Category: Garden

Strawberries and a drive – 25 April 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Yesterday I said we might go out for a run today, or else we’d stay home and pot up the strawberries. We actually achieved both!

There was quite a cold snap last night, or early this morning. I’d put the strawberries into the greenhouse to hopefully protect them from the worst of the cold. The Busy Lizzies were already in the greenhouse. The strawberries didn’t seem to have noticed the cold, but the poor wee Lizzies were looking a bit sorry for themselves. Scamp took them out and sat them in the sun for a while, hoping aginst hope that they’d recover. It might have worked, but we’ll find out for sure tomorrow.

It was cold in the morning, but the sun was warm, so we made the decision to pot up the strawberries in their tower pot. It’s a terracotta pot with eight hole for the plants and is the same material as an old fashioned flowerpot. That means it needs to be soaked in water before planting or else it will draw the moisture from the compost, so it has been sitting in a bucket of water for about a week. We made up some compost using two different strengths and then added some gravel to assist with drainage. We only had six wee strawberries in their pots all different varieties. Bad calculation on my part. I’m the Maths Man, apparently. It’s just coontin’ I can’t do. It didn’t take us long, working together for once and not arguing … very much and the pot is now sitting in the place Scamp prepared for it.

After lunch, the sky was still clear, apart from a few fluffy white clouds and I suggested we drive up to the Carron Reservoir to get some landscape photos. It was a fair climb for the wee blue car, up the Tak Ma Doon road with its hairpin bends and 2nd gear hills. Then it was feathering the brakes for the run down the other side. Instead of heading across the road at the end, we turned left for a mile or so and found an almost empty carpark where the parking machine was ‘Out of Order’. Even better.

I put my boots on and we walked through the woods and up past the dam. As we got there a small child, we couldn’t determine what variety it was, was running along beside the dam wall with its parents, holding a ‘6’ balloon. Almost at the middle of the dam, and after a gigantic party popper had fired confetti into the air, it let go of the balloon, just a few seconds before a low flying Easyjet plane appeared over the hill. A bit foolhardy, considering the plane was almost certainly on final to Glasgow Airport. However all was well and the screaming trio ran down the grassy slopes and into the woods.

I took some more shots of the reservoir and the scenery behind. Perfect day for landscapes and the surrounding hills just finished off the view. We sat for a while just watching the world go by and the balloon disappearing into the clouds. Then we walked back and drove the scenic route back, along the banks of the reservoir and down the Crow Road then homeward.

Stir fry for dinner tonight then watched another semi-final of University Challenge were the ‘goodies’ won and the ‘baddies’ were vanquished! Later another episode of Magpie Murders teased us with more information but inevitably complicated more than it explained.

PoD didn’t turn out to include the reservoir or the clouds, but was of the woods and a carpet of pine cones.

You’ll hardly believe this, but Hazy has a Split Rock plant Ruby Flush (Pleiospilos Nelii) called Phileas almost the same as my unnamed Lithops! Some people can’t see green cheese … ! 😉

Tomorrow Scamp is booked for coffee or it may be lunch with the Witches. I have other plans which I won’t reveal yet.

 

The highlight of the day was …

Posted on by Zogman

… going to Tesco. It was that sort of day.

That was in the morning and we needed the usual, bread and milk and came home with a lot more, as usual.

I think that was the furthest I walked today. From the car to Tesco and from the shop back to the car. Oh yes, and a detour for petrol for the blue car.

We had planned to pot up the strawberry plants we’d bought a few days ago, but although the sun was shining brightly, it was cold outside and we put off the garden work for another day. Also, as sub-zero temperatures were predicted for tonight, it didn’t seem fair to subject the strawberry plants to that shock. Let them stay another night in the relative warmth of the greenhouse.

I did get called upon to help Scamp shift a pot of Leucanthemums from the back garden to the front. I suppose I could count that as an active five minutes. Later in the afternoon I set about finding a PoD and today it was a pot of Lithops which have the common name ‘Living Stones’ and I’m sure you can see why. They are quite tiny, the two green ones measure about 1cm on their long axis. They are stemless succulent plants that resemble stones to avoid being grazed by animals in their native habitat which is South Africa. They would never survive in our Scottish climate, so must remain house plants, although they might get a chance to feel the sun on their back for a few days later in the year.

