Remember when I mentioned those seeds, and how shocked I was that they were actually coming up? Well, they have gone on to surprise me even more by growing, sprouting, and resembling more and more the plants they'll become. I didn't account for the fact that every single lettuce seed would sprout with gay abandon, nor that the pumpkins would grow so profusely (every pumpkin seed sown has sprouted). At one point the seedlings were doubling in size every day, thankfully that has slowed down now, otherwise I'd be blogging from a room that looked like the Amazon jungle.


[Lettuces hell-bent on taking over the world...]

The thing is, when it comes to HLPs (happy looking plants) I just can't bear to waste a single one. Each one has sprouted so wonderfully, on cue, just when I asked them to... But that means that I'm rather over-pumpkined and over-lettuced. I guess this is a good thing, lots of summer salads and healthy eating, but it also means I'm struggling to find places to put them all... So, without wasting a single sproutling, I'm going to dig beds, hoe pastures, buy troughs, and sow each and every one to share amongst neighbours and anyone who wants them. See I'm a caring sharing person, me. Plus I just can't bring myself to commit hari kari with my baby lettuces. But please call the men in white coats when I start naming each individual plant...


[Curcubita maxima 'Mars F1 Hybrid' - a pumpkin]

The 'Meteor' peas in the garden are all up, the 'Sugar Lord' peas I'm still waiting for. A few seedlings that are sort of Swiss chard-lookin' are starting to come up where I um, planted the Swiss chard, and the indoor-sown sweetcorn are coming up in dribs and drabs (they are late-starters as they were left outside in the beginning and didn't have the benefit of me singing lullabies to them until recently...).


[Pisum sativum 'Meteor' sproutlings, clockwise Alfred, Pea Jr., Sweetie Pea and Brian]

Around the first lot of potatoes that went in on 12th April, there are noticeable 'humps'. This is a good thing, meaning that under the ground the potatoes are sprouting and growing, pushing the soil up on top of them to form small mounds. Although there are no potato plants to be seen as yet, by the middle to end of May we should start to see them leafing.


[Zea mays 'Honey Bantam' sproutlings]

Conversely the flower seeds that I planted indoors, Hollyhock 'Double Mixed' and Aubretia mixed haven't done as well, I'm not sure why. But most of them have come up, although they've taken longer than the vegetables. I think I'm just suited to vegetable growing. We have three roses on order from David Austen roses, a small bush rose 'The Fairy', 'William Morris' a large bush/small climber in pinky apricot hues with large full-double blooms and a gorgeous smell, and one of my favourites 'Alba semi-plena' a really old rose, single flat blooms with one of the finest scents possible (it is distilled into rose attar). We're not quite sure when these will be delivered - I think we've made it in time for the last posting - I hope so!

The flower seeds we planted in the flower beds in the back garden are all starting to come up too most of which are now past the two-leaf stage, are gaily growing all the leaves they can muster, and will need thinning (transplanting elsewhere, I just cannot commit herbicide!) to make space for their development.


[Species tulip 'Tulipa dasystemon' - I want to say crocus, but they're not - which is sharing a bed with the most gorgeous Tulipa bakeri 'Lilac Wonder']

So this is the view from my 'sill, the lawn green (patches in places, but who likes things perfect?), the birds singing, a squirrel collecting nuts and seedlings abounding everywhere. Ahhh, good times!

Ahhh, so this weekend the weather was gorgeous. In between making a gorgeous high tea I was in and out of the garden all weekend. The Fiancé was in the garden all of sunday, until he came inside hot, sweaty and very very tired, to enjoy said Sunday High-Tea. I was on strict orders to relax, which was not only heavenly, but much-needed because on friday I was a sickly bunny all evening.

I realised not too long ago, that if we were going to grow all of the vegetables that we want to (and have already germinated), then we'd better find some more veg-bed space, because that's something that we're very short of. This means only one thing; making the lawn smaller. We have an enormous lawn, really it is large, over 19 metres, and takes a lot of mowing. This means the lawn will be easier to take care of, and will give us the space we really want. So, having decided the size of the first lawn-bed, Fiancé set about doing the hard work excavating the area which now looks like this:


[new veg bed]

Yesterday I managed to plant it to half-capacity with some more potatoes and garlic, the back part of the bed, nearest to the path, will be housing some pumpkins and also some runner beans if I ever get down to the garden centre to get some!

Can you believe that whilst sitting outside I managed to get slightly pinkened? I didn't believe this was possible in April, but apparently so. Like I said, we'll be growing melons here before my days are numbered...

