Thursday 8 August 2013

Garden news! ;-)




I can't believe how many butterflies are frequenting the garden at the moment!

It really is a lovely sight to see so many old favourites: Red Admiral, Comma,

Painted Lady, Tortoiseshell, Gatekeeper etc etc.

I'm so glad that I have Marjoram in the garden, as this morning it

was covered with so many butterflies...and bees.






I  very deliberately sowed some seeds quite late, this year...Godetia and Sweet Peas.

I love Godetia and they are happily homed in this old barrow

 and  have only started to bloom, this week.






My Sweet Peas are about to bloom...very late but they'll be

well worth the wait, I reckon.






This year we're growing tomatoes both inside and outside.

I say 'we' but Nich is really in charge...I'm just doing the watering!

(Which is a very important job... as uneven watering can cause problems

... as we all know!)






We're going to have a bumper crop of toms... from just three plants!

I still reckon grow bags give the best tomatoes!

And as for these:




We have Peppers too...





Meanwhile, I have collected zillions of seeds...

mainly from the Foxgloves and Poppies

 in both mine and my mum's garden.

Some I have scattered and some I have sown in the greenhouse,

both earlier on and today.





Here are some that I sowed only recently,

ready for our lovely, shady, wooded area, at the bottom of the garden.

I love Foxgloves!





And not forgetting these Pansies which I collected from dried

seed heads. They germinated so quickly!






I'm always playing around with Fuchsias as they are so easy to root.






All in all, it's been such a good summer in the garden.


The highlight was today.

After Mr S had cut the grass, we sat down for a drink.

Lo and behold, an amazing sight presented itself!

Above our garden we could hear a lot of noise...

and in they flew from all directions!

Swallows and House Martins in their dozens; swooping and

flitting; playing and performing, before our eyes!


It was ten minutes to treasure, that's for sure.

I've never known anything like it in our garden. 

They swooped lower and lower.

I can only imagine that the mowing had disturbed a vast amount

of insects. 

The best things in life really are free.






Tuesday 6 August 2013

A very vintagey weekend!




My favourite bit of the Tavistock Vintage Fair, on Saturday,

 just had to be 'More Tea Vicar's wonderful show

of edibles!!!

They don't stay on show for very long though!






Avril never disappoints and this time she came up trumps with

her ice cream style cakes!!  Yum!






The rest of the fair was a real treat too...if you could

walk, after filling yourself with cake! ;-)











Many thanks to Sian for organising yet another 

Tavi fair...the next one is in November.




No sooner had we packed up and arrived home for a cuppa and a rest, then it was

time to set off again, on Sunday...


to Cornwall and the delightful little village of

Portscatho.





The Homespun Fair is  one of our faves and even though the weather was

not good, we enjoyed the day, amongst old friends.








A big thank you to Gertie and Jane for continuing to

organise this lovely 'get together'.





A very vintage weekend indeed! ;-)