HANGING BASKET UPDATE!

Just wanted to leave a quick update on my hanging basket task.
Following last week's disastrous efforts, yesterday I had another go and managed to make up another three baskets. This time, I remained calm throughout and found that by using a thicker piece of paper, actually a B-U-P-A leaflet to wrap around the little plants, they went through the sides of the basket painlessly. As far as the plants were concerned, I'm sure they were alot happier knowing that they were going private!

RHODODENDRON DELIGHT

Yesterday Michael and I went along to RHS Hyde Hall, which isn't too far from here, just to meander in the peace and quiet and to have a coffee. The rhododendrons are in bloom, unlike the one in my garden and they do make such a delightful spectacle at this time of year that I just had to take some photos. This one is called Loder's White and the pink one below, Cynthia.

It's my mum's birthday next Saturday and I'd decided that I wanted to make up a couple of hanging baskets for her so moving on from Hyde Hall we went to the garden centre to buy new baskets, liners, plants etc. Michael was keen to buy the baskets already done but having watched Gardeners World on Friday I was spurred on to do a DIY job.

When I've made them up before I've always had trouble getting the plants through the side of the basket but the bloke on the tele made it look so easy.
He said, "Roll the little plants up in newspaper, push them gently through the hole in your basket, then remove the newspaper and you'll see there is no damage to the plant!"

Well! I wrapped the tender little plants in newspaper, I pushed and pulled and then rammed (with frustration) the little tender plants one by one through the holes and then found I couldn't get the newspaper off the little plants in one piece. By this time it was getting late and there was now a blustery wind that was blowing tiny scraps of newspaper all over the garden and beyond. The tender little plants that had managed to survive their ordeal were limp and in dire need of a prop.

I began to wonder if I should have listened to Michael and bought the ready made variety. After eventually completing the job, I gave them a good watering and crossing my fingers, hoped for the best.
Here are the baskets this morning, the plants inside are ok but round the edge, no comment!

EN VACANCE!

Our spur of the minute change of destination for our holiday last week turned out to be a good one. The little hotel in St Aubin sur Mer was delightful and the view from our room looked right over the sea.
We went on long walks, [very slowly!] and eat too many entrecote steaks and mussels with frites. Mind you all very tasty and by the end of the week, our walking pace had picked up somewhat, so I'm sure we were burning off quite a few calories.
I do practice my french conversation while in France, much to Michael's amusement. Sometimes just for the fun of it, I'm tempted to fling in the odd word or two from Del Boy's vocabularly.
"Mange tout, mange tout!" springs to mind or even, "mais oui, mais oui."
Not sure how the residents of France would take that, but I'm sure they wouldn't look at me any more quizzically than they usually do.

The following pictures are of a Chateau in Vendeuvre. In April they have a festival of tulips and we were so lucky to go and seem them, the colours were amazing. It was a really peaceful place to visit, with a garden full of surprising water features. Not going to say anymore, just in case you decide to go there. Then you can enjoy the surprise too!

HOLIDAY TO THE ORKNEYS!

We had been looking forward to our holiday in the Orkneys, we were anticipating total relaxation in the peace and quiet. Our only concern was that my "wonky leg" would keep plodding on and that I'd be able to get on and off the plane.
Then, BANG, quite literally as that blessed volcano in Iceland blew it's top, our plans, along with thousands of other peoples', disintergrated. We had to decide what to do. Our bags were already packed, the fridge was empty, so I put my new map and the brochure, Walks in and around the Orkneys on the bookshelf for another day and grabbed the map of Normandy. The decision was made, we were off to France.

A PAIR OF SOCKS AT LAST!

As promised here are the socks that I've been knitting, finished this morning while I rest my wonky leg. For a first time effort I'm quite pleased with them, you'll have to take my word for it that they do actually fit.

The wonky leg is beginning to get on my nerves now. I've been hobbling around since February when stupidly for approx 30 minutes I kneeled on Kate's newly tiled ensuite floor to wipe away the excess grouting. Never again!
I had thought things were improving until yesterday when I got carried away and confidently walked through the town to meet a friend for lunch only to find that I returned less confidently dragging the stroppy leg back to the car.
I gave in this morning, rested it, finished my socks and now it does feel alot better.
It's so frustrating, I've got things I want to get done in the garden and it's that time of year when I like to get my spring cleaning into action. Jobs like taking all the light fittings down to evict a whole years worth of spiders and dead flies. No not really, I just tend to try and not look up above eye level, it's easier that way.
The trouble is my mother notices everything!!!!!!!

WEEKEND IN SUSSEX

For Michael's birthday last October the family had arranged for both of us to visit an English vineyard. So, for our first weekend of March we set off down to Sussex, for a guided tour of the Bolney Estate. We're not great English wine drinkers but must say that the time we spent there was very interesting.





Following the talk and the tour we sampled some of their wines and they were surprisingly pleasant. After a ploughman's lunch we left with our free bottle of red and a fairly expensive bottle of sparkling rose, which Michael wasn't convinced was a necessary purchase.


We stayed the weekend in a hotel close to the village of Warburton not far from Littlehampton. We visited this area years ago when my mum's sister lived there. She had moved from Essex to Sussex not many months after the death of her husband in about 1970 and my mum at the time to be honest wasn't best pleased, she just couldn't understand why her only sister would want to move away "at a time like this!"

During our weekend it was nice to revisit some of the places in the area and the following 2 pictures are of Bosham, a little village which surrounds a river inlet, just outside the town of Chichester. The road here often floods at high tide, fortunately for us, not while we were there on Sunday.

It was so peaceful and quiet there. Sunny but cold, we wrapped ourselves up and went for a lovely walk before our journey home.

When I think about my auntie, I have nothing but admiration for her. She wasn't 50 when my uncle died, that's 2 years younger than I am now.
Walking around the lovely little village of Bosham and the other places we visited during the weekend made me realise how brave she was to be able to take off and do something different with her life. She learnt to drive, got a job, made new friends and most importantly maintained her independence.

At the time I thought she was old! How ridiculous is that?

WHAT HAPPENED TO FEBRUARY

February may well be the shortest month of the year but in our house particularly I don't think it actually existed on my calendar for 2010.
28 days that ticked themselves magically away, starting at the beginning with my birthday, midway with Roger's funeral and then finishing with the departure from our house of our daughter and her partner when they finally moved into their new home.
Since Christmas the four of us had lived quite harmoniously under the one roof, despite the chaos and clutter that surrounded us. When they finally took the last of their belongings and I stood in what was their bedroom I felt sad, quite gut wrenching.
However, by the time I'd put a new cover on the mattress, [I had to do that to cover up the stain from the smashed whole bottle of red wine incident], I felt much much better.
So that was February.
Hopefully March will be at a slower pace and I will have some interesting topics to write about, I might even have finished knitting my sock!