How my garden grows , in between rain and hailstorms and high winds...

Spring is here , even if the weather is trying its hardest to go back to winter  .

This is my front garden veg patch , i had to pull half the wall down as it was becoming dangerous and this white hump is a homemade cloch made from the poles from a beach tant , some fleece and some clothes pegs . under it is garlic , peas , and possibly about a million tomato plants , or maybe california poppies i cant tell andyway , they will succumb to the hoe once i find out what they are . Next to this are a row of potatoes under fleece but you cant see them in this shot .

One of my mini orchard trees . I still dont know what it is exactly .

this is the  bottom half of my olive tree , im hoping this trunk becomes all gnarly and twisty as it grows . its living in the pot though i found out how big these things can get .

My grape vine is in bud :-)

This one i THINK is either apple or pear . im hoping for apple .

This one , i havnt a clue :-)

My balcony plant hotspot

The violas are romping away now i gave them a feed and they seem to like it

Sweet peas and nasturtians  outside and surviving , mostly .

strawberries in flower . well , one is anyway the rest havnt got the idea yet .

courgette seed it was yellowing slightly so i gave it a feed and its greened up aagin nicely , wow these things are hungry !

Soring onions and lettuce . getting there , a few more weeks before i can harvest though .

Lupin , waiting to go into my flower border . i want it to get big enough to withstand the slugs . the last lot got chomped .

garlic bread and mammograms

Today was mammogram day , only i didnt know it.... i turned up at the breast pain clinic and had to wait over an hour for my appointment , the breast expert then pushed on y breast untill she found out where it hurt (everywhere) and said apart from that im fine but i was having a mammogram , right then . Ive never had one before being only 36 so this was a first and wow , they do squash em ! ouch \!!!!!
anyway . after a mcdonalds cream egg mcflurry for the trauma i was fine again :-))
  My squash honey bear has finally decided to germinate , i bunged it in the airing cupboard and thats exactly what it needed , HEAT , only thing was when i discovered it again it was about 4 inches high and yellow . its greening up now though quite nicely . i have a new strawberry patch at y mother in laws and i bought a plum tree (victoria) and a cooking cherry (morello) to plant tomorrow if its nice enough . im going to fan train them as a new fence in between myself an d  my neigbour  . everything is shooting . y geraniums arrived and i potted them up , to grow them on . my tomato seedlings are mostly in individual pots now , the courgettes are still romping away . and y mystery orchard is just bursting into flower . photos tomorrow i hope .
Ive been quiet on here for too long because my eldest has not recovered from her concussion she recieved at school yet but she is getting there :-)
EASTER WEEKEND yay !
right now im baking garlic and rosemary foccacia for the first time . hmm . smells allright !

New painting and no cooker

I painted this in acrylic on canvas after getting annoyed at the no show of my new cooker . I have to wait another 6 weeks ! for it , someone forgot to order it . they gave me the delivery date too , i moved kitchen cupboards , nearly took the old cooker out but didnt , luckily . sigh . at least it should be worth all the fuss . so for now , still no photos of my garden , but i did do this

VULTURE !!

title Chaos Range Master

courgette

 Im in love with these seedings ! they are so fat and strong and big ! 
Tomatoes seem so weedy next to them .

My Squash Honeybear didnt germinate so im trying again this weekend in the airing cupboard with new seeds , i think they needed more heat . im wondering what size those seeds wil be . In fact , im wondering what size the plants will be ! im hoping for something monster and exciting .  Im also fighting off the urge to buy a really brilliant temporary greenhouse with staging that ive seen . its plastic like my existing small ones so i could out it on the decking . hmmmmm .

BUDS on my miniture fruit tree . well , on all of them really . i still dont know what they are or what colour the flowers will be !

My sweet peas and nasturtians were sent to live outside and they are still alive ! i have a bolt of fleece handy if frost is likely or i can bring it in overnight .

spring !

spring is finally here , i have buds on my fruit trees i cant wait untill the leaves come out  . i have daffodills indoors picked frpm the garden and i even saw some strawberry flowers on the strawberry plants ! i potted a lot of them up in the last few days they had escaped into the border by stealth .  strangely they had all managed to get entwined with a stinging nettle baby plant and my fingers tingled all day . my courgette seedlings are huge ! i love them totally . my squash honeybear has not worked , nothing . i think i need to seed again in a pot and out it somewhere hotter to get them to germinate .  i need to check the peas , potatoes and garlic i have under fleece too . maybe tomorrow afternoon  i will have time , im painting in the morning , got a lynx on canvas still to finish off . im not happy about the background  on it . no photos again because i still cant find my camera charger ! some soon promise .

Not quite there yet

Im still having severe pain problems which sapps my will to do anything else so im struggling again but things are growing which is exciting too . The Courgettes sprouted , big fat seed leaves  , i love them . Sweet peas are climbing , indoors , tomatos peppers , spring onions , lettuce  all doing well and garlic potatoes and peas went outside . The chives look like a grass mat and everything is getting on with it ;-)) photos soon i hope .   we are still having night frosts and will be untill the start of may so ive a long wait before all my seedlings can be sent outside to manage alone  which gives me a great excuse for leaving them inside the house to potter with .  The only thing that hasnt sprouted yet is the Squash Honeybear , ill give it another week and then sow some more seeds and try again , i know some seeds can be really slow to get the idea of growing right .
Right now eating healthy is on my mind because not only is my underwear feeling the strain but i had luch in an all you can eat chinese today . Absolutely delicious , very cheap and fattening ! yes i did have the sweet and sour sauce on fried chicken . sigh .
I also went to the art shop and bought some canvas panels and a new paintbrush . This morning i sketched out a new small canvas    , im going to be painting a Northern Lynx , ive never done one before . This particular one i watched on a snowy day and it was really enjoying the cold  , relaxed and happy animal it was a pleasure to watch .  My reference photo shows it at full streatch with all the delicious belly fur for me to paint , i love that bit :-) it has H U G E feet too .

WRONG PILLS

Ok , i havnt been writing because I was given pills for my pain which ended up sending me into severe depression for days . Bad bad bad . Stopped the pills , the pain is better then that . Getting well is hard . everytime i try to sort one thing it affects all the rest . AAGH .
 Im back though .   A trip to the wildlife park soon made me feel better , the weather is wonderful , the animals were great and i got plenty of new reference . perfect . That was yesterday . Today ive been in the garden planting up the new fruit trees and sorting out the borders and the weather is STILL great , maybe we have spring at last ?? some daffodils would be nice :-)

This is a Pallas cat from Mongolia :-) one of the photos from the wildlife park trip .