An uninspiring day, really. Last night, apparently the Northern Lights should have been visible here, but there was almost 100% cloud cover when I went to bed around midnight. Tonight the predictions aren’t so good for solar wind activity, but we do have a clear sky!

Tomorrow we might go out somewhere for a run, just to say we’ve been out. Failing that we might just stay at home and pot up the strawberries.

The Messages – 22 April 2023

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According to the weather fairies, it was going to rain today. They were right, but only just.

The morning was lovely, well, again it was lovely to look out at it. However, it was still cold outside. We had agreed last night that we’d go shopping today. Not Tesco or Lidl, we’d been there during the week. Instead, we were going to Stirling – to Waitrose. Waitrose just sucks you in and makes you spend more than you’d intended to. Whereas, in Tesco and to a certain extent, Lidl you know where everything is and you can buy the things you need, rather than what you want.

When we got home there was a cardboard box that had dropped through our letterbox. Inside were six little plant plug plants, Busy Lizzies. Tiny little plants that are now in the greenhouse until they get strong enough to be planted out in the garden. Strange to think that delicate little plug plants are delivered by post.

Scamp found a suitable hanger to hold a fuchsia and it’s now hanging on a hook in the back garden. While she was gardening, I took the Sony A7 out with a couple of lenses for a walk in St Mo’s. PoD turned out to be a close up of some larch needles positively glowing in the afternoon sunshine.

By the time I got home the clouds were beginning to mass and as I’m writing this, the first rain in a week or so has been falling.

Dinner tonight was a Veg Lasagne by Charlie Bigham. This is the third one we’ve had (not tonight, we’re not that greedy!) and they have all been exceptionally good.

Tomorrow we are expecting more rain and cold winds from the north. Brrr!

Labourers – 18 April 2023

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I felt better when I woke this morning.

Neither of us had anything much on our to-do lists, so we had quite a lazy start to the day. We completed Wordle and Spelling Bee and watched Scott, who lives at the corner, barrowing sand to his back garden. It must be a nice change for him to be transporting sand rather than the hardcore he’s been ferrying for the last week. I think the idea of having an easy maintenance garden with artificial grass was a good one, but he may have blinded himself to the amount of work it takes to set the whole thing up.

Scamp went for the messages later in the morning and we also settled on Cod & Prawns with Fennel & White Wine for dinner. It sounds terribly posh, but it’s one of the easiest recipes I’ve got, and a one-pan recipe to boot.

Just after lunch we noticed two of Scott’s neighbours carrying some wooden planks round to the garden and we decided if we helped out, the job would be done in half the time. Scamp and I carried two 3m heavy plastic panels between us. We’re still not sure what they are, but by the look of them they were decking panels. They were awkward things to manoeuvre round the corners of the narrow public path, but we managed about six of them in total, then we switched to carrying two 3m lengths of 3” square timber instead (note the seamless switch between metric and imperial there ????).

I thought we’d done enough labouring for one day, but Scamp had more tasks in store. She is rearranging the pots in the back garden and using some of them to create a border at the front of the front garden, to prevent unwanted dogs from crapping on our grass. If that doesn’t work, pepper might be the solution! Allied to this is the fact that the peony rose needs to go in to a more suitable container that will give it some room to stretch its roots. With that in mind, we mixed up two lots of compost and added some perlite, then planted the peony. It’s now in its allotted place under the front window where it will get the sun from morning until late afternoon.

Now we really were finished for the day and we could enjoy a beer. A Broadside Shandy for Scamp and the rest of the bottle for me. The sun was tempting me out, so I added my +1 diopter close-up lens to the 35mm LensBaby and went off to find a subject in St Mo’s. Came home with a few catkin shots, but PoD went to an experimental distorted image from this morning when the sun began to cut through the clouds. It was that same setup of the LensBaby with the +1 diopter. I just liked all the out of focus highlights.

According to the weather fairies, it’s to be a good day tomorrow again. We might go out for a run somewhere. No labouring, I hope.

A dull day, a dull head – 17 April 2023

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Woke after a good night’s sleep, but the cough is still there. Thankfully it left the sore throat somewhere during the night and it’s now lost.

We didn’t really have any plans for today other than to go looking for a terracotta strawberry planter, and some strawberries to put in it for Scamp, and a little pot of Lithops (Living Stones) for me. Also, both of us wanted a rosemary bush to replace the one that died during the winter. That meant a visit to Torwood for most if not all of those things.

