Hobbies and Crafts

It will be lovely when they all flower Kandj.

Oh dear, next door's massive extension was finally finished last week. We have had a Summer of builders banging and endless noise and dust. Haven't been able to sit outside as men have been on scaffolding and whenever I put the washing out someone started a bonfire. Not much fun, especially as they were starting work between 7 and 7.30 each morning. Anyhow, they are all gone now.

As well as the building work they have put in a massive stone patio, bordered by big heavy stone walls.For some reason the design hasn't included steps to get up onto the lawn which is a good three to four feet higher than the patio. It does look a bit like a quarry. They are not into plants either so there will be no greenery to soften it. It's going to be mighty hot in the Summer to sit on.

In order to access the lawn they have done a funny stepped design on the actual wall, where it dips in two places to around a foot to eighteen inches, still quite high and OK when they are in their 40s but will be interesting to see how they cope with jumping off a wall when they are older !! Not to mention carrying garden stuff up and down, in fact the builders had been using old pallets as steps, of course they have gone now.

This morning after a couple of days and nights rain they have a very nice swimming pool. There is just nowhere for the water to run off and as the garden is so much higher it is running off the lawn into it as well.

I thought our patio was bad enough when it flooded after all the rain a couple of years ago but it is nothing compared to this. At least now, with our drainage problem sorted and the slabs relaid we have a nice dry, well damp, patio, not a swimming pool.

Looks like the builders will be back !!!!

Still waiting for the next baby, any day now .............

M

Oh dear Maryanna sounds like a bit of a mess. I hope the flooding on theirs doesn't affect your garden. Some people are very strange when they have things done aren't they. What sort of extension is it/ Two storey? does that affect your property at all?

We have just had a quote for our new bathroom. I still have difficulty with the cost of these things, the quote is three times the cost of our first bungalow :-D about £6500 including VAT. Daughter seemsto think it is about right.

Ann, it's a double story right across the back of the property. The house itself is a 1920s semi, so much newer than our house. The extension is very modern, steel and glass, they have knocked all the downstairs into one big living space with a utility room and wet room where the old kitchen was.

It doesn't affect us too much but as it sticks out about fifteen feet more than it did, it means we now can't see up the lane from inside or our patio, all we see is their side wall .

Your bathroom cost sounds Ok, a lot I know but we paid about eleven thousand five years ago to have our family bathroom completely remodelled and to have an ensuite and dressing room built into our bedroom. That was still three thousand more than our first house .

M.

Almost finished planting all the many Spring flowering bulbs. Only a small number left and these will have to be planted in tubs or any other containers I have in the garage.

Maryanna I love the new baby Avatar...has your daughter's baby not arrived yet?

Ann, we also initially think of a figure for any alterations in our bungalow, but have found through experience that it is best to double the amount and then add even more.
Good luck though with your new bathroom plans. We went down that path last year!

Kandj yes it will probably go up a bit but we are prepared for that. We are still sourcing the bath etc as our man chose an L shaped shower bath and we want the P shaped one. We have two catalogues from the supplier to choose from and next will be the tiles.

We are having some really pleasant weather at the moment here in Aberdeenshire so many of my garden plants are still looking good for the time of year!
The trees especially are looking lovely, not too many leaves have fallen yet & so we are seeing some lovely autumnal colours for a change,
The Rowan leaves & the Beech leaves are a variety of russet shades, Silver Birch leaves are golden,the Sycamore leaves are still green & are still hanging onto the branches!

The Virginia creeper on the house wall is turning red.
All these colours really are brilliant, looks great, we don't always get to see these colours of leaves whilst still on the trees, the wind has usually been quite strong by this time of year & we only get to see the them lying on the ground!

My climbing Rose is still full of flowers!

Joan.

This year's weather has obviously been in your favour Joan. I love Virginia creeper when it turns dark red. I didn't know what it was then, but when I used to walk to primary school one old flintstone wall was absolutely covered in Virginia creeper. we used to collect the red leaves.

Nice to have a bonus to shorten the winter a bit. Our plants and hanging baskets are going on much later than normal but some of the big trees in the nearby church grounds have shed many of their leaves onto the pavements. so dangerous for those unsteady on their feet. I notice that the Acer next door has shed its leaves as well.

Our garden seems to be bright red and orange with bits of gold, at the moment.