We also spent a gorgeous day in Hexham, a local town, with a gorgeous famers market, abbey and park. Although not a christian, I find the abbey a nice place to sit and think as it is a rare thing to find somewhere quiet enough to do so, and has been dated back to c. 674 AD. The first time we visited we were treated to an impromptu concert by the organist, who was obviously practising his repertoire.

Myself still feeling ropey from the previous evening's sicky episode, we walked dreamily around the town, stopping little and often, finally ending up in the parkland arm in arm, drinking in the sun, the daffs and the sound of happily oblivious children playing.


[Flowers by Hexham Abbey, the heady smell of them in the air]

Today has been spent in glorious bliss watching the rain fall in small, neat droplets from a very stormy sky, which has now disappeared to leave nothing but blue sky in its wake. I made some beetroot and apple soup, a recipe I sort of just concocted, but which tastes very nice indeed, and is such a satisfying colour. I am in a vermillion mood obviously, which is just as well, because this soup is the most stunning colour. Or at least it was, before I engulfed the bowl, replete with locally produced organic spelt bread and butter. Yum.


[beetroot and apple soup, a homemade concoction]

Today Robyn and I had our long waited-for Trans-Atlantic Bloggers Breakfast High Tea. It was a real laugh. The two of us have been chatting for quite a while online, and at the suggestion of Robyn we both decided to share a meal together, albeit a few thousand miles apart! So our Trans-Atlantic Bloggers Breakfast/ High Tea was born. We both decided to share pictures on our respective blogs of what we'd done. This week's 'theme' was a truly British High Tea. A simple idea, with simple wholesome recipes. Basically a mix of tea, cakes and sandwiches, it has been devoured lovingly in England for many many centuries, and is the complete and utter height of decadence!

The quintessential High Tea (sometimes called a Queen's Tea) for me has to include a large cake, usually a buttery madeira or a light fruit cake, scones with clotted arteries cream and jam, a selection of simple sandwiches and something sweet-cakey. For ours we had a homemade slighly lemony madeira cake, freshly-made scones with clotted cream and jam, sandwiches (homemade fresh and wholesome), and a strawberry flan to finish (assembled by moi). The whole meal was accompanied by a good pot of strong tea (we didn't get 'round to drinking the Schloer pictured...) and enjoyed ourselves so much! It proved to be the perfect way to perk up The Fiancé who had spent the whole day in the garden digging a new veg-bed out of the lawn. Alot of the attraction of the food is the pomp and ceremony. Out came plates and my favourite teapot, delicate cups, napkins, and lots of spoons, which is for me, what makes it heavenly; going the extra mile makes it really special. All of the food pictured is either local, organic or free-range and homemade and gorgeous to eat.

Thanks to Robyn for the idea, and for being a really great email-pal! I hope you had a great high tea too :-) I'm really looking forward to learning about what constitutes a southern-American breakfast/tea!


[A full table]


[another full table!]


[heaven on a plate]


[still-warm scone]


[scone]

It was one year ago yesterday since I decided to open this blog. Admittedly, I have been blogging since 2002, and do have another blog elsewhere, but this one is where I spend all of my blogging time. I love being able to give advice, share stories and to meet interesting people. We all have a bit of the voyeuristic in us, to want to share our lives, but in a good way. I don't let this blog swallow all of my time, which keeps me sane, and I get to post about all things VP. This is a site that is more 'me', and is a place that I can vent, talk openly, and share pictures and snippets of life.

It's been a really exciting year so far, I can't wait to see in my second blogging birthday, and my third, my fourth and more! So Happy (belated) Birthday VP!

I dreaded planting seeds, don't ask me why, but I did. Probably the thought of having to find a place for all of the numerous pots, labelling each one carefully, potting them on, planting them out. It all seemed too much hassle, but when you actually sit down (or in my case stand up) to do it, the whole thing seems much less like a chore and much more exciting. From setting the seed down into the soil, to a couple of days later the first signs of life popping up, one little leaf at a time, it is a fascinating time. I go into the back bedroom daily to see the progress, and am constantly amazed at the way some seeds, laying deathly flat on some soil, can quite literally overnight awaken themselves and put down roots, only a day later showing two healthy little leaves. It is utterly wonderful, and doesn't fail to amaze me every time.

From now on, I'm going to be having a 'wednesday's garden' post (or at least try to), just showing the new things that are happening in and around the garden and/or the local greenspots. Admittedly I'm a day late, but yesterday was busy, and didn't get online at all! Today's theme is life on the 'sill.


