has strengthened our relationship and sense of adventure. (We're already planning a return to do the whole damn thing soon!)

Two of about 200 photos from our Scottish adventure :)
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Toby comes on many of the walks and become a strong and manly little dog (9mths old now). He was with Andrew at the allotment during the week - how wonderful to have another pup sitting  and playing where our fabulous Maggie did.

Toby! 

So, back to today and it went great 😊. It was quiet and the weather nice, we had a picnic for dinner and got lots done. Toby didn't do too bad and met a new friend.

what I did - clearing a lot of weeds and unwanted raspberries.

I'll write more later but for now I'm just going to re-share this RSPB link to making a birdhouse. I do this is hopes that you will consider giving it a go. I did it a few years ago and was so happy with mine and the many babies it held each year until now - someone only went and bloody stole it!

Love and hugs from a tired me,
Carrie x

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

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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

my happy-go-lucky Saturday

It's not often I have a happy post that is all joy and merriment. So allow me please, the pleasure of basking in it's glory. Also, if you wish to feel jealous at any point, feel free (really, I hardly ever have a GOOD day), I don't mind at all ;)

Saturday was a good day (I have already mentioned this I know but it's so fab to write it), let me take you through it.....

First we saw around our new house! Ahhhh, we had  to wear hard hats but the fashion faux pas was worth it. We have walls and windows and a roof and some wooden struts pretending to be internal walls and pipes of all sizes, oh and a front door and patio doors out back... etc. It's also completely rendered on the outside and by now it should have it's staircase in. Oh joy of joys. The 'gardens' front and back are a little less inspiring and a bit on the teeny tiny side - BUT still big grins all round.

Then we had a trip to good old Maud's cafe (they do the most fantabulous ice cream ever, in the world, ever - though I don't like ice cream at all) for coffee and homemade scones - yummy. The cafe looks out over the Lough and it was heaven sitting there watching people go by and seeing the water sparkle and shimmer in the sun :)

A quick trip to Tesco (not really a highlight) for some BBQ provisions including Dandelion and Burdock fizzy pop (WOW, how come we never tasted this before??), and off to the Lottie.

It was spring clean weekend at the lotties and we managed to get rid of a lot of rubbish. It's amazing what you gather up over the months that have no value at all to anyone; yet there it sits. So that was great. I took photos galore (you can see a couple on my other blog) once the suncream had settled into my skin and let Andy do the stinky rubbish work, 3 barrow loads of it. Then we put a brushwood cover over our porch so as we had a shady place to retire to throughout the day (remember Andy is ginger - the sun is his enemy - like he were a vampire, haha) and had a drink.

The afternoon pasted with lots of weeding and photographing and chatting and playing with Maggie. It was the most lovely of days, the sky so full of big lumps of blue and as far as the eye could see, there was not a dark cloud to be found. I swear plants were visably growing in front of our eyes and (though ulitmately annoying when their babies eat try to eat my food) cabbage whites were fliting all over the place and the birds were singing so hard and beautifully it was as though Mr Lloyd-Webber were there and they might be 'discovered'. I also got to watch the bluebirds feeding their babies on our shed, due to the shadows cast on the ground.

I cleared the pumpkin patch of poppy seedlings (a whole bucket full, oops) and Andrew placed his dad's old stepladder in the middle for the squashes to grow up - should look cute. (He planted them later when I went home). Everything else around the plots was looking much happier, perkier and greener in this lovely heat and anyone who went by was smiling.

We invited Mamma G down for our little BBQ, which was lovely, sausages with red pepper in them and of course the freshest salad ever, straight from the beds. Then I went home to have a lie down, expecting to go to the party down at the plots later....I woke up the next morning instead, haha. Boy I could sleep for the UK in the Olympics ;) So I missed that, but I heard it was good craic and went on until the wee hours.

So there was a lovely day, a truly fab day. I don't get them often but what a blessing when they do visit me! Spread to love xxxx

well there's a sign upon the door.....

Nope, not gone fishin', I've gone to the MALVERN Spring Show!! How exciting.

Plus one of my personally handcrafted bird houses (complete with titled roof) has a little family of blue birds in it. I'm so HAPPY!!!!!

Plus...If you look at my other crafty blog I have good news about my photography.

