Friday 10 April 2015

Two years blogging and still growing

 Apricot blossom against a blue sky - it must be spring!


I forgot all about my 2nd blogging  anniversary. I started on Blogspot on April 4th 2013 after trying Wordpress for a few months and not being able to work out how to do stuff that people using Blogger were able to do. I struggled with some things at first, especially when pictures wouldn't download, but that turned out to be a connection problem rather than me being dumb. I didn't know back then that I would still be writing after 2 years. We didn't know that Col would have heart problems and stents done and a small heart attack too and that we would be thinking about moving. Funny how things can change in just 2 years. I changed the header photo a few months ago and more recently the name of the blog - although no one noticed!

One thing remains the same - our enjoyment in growing our own food and at last a bit of warmth has got all the seedlings in the conservatory putting on a growth spurt.

Since my last post Col has been out earning a bit of money over at our neighbours and for his Leiston customer and I've been bread baking, doing housework and we've both been  gardening.

 The first of the early potatoes are doing well and have been earthed up. The gooseberry bushes are now green, and there are a few leaves on the raspberries, Col had put the first of the Climbing french beans into the poly-tunnel. More potatoes have been planted and we've got to the end of the weeding of the long flower border, lots of the annuals from last year have seeded themselves but the whole garden is so very dry.
We are still getting plenty of salad leaves from the polytunnel and the first two or three asparagus spears are just peeping through if you look very hard. Brussels sprouts and parsnips have finished  and the beds cleared.Stored beetroot have finished, over wintered beetroot in the poly-tunnel are sparse, outside seedlings are just coming through. So this would be a hungry season without Purple Sprouting Brocolli, veg from the freezer and a supermarket up the road.
Several more vegetable beds have been prepared with compost from the bins and Col doing the rotovating with our extremely ancient machine (bought second -hand in 1981!) which this year sounds as if its on it's last legs . It's got very LOUD and now refuses to start without a squirt of Easy-Start - I suppose we will all be like that one day!

A few more spring garden pictures.  The sink pond, birdbath, elephants ears ( Begenia) and a conifer. Spot the two model frogs sitting on the stones. All the stones ( and the slate from Wales) have been brought back from various holidays around the country. We don't have any stones like these in Suffolk, just flints.

From the back door one path goes along the back of the house passing the conifer and sink pond and the other path heads to the poly-tunnels. The new small herb garden in the V bit with Col's rain gauge and sundial. That's Mabel on a walkabout. There is a honeysuckle arch at the end of both paths.


The two quinces are in the foreground, leaf buds just showing, with the path that visitors follow from the campsite to the front door to check in when they arrive on site. A fantastic year for primroses, these  have gradually spread by themselves over the last 23 years.

The gooseberry bushes in the foreground with the fruit cage behind, full of raspberry canes, redcurrant and black currant and a few more gooseberry bushes.

After the fog has cleared we've had sunny afternoons over the last two days and we actually sat outside for a while, I even changed from leggings to shorts for an hour ( not a pretty sight!). The forecast is for rain tomorrow - we certainly need it as there has only been 3mm of rain in the last two weeks.
Nothing else to report from this week except I read the Moon Cottage Cats book that I picked up from the boot sale. No car boots this weekend - shame.

Welcome to janzi a new follower in the Google pictures and Cathy a new follower on Bloglovin'.

Back in a day or two
Sue

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