[Mixed lettuce seedlings doubling in size daily]


[Curcubita maxima 'Mars F1 Hybrid', a pumpkin, 2 days old]


[Stirrings in the pea-pot, Pisum sativum 'Sugar Lord' and 'Meteor' are the two that we'll be growing this year. Propagation indoors avoids the risk of being filched by pigeons and snails/slugs. It also helps 'bring them on' faster, allowing us to plant out larger plants and hopefully crop earlier.]


[Our own purple-sprouting broccoli, which has been in the ground for nealrly 11 months, and has just started to crop. It has a gorgeous taste, all the better for organic treatment, good soil, and lots of love and attention (from us and the pigeons!)]

I must say, that there is no better way to spend a gorgeous 4-day weekend than the way we spent ours. Apart from the hard garden-related work, Sunday was a day when we could both chill out completely and do nothing but potter around the garden (and eat easter eggs in bed...), spending large periods of time with our feet up, laying serenely back in garden chairs, constantly commenting on how gorgeous the weather was, how lovely the birdsong seemed, and "Look! Look! Over there, a butterfly/seeds are coming up/is that a chaffinch?" etc.

Monday we decided we wanted to do something but we didn't know quite what. It had to avoid major roads, major tourist attractions, and be a little bit more cerebral than shops or the cinema. So, at The Fiancé's behest we dug out the 'Visitors Guide to Newcastle' (although the Fiancé does work there, we decided it might give us some insight as to things we could do) and had a look...

After an exhaustive search, we came up trumps with the Laing gallery, right in the centre of Newcastle itself. Cerebral? Yes. Interesting? Oh, most definitely. So off we poddled. It is absolutely fabulous, to see artwork in such close quarters, reproductions of images are nothing compared to seeing them firsthand. There were lots and lots of paintings, new and old, famous and not, and very few that I didn't like. They had a whole room dedicated to Pre-Raphelite and Romantic art, which have to be my favourite genres, as well as a really interesting and informative watercolour gallery too. We saw a Degas, a Rubens, a Van Dyke, a Gainsborough, a Singer Sargent (which was enormous and beautiful)and so many more...


[John Singer Sargent - Ena and Betty, Daughters of Asther Wertheimer]

Some of the pictures there were so intricate, so well thought out, so moving. The watercolours were a nice addition to the gallery, featuring William Russel Flint's beautiful 'The Great Lavoir, Antibes'. I also got to see a painting by an artist I've admired since I was quite young, Edmund Blair Leighton, called September, in which women are seen gathering fruit from an orchard, which although the canvas wasn't large, made a huge visual impact.


[Lone St. Mary's by Tom Scott]


[Woman Knitting by Clara Klinghoffer]

But my favourite of the day has to be the collection of John Martins, whose themes and scenes of Arthurian legend and Welsh storytelling were exemplary. In particular 'The Bard' and 'King Arthur and Aegle in the Happy Valley', the latter of which was breathtaking. The only image I can find online is teeny, but the original is just spectacular. The painting, like alot of Martin's work is based on a poem, this one based on 'King Arthur' by Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton.


[The Bard by John Martin]

(and one of my favourites...)


[King Arthur and the Ægle in the Happy Valley by John Martin]

I now have the taste for art galleries, and will try to get down to London at some point to visit the many galleries they have there, notebook and pencil in hand!

This just shows how much can be done in about eight hours. The Fiancé did most of the digging over, removing weeds, cillas and dandelions as he went. I helped with the digging, planting and of course, cups of tea. I was also kept busy in the back garden, weeding, sowing more vegetables into pots, and pacifying the dog. It helped that the weather was really good, cool breezes with lots of mild sunshine, made working outside a real bonus.

Having realised, when scouring the local DIY superstore, that the plum slates we really wanted were way over budget, we opted for bark chippings. We will, at some later date, change the bark chippings to slate, but for now, that works very well, and was a fraction of the price!

All we bought for this project was the weed supressing membrane and pegs, bark chippings, 3 small lavender bushes, one convulvulus and an aubretia. The rose was already there, and has been for the last 40-odd years, and the small weedy lookin' thing is actually a small hydrangea (blue, of course, to match the theme of the garden). The work was back breaking, and we both feel absolutely drained from it all, but we also feel elated, looking at the garden. It is now no longer a place of weedy neglect, it is now ours. Another thing to tick off on the list of 'ways we've made this house ours'. It looks, to us, great. It needs more plants, which will be bought at a later date, and planted as time allows (they didn't have a great selection of plants with blue/lilac/white flowers and silver foliage at that particular nursery, but thankfully I have two local nurseries who will have a good selection).

