and the mowers are out!!

Tansy walking along the cat path. one of my neighbors kindly came in with his petrol lawn mower and started the grass cutting season off for me. it was too wet and too long for my wee push mower so this should get me going if I keep on top of it when its dry. this is the first cut its had since last September or October and it was badly needed.

Primula Guinevere. a pale coloured single but the interest is in the red stalks and dark coloured leaves. I like her.
drumstick primula, I can't remember if I bought, scrounged or grew these.
this is another one, nice blue colour.
and the rhubarb crown starts to produce some stalks. bags of sugar ready. . . . .

varying weather

Hebe Pink Elephant, showing its best colours with its new growth in spring. the weather yesterday was absaloutly stunning, sunny, warm and calm. I even opened up the door of the greenhouse. its the opposite today of course! horizontal rain!!
Corylus Avelana Contorta, this little shrub is starting to put on some size now, it was wee for years. it spends the winter being entertaining with its twisty wood, and spring the lovely catkins. then in the summer it fades into the background. a very useful shrub/tree.

I am a big fan of the lifestyle of Permaculture and completed an introdutory course last year with Ed Tyler, one of Scotlands most active and knowlegable permaculture teachers, he has just started his own blog called Local Futures and its well worth a visit.

flowers!

pots on the doorsteps, always a nice welcome home.
primula 'marie crouse'
primula 'pettycoats'
and an unusual frilly, pale daffodill. its come up in the border and I don't think there's very many of them, my favourite ones are an apricot colour but think they come up quite late.

across the Clyde

the sun catches one hill as the hill behind is obscured by snow, a brave sailor out in the cold! they're beating against the wind here, and probably came back the way at twice the speed!
it looks more dramatic in 'real life' the snow flurries drift across the hills. the water was very choppy, I wouldn't like to have been out kayaking today.

easter sunday

this is flake Rosie made last year

http://snowflakes.barkleyus.com/

many easter blessings

after a realy bad day

this made me laugh so I thought I'd share it. its from Lolcats

Book meme

image by Josephine Wall

thankyou to Bonnie for tagging me with this one


The Open Book Meme:

1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open it at page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence/ phrase.
4. Blog the next four sentences/ phrases together with these instructions.
5. Don't you dare dig your shelves for that very special or intellectual book.
6. Pass it forward to six friends


jings, here's what came out of The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight, by Thom Hartmann. I bought it with part of my christmas book money as its been on my permaculture list of things to read for a while.

=The notion that we're "of course" destined to donimate whatever we can had far-reaching implications. This "story about how things are" literally changed the world, often in very brutal ways.
It was the basis for the philosophy used to rationalize the Imperial Conquest of most of the world by Britain. It was the basis of Manifest Destiny in America, in which Congress decided that their idea of god wanted us to take over the continent, so we killed anyone who got in our way, resulting in the murder of tens of millions of Native Americans.=

this short extract may not make sense as its a 'part of the whole', and you really need the 'whole'. its a very good book , I suggest everybody should read it, get it from your local library if you can. its full of cheery stuff about the world and the energy as we know it running out and all of us probably dying a long and painful death, which we might deserve. . . .

and I'm going to do my usual and not name people to do(something to do with hating chain letters) this but if you want to have a go leave a yes in the comments.

sheltering. .

I am inside the greenhouse looking out at this. . .
todays project is putting this lot back together
to make another bench, it'll get dismantled as I need a clear side to let the tomato plants grow tall.
here's the onion seeds, doing their mad 'hat dance'
and I'm starting to plant up more things, here are leeks, celeriac, sweet-peas and marigolds. they are all fairly hardy, I'm waiting a couple more weeks before starting everything else. a little warmer and I can put the onions out into a cold frame and clear up some space for the mad planting session to come.

Crazy Eights

Crazy Eights...


Lowa tagged me!


