Rocking Your World Friday ~ Sophie

It's been a bit of a frustrating week here, what with snow and illnesses so I'm having to think hard today! What are the positives this week....?

 

A lovely afternoon watching The Hobbit with my mum and Gaby.

 

Living directly opposite a supermarket. I do hanker after having a little country cottage but on weeks like this, living in a town centre does not seem like such a bad idea.

 

Comedy.  Things can get a bit intense here at times, caring for 2 autistic children.  I like to watch something funny to lighten things up a bit.  This week it's been 'Mrs Brown's Boys' and 'Wanderlust' that have had me laughing out loud :)

 

The Levellers.  These guys have been rocking my world in their own folky punk way most weeks for a long long time, 20 + years!  One of our boys is particularly fond of their music at the moment, so I can get 5 minutes peace with that playing in the kitchen.  Definitely something to be grateful for when stuck inside with restless children! I love that our whole family loves their music too.



My cat, Sasha.  This time last year, Sasha had a broken leg and we were being told that she needed £1000+ worth of treatment and operations which we could not afford.  Thankfully that turned out not to be the case and after 4 months of cage rest and her leg in casts, she recovered.  The rest of my family are not that bothered about her but she is truly my cat (we have 3) and is just one of those pets that 'knows' when you are ill or down.  Here she is on my lap this week :)



That's it! Linking up with Celtic House

Garden Ramblings ~ Sophie

This year seems to be rushing by and what with illness and weather I had just not got myself together with the plans I had for the garden.  I didn't start any tomatoes, shock horror!  I am a bit fed up about this as I have been experimenting for a couple of years with the best way to grow them in our little, quite shady, garden.  Last year, I sowed the seeds very early, transferred them to raised beds under tunnels and positioned them slightly higher.  This seemed to do the trick - or it could have just been a good year for tomatoes, who knows?!  I may buy some plants this week, but because I've always grown them from seed, it feels like cheating!

After a couple of weeks of better weather, I now have planted,

spinach

peas

courgettes

runner beans

garlic

aubergine

peppers

a raspberry plant (just given to me, will see what happens!)

carrots

swiss chard

kohlrabi

lettuce

onions - 3 have grown lol!

I'm also going to put some french beans in pots in my mum's garden this week.  I've decided I need twice as many of both french and runners as I had last year.

My herbs which I started from seed last year are looking quite good.  These were...

parsley

lemon balm

sage

chives

In the picture below, the darker mint is a chocolate mint plant which was a present and smells wonderful!  I need to sort the other mint plant out as it didn't do much last year and I use it quite a bit.

 I've also got basil and oregano starting up in the 'attic greenhouse' (Gaby's room!).  I will probably keep my basil plants on the kitchen windowsill as I find this works better for me here, more sunshine :)

In other exciting garden news (for me anyway !), I have a flower coming on this Agapanthus plant which I rescued from our boys a few years ago.  After it had been unearthed on several occasions, I popped it in a pot and it's not done much since - until now whoop whoop!!

The weather has been so nice that even Willow has been outdoors, which is quite rare....