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 !  

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 .

Mini orchard , sweet peas and honey bears

These are my mystery fruit trees . I bought them at a really great price today because the tags have faded and beyond knowing they are dwarf fruit trees the garden centre could only do a best guess . So i got four different ones and ill wait and see ! I have a rough idea ut since i really dont mind what i got its ok :-))) My chives are growing , funny how they come through bent in half and they straighten up from being all kinky . I love fresh chives in home made potato salad and i want to try the edible flowers in salads as well as freezing them in ice cubes for some fun .

 I planted garlic and some courgettes to give them an early start before planting out , i sowed some salad lettuce seeds and spring onion ,

This wigwam has a honey bear squash seed in the middle , well , two , i will keep the strongest , and nasturtians and sweet peas round the outseide , the sweet peas are highly scented and im going to eat the nasturtian flowers . ive no idea how big this is gonna get....

Table fun :-) come on spring .Has anyone seen a Crocus this year ??

Fruit shopping , handwarmers and ice .

This morning when i looked out the window it had been raining and the snow was melting . Ok i thought walking to school should be OK . i popped the handwarmers , the kids love to watch them go hard and hot and whiter , and we bundled up and headed out and got as far as three houses up when my eldest gave up hopping and said no more it hurts ! She twisted her ankle yesterday and again several times on the ice because although it was melting what was left was like oiled bumpy glass . My son had a hospital appointment so i ended up with only one in school and i had to wake my husband after only a few hours home from nightshift to drive the remaining urchin safely to the school . AAGH .
My son was diagnosed with ADHD and elements of Aspergers today . He is a mild case and super intelligent but very exhausting to deal with , Now we have an official diagnosis we can deal with him more effectively . Its a relief .

Today was also fruit shopping day . With five hungry people in one house no fruit is safe . We had salad for dinner and then i put on the table a punnet of raspberries , a punnet of blueberries and half a bunch of grapes . I went to wash up . halfway through the dishes my smallest urchin came to me and solemny handed me    three     sad grapes hanging on the remaining grape stalk  , and a pot with three squashed raspberries in it . That was all that was left , its like being invaded by a swarm of locusts .

This wont last long . I am going to order a cherry tree and maybe an apple this year .

Heart shaped handwarmers , we have snowflake onles also :-) This is after they are activated , when they are cool again you have to boil them for ten minutes to re-set them back to liquid then you an use them again , up to 1000 times .