8 Things I'm Passionate About:

Rosie, her mothers day card to me read "I'm smiling because your my mother and laughing because there's nothing you can do about it" sweet child.
cats, mine first, then everybody elses.
horses, Robbie and Smokey first, then every horse in the world.
sea-kayaking, in Scotland of course.
Scotland, of course!
Permaculture
growing vegetables, actually gardening in general including cutting the grass
Quantum Savvy, see link in side bar

8 Things I Want To Do Before I Die:

go to Canada again, I have been once to visit friends.
go to the USA again, I have been once to visit friends.
go to Italy again, I have been once also to visit friends, note that I prefer to holiday in Scotland!!
get out of debt(not likely if I do the above three!)
enourage as many people as possible to grow some food even if its only lettuce in a pot on the windowsill.
win the lottery, ha, dream on. . .
own a horse, only likely if I win the lottery
get another dog, the kitties will not be happy . .

8 Things I Say Often:

No
Yes
aww, wee kitty
aww, nice horsey
fabulous
marvelous
tidy your room
thankyou

8 Books I've Read Recently:

currenty reading 'The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight', its great but now I feel like killing myself as theres no hope.
Squarefoot Gardening, Mathew Bartholomew. this is my veg growing bible!
Crow Stone, fiction by Jenni Mills, very good read.
Remind me again Why I Need a Man, fiction by Claudia Carroll, this is hysterical and I laughed most of the way through, related to a lot of it!
anything by David Eddings, have most of them on the bookshelf
anything by Stephen Donaldson, have most of them too.
anything science fiction/fantasy/horror , working my way round the local library!

8 Songs I Could Listen to Over and Over:(drifted into artists as I can't pick out favourites)

Mercy, by Duffy. can't actually believe I love something thats been number one in the UK charts for a month. me. modern music?
The Rising Sun, The Animals, an eternal classic.
Elvis
Doc and Merle Watson
Ginny Hawker and Tracy Schwarz
The Beatles
7 cant think..
8 ditto...

8 Things That Attract Me to my Best Friends:

Their ability to put up with the smell of horse.
That they like cats.
They tend not to have small children( sorry Fiona!!)
they can cook better than me, not hard
they like to invite me to eat at theirs
kayakers automaticaly join friends list
running out of reasons, i dunno....
sometimes theres no reason you just like people!

then your meant to tag-------
8 People I Think Should Do Crazy Eights:

but I'm running out of time and have to go to work so I'd like you to decide to join in youself and leave a link in the comments if your doing one.

home cats

Tansy and Daisy, practicing the matching bookends effect
sunshine for a brief moment

stable kittens

as I muck out the stables I open the bags of shavings for bedding, the cats seem to like to curl up and go to sleep in them. then I chuck them out as I need to use them.
and here they are all cuddled up nice and warm on a horse blanket. . which I had to chuck them off as it was needed back on the horse. . .poor things, they must just see me as a disturber of sleep.

snow

I stopped at the garden centre on the way home for essentials and these deer were grazing in the field behind. this is my zoom on maximum. it was nice to see them, and the garden centre was very quiet. . .no gardening today!

books review

can you have too many gardening books? not till the shelves are full!! and I think there's just about enough space here to squeeze in these two books I've been asked to look at. they are from a new Royal Horticultural Society series Small Steps to Sucess, published by Dorling Kindersley. they contain a surprising amount of useful information and some inspirational photography. I really like them, a good read for a wet afternoon, we seem to be back to the cold wet yuck here.
the Easy-care Garden, Jenny Hendy. this book starts off with some beautiful pictures of garden types, such as 'wildlife', courtyard', 'formal' and others to inspire you. the chapters that follow give 'shopping lists' of which plants to buy to get the particular look you like; information on how and where to plant them and what to do to care for them. there's also useful information sections on soil types, pests and diseases and a further gallery of beautiful plants to think about planting.
these pages look at 'Right Plant, Right Place', full of 'I want that plant' photographs! following pages describe how to create raised beds, mixed borders and container gardening with all the information you'll need to care for them. an idea I particularly liked was for an 'Aromatic Herb Border', a great ides for a vegetable grower looking for inspiration.
Shrubs and Small Trees, Simon Akeroyd. more clear and bright photography to get those ideas going! this one also provides planting inspirations to get the look you're after. there is soil, pruning, feeding, clearing. planting, staking instruction throughout. there is also a good section on pruning and caring for fruting trees and bushes.
how about a 'Fruit Border', shopping list provided with planting, soil and care information to get the best results. another one to interest home vegetable growers! there are other planting ideas for which shrubs and trees to plant to carry the gardening interest through the seasons. very useful.