The Fiancé, despite aching back, has gone to get something really nice but naughty to eat - because I think we've deserved every bit! I don't think my hands will ever be the same again, though... So back to the hand cream for me!

Violets wafting their heady scent...



Tulips waving their bright heads...



Spireas full of this years' leaves...



Or a Peony, unfurling itself in the spring sun...



The first ladybird sunning itself (I make no apologies for the dandelion)



Hawthorns open their bread and cheese...



A bleeding-heart re-emerging from a winter's sleep...



A squirrel forraging for any nuts it can find...



Purple-sprouting brocolli making a show (at last!)...



Or a lone daffodil, nothing between it and the sky...

Last weekend was spent in the garden, completely. Barring the few sacred hours we spent at the local shops and the garden centre, we were in our own little world buried at the bottom of the garden. This was a good thing, as we got many things planted, nurtured and planned. It has been decided that the front garden, which right now looks appalling, is going to be transformed into something stylish and gorgeous (and practically maintenance-free). The garden itself is teeny, is south-facing, and is right next to a road and pavement. The colourscheme I have in mind is quite masculine, mixes of deep greens, silvers, lilacs and bright brassy blues. The plot is square, and currently covered with grass, weeds, and has a very old (over 40 year old) 'Peace' rose which still flowers, and which we will keep because it smells gorgeous.

All the lawn and weeds will be removed, and replaced instead with copious amounts of weed-supressor (a plastic/rubber cover that you lay down to supress the growth of weeds), the plants will then be planted, in a semi-formal state, probably working on a circular theme, and to finish all will be covered by lilac slate shingles.

The plants will need to be quite resilient, as it will get dry, very hot and they'll have to learn to deal with pollution etc. Plants like lavender, eryngium (or 'sea holly'), hydrangeas, ceanothus, clematis, cerinth, roses and buddleja.

I think I've got my weekend sorted, just as well that the Fiancé has a 4-day weekend, isn't it?! ;-) I'll be posting before and after photos, hopefully, when it gets there!

I got my very snazzy glasses last night, which left me running around the house, jumping up and down, squealing in disbelief at the difference they were making to my distance-vision. They make little difference to reading (slightly short-sighted) but being able to see right down to the bottom of the garden (and here's the embarrasing bit) in crystal clarity is simply amazing. I have been getting headaches most days (which is miserable) but now, if I feel one coming on, on go the glasses and it subsides! Wow! I love them already (although I still feel a bit self-conscious).

Today I saw my window of opportunity to get out into the garden and do good things. And good things, I did do. I was so psyched up to do this, it felt excellent - my first 'proper' garden session of the season. I did lots too, and was out for about 3 1/2 hours. My main priority was to get the vegetables planted as soon as possible. April is a good time for most things, the only exceptions being things like sweetcorn and pumpkins which expressly prefer to be sown inside and then slowly acclimatised to the outdoor world for 10-15 days before full planting-out.

The garden went from looking a bit shabby and 'rough around the edges' (which in my book is no bad thing), to looking like this:


[vegetable/plant beds with scarers]

The Swiss Chard, leeks, onions, carrots, and two types of peas, have all been planted. The Swiss chard should be ready to eat in 60 days! This time around I have learnt considerably from my mistakes of last year, when it comes to creature protection (I will not use the word pest, because if you don't protect your crops, it's your own fault they get eaten!) and general planting. I put up bamboo canes with scraps of very cheap cotton curtain-lining material to keep the hungry wood pigeons and collared doves at bay. Not only did these cost pence to make, they are efficient, reliable, chemical-free and not at all harmful to anything. Another great scarer is made by hanging old CDs on string and winding it through the garden. They reflect the light and scare any potential diners off your prized crops.


[planting scheme - note space marked 'nothing as yet' - this will be where either the potatoes or the sweetcorn will eventually go]


[garden from the other side]

It has taken many hours of laborious stone-picking, seiving, raking, turning, forking and love to get the beds into the shape they're in now, and even that's not perfect. But they're on their way! The purple sprouting broccoli is just about to flower profusely, which should mean (hopefully) we'll get at least one meal out of it (and boy it'll be the best broccoli we've ever had, I'm sure!).

