Missing mountains

It rained here , and stormed . Times liek these i miss Swiss balconies . English doors and windows were not designed to be opened in a downpour . We got that wrong because when it storms the air smells delicious ! The Swiss overhanging roof is a wonderful invention ,. it also means you can dry your washing in the rain :-)

This is a pastel sketch of a photo by Jessica Burnett   , thanks Jess !

beach day ,pastels and driftwood

This afternoon we wandered down to the beach . We looked for fossilised sharks teeth , millions of years old , we dug for baryte crystals in the cliffs .

I did some sketches in soft pastel

My best driftwood find . i found lots of smaller bits too that im thinking up plans for , its so light ! This piece has silky silver branches , i love it .

My new Clematis flower with my driftwood

my tomatoes and my grapevine . these are next to the new lawn . we have lots of bunches of grapes coming on the vine . The other tomatoes got scoffed by slugs , these ones surrounded by gravel are fine . i need to plant up some more tomorrow .

This butterfly went and laid eggs on my olive bush after this , i hope we get a new generation of them , ill sacrifice my olive bush handsomeness for munched leaves and more of these guys  , they are deep blue inside their wings .

Last thing in the evening , the scent of cloves and vanilla on the balcony

umm , ok its been ages.

Ive just been living life I guess and not blogging  . Totally lost track of where i was so im just going to start from now and not try to catch up , because i cant ! . Today we went to a country park to let the monsters loose for a while . As soon as we opened the car door they escaped .

There were wild animals in the grass

doing strange things

The flowers were beautiful . There were lots .

After the country park we went home for a BBQ

Glorious day ;-)

missing in action

I havnt been blogging because ive been far to busy , which is great ! my lawn is growing , but my plants are not however the sun is shining and ive given everything a feed . I lost a courgette to cold , and one squash honeybear and half my tomatoes to slugs , other than that all is well :-)

my potatoes are growing out front and getting curious glances from passers by .

my peas are growing but i found out i shouldnt have planted them next to the garlic . ah well  .

Prunus Kanzan in my front garden . turning my veg patch pink .

a little bit of fun i brought back from switzerland :-)

Switzerland sketches and peach leaf curl

I did some en plein air sketchesd whilst up in the peaks in Switzerland . These are intended as aids to me and i do them for the fun of sketching . They make snese to me anyway , each one captures something that intrigued me at the time .

 On another subject , my peach or nectarine trees have peach leaf curl . no fruit this year , a disaster but i think i can fix it for next year , i like a challenge . The rest of the garden is still going crazy , i had to make a new veg raised bed for some borlotti beans (i think need to check the packet) some cabbage and a courgette . Its all planted too close but i can always harvest young i hope or transplant the cabbages to the front bed when the peas are done . im juggling but its fun . the lawn is nearly levelled and ready for sowing with seed and the strawberries are full of flowers . ive learned they can slow or stop cancer tumours forming and since both my parents have had  , and recovered , from cancer strawberries are on the diet big time .

Im loving my life right now , it rained lst night and the garden smells fabulous . i have scented stock overwintered and flowering and the violas are suddenly full of scent , delicious after rain the scent floods the gardens . cant wait for the sweet peas to flower on the balcony !  

back from Switzerland

Well , Switzerland , France , Germany ,Luxembourg and Belgium . We missed out on Italy and Holland narrowly .  Strange how a trip to the Swiss alps was nearly stopped by a volcano in Iceland . My flight was cancelled so we jumped in the car ad took the ferry . Great decision it was fantastic and the sunsets were amazing . Ill update the blog with photos and info as i process them . Now im back and my garden exploded while i was away ! everything needs either potting up or planting out and i still have that lawn to seed though its nearly flat now .  i have piles of laundry everywhere but im happy ! its spring and its beautiful . I looked at all the Swiss gardens i could find and they filled out during the week i was there . Full of blossoms and dandelions and trained fruit trees . The garden centres were amazing but i dont think i can bring live plants to England so i didnt buy .  Ive got ideas for my fruit trees though.....
 Im struggling settling in . Im dizzy . I wasnt dizzy in Switzerland but i am here . stress? dont know , im ignoring it .  I woke up filled with dread for the morning BUT happy also , i know , weird . I got the kids ready for school . oldest is still off with a torn muscle , (yesterday) and it was stressful but then when we strted walking my sons hand slipped into mine and my daughter walked nicely beside me and it was all ok . I echanged conversation with school mums , a friend of the kids launched herself into my lap for a cuddle and the sun was shining . I realised i NEED this walk to school , wanting to opt out holds me back . Its nice . Its good , i can look at peoples gardens and see the Abby on the hill . I can think on the way back and clear my head . Nice . I must remember that tomorrow . 

It was amazingly special there but its also amazingly special here . full of smiles :-)
Swiss houses are beautiful .

Bee cake

My daughter , the smallest one is six ! and she wanted a bee cake , well , two bee cakes , a big one and a little one so we made them together ;-)

Little bee cake ;-)

and they were delicious . My kids dont like shop bought cake and they LOVE to stick their fingers in the mixing bowls . So do i :-)