open water. .

photo stitch of four photographs taken at Crinan

click on photo for larger image

Crinan

a walk along the Crinan Canal on Monday with my friend Sally, thankyou very much for a lovely day!
mirror reflections on the water
the view from the last gate at Crinan
and Ruaridh to throw sticks for, he's a good dog!

daffodils

these little daffodils are always first out,
and these are my new boots, Salomon Adventure Trekkers. I've had them on several times, mud water, washed off with the hose, been riding in them and dug the garden.

they haven't leaked and were purchased from the internet. I have been refunded for the ones I bought from a well known outdoor retailer, and thanks to Trevor at their head office for sorting this out.

hiding. . .

I was moving stuff in the garden and a big spider jumped out. . .
and I ran away . . .
Tansy looks very well fed, wonder where the spider went?

spring! flowers!

Iris Harmony, some more to be seen growing at Wildside
the snowdrops have come up round the purple helbore which is pleasing
and the underside of the helbore
anther hellebore, so pretty, please excus my grubby fingers. .
and I've made a start in the greenhouse with some of the seeds that arrived last week. two types of onions, Walla Walla and Red Baron. and some bunching onions to use in salads as they grow.

Equine Market Watch

EMW do a lot of good work with some very needy horses. Its one of my charities to give to.

destroyed in the name of Progress??

"Mound of the Hostages"

Lismullin site handed over- to road contractors;;By - Unknown.

The Lismullin archaeological site in Co. Meath has been handed over to the contractor building the M3 motorway, the National Roads Authority (NRA) has confirmed. The move means the controversial roadworks may begin on site immediately.NRA archaeologists have already studied the site, which includes a number of stake holes forming an enclosure. Carbon dating suggested they were likely to be at least 2,000 years old.A souterrain from about the 10th. century was also discovered on the site. Archaeologists said it was possibly used for defence during the Viking invasion.The archaeology had also been the subject of a study by an expert group set up by Minister for the Environment John Gormley to determine how best to proceed, once the prehistoric nature of the site had been determined.The expert group which included Conor Newman, the State's foremost archaeological expert on Tara, and Dr. Pat Wallace, director of the National Museum, advised that the archaeological remains were in a "very vulnerable condition". This meant they could not withstand preservation in situ and, therefore, "excavation is desirable and in the best interests of the archaeological remains".Efforts to contact Mr. Newman and Dr. Wallace were not successful yesterday, but the department's website noted the 2,000- year-old remains were "too fragile to remain in situ and must be recorded and removed".It added that "preservation in situ of Lismullin is not an option".

http://www.petitiononline.com/hilltara/petition.html

seeds galore

these are the new seeds I've ordered for this year. there's so many left from last year I hope to get them used up, and lots of seeds can be stored for a long time so they should be just fine. I buy seeds from lots of suppliers, this order is from Gardening Organic, and I have some interesting seeds left from last year from the Heirloom Vegetable Seeds. and if anything appears not to work I can easily go to my local garden centre to replace them there, I always get my seed potatoes and compost from them.
and thanks to Freecycle, a worldwide recycling group, I have a new-to -me wheelbarrow. I don't have a big garden but it really does save your back using it to carry stuff about.

nearly. . . .

the snowdrops in the garden are nearly opening, still a bit chilly
the helleborus, teasing with its spotted inside
a lone crocus in a pot, hope it gets some friends soon!

its still wet, cold and miserable here. I did manage to get one veg bed dug over but its had no manure this winter, hopefully the past few years worth of improvements will hold out and I'll use a seaweed fertiliser. I'm not sure I've ever grown anything before without at least six inches of manure for it to snuggle into- hence the always forking carrots and parsnips. they might not look fabulous but they always taste amazing!

hoomans!!

this is a great site for cat lovers, engage sense of humour!!

LOL CATS