Anyone for Tennis?

Me, Enjoying the Summer, taken by our 6 yr old granddaughter

Hello beautiful people, it has been a while since I did an update on my blog.. Summer is speeding by and I am making the most of these wonderful Sunny Days here in the UK..  Life is for living, and enjoying and that is exactly what I have been doing.. Spending time with family, and enjoying several birthday celebrations, and of course the allotments have been getting lots of attention with picking berries, and preparing produce for the freezer..

Raspberries picked and soaking to be cleaned

Strawberries..

Redcurrants

I also started a knitting project too, which has stopped my hands from pounding the keyboard of an evening. A project in progress that has the back and one front completed..

Tennis too has been on the agenda, and no, I am not that sprightly, lol, but may invest in a swing ball for the lawn, as I know one little lady who will enjoy the game with me..  But Wimbledon is on for another week, and you will find me most afternoons watching Tennis this next week, as I root for my favourite Tennis Stars.  So I have been up extra early and down the gardens before it warms up and gets too hot to work.

So as I share lots of photo’s over on my gardening blog on the progress on the allotments.. For a change, I will share a little of the allotments here with you.

Courgettes, on the left, with marigold boarder. The wigwam of Sweetpeas..

Apple tree

Blueberries

Raspberries

Tomatoes in the allotment green house

 

Enjoy, and I will I hope gradually work my way down the reader and find you.

And remember to love, laugh, and BE Happy..

Hydrangea’s in our home garden

See you Soon! 

Where’s there Muck!..

Getting Stuck In. ..

 There is a saying here in the UK.. I am sure some of you have heard of it.. ” Where’s there’s Muck there’s Money.”

Well I can assure you I didn’t find any Gold Nuggets, but this Muck is pure Gold in that it is rich with nutrients the Earth needs for next years growing.

And Like our gardens, so too our Minds and bodies need to be maintained and offered food for thought..  All too often we can rush here and there and neglect to care for ourselves. 

We need to remember to clear away the clutter and the debris which our minds all too often collect. As we  ‘Weed’ out the Muck of those negative thoughts which stops us operating at our best.

All it takes is a shift in our awareness, and to be mindful of what we are projecting out. I all to often hear people moan and groan, and yet when we compare our good fortune to others around the world, I see nothing much to complain about, and plenty to be grateful for.

New Kidney Bean seeds collected for next year .

If I plant something in the shade, and over water it, it soon shows me its not feeling well, and will soon rot and die.. Likewise if I plant something in the sun and forget to water it, It too will whither and die.. 

We need balance, in all things as well as in our lives . And so at times our Lights can get blocked, dimmed by the shadows of negativity which filters through into our lives from  various outside sources.

That is what I always do, connect to Mother Nature, a change of scenery helps alter your perspective on Life. 

And  that’s just what I have been doing all week.  As I clear out, dig in and Create..

New waistcoat I started yesterday Wednesday

 

But we must also remember to take some Quiet time for ourselves, relax and find our centres.. The Source is always there for us, but we can often forget to connect, as we divide our energy in too many directions. So remember to step back into your Own Stillness, and reconnect back to your own Inner Light..

And  so that is what I am doing over the next few days.. I will still be popping up to comment and may even pay you a visit..

But If I don’t, you know I am being Mindful of Myself..  🙂 

Love and Blessings to you ALL.. 

Love 

~Sue~

 

 

Autumn Harvesting

Beautiful Berries along an autumn walk

Sometimes you just have to leave technology to one-side as you attend to priorities in life. And Harvesting, clearing veggie beds and looking after our own well-being has to come first.

So I deliberately went off line for a week to get to grips with some of the jobs I had been promising myself I would catch up on..  

Including some self indulgence of one of my favourite pastimes, Walking. 

But before there was time for walking I had some Harvesting to do. Hubby dug up the potatoes, Not a very large crop this year.. We only planted 6 rows this year instead of our usual 10, 2 early and 4 rows of main crop..  It was my job to bend down and sort through them. And wouldn’t you know the big ones always get the fork going through them 🙂 

Potatoes ready for sorting and bagging to store in the shed

Next the onions had to be gone through, they had been lifted some weeks ago and were drying in the shed, I looked like some one who had come up from the Coal mines after rubbing off the soily skins of what would be 2 barrows of onions and shallots.. The onions haven’t done as well, many rotted before lifting, but the shallots are fine. 

One box of shallots, ( we have 3 such boxes)

Then there was the Sweetcorn to harvest and freeze.

Just some of the sweetcorn..

Sunflowers, view from the bottom of the allotments

In between there was some time to relax in the late afternoon Sun in the back garden at home.

Listening to the wind-chimes and running water of the fish pond

Caterpillars in abundance means butterflies for next year.