The Holly was covered with berries but a lot have been eaten by the birds the last couple of weeks, as have the Cotoneasters and Hawthorns.

Next doors Sumach is a picture at present, bright orange and in front of it, our side of the fence, the Kerruas are a lovely yellow.

Like you Ann, my hanging baskets are in full bloom, I have brought all my Pelargoniums into the conservatory but will leave the baskets out as long as I can.

My Michaelmas Daisies are the best yet and I still have loads of Phlox and Zinnias in flower. Will wait for a frost before I cut back, although Himself is itching to get out there with his shears, I want to leave the colour as long as I can. I have managed to keep him away from the Forsythia for most of the Summer too. It's huge but at least we might get some flowers on it in the Spring for a change.

It's been horrible and wet for days.

We had a really funny sky last night, around 4 to 5 pm. It was raining heavily, but first went that yellowy grey like before it snows, it then went orange then red as if there was a sunset, there was a lot of talk on Twitter about it locally and photos but nobody had an explanation.

Baby is doing well, she is absolutely gorgeous, starting to smile, still waiting for the little man to make his appearance, daughter goes in on Monday otherwise. So we have got the Wee One and dog for as long as it takes.

M.

We also still have lots of gold colour in the garden with some bits of blue and purple. The asters we planted, which were like small Michaelmas Daisies don't seem to have done very well, just a few small scattered flowers, but there seems to be lots of new growth coming so hopefully they will do better next year.

I never learn do I? I should know by now that OH can only be trusted with big jobs like pruning shrubs. Several days ago I was a bit busy and himself asked what he could do to help so I sent him into the garden to deadhead. Well, I don't know what he has done with the Japanese Anemones. I have a few clumps of them in a pale pink and they have been wonderful. Each time I deadhead they seem to come back with more blossoms than ever. Not since himself got at them. There is not a sign of a single flower though they are still in bloom in other gardens round here. I am not a happy bunny :-|

The plants seem very confused by the weather at the moment. My blueberries which have just dropped the last of their lovely red leaves are now covered in buds and look as though they are ready to flower again :-S

In case you haven't seen on General or Birds, my daughter's baby arrived at 10.30 last night. They were all home and in bed by 3am this morning.

Mum and baby are doing well and despite the gestational diabetes he only weighed 7lb 3oz. He is lovely.

He has been named after my grandad who was named after his uncle who won a VC. I am so thrilled.

M.

Congratulations on your spreading tree branches Maryanna. Glad all is well :-) <3

We have rose still in bloom and the pink Cosmos in flower. The bulbs I planted in Autumn are showing in borders and in tubs. It is so mild, Mother Nature is confused.

It doesn't seem right does it, before we came away we had daffs in flower, noticed daughter had a primrose out this morning.

You're so right Ann.
I've already had to dead head my daffs they have been out for so long.

I have lots of spring flowers out including pulmonaria and comfrey. I also noticed some little cyclamen flowers too and I think they are my spring variety as the winter ones have been out for weeks.

I'm still waiting for the snowdrops though.
I have to say although the daffs were very early I found it lifted the spirits when the skies were so grey and the rain was never ending. :-) :-) :-)
Take care

I have nemesias in a pot in full bloom for the second time and amazingly the blueberries are full of buds and look as though they are about to burst into bloom much too early. They like a certain number of days of really cold weather so they may not do so well this year. I also have a non-hardy fuchsia in a pot that I brought into an unheated conservatory to protect it from frost, but we haven't had any real frost and the plant thinks it's spring and is sending out all its new shoots.

I've been making lists of all the plants, bulbs etc that we put in our garden when we had it made over, with notes about when to prune or divide clumps etc. I hadn't realised just how much OH planted in October time. He deserves a medal. Looking at my list I don't think my low maintenance garden is going to be quite as low maintenance as I thought but it will be good seeing how it all grows this first year.

Just noticed we have some osteospernum in a pot in full flower!!

Did some tidying up in the garden today and pulled a load of dead leaves off my pots of Agapanthus to discover next year's shoots are through and 2-3" high. It does seem ridiculous to have last summer's plants, winter/early spring plants and next summer's plants all through at the same time :-S I don't know who is the more confused...mother nature or me :-D

Wishing everyone a Happy and Healthy New Year.