Though I am slowly dying of the cold I am a happy girl these days :)

Guerrilla Gardening and Garlic Braiding

We planted Daffodil bulbs down in Field A, a whole load of them and no one saw us and no one will know it was us, hahhahahahaha. Guerrilla gardening! Just you wait till spring, oh, the shock on everyone's faces.

Everyone in Field A : 'Oh, where did these lovely daffs come from, oh how fabulous. What wonderful person/s could have done this!!!'

Us : (pretending to also be shocked) 'Wow, they are lovely, who ever did it must be amazingly fabulous and just all round great people. Bless them, may this year be a fruitful one for their plot/s'

Everyone in Field A : 'Yes, bless them; may blight, slugs and caterpillars avoid them forever more!!!'

Us: (giggle) 'Indeed'

So sssshhhhhh, don't tell anyone, it's a surprise. We did it together and the bulbs were lovely; fat, hard and blemish free. Hopefully they will naturalise over time, now wouldn't that be pretty?

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After that I started to make my 2nd Birdhouse, this time with a pitched roof. More difficult than I though and I got my first woodwork injures ~ a very small cut on my finger and a hammer blow to the thumb. I feel like a real craftswoman now! Unfortunately I got very peeved with the whole project after 3 hours and my double vision was horrendous so I threw it into the shed in a huff and didn't take a photo.

Andrew on the other hand laid a path between the 'grave' and the raspberries. Finally! I think it's starting to look much better down there and the rockery plants are in too so over time I think it will look pretty.

Then he also braided garlic. I was hoping to do it, but he took charge, I have forgiven him now but at the time (and I think I hid this quite well Andrew) I was deeply hurt. I was the one who found the website that explained how to do it and printed out the instructions after all... But he did a fantastic job so I can't be angry.

Before and after tidying up

Just to end this rather fab week of Grow Our Own news ~ Andrew, Maggie and I won a prize in the 'Best Kept Allotment of the Year' competition this year! A big thank you to the judges at Sunnybank Nursery. We get to go to a 'do' in October as well in the town hall, posh.

Finally back to work

We did have that picnic yesterday at the lotties. I was lovely, not too cold and very very quiet, almost as if everyone in Carrickfergus had read the blog and decided to give me some space down there. Thanks guys, haha.

We had a giggle with Maggie and then were able to finally do some work on our plots. For the last few weeks every time we've gone down there Andrew has had to go off and have a chat with someone or a committee meeting about the Fun Day and very little has been achieved. I don't really like being out and about on my own still so when I can't see Andrew well, I'd rather hide in the shed. I am getting better though, sporadically.

So last night weeding galore was done and boy was there a lot of it, half a compost bin full! I also dead headed my flowers and got rid of some poor annuals that had flowered their socks off for me and were now knackered. Then I started what I assumed would be a nice quick job ~ harvesting all the beans. It took forever. A whole, full harvest basket of runner beans, green beans and french beans, boy are we going to have to have another massive blanching and freezing session again this weekend. It is great, don't get me wrong but why do they all have to ripen at the same time?

I also thinned out the stems and old leaves, opening up the wigwams to let in more air and light. I felt rather gardener-y.

We left as the weather started to turn a bit and were shocked to see that we'd been there over 3 hrs, it had flown in and no big panics from me ~ HOORAH! Only 1 downfall and that is the fact that the burst water pipe just above our shed STILL hasn't been fixed, the whole path is a swamp and it stinks too because the manure heap is there and manure-y juices are being washed past us - boke. No birthday party at the Lottie for me then :( It's my big 30 next week (tell anyone and I will track you down and hit you across the face with a wet lettuce leaf, I swear ~ I shall be 29 for a few more years to come thank you very much!!) and I wanted to have cake and tea at the lottie, ah well....

A24a

A14b

Here are a few overview photos, haven't taken them in a while. Everything is going really well, bar the brassicas (damn them) and we're starting to see lots more squashes coming which is such a relief, Andrew was getting pretty peeved with them.

Oh and I made my 1st ever bird box, wee little old me is getting into the wood work :) Hugs for a good weekend, may the weather be a little better x Plus I've just noticed whilst uploading photos that I have lots to talk about and loads of very pretty flower photos too, when is Garden Bloggers Bloom day again? This is my fav

a calendula growing up through the purple kale, wow! I could just go on and on writing but you'd get really bored and grow to hate me and I don't want that!