Hobbies and Crafts

Your friends will see a difference in temperature after New Zealand Vera.
We had a frost this morning, but it is bright and dry here now, although very cold.

The garden looks untidy after all the strong winds. A large wind chime was battered and is broken, so I will replace it via Amazon as before.

I am wanting to get outside and make a start on the borders but it's just too cold today and I haven't got any energy either so it will have to wait for a little bit longer.

It's very windy here too Ann, with heavy rain on and off. On Saturday I have friends returning from a couple of months in New Zealand where their temperatures have been around 30 deg. I think they are going to notice a real difference as soon as they step off the plane.

Last year I bought a little pot of tete a tete daffs that was being sold off very cheaply as they were just going over.There were 6 bulbs so I planted them in the garden and I see they are just coming in to bloom now. The tulips are just showing through too, in OH's usual straight lines! Now, if I could only see something of the anemones I would be happy.

I will be thinking of your family next Monday and hope all goes well with the C section. I'm sure it will and you'll be cracking open the fizz to toast your new great grandson.

No chance of loking round the garden today, we have lashing rain and it is very windy. Yesterday evening the conservatory roof decided to leak but it has not been too bad today.

The C Section for Great Grandson is next Monday. And, (although nothing is ever definite it looks as though number 3 in June is to be a girl. :-D :-D That would be nice.

Vera, I also planted the February Gold variety, but no sign of mine in flower just yet.

We have a few more snowdrops (a favourite of mine) and some yellow crocus out so far. No sign of any other colour and they were meant to be a mixed variety???

Lily of the Valley showing lots of growth underneath the bedroom window, but no flowers so far. Something else to keep my eye on.

Drizzly and windy here today. We planted some daffs called February Gold and they are mostly in bloom now and look quite pretty. OH did manage to plant the bulbs in his usual straight lines but they don't look too bad as they have a lot of other plants around them.

Our two witch hazels are coming in to bloom now. One is yellow and the other a coppery red and the bare branches with the flowers do look good against the fence.

I am a bit concerned that there is no sign of our anemone nemerosa plants. OH planted a lot of bulbs in three drifts and there is no sign of them yet. I shall have to google and see when they are supposed to be showing.

Nice to see the garden coming to life again.

I think it is the wettest winter I can remember for quite some time Ann.
It has rained here all day and been so dark, we have had the light on most of today.

There are a few spring flowers out in our garden already, the snowdrops are my favourite and we have roses sprouting greenery which I am keeping my eye on.

eere Maryanna is l it is wet wet wet here today, not too cold though I don't think (haven't been out). OH did manage to cut the lawn yesterday, don't think he has ever had to do that in February before. At least the garden is looking tidy now even if decidedly damp!! :-) :-) :-)

We actually have a bluebell in flower in the garden, unfortunately it is a Spanish bluebell, I thought I had got rid of all of them but some keep popping up around the garden. It is sunny (but windy) here today so the crocus have opened their buds again which is nice.

Sunny and dry but a very cold strong wind blowing here today.

Quite a few crocus almost in flower and lots of green leaves that I think could be
bluebells that I planted last year, not really sure but I will see if I am right before long.

The tall daffodil I spotted in bud earlier has been blown down with strong winds, a shame about that really.

I had to buy a new cover for the garden bench as the old one has blown away in the strong winds........ no idea where it is. Probably blown over our tall garden wall.
This new one I fitted has been anchored with strong cord fastened in the eyelets.

You would think that this wind would dry the ground out wouldn't you? But I don't think it is. Fairly bright with a few showers of drizzle here and a very cold wind.

Oh lucky you Vera. Your day out with your OH sounds wonderful.

I love Italian food too Ann. Hubby is not keen so we don't have it often.

I hope you have got used to driving your new car about Jane?

Blowing a gale here this morning. Lawns still very wet and weeds growing nicely in the borders!!!

Wow Vera you did have a good day, very spoilt.pleased you enjoyed yourself, full marks to your OH.

We had a nice lunch in Cheltenham in Carluccio's, I do like Italian food.

That's a bit of a problem too Jane, he is inclined not to read instructions properly, He either reads a couple of words and guesses the rest or he sees what he expects to see :-(

I really mustn't complain about him too much. He does have lots of good points. He's just redecorated our bedroom and made a great job of it and we have had a nice (and expensive) day out. Had our usual Thursday morning coffee with a group of friends in our local town, then went on to our nearest major town. On the way he offered to buy us lunch at a very nice pub cum restaurant that we usually only go to for special occasions. A large meal, a glass of wine and a pot of tea later, we got to the town and went to look for a new duvet cover. Our bedroom walls are a sort of creamy off white colour and all the other paintwork is white so I wanted something with a bit of colour to "lift" the room. In Debenhams I found two that I liked, both expensive as they were in their designer ranges. While I was trying to make up my mind he said "get both" :-D. I also got 8 pillow slips, four to match each duvet cover.

So today he's a star and I've forgiven him for his gardening mistakes. Now I just have to pick my moment to tell him that I'd like some new pictures for the walls......

Now that is what I call clever planning Vera :-D....Hopefully OH will read instructions properly and do exactly what is needed :-D..That is the kind of plan my OH needs to do for me LOL..Even then he still wouldn't trust me :-S

I think the sneaky squirrel has been visiting the window feeder a lot when my back is turned :-S :-S

My fingers are also crossed for you Vera, I hope your plans will work ha ha.

It is a bright dry day here today..... hard to believe we are nearly through January!

We have just had an easy lunch of jacket potato and salad and while hubby reads the newspaper I will ignore my "jobs to do" list and lose myself in the pages of the gardening calalogue over a cup of coffee, I will enjoy that.

Fingers crossed Vera :-( :-D

Ann, I am taking no chances ;-). I have shown OH the list and made sure he was listening to what I was saying. There will be a copy indoors but I am also putting a copy in a clear plastic envelope and putting it with the gardening tools in the garage so he won't be able to reach for the secateurs or pruning shears without seeing it. I've also put a note by each plant name of where it is in the garden as I had a sudden vision of him reading that he had to cut back a certain plant and going for the wrong one

I hope I've covered everything now :-D

Horrible weather here today, yesterday was almost spring like today we are back in winter with a vengeance as it is very windy and wet. No birds and the crocus have all shut their flowers back up.

Kandj so you still have the pleasure of the garden brochure to come.

Vera, that is a great idea. Make sure your OH knows it exists so he knows to look first and chop afterwards!!! :-D

We have some winter aconite in bloom and a couple of viburnum shrubs and the earlier of our two witch hazels, a coppery red one, looks as though it is going to break into bloom very soon.

I went to the supermarket yesterday and got tempted to add a white agapanthus bulb to my basket. I have three big pots of blue agapanthus plants of different heights and they do really well and look a picture when they are in bloom on the patio so I thought I would try a white one.

I'm feeling very pleased with myself at the moment. I have made a "Plant Care Schedule", a table with headings: Plant Name, Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter and Notes. On it I have listed all the new plants we have put in - it goes on to several pages; I didn't realise how many different plants we had bought. Under the different seasons I have put notes in blue for when it flowers, red for when and how to prune, green for when and how to propagate and black for general notes.

The idea is that when himself gets the urge to swing the shears or secateurs around I can thrust it under his nose and make him check the list. Hopefully that will avoid him demolishing too much but I am not optimistic. ;-)