Back to blogging with a hedgehog!

I cannot believe it's been 10 months since my last blog post....where has all that time gone!  Well, I'm back and will try much harder to keep things up to date!

Thought I would share this from last night...

Hedgehog in the garden tucking into bird...tasty!

Back soon...I promise!

Rebecca
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Raining, cats and frogs

Yesterday brought us rain...something that farmers and gardeners have been praying for over the past few weeks. However, it doesn't seem to have made much difference to the water level in the pond at the bottom of our garden, which is 7 or 8" down, lower than we usually see it at the end of summer.
Each year we have lots of froggy visitors who return to the garden to lay their spawn in the pond...they often arrive two by two, like this pair!

We take pleasure in hearing their froggy noises and checking on their progress as spring progresses each year, but this year the pond has not been so busy and we were quite distressed to discover at least six dead frogs a few weeks back. At first we wondered if it was some sort of disease that had affected them but, on doing more research, it seems possible that these were frogs that had hibernated at the bottom of the pond over the winter and had not been able to survive the long period of extremely cold weather that we had. Apparently, the dead frogs float to the surface as the temperature rises.

It's such a shame, but I am not surprised. It was so cold for so long here. We had no end of problems with burst pipes and pipes that were blocked with ice. Here's the ice that my dad and son removed from the pipe that drains from the bathroom sink:
The pond was frozen solid too.

The dead leaves, twigs and bits have been removed from the water and there are several live frogs in the pond at the moment. We are also saving any rainwater (when it comes!) in buckets and containers to help raise the water level in the pond. The buckets are empty again at the moment...apart from when Audrey cat decides that they are for playing in!

Of course, rain is also much appreciated to keep things going in the raised beds, especially now that we have started to enjoy the taste of our labours! Rocket, cut-and-come again lettuce, and spinach all doing well
...except when sabbotaged by this shy one, Daisy, who has decided that these raised beds might just have been placed as giant outdoor litter trays!

Bring out the wire netting, twiggy sticks...

Back soon,

Rebecca

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A garden coffee break

Whenever possible I like to have one of these in the garden:
and take time to look around at what's happening and enjoy things,

like the fragrant wisteria blooms that are almost coming to end.

I like to see how plants are coming along, like this bay, which is a new addition to the garden. I shall be keeping a close eye on this one as we've never had any success with growing bay, but love to have it around as we use it so often in the kitchen. Hopefully, this one will survive!

I'm also excitedly checking the new raised beds daily for any signs of activity from all the seed planting that went on a few weeks ago. So far we have spinach, various salad leaves, including rocket, which is a real favourite of mine, spring onions, beetroot and, I think, a glimpse of a carrot seedling or two. Oh, the anticipation...I am so looking forward to abandoning the supermarket salad leaves and picking my own fresh from the garden again.
I also check up on the various plants and pots that are being taken in and out at the moment so as to avoid any sneaky overnight frosts. Can you see a glimpse of a yellow bean?
These seedlings are doing very well...

and, if they continue to do so, the garden will be full of these, which is no bad thing as we love tomatoes! After all, who can resist a plate of gorgeous homegrown tomatoes with basil and mozzarella drizzled with delicious extra virgin olive oil served with some crusty bread!

As I sit, or wander around, I am not alone...Audrey, or Audrey Hepburn as she is known when she is misbehaving, is at my feet. Here she is, having one of her funny moments, hence the blurriness: She has been a great addition to the household and has brought smiles and laughter to some very unhappy times this year.

When my 7 year old niece was staying with us in February, she could not get to grips with the name Audrey and kept calling her 'Ordinary'! She certainly is no 'ordinary' cat...I've never known one to lay like this:

Here she is beside me while I work...oh, what a life!

Bye for now,

Rebecca

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Back to School...and a sparkly sink!

Both my youngsters returned to school this week, my lovely daughter to Sixth Form (I still don't know quite how that's happened so quickly!) and my teenage boy to Year 9! Next week, it's back to school for me too as my after school art & craft clubs begin! Once all four clubs are up and running, I shall be making and creating with up to 80 children each week...and I am so looking forward to it!

I love to hear the children's ideas and to see what designs they come up with! Last term, we made coasters using old CDs and DVDs and, as the World Cup was underway, I had made a football-themed example and mosaic example for those that were not into football.

Without exception, the boys all made football coasters and the girls made mosaic ones!
I have always been fascinated by the "nature versus nuture" debate...are boys and girls conditioned to have different tastes or are they just born that way? What do you think?

I am a keen recycler and this crosses over into my after school art & craft clubs, not only because it is eco-friendly, but because I aim to show the children that you don't need a lot of expensive materials and equipment to be creative and have fun!

We made football trophies and goblets using plastic bottles, recycled cardboard, masking tape and papier mache - they looked fantastic once they had been painted gold and silver!

The children did some observed drawing using a charcoal pencil: apple and banana in a striped bowl. I found the end results very interesting:

These are some of the drawings from the Foundation & Key Stage 1 group - children aged 3-7. I love the different interpretations...the way that some children have drawn the fruit and bowl as separate pieces and how, for some, the fruit was hovering above the bowl rather than in it! I was most fascinated by the drawings produced by twin girls who are the youngest in the group, which can be seen at the bottom of this photo. The drawings are so similar, even though they didn't draw them together - they didn't even see each others drawings until they took them home!

So my sink will be sparkling again next week as I wash the empty pots, sticky spreaders and dirty brushes...in fact, it's not just the sink that sparkles during term time...glitter seems to get everywhere!

I'm really looking forward to going back to school!

Bye for now,

Rebecca

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Where's the sunshine?

As there a is distinct lack of sunshine outside today, I thought I would post a couple of sunshiney, yellow photos to brighten things up a little! After lots of delicious purple sprouting broccoli, we have enjoyed these pretty yellow broccoli flowers, which are almost at an end now:

The bees have loved them, but I think any remaining flowers will be gone by the end of today because it's so windy...and it's chilly too! However, that's not a bad thing, as it means that we shall be able to pull up the rather large broccoli plants to make way for some more salad, which seems to be coming along nicely now in other parts of our small veg plot.

I shall definitely be planting some more rocket, which we've used lots of this week in salads... and I love it in an egg mayo sandwich as an alternative to watercress!

Time for lunch...

Back soon,

Rebecca
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Springing back

The garden is 'springing' back to life...these 'Dorothy' crocuses have begun to flower this week:

There's some froggy business going on in the borders:

Fortunately, I heard these two rustling around as I hate being surprised by frogs when I'm hanging out the washing! We have a pond at the bottom of the garden and each Spring we see lots of frogs springing their way back there - it's quite amusing to watch. There's always one that wants to come into the house, which completely freaks me out! I refuse to open the back door until I know that it's gone, especially after having a frog join me in the kitchen a few years ago! Of course, the children think it's hilarious - "look out Mum, there's a frog!"

It's such a glorious day here today - the sun is shining, froggy noises are coming from the pond, Spring flowers are beginning to colour the garden, washing is drying on the line...and all's well! The arrival of Spring may have been delayed, but there's no holding it back now.

Back soon,

Rebecca

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