Category: Garden

Posted on

Half Term – at last!

Pic of the week 22/10/17

And so half term has finally arrived.

September starts on a surge of adrenaline, but after a couple of weeks that wears of and the tiredness starts to kick in.  With working Saturdays, making it a six day week, I don’t think that you ever get the chance to fully recuperate in term time and the trick is to manage the decline from the end of one holiday until next.  This first half a term is always one of the longest, one of the hardest.

So half term began for me on Wednesday afternoon, but not until Friday for the children, so Becky & I grabbed the chance to go out for lunch together at GBK and it was, of course, lovely – the company in particular, but the food wasn’t too bad either.

No major plans for the half term, Sam’s nose is being put to the grindstone as he has mocks in the week he returns, Becky’s working much of next week and Sophie & Becky are going to London on Friday.

Me, I hope to do plenty of exercise (swam Wednesday & Thursday, spinning on Friday, refereed yesterday, played for Legends today – swim, run and spin, I hope, in the week to come), rest and catch up with stuff. Potter in the garden, wash the windows, maybe go up the Poldens …

I’ve already made a start at tidying up the garden – cutting back one clump of daises, and still mowing the lawn which is growing well in the warm, wet conditions. However, the weather does seem to have turned and we’re now into Autumn. Hence, rather sadly, I washed, ironed and put away my summer shorts for another year. A sad moment!

Posted on

The sun shines at last

Pick of the week 27/8/17

And so, just as the hols draw to a close, the sun begins to shine. Today (Sunday) has been a glorious, sunny, hot day, and tomorrow promises the same.  At last.  Weather wise, its been a pretty poor summer holiday.

Pictured above are some shots of the bounty of the garden.  Finally starting to get a good crop of runner beans (I don’t think we had enough insect pollinators in the early days) and only two courgettes.  We’ve had plenty of diddy courgettes, but there have been very few male flowers, meaning the fruits have been fertilised and swollen into proper courgettes.

In other news, was GCSE results on Thursday. My two classes did well.

Posted on

Graveling the Garden II

Pic of the week 6/8/17

On Monday morning I took delivery of (another) bulk bag of gravel from Bradfords (circa £65 inc. delivery) and began laying it in the garden where the “dividing bed” used to be.

Looks good, here’s a before and after shot:

I also gave the front hedge a (significant) hair cut – quite surprising how much growth there was, and how it looks a whole load better now its been trimmed back.

Weather continues to be rubbish.

Posted on

Wet and windy

Pic of the week 23/7/17

Bit of a nothing week, really, in large part due to the disappointing weather.

The latter part of the week, in particular, has been characterised by wind and rain. Had massive, torrential downpours on Wed into Thursday night.

Did manage to munch a few peas that have podded, and our first raspberry has ripened (and been eaten) as has our sole courgette.

Off to Cornwall for a few days this evening – on the promise of a couple of dry days! Britain in the summer!

 

Posted on

Garden Stuff

Pic of the week 16/7/16

… and the garden grows.

The first peas have been podded and the beans have bloomed bright red and the first mini beans can be seen emerging from the plants. Annoyingly, the courgette has produced many fruits, but they haven’t been fertilised so, despite a plant getting ever larger, no courgettes have (yet) been harvested.

We had a lot of rain on Thursday and the daisy’s took a hammering, ending up flattened.  Fortunately, a bit of string the next day and they are once again upright and proud.

I’ve cleared much of the “middle” bed with the aim of graveling it over to make a new path to connect the two halves of the garden together. Maybe this time next week I’ll be posting a picture of the finished job …

 

Posted on

Scorchio!

Pic of the week 18/6/17

Its been hot, hot, hot this weekend with temperatures soaring into the high twenties and eclipsing Majorca.

Its been wonderful (& father’s day too) – spent all day outside in the garden and, at 8 pm, its still to hot to write much, so only a short post from me.

The heat is set to last – let’s hope so!

Posted on

Paxman Peabody

Pic of the week 14/5/17

Pic of the week has nothing to do with the post this week. A pic of the back garden, ‘cos its a nice pic, and will also provide a record for what leafs up when.

Channeling my inner-Paxman

So earlier this week a post from our MP, James Heappey popped up in my FB timeline. Basically he was criticising Tessa Munt (who he ousted in the last election and is standing against him again this year) for wanting two jobs (she has just been elected as Councillor and wants to also be our MP.)  Fair enough to criticise, but had he ever criticied those in his own party for holding down more than one job?  So I asked him:

Jeff Peabody Mr Heapey – could you point me in the direction of some evidence that you similarly called out George Osborne – a sitting MP – when he took on yet another role as Editor of the evening standard. Or Boris Johnson, who combined his Mayorship of London with being an MP? I look forward to your response (although I shan’t hold my breath – I once contacted you before, but you never bothered to respond. And you’ve only got one job. Perhaps that’s too much for you?)

James Heappey Jeff, we’ve no record of receiving any emails from you and I notice you spelt my name wrong in your post. Could you have got the wrong address? I was on James.heappey.mp@parliament.uk but you can now reach me on james@jamesheappey.org.uk. We have a record of absolutely everything we’ve received (and responded to). If you’re sure you got the address right, let me know, we’ll ask Parliament to check the server – they might be able to confirm what happened.

Jeff Peabody No, I replied directly to an email you sent me some years ago. Not too sure how you got my email address, but if you send me an (unsolicited) email, I would expect you to have the courtesy to reply. Leaving that aside, you now have the chance to answer the question I have today: You have castigated Ms Munt for (potentially) having a second job whilst an MP. Have you similarly castigated George Osborne & Boris Johnson who have also very publicly held other jobs whilst an MP?

