todays flower

well lots of flowers today

dont ask me what they all are as i dont really know

<- this one is my courgette plant

this is one of the pots













this is the butterfly bush - a nice close up shot i thought - well worth growing one of these as your garden is full of butterflies if you have one of these.























this is another on of the pots - bit of a selection in this one

as you can see the flora and fauna is well underway on the acreage

just goes to show you can do a lot with a small space if you think about it



all is well here with me and mine - and i hope all is well with you and yours

oh the joys of living in cumbria - the only place in the world you can get four seasons in one day on a truly regular basis

as you can see by the photo the rain is bouncing of the pool - i would'nt mind but half an hour earlier i had just emptied about a foot of water out of it as it was too full

the last picture is only ten minutes later and we have bright sunshine with light breeze - yeah i know it could be worse - but this is supposed to be summer and we are going camping next week

as you can see the scaffold thing has worked and the sun flowers are recovering - now up to 7ft and still no flowers as yet but they are starting

the acreage (behind the sunflowers) is also doing well - hardly any peas left now as the kids keep eating them - the beans are well ready now and are hanging with massive , bulging pods - still no idea what to do with them

still better go now and empy more of the pool out again and see if the rabbit has drowned - probably better hurry in case it snows next

end of another week and time to update you all with news.

the sewage problem is sorted - i got the insurance company out and they sent the boys round and two vans later they have it all sorted out and both the smell and the mess has gone

- no photos or long winded explanation of all the ins and outs of it as this is me not our gill and besides you might be eating your tea

as you can see things are growing well on the acreage this is the beans which are allmost ready to pick

any ideas of what i am going to do with them as the kids wont eat them and im not a big fan either?
we had some really bad rain on friday and the wind was hellish - really back end weather -

the sunflowers took a real hammering and all fell over

the ones we could save have all out grown the canes i put up so we needed a new plan

so what do you think of that - it is scaffolding it might not look pretty but it is working

the sunflowers are well over six foot now and not a flower to be seen so god knows how big they are gonna get - ive got some more scaffold just in case

the butterfly bush has exploded into flower and we are now surrounded by bumble bees and small butterflies - nice

as you can just see the pool is now crystal clear with the chlorine shock tablets we got off e-bay

just disolve them in a bucket over night tip them in and run the pump for a few hours and hey presto one clean pool - much recomended

its our wedding anniversary this weekend

7 years so looked it up as we always do and its wool or copper for 7 years so i looked and looked and didnt find any thing i liked so off we went down to kendal and bought the good lady a new hardwood patio set

top romantic or what!!!?

it is nice - and i will get round to oiling fairly soon as i dont think it has a lot on it so better safe than sorry as it wasnt cheap

the good lady bought me a toy sheep(wool)and and a garden wind vane(copper)

i lost again lets hope i do better next year(any body know what 8 years is ??)


lastly a bit of live stock news - this is the rabbit who is called roger

a very happy rabbit at the moment a he is getting all the casualtys from the bad weather and is eating well to say the least

the other live stock - pongo is still doing well and is standing guard duty on the butterfly bush as he likes to chase and ear the bumble bees - yes he is daft - so fits in well round here

been away all week so havent had time to do any blogging(not like our gill who seems to have nothing else better to do)



i can save you wear and tear on your computer as i will probably only get round to this once a week so save yourself the trouble and you only need to check it weekly



busy,busy,busy at work this week ,went on monday morning and got back saturday afternoon-no rest for the wicked



for those of you who think wagon driving is just sitting on your backside all day and sleeping in layby's - try it - you will get a shock.



so came back and checked on the acreage and the first of the peas are ready as are the spring onions . the beans should be ready in a week or so , the courgette (yes just one left) thats about 2 foot tall and in flower - dont know if thats good or not.the cauliflowers are just about surviving as are the potatoes- which will probably be ready for christmas dinner.





the swimming pool was green but the new filters had come at last so emptied the water a bit and changed the filters . it looks better now. o the joys of e-bay.have also ordered some chlorine tablets of e-bay so lets see if that works.





meanwhile back at the ranch the kids have been getting ready for the school holidays so its sports days and report time.the reports are all fairly good so must'nt grumble . the youngest won two of the races at the sports day so is proud as punch as are we. i didnt see it as normal but got sent pictures to my phone (o the joys of driving a wagon)





almost got home through the week but too many jobsworths hold you up getting tipped and loaded so you end up running out of time and cant get home. traffic has been bad and lots of accidents mainly caravans (its that time of year)


how many jobs are there that you can run out of time half an hour from home and thats it for the day until next morning





good one for you to think about - when your on the road going to where ever and you are getting held up by the traffic dont get wound up and angry just ask yourself "why is my journey more important than anyone else's" - trust me it is'nt.


if we all thought of each other and not just ourselves the traffic would flow much better and we would all get there much happier.


...just got sat down again as me and the neighbours have spent most of the day down the sewer cleaning and emptying out by hand and with bucket the sewer at the bottom of mine and next doors drive. it seems the sewer has colapsed bettween the end of our drive and the main sewer and has backed up - oh joy

the man came out and looked at it and said because it is not the main sewer that is blocked it is our problem even though we pointed out the collapse was under the footpath and the road and not on our property. so now we have to get permission to dig up the path and the road and fix it ourselves - looks like thats next weekend sorted.

just be gratefull its not our gill writing this as she seems to take a picture of everything!!!!!!!!

i'll be glad to get back to work i tell you!!??

been busy with my phone and have took a few pictures of the acreage and the livestock - above is the veg patch a few weeks ago with the modified wood and string arrangement to hold them up

here is today behind the peas and beans - the courgettes have startes as have the potatoes

the roses have also taken off - there was more but i cut some off and put them in the front room

honest there is still some garden left - but when you have kids you have to keep them amused

yes that is part of the livestock - his name is pongo - no we didn't choose it - he was a rescue dog and was well worth the time an patience to re-train .

this was last weeks project - just nip down to northallerton saturday morning , pick up door , come home again , take out old aluminium front door and fit new white door and make good all in one day as i had to go back to work on the sunday

no panic then??

hello to all .
this blog is an on going rant and will develop over time.