I also got the chance to mow the lawn (it looks like a carpet of green perfection) and spend some quality time with the dog who likes to be out in the sun with me whilst I garden. But the best part of the day had to be when I got to sit down at the end of it all, notepad, pen and cup of tea in hand, rose incense sat in a nearby bed, listening to the birdsong and writing. Today my pen floweth, words falling over themselves to be the first onto the page, it was marvellous.

To end the day, a gratuitous squirrel-shot, they weren't around so much when I was gardening (although a certain robin made himself known to me, watching from a nearby branch, singing his syrupy song), but they did appear a little afterwards. Two of them, ploughing through the peanuts, so close were they that I could hear their nails scrabbling up the branches of the tree, and what did I find when I was digging over the veg patch? Peanuts, buried there for safe-keeping, by none other than our favourite little red rodent.

For only the second time in my 11th-year computer history, I 'lost' a hard drive. Well, I didn't lose it as such, it was being cannibalised by the very tech-savvy Fiancé, from one older computer, to an old-new one. But somewhere between one IDE lead, power supply and boot-up, the hard drive had gone kaput. It's little light flashes green, but it doesn't spin up, a bad sign even to my not-as-tech-savvy ears.

So, that means, that I've lost LOTS of stuff. From bookmarks, files, hundreds and hundreds of photographs, the lot. There is a speck of hope though, that we should be able to get something back, but it requires the sterile environs of a hard-disk technicians lab and of course, funds. Argh, I am usually really good at backing things up, and I do keep paper copies of most things I write (anything that's worthy), but things like photos aren't replaceable. So I hope we can find someone who'll be able to recover the important stuff.

However on the upside, despite a thumping headache (due, in no small part, to eye strain), I'm going to do the weekly shop, bake some bread (I made more rock buns yesterday, delish) and finish reading 'The Clerkenwell Tales', a really good historical novel, it appeals to my more cerebral side, it's background is historically accurate, but more than that it's really interesting. Anyone else for a bit of 14th-centry London? :-)

I need glasses (but not all the time)

I have been getting headaches all the time recently, they usually come on after I've been reading, sewing, knitting etc. I was also struggling to see really small text on our really small television. It was time for an opticians appointment. After having air blown into my eyes and photographs taken of my retinas (oh my, what a pretty retina you have...) it was determined that I have an oh-so-slight prescription. This means that I don't need glasses all the time, but for close work they will stop me getting eyestrain and will help me see long-distance text. It was quite startling to find out how much difference the glasses made when he put the lenses over my eyes. I could see so crisply it was amazing. I thought I might've needed them, but didn't realise how much until being tested. It makes me all the more all the more aware of just how important sight is, and how I'll be taking up his offer of yearly checks (he was the nicest optician I've ever been to, not only handsome, but had a lovely manner about him and was so thorough) and have purchased a pair of specs. Strangely enough, I am rather excited (they'll be ready on Thursday).

On the way to the opticians, something awful happened. Not just 'awful' but 'potentially life threatening', I witnessed a horrific car accident, which happened right next to us. I saw the man who caused the accident, only nano-seconds earlier zooming through the traffic and remarked to the Fiancé that he was going awfully fast. Well, his speed and wreckless behaviour caused him to plow into an on-coming taxi, in the middle of the roundabout, and spin the taxi a full 180º. The taxi driver beckoned to a police officer (whilst holding his neck in his hands) who had, luckily, seen the whole thing, and was there to sort it all out. It was something that made me go into a cold sweat, and something I don't wish to see again anytime soon (if ever again)!

In other news, last night, the Fiancé and I went to a newly-opened local restaurant, the first restaurant visit for *gasps* two years. Not really social butterflies, us, but we had an absolute ball, and decided that after the wedding, when the finances are better, we'll go out more often, as husband and wife. Just saying that feels strange, not to mention trying to work out my new signature!


After a morning of thorough adventure, the rain clouds dispersed and allowed us to get into the garden, to plant the two buddlejas, the rose 'Zephirine Drouhin', an old thornless Bourbon rose from 1868, whose name is definitely my favourite of all roses (and possibly all names), some polyanthus and every single flower-seed I possess (that's quite a few!). Our semi-circular beds are now bespeckled with seeds of every sort, cerynths, borage, larkspur, coreopsis, love-in-a-mist, snap-dragons and hundreds more. We tilled the soil until it looked perfectly flat and scattered seeds with merry abandon. It was wonderful to be out in the sunshine and wind, the blackbirds singing in the trees, and the wood pigeons watching us, hoping for something a little more edible. Now we have to get moving with the veg, as time is very quickly passing by!