We did find some of the above, but not all. However, we found other things that we couldn’t have done without. A tray of Antirrhinum aka Snapdragons or as my mum used to call them Map-maps. Much easier names to remember than Antirrhinum. We had lunch in the cafe at Torwood. A quiche and a tipsy cake to share with a coffee and a peppermint tea. Then we were gone.

I’d brought a camera, of course and we stopped at Haggs so that I could get some shots with the new ultra-wide lens. The sky was clearing, but not nearly quick enough, but I got some moody ultra-wide, ultra low level (nearly in the water) shots of the canal. A couple walking along the tow path probably though I was going in for a swim, but thankfully that didn’t happen.

A collapsible pop up rubbish bin for the garden was on our list but we didn’t find it in Torwood, instead, Scamp spotted one in B&Q. Also at B&Q we found a tray of Busy Lizzies for Scamp’s Wanderella planter. Our final purchase was six square blue carpet tiles to replace the dark green ones that I’ve been promising to replace for years. The first dull day, that will be my chance to take out the green and bring in the blue.

Back home and after we’d unpacked everything, it was time to do some basic gardening. For me it was potting up two Teasel plants and chopping up the old rosemary bush. We did get a tiny little rosemary bush at Torwood, but it will be a long while before it grows to big enough to donate some leaves to a lamb casserole. Meanwhile, Scamp was potting things and planting other things and generally being a powerhouse of gardening prowess. Just watching her made me tired and I had to sit down – that’s my excuse!

PoD was that low shot along the Forth & Clyde canal.

Dinner tonight was made by the gardening powerhouse herself and it was Mac ’n’ Cheese! Of course it was delicious.

Tomorrow is supposed to be bright and sunny, so say the weather fairies if you believe them. We’ll see how it turns out.

 

Relaxing – 16 April 2023

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Woke with a cough and a sore throat again.

Since Thursday I’ve been plagued with a cough and a sore throat. Today I was just feeling yuk for most of the day. I’m guessing I picked up somebody’s Lurgy on the train coming up from down south. The carriage we were in from Peterborough to Edinburgh was stowed, so it’s a fair bet that’s where it came from. I’d felt better last night and hoped that today would bring even more improvement, but it didn’t. It looks like I’ll just have to ride it out Thankfully Scamp seems to be free of the effects of whatever it was.

With that in mind I decided to have a lazy day, not doing much at all. More or less the story of my life if I can get away with it! However, while Scamp walked down to the shops to get some fish for tonight’s Cabbage and Smoked Haddock Risotto, I did some swift reorganisation of the living room with boxes piled on the coffee table and the Sarracenia pitcher plant balanced on top to give me the image that became PoD. Beautiful colours and patterns on the pitcher plant, but it does look like a triffid. Then I managed to put everything back in its rightful place before Scamp returned … just!

Later we did some gentle gardening. Scamp looked a bit disappointed to find a single stem of Astilbe growing where a forest had been last year. Me? I was quite happy to see one strand had survived the shock and awe attack. You just can’t keep Astilbe down. We replanted the astilbe and transplanted what we think are Candelabra Primula from where a single plant grew in the wilderness last year to a more easily seen spot beside the steps. I chopped up the remaining kale plants, collecting a few leaves from them to freeze for use later in the year. I think if we remove the top planks from the failing raised bed we can grow some kale and maybe some leeks in it for another year. After that we can make a decision on its long term viability, all being well.

Spoke to Jamie after dinner to hear how things were now that we are out of their hair. It seemed like they were doing today what we’d been doing yesterday. Told him the coffee tub for storing coffee was a clever design that works well. Forgot to tell him that I liked the coffee that came with it. So: Thank you Jamie for the coffee it tastes good now that I’ve got the grind right again!

Sent Hazy a movie I’d made demonstrating the brilliant design of the herb stripper she gave me for my birthday. I’d never seen anything like this before. Three different sized holes in a ceramic dish strip the leaves from the stem of herbs like Thyme much quicker and more efficiently than doing it by hand. Such a clever girl for finding these things.

Such clever folk we have as family. We should be and are grateful to all of you.

No plans for tomorrow. I’m going to dope myself up with a wee hot toddy tonight then go to bed to read a (relatively) new Carl Hiaasen book, Squeeze Me, hoping the cough will have abated by morning. Backlog from my blog gone when I post this!

