WEEK OFF: Final Blog.......and what a week!

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Well, what a week, or 9 days as I tagged my days off for this week onto the end, it has been. Sunny, productive, happy, at times tiring but above all….exhilirating!! I got loads done and with the help of my able helper, Veg plot Vera – aka Ali – we also got the veg sorted as well.

The week has finished with 2 bits of good news but more of that in a while. I just wanted to share, if I may, just a little more time sharing my week with you. What better way to start than with a nice, uplifting pic.

The sun is shining down on a healthy Aser with colour abound around it….

Diamonds upon Lupins!

Decking steps with top pot housing Aquilegia: Clementine White and a Balcon Lilac Geranium. Next down is Pansy: F1 Purple followed by Rose Delight Arabis. The bottom pot with gravel is Lavender grown by Ali last year and seemingly doing well since I potted on…..

In my floral rug of 3 colours of Emperor Tulips, the inside of each colour now look like this when opened….

White

Golden

Orange

The forgotten-about Alliums are coming along nicely and glad to be finally potted!

Muscari coming along nicely too……

….and a bit of colour down by the veg patch…..

Still a bit of vibrancy left over from Winter…..

Orange Hyacinth looking….not quite as orange as I expected but it smells good and another bloom coming through:0)

Just caught this little tit through the balistrade when I was sat having a cuppa….

“Man, I’ll never eat the whole bowlful…..!”

At this point, the first bit of exciting news……

We popped to the GC yesterday as we needed a few little bits – forgot the main items, some bamboo canes! – and as we walked through to the outside area where they have a local company selling sheds, we had a little look at some as the one we have was here when we moved in and is clearly very old and brittle. Anyway, we were looking to replace it in a year or two but, I was rather taken with one shed in particular. As some of you may recall, we lost my mum in January and she left a small amount of money to share between the 4 children. My wonderful woman Ali suggested that I get the shed and see it as a gift from Mum. She said that I never buy anything for myself and if I wasn’t with her, and she had the money, she would have bought it anyway.

So, after some persuasion, we went back up to the girl and booked it and will be leaving shortly to go and pay the deposit. Oh, forgot to mention, it’s not an Apex shed or any old shed for that matter……….oh no, it’s actually an 8 × 6 Potting Shed, fully treated and guaranteed for 15 years! She said that I would get more use out of it and we can chuck all the rubbish we store in the current shed in the garage. How cool is that. As we drove away, she looked at me and said,’ Don’t be thinking that you can’t justify spending that money on yourself because I won’t have it! You will get years of use out of it and it will stop us from just putting anything in a normal shed and not actually using it!’…….she knows me so well. That is indeed, what I was thinking! So, I am now very happy, as I was anyway, and looking forward to May, when it should be installed:0

So, back to the garden, don’t know how I caught this colour on the Aser but I swear it’s not been ‘doctored’. Very nice though…..

RESULT!! Got back from the GC earlier and the shed people have got one of the Potting Sheds in stock! So, it’s being delivered and installed on Saturday AND, they will dismantle and remove the very old shed currently stood there!

‘Happy days are here again………well, they have been all week but this is just a bonus! Talking of bonus’s, today, the final day of my 9 off work has been a bit extra special to say the least. Firstly, about two and a half hours ago, Ali suggested we start moving some of the rubbish we have stored in the shed, down to the garage, in readiness for Saturday. You may remember in one of my earlier blogs last week, I mentioned that there was a mouse in the shed………

Well, within minutes of moving some boxes, all mayhem broke loose when I told Ali there was another mouse in there…..or, he had in fact come back! She remarked that if there’s one, there’s normally a family but I said, ’Don’t be silly, 2 at most!’ When I moved a dust sheet off the staging in there, WHOOOOOOSH…….3 more of the little tykes went bombing all over the place and from that moment on, Ali refused to go in there! I removed the watering can we keep for weeding out the front and lo and behold, a little face was staring up at me……

I couldn’t see how they would be getting in, until…..one of them shot out of this hole in the corner…

Ali, ever full of ideas and worried they would go back in….like it matters now….found an old champagne cork in the kitchen drawer and I duly placed it in the hole like so…..

This morning, in between Ali’s shifts, we were sat out on the decking enjoying a cuppa when our attention was drawn to the Rowan. It was the most wonderful feeling to be able to get close-ups of these 2 beautiful little Goldfinches…..

An amazing feeling as I stood totally still in the GH to get these pics.

They flew up into the Rowan and if you look very carefully, you will se one on each side of the next picture…..

So, another quick snoop around the garden to see how things were doing….

Aquilegia: Clementine Blue is looking healthy….

Eucalyptus is producing some new shoots as well.

A view from behind a planter looking across and down the garden….

All in all, it’s been a delightful day and it culminated in something not for the faint-hearted BUT, the pics I am about to show are of nature and by the time Ali saw this through our kitchen window, it was too late to do anything. So, I was ablt to capture a part of nature’s cycle, happening in our garden. I apologise if anyone is offended by me publishing these pics but as I say, it was too late to do wot and it is just nature…..

We believe it is a Sparrowhawk and it had obviously swooped just before Ali looked out the window. It is, unfortunately, a collared dove that it has caught but upsetting as it is to see, you have to marvel at how majestic this animal is…..

I have seen them flying above us when out driving but to see one so close up, subject matter aside, was just an amazing end to an amazing day!

So, 9 wonderful days spent moving gravel, potting on my first seedlings, getting meself a new potting shd, seeing 3 new animals in our garden in one day and a chance to share it all with you lovely people. I so do NOT want to go back to work tomorrow but all this frivolity has to be paid for somehow!

So, finally, a big thanks for all your kind comments on my never-ending run of blogs and may this glorious weather continue long into the coming weeks so that you all may enjoy great times in your little havens…….

’What’s that? What was the other bit of good news? Oh, right. Well, with some of the money that mum left, Ali and I have decided to get married next year! That was all:0)

….and how was your week….and 2 days?

Anemone: Blanda White

• 19 Apr, 2010
• 13 likes

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