Daily Snappers #102

Wild.

We have let the vegetable patches get a bit wild this year.

Daily Snappers #96

Outdoors.

My day started off outdoors with an early morning run. Also excited that I think I might have found a local nordic walking class - quite fancy a go at that too.

After a few spots of rain I managed to get out in the garden to mow the grass before Andy gets home on Tuesday - I have a vague recollection that I said I woould do it - and he will be too jet lagged to attempt it himself.

Finally my snowdrops have made an appearance . I thought maybe the plants had died as I couldn't see anything last time I looked. Better late than never I suppose.

266/365+1 : A Random Item

This is all that is left of one of my cabbages in my garden :-( Not sure what has eaten it all - but it certainly wasn't me. Very random!!

258/365+1 : Fall

I know it is the Amercian term for Autumn but it's the only thing I could think of for today's photo. The weather is very Autumnal here today - windy and decidedly chilly - not long till the snow!!!!

Here are some gorgeous red berries on the honeysuckle in the garden.

251/365+1 : Hands

Relaxing after a week at work with half an hour pottering about the garden - hence the grubby hands.

I have potted on some little plants that Nanny brought up from Wales - some look a little worse for wear but that might have been due to them travelling about for a week in the boot of the car before they reached us.

The flowers in my pots by the front door are stunning when the sun is out and they open up fully.

But I am more chuffed about my Savoy cabbages actually looking like cabbages now - easily pleased aren't I??

243/365+1 : Thriving

When we moved into this house 3 and a half years ago the garden was a rectangle of newly laid turf and that was it. We are novice gardeners and plant things we like the look of - and stuff that will come back year after year (as much as I love my garden I'm not into spending a fortune on flowers that look pretty for a couple of months and then die.)

I could have photographed any part of my garden for this prompt but the far corner is the most thriving by far - the clematis, lavatera and montbretia are all fighting for space and getting intertwined - but doing a stirling job of covering the fence panels.

234/365+1 : Straight

I have never grown Gladioli before but I can remember my Dad growing them in the garden in Widney Road when we were kids so I thought I would give them a go. But it is a running battle trying to keep them upright and straight - hence the bamboo sticks.

But I am really please with the flowers - they are gorgeous.

211/365+1 : Heavy

I am supposed to be on a diet (but with my track record it probably won't last long!!) but I still did some baking this afternoon - so tea might be a bit heavy on the calorie front.

I did want to go for a walk down the beach (having withdrawal symptoms after our holiday) but everytime I seemed to look out of the window it had either gone very grey or was actually raining.

We have rhubarb in the garden that had gone wild whilst we were away so we picked some and I made a crumble and some rhubarb, cinnamon and brown sugar muffins - I hope they tasse as good as they smell.

Whilst I was out in the garden I spotted some small green tomatoes on our one and only tomato plant.

190/365+1 : Broken

I know I shouldn't complain as our weather has been nowhere as near as bad as down South - even managed to eat my lunch sitting out in the sunshine last week. But yesterday it did nothing but rain - and some of the flowers in the garden are looking a bit sorry for themselves.

Some of the Foxgloves have broken and fallen down

Along with some of the Lupins

The raindrops look pretty though

A lone clover flower in the grass

187/365+1 : Empty

In my garden today I found the empty seed head of my snakes head fritillary - I hope the seeds germinate and grow into new plants as the flowers are stunning.

Also in my garden the lillies I planted in pots have flowered.

And I have some teeny tiny tomatoes on my only tomato plant.

185/365+1 : Dirt

This year we are growing shallots, swede and savoy cabbage in our raised beds - and the weather must be soing something right as they are all growing like crazy.

155/365+1 : Gates

haven't been too far from the house today so here is my back garden gate - as you can see we have a lovely day and the washing is out on the line. The hosepipe is lying in it's usual place as it never gets put away properly - and the obligatory football is in the shot too.

Just inside the gate are our raised vegetable beds and the swede, savoy cabbage and shallots are all doing great.

I am really pleased with the new water feeder for the birds we bought in Dobies yesterday - just use an old 1 ltre water bottle and hey presto a watering hole for our feathered friends. I am off out into the garden in a bit to do a spot of bit counting for the BTO big garden weigh in via Springwatch.

At yesterdays festival we bought the boys a sweetcorn plant (a bargain 30 pence each) so they now are in competition to see who can grow the biggest corn!

119/365+1 : Handmade

This wasn't my first choice of photo today - in the morning I had been trying to make a necklace out of buttons which didn't quite work out. I bought it as a kit from a gorgeous little bead shop in Aberdeen but the wire in the kit was quite brittle and it snapped. But back in the Deen on Monday so I will get some replacement wire and give it another go.

This is a birdbox that Sam made at primary school a few years ago as part of his John Muir Award. For the 3rd year running we have blue tits nesting in the box and we have fingers crossed that for the first time we will have babies that fledge successfully. The first year a cat scared the parent birds away and the babies fledged too early (in the middle of a torrential downpour) and despite the best efforts of the boys and the builders on site who gathered them back up and kept putting them back in the box I doubt if any survived. Then last year we had a nest but no eggs.

Also in the garden this weekend is a Bleeding Heart plant - I saw one on a fellow 365ers blog but I cannot remember whose possible Anne?) and wanted one - especially as she said they took very little looking after - my sort of plant!!

10 Things : April

Spring has finally started to spring in my garden - even if it was covered in a couple of inches of snow last week (gutted I wasn't here to enjoy it though!) Our garden is still a major work in progress as it was simply an oblong of grass 3 years ago when we moved in. It is lovely to see some splashes of colour - here are 10 photos taken last month whilst we were busy planting and weeding.

Pop over and see Shimelle and find out what 10 Things other people are posting about on the 10th. 

Going Green

After working on the garden over the weekend we decided that our garden looks rather "green" with not a lot of colour about. I don't suppose there is much we can do about it now but I need to have a look at some bulb catalogues to see what we can plant in the Autumn for a more colourful display next Spring and Summer.

But in the meantime it looks as though it won't be too long before some plants burst into life.

Skywatch Friday

A poppy from my garden against a beautiful blue sky.


























I bought a couple of oriental poppy plants when we started our garden and last year they were all beautiful punk blooms. This year once again the flowers have all been pink - except this one - which is red! I wonder why.

























Pop over and see skies from around the world here.