Above you see just some of the caterpillars off of one cabbage. We usually plant plenty of crops, enough for us and the caterpillars, As we do not use any kind of sprays on our crops..  I put these onto the nasturtiums to munch to their hearts content. 

Munching on the nasturtiums

Wallflowers grown from seed

 

 

 These wallflowers are in the allotments at the moment, Grown from seeds, I will plant out late September, October where they are to flower, along with sweet-Williams. 

I also got 3 pots ready, for the autumn, these contain Cyclamen and Winter Pansies.

 

Preparing the Pots I put some crockery in the bottom along with a brick. This will help weight it down if we get high winds.

I then planted all 3 pots with cyclamen and winter pansies. These pots are frost proof.

I couldn’t leave out the Kitchen in this post, and also had time to make some Apple and Blackberry Chutney. The recipe for any would be chutney makers is Here on my Recipe pages. 

Apple and Blackberry Chutney

Oh and in between all of that I did a little upholstery as I recovered a chair for the bedroom, and did a little dress alterations for my Daughter. 

But I did find time to go walking, And drove some miles to Carsington Water  with my Hubby to walk around the Reservoir which is also a wonderful Nature reserve.  We had a wonderful day. 

Carsington Water Reservoir and Nature reserve.

Well that was my week.. I hope you all had a wonderful week too. And I wish you all a great weekend.. I hope to be back to visiting you all very soon.. In the mean time..

Take care of each other and enjoy the New Moon.

I hope it heralds in New Beginnings and brings us to be less critical of each other and I hope it brings in  more compassion for our fellow Human beings..

Take Care and Many Blessings

See you All Soon..

~Sue~  

 

Busy as a Bee and following your Inner Voice.

I am going to let the pictures tell their own story of what I have been up to this week..

Well I have been helping hubby out hoeing the allotments and setting more veggies… I also decided that as I post lots of updates about our gardening this time of year with many photo’s and recipes which are rapidly filling up Dreamwalker’s space, I decided I  would create a new blog entitled Dreamwalker’s Garden.. HERE is where you can find all the picture updates of the allotments, only one post so far, and I will direct followers for future updates.

So what else has kept me busy?

Well as you can see I set too and made a few pots of Blackberry and Apple Jam.. We had a bumper crops last year of Blackberries which we froze and I need to be using and making space in the freezer. I made Jam in the Autumn, and gave most of the pots of jam away. These will end up as being gifted.

 

 

Also some Blackberry Muffins.. I hope to add this new recipe I tried out today to my recipe list on my Garden Blog soon.

 

 

I hope if you have time over your own weekend to relax you take some time out to sit within your own thought space, and Listen to that Inner Voice.. I am sure if you listen well it will speak right on back to you.

Below are a few pictures of my home garden. Enjoy and I added a link to my Poem The VOICE.

Have a wonderful relaxing weekend all of you… And enjoy my garden gallery.

Blessings Sue .

Please click on each photo to enlarge.

Spring Blossoms

Forget-me-not

Pansies

Wild Primrose

Contemplation Corner

Quite Corner to still your thoughts

Magnificent Magnolia

Bill and Coo.. Love Life..

Gnome .. Enjoy the Little things in Life!

 

Autumn Up date of Allotments ~ Grow your Own.

The weather here in the UK has taken a turn for the worse as Autumn is making her presence known. Last week we were basking in glorious Sun of temperatures in the 20’C  and this week its plummeted to average of around 14’C  going even colder at night.. So the jumpers are back on and the stew pot of veggies have been on the menu.   The weather really turned for the worse for those living just a few miles down the road from us.. As a Mini Twister tore roofs off homes in the Derbyshire town of Alfreton.  To see pictures of the damage caused the link is here....     These types of ‘Twisters’ are unusual in the UK..  We have been busy getting the allotments sorted and storing and freezing.. So lots have kept us busy. Below is a picture update.. 

The Allotments in October 2014 in Picture Format . 

Long view, Hubby walking towards the Sheds

 

Fruit Bushes, Black and Red currant and Raspberries, this is the view from the sheds looking back up the garden.

Leeks and Red onions. Freshly weeded and raked. by Muwwwww.

Butternut Squash, we have now gathered in.. And stored, Frozen some in cubes… Comes in handy for cooking that way

Parsnips and Purple sprouting Broccoli. These will be our over winter greens and veggies…

Brassica’s Curly Kale, Swiss Chard.. Enjoy your Greens.. They are good for you

Didn’t We weed Well! 

This is a new piece dug over next to the strawberry bed.. We are intending to plant some apple and pear trees along here.

At the Back of the shed the old rubbish heap is going to be levelled. This is where we intend to grow our Butternut squash next year. As the allotment next to us just put his squash on old soil and left them.. They were 3 sizes bigger than ours.. So here they will have room to spread out to their hearts content 🙂

 

Here is just some of the Garlic we harvested .

