Relaxing Days

“In the end, only three things matter: how much you loved, how gently you lived, and how gracefully you let go of things not meant for you.”

Buddha

Hello again and many have been awaiting updates of my artwork and allotments, so today I will show you how I spent time painting. Below is a metal water jug which I painted.

 

Another small milk churn I painted for outdoor use as a planter is here.. This was painted Green the I used acrylics which  when dried have then had two top coats treated with Clear varnish to weather proof the tins. 

Back View

Others I did previously are these..

 I am on the countdown now for the end of the month and it will seem very strange not working as I added up my work years to be 40.. So its time to enjoy and relax and pursue the hobbies I love which is painting and gardening.

You win some and you lose some.

Speaking of which  I will give you a picture update here now of the allotments and how things are coming along.. We have had some very heavy storms with flash flooding with heavy rains yesterday, and we have been told by the UK Met Office to brace ourselves for more storms and heavy down pours as the tail end of Hurricane Bertha will hit Sunday, today.

Due to the fluctuating weather of dry the wet, many of the allotment holders have suffered Potato Blight We spotted it as soon as it started to appear on the foliage so we cut the tops off to stop it spreading to the potatoes.The potatoes are fine underneath thank goodness.

   

The cabbages got hit too with root fly so you can see the missed spaces here under the netting.. The Cabbage White butterfly didn’t get to them but the Cabbage root fly did..  You win some and you lose some. That’s how it is when you grow your own.. We do not spray anything.. But next time we will remember to put a circle of card around the new plants as the fly lays its eggs at the base of the cabbage, the maggots then can’t  go down and eat the root as the eggs will often dry off and die.

  The onions and shallots have dried out beautifully and were left on top to finish off drying.. Unfortunately we missed not going down to the allotments for just one day, but someone obviously needed some extra onions that day and helped themselves to the biggest Onions across the rows…. ( I do not like to think of another allotmenteer  could do this, but we also had lots of garlic taken earlier this year. Some one likes their onions!  

A success story though is our dwarf beans and runner beans.. loads have been frozen, and are now stored in the freezers. ( and yes we have a back up generator just in case of emergencies ) As we have had one or two unexpected power outages recently due to storms.. 

       

The Sweet corn has gone to seed earlier than expected and many cobs are not fully mature, but having said that we have got quite a few large ones off already.. It seems everything in the allotment this year is around a month early for harvesting. The Courgettes too have been abundant.

and we are just getting the Butternut squash forming.. This is a success too as we hadn’t tried growing this before..

We also have had lots of Raspberries too off the bushes and lots still to come on later flowering crops. So these have been made into delicious sweet deserts some  of these recipes I will add to my recipe pages later..  The Blackberries too have been yielding Pounds of fruit and I am keeping my eye out for the elderberries which are just about ready for turning on the trees.. I want to try my hand this year of making Elderberry Syrup which is good for keeping those colds and coughs at bay..

Above  are the Gladioli’s which I have grown to have as cut flowers  to display  indoors..

Well I hope you enjoyed my Relaxing Days, I started with the New Moon and my altering my Intentions and the Full Super Moon is going to be a super one too, so Enjoy! Click the links to find our more..

And Thank you for reading..

~Sue ~