James Heappey I don’t think Jeff’s question is unfair. As it happens, I think I might have condemned the number of jobs taken on by George Osborne in passing with a local radio station a few weeks ago. I think the bigger point though is that leaflets in 2010 criticised David H-A for having more than one job. Leaflets in 2015 boasted that she’d only had – and would always only have – one job. But now she wants two jobs and with those two jobs come some difficult choices because you can’t be in two places at once.

Jeff Peabody James Heappey Thank you for your reply. You stance would be strengthened if you could supply evidence (rather than a somewhat vague reference to possibly saying something in passing) Does she really want two jobs, or would she give up her new job if she got yours?! Who knows, but if you are criticising her for two jobs, then you must surely also critisice your colleagues who also have two jobs? And herein lies the problem for we, the voting masses: to us you all look like a duplicitous bunch of backstabbers who would sell your own mother for an extra vote (and, given her leaflet, I include Ms Munt in that collective group) At least you’ve taken the time to engage, and once again, thank you for that.

James Heappey Jeff Peabody I genuinely can’t remember which radio program I was talking to when I made my comment but I’m making exactly the criticism you seek now. That’s not to say that all MPs with outside interests are doing the wrong thing – some sit on advisory panels, others maintain a professional qualification in medicine, the law or accountancy, others serve in our reserve armed forces. They manage their time but they’d also tell you that they have to make compromises on both jobs and sometimes they have to prioritise one over the other. You cannot do both as successfully as you would if you only had one or the other. As for George Osborne – Great guy with lots of talent but he was taking the piss on the job front. He’s done the right thing to step down although I suspect he’ll be back!

There were some comments from others – both trolling and supporting my original question – but I think the conversation above needs recording. To be fair, at least he did engage with me, the great unwashed, but I still think it highly ironic and hypocritical for someone from the same party as George Osborne & Boris Johnson, to chastise another would-be MP for possibly having two jobs.  Plus, I suspect that Ms Munt put herself up for election for the council long before the General Election and would stand down from her Council committments if she can oust Mr Heappey from office.

Posted on

So that was the Easter Hols

Pic(s) of the week 23/4/17

So today sees the end of the Easter hols.

Its been a great few weeks, with fantastic weather – it may have rained one day in the first week (but I’m not sure) but other than that its been as dry as a bone and unseasonably warm and sunny – perfect for enjoying the garden.

And I have enjoyed the garden – building the new deck where the summer house was last year and doing some planting – a couple of hydrangeas in front of the deck, strawberries, raspberry canes (although most don’t seem to be showing any signs of life), courgettes, aubergines and squash (I think the cucumber fell victim to slugs last night) hostas  … all is starting to look good, although temperatures are set to plummet next week – hope everything survives.

The end of dots of spots, the end of an era.  Quite a bit of time was spent over at the unit, moving and clearing stuff and stock. Thursday was a bit of a manic day, but at last the shelves are empty. Still a few lose ends to tie up, but the business is now closed. Very proud of Becky and what she achieved over those 8+ years, and equally proud of the sensible and pragmatic way that she decided “enough was enough” and it was time to shut up shop.

The Mini! Swapped the big Nissan Almera Tino for a less practical convertible mini, but my, it looks good! who needs a big family car? Not us any more.

Exercise: Have kept myself fit – have done 5 games (4 middles, 1 line) including a cup semi final today, ran 39.5Km in 5 runs, spun 5 times (burning off 2,925 calories), but only swum once, a measly 30 lengths (1Km).

(Reasonably) looking forward to the start of term tomorrow – 5 weeks, then 4 weeks doesn’t seem too daunting, no football to organise week in, week out and nearly all of my classes working towards GCSE, AS or A Level exams – easy street ’till the long Summer holidays!

Posted on

Heatwave!

Pic of the week 9/4/17

And what a week it has been! The temperature has soared, enticing me back out into the garden, which has been a bit neglected since early Autumn.

With some of my birthday Amazon vouchers I bought myself some 4 in 1 lawn care treatment and applied that to the green mossy area that has been masquerading as a lawn. Its blackening up nicely – that’s what is supposed to happen – ready for me to rake out all the dead thatch in a week or so’s time, allowing all the lovely green grass to grow through, thick and lush. In the (nearly) two years that we have been here I have been (pleasantly) surprised as to how infrequently I have had to mow the lawn – I think that that, though, is a symptom that it is not as healthy as it should be. One of my goals for this summer is to try and coax it back it full health – you can’t beat the backdrop of a verdant, vibrant vigorous sward.

I also bought myself a weed lance and I’ve enjoyed this bit of kit – basically a flamethrower used to burn weeds in the gravel and paving. The front garden, in particular, was getting more than its fair share of unwanted growth and the prospect of hand weeding this did not fill me with joy. But using this gadget does – fire it up, listen to the roar and wave it over the weeds, which then,over a day or so, blacken and die.

I also planted a rhubarb and have ordered some raspberries – a summer fruiting variety and an autumn fruiting one – to be planted. Its so much easier to get motivated when the sun is shining and the weather warm.

And I’v started – and nearly finished – a new deck where the summer house was (that I took down last year.) The job has been made infinitely easier as I bought some adjustable plastic “feet” onto which to mount the joists. Probably ended up spending £100 on these when i could have spent £50 on blocks, sand & cement, but it has been so much easier. Nearly built the whole deck in a day.  The decking planks I bought from eBay (less2build) as 4.8m lengths, so no cutting needed, just lay them straight onto the joists. Its turning out to be the easiest deck I’ve ever built. (Would have finished it on Saturday, but for a late call up to referee a match as the original appointee had to go to hospital.)  Should get it finished in the next couple of days (although I’ve then got to build the planter that will border it). Here’s a pic of me in action: