Around my garden....

Hello

I thought I would do a little tour of my garden. A day off from work has meant that I could spend just a few minutes out there enjoying the late summer sun, while nipping in and out to hang out three loads of washing post-return of sons to University!

So, this is the view from the back of our house, looking out towards the field. 

I like to keep the hedge at the bottom of our garden cut well back so we can enjoy as much of the view as possible. So far this year I've managed to cut back about half - but I'm hoping I might get chance to do some more this weekend. 

Our garden provides a home for many creatures. I feel a symbiotic relationship to

 these slugs and worms - I provide food, they help provide compost!  

Gosh, I wonder how many slugs there are in that compost bin? And we have 2 bins!

I used to be a keen gardener BC (Before Children) but I'm afraid that hobby has 

gradually been lost over the last twenty years as other demands have been made

 on my time, but I am pretty sure my interest will return as I find myself once 

again with more time. 

The brambles are happy though with the neglect in the garden - they have 

managed to invade the garden from the field behind and here have found 

a stump of a dead buddleia an ideal support. 

 And weeds are aplenty in my borders. 

Tuc, our guinea pig, was my excuse for having dandelions in the borders!! 

I kidded myself that I was cultivating them for him. 

It was one of his favourite meals - that and groundsel, and oh yes, I even 

boasted a few plants of groundsel in the borders of the garden at one time! 

(This is actually a photo of my border!) 

However, I am aiming to spruce up the garden. Large overgrown shrubs, that now 

reach 8ft will be removed and will be replaced by little cuttings measuring, ooo,  

all of 10cm high! Yes, they do have a bit of growing to do. 

But oh, I do love plants for free. 

In this post I mentioned The Pip Book I bought may years ago and which I still love.

The little cuttings below were taken from one of the offending giant shrubs, a ceanothus. 

This photo, taken from the RHS website, is of ceanothus in full bloom 

-  it is such a pretty shrub isn't it? 

 

I used to have lots of pots dotted around the garden at one time but most have 

now gone. However I did buy a few cyclamen recently to fill one pot, 

and here they are, still waiting to be potted up.... 

And of course our garden does get a lot of hard wear - evidenced by two 

goals and a rebound net. 

Such garden activities result in a generally unusual, but in our garden 

very common, garden ornament.   

Occasionally I round up all the balls - they fill an old dustbin. 

I am rather proud of my pyracantha that grows under our front room 

window. I grew this from a cutting and it is about the only shrub that actually 

looks like it has undergone some sort of pruning in recent years.  

I LOVE our wood store that sits at the bottom of the garden, and the promise 

of all those cosy evenings that it holds. 

And finally, to finish my garden tour here is a little gate that my husband built 

into the hedge at the bottom of the garden shortly after we moved in. It provides 

a quick access to the field at the back and was ideal for the little people, that is, 

the children when they were little. For me I have to almost crawl through it but 

it is quite sweet.  

So that's it for now. 

Hope you have a good weekend planned and thank you for stopping by!  

xXx

Tuc xx

Today we had to say goodbye to our, oh so cute, Tuc, affectionately known as Mr T! 

He came to us as a rescue guinea pig with his brother Dorito almost 5 years ago.  

 Sadly Dorito died about 3.5 years ago.

We took Tuc to the RSPCA twice to try to find him a friend but he just wasn't interested.  

The RSPCA suggested he was happier on his own. 

So he lived in his cage in the kitchen, 

keeping us company when we were in there, 

and squeaking loudly when he could hear us chopping carrots, 

having regular baths to keep his very long fur clean (and frequently chopped too!)

He was a BIG guinea pig and after a day outside on the lawn he would come 

back to his cage exhausted and ready for a rest!

We used to let him run free on the patio when we were outside, chewing the weeds. 

Tuc and Dorito were not very friendly when we first brought them home, 

I'm not sure how much TLC they had been given as young guinea pigs. 

Dorito never really settled in but Tuc changed so much, he loved his cuddles while sat on our laps. He was such a placid guinea pig with a huge personality. And gave huge squeaks when he could smell that we had brought back a handful of dandelion leaves or groundsel. 

Thank you Tuc for giving us so much pleasure in the last 5 years. 

Back now with Dorito. Sleep tight Mr T! 

xXx

Projects and project bags... and Tuc!

Hello

I must start this post with an apology - it is crowded with photos of my latest project and latest project bag, because for me every project needs an inspiring, roomy, extremely portable project bag. 

Last week I very naughtily cast on a  new project - "naughtily" because I have far too many

 WIPs already. You should see the pile by my bed - I might take a photo soon 

and "own up". 

But one day last week I'd had a busy day out of the office and as I walked home from the train station I just happened to walk past my local yarn shop - how strange that my route 

home took me that way!

Anyway, I went in for a browse and suddenly decided I could knit my office colleague 

something for her baby girl due in September.

 I saw this cute pattern for a pinafore dress and cardigan. 

And I chose this gorgeous Sirdar baby bambino - it has a lovely sheen and great stitch 

definition, so definitely no mistakes allowed!

Now I do love a project bag for my knitting/cross stitch and have several cheap 

cotton tote bags - Primark is a good source of bags. 

But I'd seen the Penguin Books bags in Waterstones (I think they have been around 

a while) and fell in love with it, even though it wasn't particularly cheap. 

And once I'd married project and bag.....

well, I just loved the colour combination and couldn't stop taking photos of them.

I even found some old knitting needles in my collection with red ends - I loved them! 

It was a Bank Holiday weekend here, I took a day's annual leave and with the extra day off on Monday I had a loooong weekend and I made good progress.  

I love the label so much I still haven't removed it. 

Making good progress on the back....

...gorgeous yarn.

Oo, just another look at my new favourite project bag...

and finally a photo of our little, well in truth our "not-so-little" Tuc getting 

some exercise on the patio. 

He is soooo cute. Tuc has a hutch in the kitchen and he can see when we go outside

 and when we return with dandelion leaves 

(yes plenty of dandelion leaves in our garden!) 

he gives a big purr - just like he is saying thank you! 

Hope you had a great long weekend!

xXx