Not one but two! – 15 April 2023

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Saturday was a bright sunny day, but I wasn’t going out incase it came early and I missed it.

We were out in the garden today. My main task was to prune the Alec’s Red rose in the front garden. Scamp wanted to cut the front grass because it was becoming a bit untidy. I offered to move the flower pots that divides us from our next door neighbours, a sort of demarcation line. I’ve no problem with them now. I admit I had to start with, but believe it or not, I’m a lot calmer now. I wouldn’t have said that yesterday, but John’s ok. Just a bloke getting by like the rest of us.

After I’d moved the flower pots, Scamp had cut the untidy grass and I’d risked a slipped disk by hauling the pots back again, I started on the rose, or roses as it turned out. I tried not to be too brutal with the fifty year old Alec’s Red, and it looked the better for the trim. Then Scamp suggested that I do the same with Schoolgirl which grows up a trellis beside the front door. I was a bit more ‘enthusiastic’ with Schoolgirl. Hopefully not too enthusiastic. It’s a strong rose, it can take it.

While we were in the garden, a parcel arrived. Scamp said it was for me, but it wasn’t the lens. It was a Sarracenia. A carnivorous pitcher plant. Our last one had died during the winter. I’ll try to be more careful with this one and give it the protection it deserves. It’s actually quite a pretty plant with mottled ‘pitchers’.

I’d been meaning to plant more basil seeds for a week or two now, so I got underway with that while Scamp planted some Cerinthe seeds. It has a dark blue flower not unlike the Shrimp plant. It’s another one we saw in Jamie and Simonne’s garden. It’s an annual which means it grows, flowers and sets seeds then dies. However it does self-seed which means we should get a lot more flowers the next year, all being well.

Later the DPD lady handed me a heavier parcel. It’s a hefty piece of kit, the Sony Vario-Tessar T* FE 16-35mm F4 ZA OSS and has a hefty name too. After it was unpacked and tested, I took it over to St Mo’s to see what it could do. It could do loads of things. It took the PoD which was a simple view across the pond, but a high quality one. Worth waiting almost a year for, I think. Worth all the hassle yesterday? Well, maybe not. That was unnecessary stress MPB and I’ll say so in my review.

On the way back from St Mo’s I picked up a Chicken Chop Suey with Fried Rice for Scamp and a Chicken Chow Mein for me from Golden Bowl. The chow mein was a bit dry if I’m going to be critical, but it was good.

Tomorrow I’m hoping to get a chance to test the new toy further afield, but that depends on the weather.

Family Lunch – 9 April 2023

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Lots of things going on today, because Neil and Hazy were joining us for Sunday lunch.

Jamie and Simonne were organising the food, of course after Simonne returned from church, and today it was going to be Roast Leg of Lamb for the carnivores and Seabass from Aldeburgh for Scamp, the solitary pescatarian.

I did my best to keep out of the way while this was going on and went for a walk along the fields behind the church. Since this was Easter Sunday, I decided to walk through the village cemetery and on to the path from there, lest I might be drawn into the church by an overenthusiastic clergyman. I walked down to, but didn’t cross, the bridge over the stream (English don’t have ‘burns’ they have ‘streams’). Instead, I turned right and walked along the edge of the field where corn was just starting to sprout. I did eventually come to another bridge across the stream and crossed over there. I walked on for a fair stretch, but decided that I’d better not walk too far and risk not being there when N&H arrived. This time I walked up past the church and out by the main gate. I’d been taking photos all the way along, trying to get a good view of the church, but it didn’t work because it was shielded by the trees that grow all round it. I got some photos of wild flowers as I walked back to the house.

It was another beautiful day with clear blue skies, although the wind was cold. I sat on an old wooden lichen covered seat at the gable of the house and in the lee of the wind. It was so quiet. Not in the sense of no sound, because there were rooks in the big conifers cawing away loudly and there were smaller birds calling from the bushes, there were bees and ladybirds and maybe a hoverfly or two, but there was almost no mechanical noise. A very few cars. No aircraft and no people making noise. Peaceful rather than quiet, perhaps.

I shot off a few more images of the garden, but my favourite, and PoD was a little Celandine growing out of a crack in the paving stones of the patio.

