HAPPY BIRTHDAY WILDSIDE

 a little late, hope you had a good birthday. xx

and hope you have wishes that come true on a rainbow, this one out of my window. xx

the passing of internet friends

 Henry E Parker and his beloved Miss Peaches. they will be riding free now. 

funny old place the internet, no less a friend for never having met in person, over the years the shared interest in Parelli Horsemanship, the trials and tribulations of forever learning, and finding peace. sharing personal thoughts and being a good presence on the ''cloud''. 

he will be missed by many. 

small blessing

 

 

its been quite the week or so, finding some rythm at work after a long period of disliking the place altogether. then an old freind , with a serious hospitalisation and still there. with the cry that life is not fair.... so slightly late ... a small solstice blessing of sage and mugwort. .   a small fire for some peace.

 

friends passing

 internet friends, kayaking friends. after a long period of fighting cancer Bonnie passed away http://frogma.blogspot.com/

from the garden

onion, leek, broad bean, sugar snap pea, chives, spinach, celery leaves, cardoman seeds and yellow beetroot, enough vegetables to cook with rice and have a very tasty meal.

a Wildside tomato. xx

 interesting colours too. 

edited.... new interface causing problems...  probably designed for the all intrusive smart phone and not a laptop.........

catching up in the garden

thanks again to Fiona and her Dad, clearing out their garden stuff, and giving me this great little lawnmower and other garden useful tools.

 before...needing cut, been wet and not able to borrow a lawn mower

 and after.....I was trying to beat the rain.. and only just did..

showing how thick the grass is and getting too long, I do like the clover and other flowers that come up, the bees like it. sometimes I leave patches of it for them.

about seven loads of grass.. filled up this compost bin

and a wee folding stool for the greenhouse, just right for a cup of tea.

tree branches

I was dreading it... but seven large branches have been cut off the tree... and I think it looks great. I know you can see the stumps , but the shape of the tree is still  nice. it was overhanging the path and road, and covering half the garden in shade.
large branches will go to a friend with a fire, smaller branches are cut up for stakes to use in the garden, and all the twigs and leaves will be disposed of or maybe composted.
I'm grateful for friends with a chainsaw and time to help ''process'' the results... at one point nearly the whole garden was covered in branches.

Canon Camera

My gardening and kayaking friend Fiona has gifted me a second hand camera, its the same as the first good digital that I had, a Canon S2IS, so here we go .... close up Calendula

 and orange too. these have come up from wildflower seeds sown last year.

 Hosta,

 this little viola has seeded itself into the edge of the 'lawn', so I have to mow around it, this is one of the reasons I can't pay to have someone cut my grass for me, they would cut it down....

 Mahonia berries. I think these are edible?

 Wildside's tomatoes, this is the first one, about the size of a thumbnail today.

and another bed planted up... the middle one, with broad beans, sugarsnap peas, peas, asparagus peas, and some marigolds and a couple of begonias, also what was left of the lettuce in the greenhouse, past their best but lettuce can have lovely flowers so they've been given the chance to do that in a corner, if they survive the slugs.....
I've used branches cut from the twisted hazel , over the peas, for them to grow through. 
the bed on the left has done well , I think most things that were planted have survived, you can see the brocolli escaping the fleece, its  not good quality and has been shredding in the wind, but its done its job of protecting the new planting and keeping the cats off.. I'll leave it on a bit longer.

just love this

origami bunny dance from Bonnie on Vimeo.

new potting bench

💗 new potting/growing bench for the greenhouse 💗
made by my neighbour, James Carr, he made the last one too.. which lasted 15ish years ... so I expect this one to see me out ... lol... and I am paying for it with bags of horse-poo , of which there is an endless supply.
I'll have a move round of things this weekend, maybe start some more seeds too.

little by little

 The twisted hazel is difficult to get under and into. One branch was really getting to the greenhouse so I've reluctantly taken it off... its a crazy thing to prune back so I just went as close to the base as I could, with a saw.

There is another branch reaching the same way, but I'll leave it for now. Also took height off the hedge from behind the greenhouse, little by little , and maybe in a year or so it will believe its a hedge again and not Trees.... eeeeek.

I've had a long weekend off work and intended to start some seed planting. Lost impetus..... mostly due to weather and temperature swings from 9c to -2c with a bitter wind.
here's the list of seeds, note some in here gifted from a friend some time ago. 

 Vegetables . 

