Spring! March Flowers at last

There has been such a long run of cold wet weather that it's been hard to get into the garden and inspect what is going on. At last! A few sunny days last week and all the old friends appear. What I love about this time of year is that areas which were previously completely empty and glum are suddenly brightened, as if overnight, by the arrival of some small flower. 

Witch Hazel/Hamamelis, I think

 First, the terribly large, apparently boring bush at the side of the patio suddenly bursts into tiny delicate white blossoms that have a beautiful smell. Hello, Witch Hazel.

Then the darkest dampest corner of the garden has it's moment. Apparently nothing in the world likes to grow there - apart from Hellebores!! - there are huge clumps of the lush white and purple flowers there are the moment (they're not called Lenten Roses for nothing). The rest of the year the bed is a bit yawny with nothing but great sprays of dark green hellebore leaves, but right now it's a knockout.

Hellebore

My favourite, most tiny performer in the garden over the last month has been the little Iris. I planted lots of bulbs a few years ago, to see if I could get some more flowers going - we're a bit of a shrubbery most of the time - these are always so very pretty winking at you in the cold. How reassuring they are, the little frontrunners of another lovely gardening year?!

Iris (Reticulata)?

Monday Mixtures

Hi everyone. I have been promising myself to get around to more regular posts - and in fact I have been meaning to stick my oar into Lizzie B's Magpie Monday more often so here duely is my contribution to that first, with some other updates to follow - read on!

Have been scouring the junk shops, antiques charity shops and second hand emporiums of my locale recently iwht a view to getting MORE TIDY. SO, storage solutions, that kind of thing. Herewith is my latest purchase, which is a lovely basket from a charity shop, only £6. I think it is actually intended as a picninc/wine basket - it has cute compartments. But sadly at my house it is living in shoe corner. Most of the childrens shoes are too small to sit on the shoe rack so this at least keeps them in the one place!

Apart from strewing baskets around the house like a woman on a mission, I have had a lovely weekend showign off my garden to the public as part of a local Open Gardens scheme. So nervewracking! But no-one harangued me about the weeds so that was good! The little ones were also ecstatic to have over 100 visitors to our house in one day, mainly because my budding entrepreneurs were selling home-made biscuits. The idea was the eldest's; to do fundraising for the RSPCA. When she found out there was over £20 in her pot, the little minx stated she would rather keep it! A hard lesson in keeping promises ensues. 

Plums Again

So here I am checking in after another mammoth session of plane trips with small children (madness - never attempt a flight with an 18m old - they do not do sitting still). And of course as soon as I return home and peek into my garden what do I see but a plum tree that is still trying to break itself under the sheer weight of plums. 

So far I have made: 

Plum Chutney

Plum Jam (shall make more - it's nearly already gone as visitors seem to fall upon homemade jam like starving hoardes)

Plums in Syrup - a gamble? Looks nice in the jar currently

Stewed Plums

Plum Crumble

The children are also doing their best to eat as many plums as possible although I worry what this is doing to their insides. 

Next month: apples

    

Why I can't keep chickens

Here is what I can see over my fence when I look out sometimes. Someone has been making himself quite at home here, eh?! He is too beautiful to hate, I saw cub foxes last year, I wonder if this is one all grown up?

Folksy Friday - The Good Life!

Inspiration strikes this week in the form of a homage to one of my all time favourite TV shows The Good Life. Spent most of this week making a dress from a 1970's pattern, to wear to a fancy dress party this weekend. Pictures of this will follow and will merit a post on Sew Retro I think, as I have been rather quiet on the dress making front. Until this week! Once I have hemmed the purple "Margot's Nightdress" (as I have dubbed it) I have to start on a makeshift Flamenco dress for European Week. Sew Sew Sew!!! But first a little light hearted moment.

To get the Good Life you will need:
Goat's Milk - Oakwood Soaperie
Vegetables to spare - Kate Broughton
A love of Handmade - Mark Smalley
A Margot Apron (of course) - Audreys Cat
Chicken in the Yard - Kettle of Fish
Green Fingers! - Galavant
And a big dollop of  LOVE, 1970s style - Kirsty Griffin

Berries berries everywhere

The garden is positively heaving with berries of the non-edible kind, and crab apples, and leaves. All the wonderful oranges and yellows of autumn having one last gasp, I think, before the winter really sets in. Eat birdies eat!

Among the drawbacks to country living.......

not being able to walk to the shops, getting wet feet alot, seeing dead animals lining the road (todays road kill, RIP dear baby fox) I would say that the excessive amount of spiders in my house is the worst thing. Aside from my macabre fox moment earlier this afternoon, I found this delightful scene of cannibalism occurring between one large spider and an even larger one. Bleugh. Word of the day: DANK

Fir Cone Madness - Part 2

Following the pine cone animals idea I have had another brilliant idea disclosed to me by a friend. She has given her trellis a fantastic woodland overhaul by using the cones on it. Her advice is to wire them on though as they expand/contract depending on the weather and this dislodges them after a while. I think it looks really pretty.

Fir Cone Madness

Although it seems a vaguely christmassy thing to do, DD and I have been busy this morning filling a huge bag full of fir cones. The tree on our drive has just gone mental, throwing out hundreds of the things, and just like a dutiful Roo and Tigga as we are, off we went agatherin'. Now I am trying to think of what to do with them. Ideas so far:

package as gifts for people with log fires

christmas wreaths

adding into other christmas decorations, covered in glitter

keeeping them in a big bowl (I have done this there are still a million!)

I love the things but this is ludicrous! There are more still on the ground..................