Neil and Hazy arrived right on time, as I’d expect from Neil. Jamie and Scamp gave them a conducted tour of the house and the garden then we had lunch. There was much discussion between Jamie and Simonne as to whether the lamb was overcooked or not. I thought it was just right. Any less and it would probably have been oily, and it wasn’t that, nor was it too dry. A ‘Goldilocks’ lamb. It was served with Hasselback Potatoes and Asparagus. Hazy had provided the dessert which was Gü puddings. Quite delicious. We also had wine recommended by Simonne’s uncle Yves, a Côtes du Rhône and very nice it was too.

All too soon it was time for the Epsom folk to hit the road again, but it was great having them and getting to talk face to face with everyone again. We must do it again some time soon.

We watched another two episodes of the strange South African film. Leaving the final episode for tomorrow.

It had been a long day and it looks like it may be wet tomorrow morning at least. Maybe a lazy day.

 

 

Rain, Rain, Go Away – 5 April 2023

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It rained today. In fact it rained all day and it’s still raining.

We had Easter cards to write and then post, which was good, because we were going to Tesco anyway and could post them there. It was just a bit of light shopping, bread, a bag of rolls and a carton of milk. Oh yes, and two bottles of wine plus two cans of G&T. Like I said, light shopping. Just for a change, Scamp drove us there and back.

Back home and after lunch we started throwing things into bags. Counting in the socks and underwear then adding another one or two for luck. It looked like the rain was getting a bit lighter and there was just the chance of some sunshine too, but it was just a ruse by the weather fairies. The rain strengthened and the sunshine went to some other boys and girls. I’d thought of taking some indoor ‘flower’ shots, but risked it with a few shots of Scamp’s Helebores that sit by the back steps. Their full name is Heleborus Orientalis Lenten Rose. The ‘Lenten’ part is to signify that their flowering period roughly covers Lent.

Dinner was paella which I thought was nice and dry, but Scamp thought it was just too dry. We never can agree on food and cooking. However it tasted fine and used up some chicken thighs that had been languishing in the freezer for a long time.

In the evening I threw more things into a big red bag and I’ve just remembered I have to add the Gorilla Pod.

I think that’s us about done. Early rise tomorrow. Hope the rain has stopped by then!

Gardening – 2 April 2023

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An hour in the garden for me. More for Scamp.

We hadn’t got to bed until about 1am yesterday and our ‘little nightcap’ worked well, so we didn’t wake until well past breakfast time. By the time I was stumbling out of bed it was getting nearer lunchtime than breakfast. We both avoided the news in the morning, not wanting to know the result of the Australian GP which we’d watch while having lunch at midday. Instead, we solved Wordle and Spelling Bee.

Scamp described the end of the F1 GP as “Carnage” and she was right. “Shambles” is another word to describe it. Two restarts after the race had been ‘red flagged’ which means that the cars had to return to the pit lane to allow the debris of two big crashes to be cleared up. It was a bit over cautious on the part of the race officials. It could all have been handled much better in our opinion under a ‘Safety Car’. In the end it was a carnage and a shambles that did nothing but take away from what could have been a good race. Questions will be asked of the officials before the next race in Baku in four weeks time. Could this be connected in any way with the fact that the dance class is also off for about four weeks? Just asking.

With lunch past and the entertainment finished for the day, Scamp was looking to the garden to see what she could cut down, chop up or repot. I was called out on the pretext that my opinion was needed on what to keep and what to chop. I was also asked what I was going to do about the raised bed. I muttered something about taking down the pea frame and sloped off to charge the power drill that I’d need to remove the rusted screws. Actually, once I’d removed the six rusted screws with the power screwdriver, the fate of the raised bed was resolved when part of the back wall of the bed came clean away with the pea frame. The whole thing needs to be taken apart before it comes apart of its own volition. But that was a task for another day. Instead I took the pea frame apart, retained the uprights to become apple tree supports and chucked everything else in the bin. Then went to prepare my dinner which would be slow cooked lamb shoulder shank, done in the Instant Pot. Then I gathered my lenses for today’s expedition to St Mo’s.

It was actually quite mild today, much warmer than yesterday and with no wind, that warmth was getting through.

PoD was an update on the Horse Chestnut bud from a week ago today.

Tomorrow if the weather is as predicted, reasonably sunny, we may go for a walk.