baby flotation

teddy testing out a baby bouyancy aid, found it today at a boat jumble and couldn't resist, Fiona's baby due in 7 weeks!

well I thought it was funny, mother-to-be not amused!

its hot!!

primula 'pettycoats'
the greenhouse was so hot today I shaded it out with this blue tarp. I need to buy shading to paint on, but even with that last summer I used the tarp occasionally.

This is a funny wee tulip about 6 inches high. I have lost track of what I have planted in the garden now, there is a 'map' being carefully drawn onto graph paper as my 'minds eye' is no longer capable of retaining all that information!!

more from yesterday

here it goes under another old railway line
this is at Milton of Campsie, they have filled in the old arch bridge with a kind of 'hobbit' tunnel to walk through, you can see the old station platforms on both sides.
another River Kelvin view nearer Lennoxtown.

on the way home

this is just outside Kirkintilloch on the old railway route I use for cycling to and from work

snakeshead fritilliary

wow nature

cultivation success

Primula Wharfdale Bluebell, its about 4" high and lives in the greenhouse. Underneath this tented section of fleece. . .
I am cultivating Cattica Tansy 'Hidden Variety'.

more about sheds
http://www.transglobal-emporium.com/products/shed-calendar/index.html

shed sorted

Mr Carr making sure the shelves are level. . .
the shed has had its ground levels sorted, the door is more or less square and everything is in. the floor has an extra brace to stop it giving way in the middle. thankfully the bike now gets in and out without having to move the hose and the seaweed bucket.
another expression for the shed is 'away to Gourock', you need to have a Scottish accent to use it to its best and be over a certain age to have any idea what it means.

welcome visitor

the things you learn from books

because I didn't know, I looked up this . . .

Beetroot ; Beta vulagris subsp. vulgaris ; is grown for its edible roots(beets). I plant lots of different varienties as I really like them, baked, roasted, in soup, stews and have been told it makes a great addition, like carrots, to cakes so I will try that sometime. I was give a packet of white beetroot to try this year.

Swiss Chard; Beta vulgaris subsp. cicula ; close relative of the beetroot. I haven't grown this before, usually just pick beetroot leaves to add to a salad or my friend who has a market garden supplies me with plenty, but the photograph in the seed catalogue was so enticing. . . .

also included in the same family(chenopodiceae) are mangold, use as a cattle feed and the beet used for sugar production. photograph from last year showing the beetroot stuck away in a wee corner, they did quite well there, lots of manure!

doorstep flowers

daffodils, you can never have too many daffodils.

pulmonaria, this pot was destined to be planted out, never got there and has been decorating the doorstep cheerfully for some time now.

I am just in from another wee minute in the garden, dodging rain and hail showers in between nice warm sunshine. planted into the garden(seeds) this week are beetroot, turnip and spinach, doesn't sound like much for all the hours that have passed!

Connie has asked me if the erythronium is part of the lily family and now that I have looked it up it does say Liliacea, most of the varieties seem to be from america and the native one to europe is the pink denis-canis(not in flower yet but a newish plant so I dont know when it will)

flowers

cheery primroses
Frittilaria Meleagris(snakes head frittiliary) tighly folded still, hopefully its amazing checkerboard patterened flower will open soon. It took nearly three years for these to flower(last year for the first time) so hopefully now they will slowly increase. I have a couple of different fritts but not sure if the others will flower this year.
Erythronium 'White Beauty', speaks for itself! This was just a little bulb I got last year so I am glad to see a flower and a second one coming. In my minds eye I can see whole drift of this and the pink erythronium, lovely, don't think the wallet will stretch to it but they increase fairly well so maybe one day!
Thats one thing that annoys me so much about gardening programs, if they are doing even a small project they use plants that cost in excess of ºany amount!º, not practical reality for most people.

daffodil

am out playing in the garden. its amazing how time flies, as I just went out a minute ago(three hours) and have popped in for a cup of tea to find it is lunch time.

Back on the water

Monday night, lovely paddle from the club house round the corner to the next bay, (Frankie and Maria in photo).

snow!

After a lovely sunny morning weeding and being busy in the garden I drove off to meet my gardening friend at Finlaystone, which opens under the Scottish gardens scheme and has a plant sale twice a year. After paying our entry fees we bought some plants, in the shelter of a nice poly tunnel, just as it started to snow. We decided to have a cup of hot chocolate in the tea room to sit it out. The gardens are lovely so its worth a good afternoons walk. It kept snowing. Then it snowed a bit more. Deciding that was it for the day we set off to her mothers for a cup of tea, lamenting paying entry to a garden we did not get to see, but the money is for charity so its a donation for a good cause. After we left Finlaystone the sun came out. It stayed out. Marvellous. Ha.
http://www.finlaystone.co.uk/

angst update

edited by Rosie

in the old days

This is Rosie before she errupted into an angst ridden teenager, nice girl she was! She is hugging Lily who has been missing for two years now, poor kitty.
A friend sent me this link with the comment 'it'll make you feel old'( you just enter your date of birth into the prompt)
http://www.frontiernet.net/~cdm/age1.html

homeless potatoes

This narcissus bulbocodium is just coming into bloom, this photograph from last year.
A very frustrating week as I have lost my spare bit of garden, it is sold( or for sale) as my friend is retiring and moving. As a result of this I have some very homeless potatoes! Most of the earlies 'Red Duke of York' are now planted in bags, buckets, pots and a kitchen sink(old white pottery variety!)around my garden. Some earlies have gone to a good home, some are still homeless and the entire maincrop of 'Record' are still lurking under my bed, I know a couple of people who may take them so I am not worried yet. I may get some more into old bags with the garden compost which is due to be emptied out but I am not spending any money on them(by buying pots and compost). The weather is cold, with rain off, then on, then off, then. . . . . variable!

monday morning

The bigger daffodils are coming out now, I love them, I have delayed digging out the path as some of these are coming up in between the rows of bricks where it is to go.
Tulip Scarlet Baby flowering their hearts out in the cold frame, the weather is so windy and wet I think I'll leave them in there or they'll get ruined. Ihave planted sweet corn into toilet rolls, I did this last year and they grew well and transplanted with no problems ; however I had left them so long, being disorganised, they did not have enough summer left to mature enough to fruit(is corn a fruit?). Flowerpots overwintering in the greenhouse have now all been moved outside to take their chances with the weather as I need the room. I will do the same with the cold frame in a couple of weeks too.
I have recovered from my trip on Saturday and am going down to the club in Greenock tonight after work, they paddle regularly on Monday and Tuesday evenings. Hopefully we'll get out for an hour or so before it gets dark, unless everybody has gone on their Easter Holidays and I am the only person there!!