·                     Aubergine, De Barbentane, Grow More Veg

·                     Beetroot, F1, Boldor, Suttons

·                     Broad Bean, Express Eleanora, Grow More Veg

·                     Broccoli, joint pack of Red Arrow and Rudolph, Suttons

·                     Cabbage, F1, Wintersweet, Suttons

·                     Carrot, baby type,  Ideal, Suttons

·                     Cauliflower, Romanesco Green and White, Suttons

·                     Celery, Giant Red, Suttons

·                     Chives,  Middleman, Lidl (Gartenland)

·                     Courgette, F1, Golden Griller, Suttons

·                     Cucumber ,Armenian, from Wildside home collected in 2015

·                     Greens, F1, Mustard Spinach,  Suttons

·                     Greens, Bright and Spicy Baby Leaf Mix, Grow More Veg

·                     Greens,  Lettuce Mix red/green salad bowl (looseleaf), Grow More Veg

·                     Greens, Leaf Beet, Perpetual Spinach, Grow More Veg

·                     Greens, Spinach Giant Winter, Grow More Veg

·                     Leek, Blue Solaise,

·                     Pea, Sugar Snap Deliket, Grow More Veg

·                     Pea, Kelvedon Wonder, Grow More Veg

·                     Pea, Aparagus (not actually a pea though, lol), Grow More Veg

·                     Pepper Mix Anaheim and Jalepeno, from Wildside... note these home collected in 2015

·                     Pepper, Chilli Zimbabwe Black, Suttons

·                     Pepper, Largo de Reus Pairal, Grow More Veg

·                     Pumpkin, F1, Hooligan, Grow More Veg

·                     Tomato, Constoluto Genovese, from Wildside home collected in 2015

·                     Turnip, Milan Purple Top, Just Seed

·                     Turnip, F1, Sweetbell, Suttons

Herb Seeds

·                     Coriander, Green Aroma , Grow More Veg

·             Mint, Pennyroyal, Grow More Veg

·                     Parsley, Bravour , Grow More Veg

·                     Rosemary, Grow More Veg

·                     Sage, naturally nurtured seed , Grow More Veg

·                     Thyme, Large, Grow More Veg

Flower Seeds

·                     Cosmos, Bipinnatus, Lidl (Gartenland)

·                     Poppy Seeds, Backrow Farm, collected 2019

holiday booked !!

I'll be travelling down to deepest England to see this very talented horseman in July. Excited !!

many miles to go

the lovely Quince with her rosette for taking part in ''September Miles'', about once a year friends get together ''online'' , we log our riding miles for the month and then we have rosettes for it. I think last year we did a whole years worth, and one of the other ladies got the rosettes for us.
I had a nice afternoon collecting leaves in the garden yesterday, not that I would ever be able to clear them all up, they fall faster than you could rake... I got a good amount and added them into the compost, it won't be just leaf mould as its a mixed bin for now.  Today was so windy a lot of the leaves have blown off the tree and even the ones on the ground have blown away , so I was glad I made the effort to do something yesterday.
Also yesterday, I took Quince out just a short walk, riding, as she's had more than a week off recovering from a couple of swollen legs from a kicking match in the field, horses will be horses...... she had a Photonic Redlight treatment, which is an amazing thing , she's had a couple of treatments over the last two years, how it works I don't know, but it does.

garden gate

friend made a new gate with  ''cat access'', so he can run in and out and not always have to jump.. he can jump, but he is old and stiff so I think this is a good idea for him.

Bella plays

wee dog at the farm playing with a hoop toy. frosty chilly day

NEW ZEALAND -A TIME LAPSE OF NATURE-

a friend sent this to me.. sharing .. just stunning.

the MOP has been CROPPED

 EEEEEEEEEK

and its done. xx
 my friend is undergoing chemotherapy for cancer. just so she doesn't feel alone.. my hair is gone too. I've been raising money with sponsorship and the link to that is in the post below. I'll try to copy it up here.

Crop the Mop

on 10th September I am having my hair cut off... buzzed off, not shaved... to support a friend who has cancer and is being treated with chemotherapy which causes hair loss.
she is being supported by a charity called Breast Cancer Care so I am asking for sponsorship donations for this charity. photos to follow...
this is a link to Just Giving where you can make a donation for which I thank you .

to go in the trailer

a bit dark but a record of out practice. Quince is not fond of small spaces. if I want to take her on outings then she needs to learn to tavel in this box to tow on the road. a friend very kindly took the time to bring her trailer down so we could walk through... its okay walking in but a panic starts at midway and Quince just wants to get out and quickly... so we spent an hour just walking through till she could do that calmly. I used a clicker to mark good moments and treated with pony nuts.
hopefully get another practice soon.

to see the sea

a recent visit to friends in Dumfriesshire. we are looking over to Auchenlaire Caravan Park, but I forget the name of the viewpoint we are on. the car was parked close to the sea on a rocky beach, I thought briefly about dipping my toes in but too chilly.
there's a couple of little islands there, sure that I have kayaked this area in the past.