Weeding, weeding, weeding!

Weeding, weeding, weeding!  That seems to be what my life has consisted of for the last couple of weeks.  In some places they were way taller than me and so it has been quite a satisfying job.  I have pretty much been over the whole garden.  Course, the first bit I did is now sprouting again.  I'm hoping now that we'll just be able to keep strimming them until they give in!
About a year after we moved here Mum gave us three Catoneasters which we planted, but they didn't thrive we didn't see them again.  When I was pulling up weeds along the side of the path, what do you think I found?  Yep, two little Catoneasters looking surprisingly healthy and since being uncovered they've grown about six inches!  What have they been doing for the last three years?!  We also have lots of Evening Primrose - again we planted some in the first year or so and then they disappeared for a few years and now they're back.  Even more of a mystery is very bright red little snapdragon that has appeared at the side of the gateway into the field, where we walk quite often.  We have no snapdragons, nor never have we and we've never seen it before.  Who knows what will pop up next - keeps it interesting.

We've had a couple of meal's worth of peas
from the garden - yum, they're so much nicer
than bought ones.  Mind you most don't make
to the pan - I just love the little baby ones straight
from the pod!

We've also harvested our first batch of garlic and I plaited them
to hang in the kitchen to keep vampires away - well, it's worked
so far!  We did an experiment planting some in the Autumn and
some in the Spring.  These are the some of the Autumn ones - the
Spring ones are really weedy and will have to pull their socks up
big time if they are going to make anything of themselves!

Bob has had a stand at the Big Art Show on the showground in Shrewsbury this weekend.  I went with him yesterday and it was a complete washout - literally!  It poured most of the day with thunder to go with it.  So, that coupled with the lack of advertising meant that it was a bit of a disaster.  It should have been so good - there were four big marquees full of stands as well as lots of individual stalls.  There was live music (the poor chaps had an audience of two most of the time), a Pimms tent (I didn't see anyone there at all), several food stalls (at 1pm when everyone should have been queuing for their lunch the queue was about one person long at each) and someone had to wake the girl up on the ice-cream van to buy a cone!  It was hard to guage how many people were visitors because I think most of the people we spoke to were actually other stallholders having a look around.  Oh well, maybe with the sunshine today Bob will have had a really good day and sold everything on the stall!  You never know.

I didn't go to help Bob today so that I could do some cooking for the freezer - it's looking a bit bare as I've been lost in the jungle of weeds for so much of the last two weeks.  So, I've made a bakers dozen chicken and veg pies, a huge batch of chilli to be divided up, beefburgers, cheesecake, tiffin and a pastry case and got the stuff ready for tea . . . . what a lot of washing up!

Ready for a beer now . . . . . come home Bob!

Dolphins and snakes

Well, we've been on us 'olidays and 'ad a reet good time!  Yes, we've had our few days away in New Quay (Wales not Cornwall) and had a lovely time.  It rained the few days before we went and then again when we got home, but we had wonderful weather while we were away.  We stayed in a very nice pub/hotel (The Black Lion if anyone feels the need of a visit) which was at the top of the steep hill down to the harbour and so had really good views of the harbour and Cardigan Bay from the beer garden.  We called to see Ben and have lunch in Aberystwyth on the way down, but then once we got there we didn't get in the car again until it was time to come home which was really good.  We went for a good long walk one day along the coastal path to the south with a pasty from the pasty shop for lunch.  We were chatting to an ex-lifeboatman in the pasty shop and he recommended a little diversion inland from the coastal path, so we took his advice and that was so pretty along a stream in a wooded valley.  We did get quite lost going back to the coastal path and ended up in a very jungley bit and so had to retrace our steps to find the proper path, so that added about 15 miles on (not really, and it was so pretty that it didn't matter anyway).

We detoured onto a little beach where we could
see someone had built towers out of the big
pebbles.  They looked really good so, of course,
we had to build some of our own.  

They did look quite Buddhist-like and could easily have
fitted in at Samye Ling where Laura used to live.

On the way back we saw this little Adder right in the middle of
the path.  It just sat there flicking it's tongue out at us and only
wriggled away when we stepped right back.  I think it must have
been one of last year's young as it was only 8 or 9 inches long, but it
was too early for this year's batch to be out and about.  Good job
we didn't step on it!

So, all that was lovely and interesting, but by far the best thing was seeing the dolphins - and we saw loads.  We didn't go on a boat trip to see them, they were just there right near the harbour wall.  One of the Marine Conservation people we were talking to did let slip that the best times to see them are first thing and at dusk and that they tend to go further out when the boats are coming in and out.  He probably wasn't supposed to say that as that must be how they get most of their money!  One morning I was awake at normal work time and thought 'You know, I know we're on holiday, but I can actually have a lie-in at home, but I can't see dolphins' and so I got up and was sat on the harbour wall by 6.30am with just me, the sun on the water (warm enough for just a t-shirt) and the dolphins - truly spectacular, but so peaceful and quiet, what a priviledge.  Bob came down a bit later and a few other people.  The dolphins were just right there below us fishing and playing including a baby and one came right into the harbour among the boats.  The next morning we got up early again and this time there were more of them and they were herding the fish in towards the harbour wall.  All of a sudden there was a lot of splashing at various places and you could see the fishes jumping out of the water in front of the dolphins as they chased them in.  Definitely a co-ordinated attack - very clever.  One evening we took a bottle of wine and a couple of glasses from our room, got fish and chips and sat on the harbour wall for dinner watching out for dolphins - how cool is that and in Britain too, who needs to go abroad!

Back home again we had a few days to potter around here before Bob's Ludlow market on Saturday and me back to work today.  We mostly did garden stuff.  We prepared a bed for the leeks which was quite a mammouth task.  It had been really weedy and so we sprayed it last week and then pulled them all out before we went away.  Then we had to dig it all over and get all the roots and stones out.  I ended up seiving the soil with a riddle because there were so many stones - three wheelbarrowsful in just that small bed (it's only about the size of a large dining table!).  While I did that, Bob built the wall on one side up a bit, then we put new rabbit wire around. We then added lots of compost and finally planted the leeks.  I don't think it's supposed to take almost a day to plant a few leeks!  We have also done some more to the wall Ben and Bob started at Christmas and we now just have a bit left to do on one side and then we'll be able to clear the stones out of that (!!!!! more stones!!!!) and put top soil and compost in there too and we'll have another finished border.  Well, apart from making a bit of a retaining wall at the back of it, it'll be finished.  Just need to think what to put in it!

While we were on holiday the blackcurrants started to ripen properly and so I picked enough of them to make a batch of jam and I've picked some more today to freeze.  The raspberries which, until last week, were lost in shoulder high weeds are also ripening (amazing that there are so many on there after being so neglected!) so I had a bowl of them with yoghurt one lunchtime and Bob had some tiny wild strawberries with his (he doesn't really like raspberries).  When we first moved here and were digging out for the septic tank, I was devastated that we'd destroyed two wild strawberry plants . . . I needn't have worried as we have loads and loads of them and I literally pull them up like weeds.  I just spent a nice few minutes gathering bluebell seeds to scatter around while eating tiny little strawberries straight off the plants - it's a hard life sometimes!