There's a Newt in the Pond!

I'm so excited - I have a newt in my pond!  Some of you will probably now think that I've lost the plot but I've wanted them for ages, and now I have them, well one!

I'm not sure what type it is (it's about 8cm long) but I'm guessing it's female as it's pale, but as it has some small spots on it I'm not really sure (sorry about the quality of the pictures, it's hard to focus through the water without dropping the phone in!)

If anyone can tell me what type it is and if it's definitely female I'd appreciate it.

I've just ordered some water forget-me-not in the hope it'll stay and we might have some babies! (Sadly I had to order it as a trawl of the local garden centres and nurseries proved to be fruitless).

A Perfect Spring Day

It's been glorious weather here for the past few days and I've spent most of today in the garden, sowing seeds, tidying up beds, planting garlic and asparagus, but also just enjoying being out in the sunshine.
The viburnum looked gorgeous against the clear blue sky

The chaenomeles blossom is out

The bergenia is flowering away

And the spring bulbs are out in abundance

I also have a shiny new toy,

yes I bought myself an iPad last week! It's very very lovely, and was worth staying up until midnight to order the moment they went on sale! I'm using it to post this blogpost from, which is a bit different to using blogger, but I think I'm getting the hang of it. I think it's quite amazing how I took all these photos on my phone and they appeared, as if by magic, on the iPad! Ok, I know it's done via WiFi, but it's still flippin clever!

Hope you're all enjoying the spring weather too.

Feline Helpers Win!

I have a black cat and a cream sofa.  In an attempt to keep some of his hair off the sofa I decided to make a throw.  It was only going to be a little 'cat sized' throw but it sort of grew and this afternoon I got to the quilting stage of it - that's when my feline helpers arrived...

First of all Florence tested the front

Is this for me to sit on?

 
   and then she tested the back.

It's quite nice and soft.

Then Dylan came to see what he thought of it

What's going on here then?

while Florence retreated to my sewing chair.

What do you mean you need to sit here to sew?  I'll turn my back and ignore you!

I hung it on the back of the chair while I made a cup of tea in an attempt to keep them off it.

Silly me, did I really think that would work?  Look who I found under it when I came back!

It makes a nice tent!

Then he pulled it all onto the floor and really didn't want to move!

I don't know how it ended up on the floor but I'll stay here anyway!

I hope this means that they approve of it and will sit on it when it's on the sofa.  Mind you that might be some time away at this rate - I've given up for now, admited defeat to the two feline helpers!

Happy Blog Birthday Purple Podded Peas!

I've been to a birthday party - a blog birthday party as Purple Podded Peas was 5 years old yesterday!  Celia's blog was the very first blog that I read when I first discovered this thing called "blogging" so it was lovely to be able to share her celebrations with her.  I also got to meet Fiona whose blog I've also read regularly as it's a wonderful resource for recipes and vegetable growing tips.

We filmed a tour of her vegetable garden (can you spot the ginger studio assistant keeping an eye on us?). 

Purple Podded Peas vegetable garden with the Three Sisters mound in the foreground

(Actually we filmed it twice due to a technical issue commonly known as "finger over the lens"! You can view the final film here).

We met the under-gardeners in her old walled garden (they too were filmed).

Purple Podded Peas Under-Gardeners

And we filmed the DragonFly Pond - but stupidly I didn't take any pictures of it!

We had cake, and lots of laughs.

I came home with some gorgeous eggs (some of which I had for supper tonight)

and more cake, which I had this afternoon with a cup of tea in my garden.

There are more films, and a giveaway on her blog, so pop over and have a look, I'm sure you'll enjoy yourself!

Thanks for a lovely afternoon Celia, and Happy Birthday Purple Podded Peas!

Spring is Springing!

I know it's not technically spring yet, but on a little wander down my garden this afternoon I found that as far as the plants are concerned then it is spring!

There are daffodils and primroses,

anenomes and hyacinth buds,

clematis buds and self sown hellebores,

 rhubarb shoots and chaenomeles blossom 

and a hotel for ladybirds!

I do so love this time of year, and hope that spring is springing in your gardens too.

Four Years On and Another Leap Day!

Today is a bit of a special day for me as it's 4 years ago today that I bought this house.  Nothing special about that you might think, but although it was 4 years ago it's only actually the first anniversary because the date was February 29th!

The first thing I did once I'd got the keys was investigate the shed (I'm a shed kind of girl who knows her priorities!).  It was painted a VERY bright blue (it's now cream) and had lots of interesting bits and pieces left in it and it smelt wonderful!

I didn't move in for another 5 days and at this time on the 29th Feb 2008 we were busy filling cracks in walls and preparing to paint.  I had wonderful friends who helped me and over the next two days we painted both bedrooms - changing the walls from strong colours to cream took several coats of paint and was hard work.  Then the bedroom carpets were laid and I moved in on the Thursday.

Stupidly I didn't take any pictures of the house and garden when I actually moved in, but this was the garden when I started tackling it and clearing the ground of ivy and other weeds

And this was the bathroom at the end of the first day of replacing the bathroom suite (much of the Edwardian plaster had blown and fell off when the tiles were removed!)

It's a lovely house with a very special garden and I'm looking forward to many more years of living here even though I can only mark the actual day every 4 years!

Beads and Quacks!

On Monday my neighbour tapped on the back door, holding a yogurt pot, an old jar and two old tins.  "I'm having a clear out," she said "can you use these?  They're left over from my college days."
"Ooh yes please," I replied, not even knowing what they contained but knowing that she did a textile degree.

And what did they contain?

All kinds of wonderfulness!  Old beads, new beads, old bits of jewellery, sequins, buttons and threads.

On a sadder note, her ducks (who personally wrote me notes and gave me eggs) met a very sad and brutal end on Friday night when a fox got into their run - no further details required.  We were both very upset and as she hadn't got any recent photos of them I decided to make her a little picture of them.  I had some of their feathers that I'd collected in the summer when they moulted and happily stitched away for a few hours.  But actually giving a textile picture to someone with a textile degree turned out to be harder than I'd imagined and I then spent several more hours getting colder and colder feet about it.  Eventually I plucked up some courage and gave it to her - fortunately she seemed genuinely pleased with it and quite touched that I'd spent the time making it.

Hinge (on the right) and Bracket (on the left)

Quack Quack!