And for anyone wanting a Wonderful Lemon Drizzle Cake recipe.. Then you can find one I baked and demolished earlier

Here..

Lemon Drizzle Cake

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 ~

Every Picture tells a Story..~Grow Your Own Update.

Not so many words in this post but A picture Update to how the allotment is growing.. Our Granddaughter is enjoying herself digging and finding worms and treasure.. Wearing her Granddad’s hat.

 

Here she is using the hoe to weed, with Granddad mowing the boarder verges in the background.. She is learning fast and so loves being connected to the Earth she sings all the time..

 

 

OK so the rest of the Pictures will be in the slide show with captions to inform you what is growing in July.. Have a beautiful Weekend and wishing you all a Happy Summer.. Enjoy and remember to Love one another

Click onto the photo’s to take you to an enlarged view within the slide show..

Me busy weeding… A great way to unwind and let the stresses of the world pass you by..

We replanted from cuttings last year and had some Raspberries given us by another generous allotment holder who was thinning theirs down… I think we will get more next year, but this is an early crop, we have others in flower for later crops in the autumn..

Picking the strawberries… getting to them before the slugs and snails do is a race… so I am picking when they are just under ripe and ripening in the kitchen window..

These hungry little snails and slugs are having a feast with our Strawberries, its a case of who gets their first eats. 🙂

6 rows of main crop of potatoes and 2 rows of earlies… we are already half way down our earlies, they are delicious ..

Peas coming into full pod,… and Butternut Squash.. This is the first year we have grown this squash, it has yet to flower, but its looking strong and healthy..

To the left you can see some of the outdoor tomato plants.. We have more in a covered large cold frame near the shed and in the greenhouse at home…

Cabbages laced with Marigolds… Last year we were inundated with white fly.. This year fingers crossed the marigolds seem to be working.. as its said their odour deters certain insects…

Kidney Beans and Beetroot .. Love Beetroot.. makes a great smoothie in the morning with apple juice..

A long view of the allotments.. Hubby walking down to shed..

Sweetcorn, Leeks to the right of it.. Onions in the foreground.

Take a break~ Smile you’re on camera….

 

 

Allotment Progress in May ~Grow Your Own

 

The weather has been just right for planting out.. I took these pictures over the weekend.. But since then Hubby has planted the sweet-corn plants and the runner beans have gone in.  As they have now hardened off from the green house..

So today I am taking you on a different walk.. As I take you down to our allotment garden

Above you will see there  are two rows of parsnips then shallots and onions..

On the left here are the Swedes and under the netting is Curly Kale, cabbages and broccoli..

The nets are in place to stop the White Cabbage butterfly from laying her caterpillar eggs.. which last year had a scrumptious feast on our mature cabbages…

We are hopeful this year our Strawberries will yield more fruit I moved the strawberry bed last year and replanted the new shoots out.. We only had a few helpings of strawberries .. But this year by the look of the flowers. I hope to have enough to make some jam too .. Fingers crossed …  I need to get some straw to put under the forming fruit to help keep clean and to stop rotting if we get lots of rain.. 

 

In the cold frame lean-too on the side of the shed.. are some outdoor Tomato plants..  you can also see a tray of leeks..

 

 

 

 

Below you can see how we showed our Granddaughter how a seed started to grow.. Thanks to Jack for this idea too..We used a Runner Bean on a damp paper, also a Potato in a jar of water to show how it would sprout and know how to send roots down and leaves up!.. Amazing even now if we think about how each cell knows how to multiply into being a leaf or a flower.. Even more so when you think of the Human body and how each cell splits and knows what its going to form into! .. Makes you think about the Miracle Life really is..

 

Below is the Gooseberry Bush.. Looks like we will have enough for that Gooseberry Fool too this year.

 

 

We also have 6 rows of potatoes in this year.. 2 row of early ones and 4 main crop.. We have grown less potatoes this year, as last year we planted 10 rows.. and although none got wasted, last year and they saw us right through winter, ( We gave loads away ) This year we are planting other things such as chard, squash and Spinach. So  we have not used up as much room..  In this next photo you can see the potatoes, 2 rows of peas and the sheds at the bottom of the allotment.

 

On the left is Runner Beans and below is Sweetcorn

 

Below  you can see the sheds and the shrubs of fruit, the Raspberries Redcurrants, Logan Berries, Blackcurrants.

Above you can see pot plants such as Gladioli, and lupines also dahlia’s mixed in is Marigolds.. Which we have planted too among the Vegies ..

 

I hope you enjoyed your walk in the Veggie Garden..

Thank you for reading

~Sue~