Spring is sneaking about at last . Just a little bit .

Spring definately isn't here yet . there is ice in the water and frost on the roof . BUT buds are showing and spring bulbs are sending out green shoots . Its so cold and damp and coudy here , has been for weeks but when it does warm up , this year i think spring is going to be a riot . Cant wait  , i need to drink coffee on my balcony again . Last year i did it all winter . This year its been so wet and cloudy and damn cold that i just cant and i miss it . A lot .
I have a new plant pot that i bought really cheaply . Its purple with a wavy edge and i filled it with bright pink , purple and white cyclamen and put it in a corner of the balcony . A strong corner . When it does get sunny it will be ready for me to sit next to and admire . Ive bought tomato , purple bean and Brussel sprout seeds to try this year . Im thinking though it makes more economic sense to grow fruit rather than veg ,. veg is quite cheap , fruit isnt . Maybe i can fit in some raspberry canes .
Im under new doctors orders because i still keep collapsing which is making things a bit difficult . I had my diet all sorted out and they went and changed it . Im banned from a lot of fruit as well as a million other things and thats been hard . Im also not allowed stress or stressful situations . How do i avoid that ! Stress is by definition a situation that happens to you that you cant avoid , which gives you stress  . Hmm . cant sell my kids so ill do my best .  Im also banned from excercise and undue exertion in case i fall over . for THREE MONTHS . I have a shed to help put up .  Im reduced to standing on the sidelines and feeling helpless . I hate that . But i also hate falling over so i guess ill just have to stick with it . we need to know for certain whats causing it . one way to find that out is to see if we can stop it happening . hence all the banned things .

We have at last had a few moments of sun , it had been absolutely WEEKS without any . At one point the entire British Isles was covered in FOG . everywhere . when its not fog its clouds . unrelenting clouds . So any sun , even a flash is really really welcome .

seed packet time ! yay :-)

Sometimes i write .

And make jelly . This is my new pie dish but its great for jelly hearts .

This Lemon Geranium i grew from a cutting from a friend of mine . She went to hospital so i aquired a bit while i was round her house and it smells delicious !

Sunshine ! only a few seconds but it really helps .

Lexi cat with her mouse toy .

Shocked at sunlight !

She was scared of this mouse at first but we took the bell out and now she loves it .

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

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 .

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 !

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 .

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 ??

Warm bread rolls

yum....

I tought my daughter to bake , she loves the smell of it , she loves getting sticky and she loves making her own food , so we baked fresh white bread rolls so we can eat them for breakfast .

We ate one hot from the oven  with real butter and it was delicious , better than fresh from the swiss bakers she said .

She made this bead heart for me . This is the new bread bin it was bought in a sale and when you take the lid out and turn it over its a bread board , cool eh !

I sowed four types of pepper , two sweet , two hot to see what performs best . Im lookign foreward most to one of the sweet ones its supposed to be really long , sounds good ! The potatoes arnt doing much in the way of sending out shoots but its early days yet .

Nasturtian seedlings popped out today :-)

Sweet peas are shooting up ! look at this fella

Ive been painting too

 slowly but surely getting there

My studio heating . Not kidding :-) Snow on the ground again this morning .