In the garden

These photos are from a couple of weeks ago when we thought Spring had arrived. The children came home from school to help Scott plant peas and beans. They did a great job. The best bit of course is eating the fresh peas which Sam and Bella do like sweets. There's been no need for watering, as it's not stopped raining since.

Weeds war

It's a battle with the weeds at the moment. There is so much grass to cut and weeds to pull - an impossible task! Whilst Scott is busy working I'm trying to work in the garden with Bella chasing butterflies. I swear there's a white butterfly following her around. She squeals with excitement as she thinks she's caught up with it, only to cry with frustration when it flies off again. I tell her it's playing a game with her and she's happy again.

Anyway, so far everything is growing well. Even if it does look a little jungle-like.

 

This is our garden across the road, opposite our house. The garden we didn't know we owned until we had bought the house - so it was a nice surprise!

It turned out that old Monsieur Durand planted his veg here too and although the plot was overgrown when we moved in, he did leave us all his fruit trees. We have pear, quince, cherry, plums, damsons, grapes and figs. He was also known as the medical herb man too and a patch of grass is overtaken with a large leafy cluster every year. Even our Doctor commented he didn't know what mysterious herbs were tended here.

Sam and Bella (mostly Scott) have planted so far in this garden - potatoes, cabbage, broccoli, beans, peas and onions. It always looks good at this time of the year. Hopefully, unlike last year it won't look like a jungle by September :)

Green

There's definitely a green theme going on here. The garden is looking much healthier with all the rain for the last two weeks. The wind dropped and the sun shone late afternoon in our little yard. Sam wanted to jump from walls and chairs and Bella grabbed her bucket to collect strawberries - which aren't quite ready so she filled it with mud instead. I hope the second week of the school holidays is going to be a sunny one.

Tidying up

It's that time of year again when the garden is treated to a manicure - sort of. Mowing, strimming, weeding and pruning. Everyone is motivated for the first few weeks and then the weeds take over. And each year we say to ourselves that we will do a bit every day. It never happens....but this year I am determined to try and keep on top of it. I remember reading in a gardening magazine, where a gardener said that the trick is to not pick every single weed but to keep the weeds evenly spread so it doesn't look like a jungle. I like that way of thinking. We shan't go overboard with the veg this year and just plant what we can handle to maintain.

Where we are

This is where you'll find us most days. It's been praying on my mind lately as someone asked me recently where have I been, why don't I go out much? When I replied that we're mostly at home, she looked at me as if I was crazy and that was pretty much the end of the conversation. I went away feeling a little down. But, our home is where we work, play and live. The children are happy exploring our 1 acre garden, the fruit garden across the road and the field with the pond. We're extremely lucky to have all this and extremely happy to be here :)

Welcome chickens

We have three new additions to the family. They are settling nicely into their new home and don't seem at all phased by being chased by Bella and fed continuously by Sam or the dogs guarding their pen. And, we're already getting tiny eggs....yay!