Garden (again), and proud nanna moment

 I've been trying to make the most of the sunshine, the seeds I sowed are coming on a treat, and It'll be time to start some more in a couple weeks.  I want to stagger them this year as I got a bit overwhelmed with so many last year.

We got our free spring seeds for the allotment this weekend, I think there are more seeds that I will plant this year, I've never tried chard though, not sure It would be something I'd eat, and I don't know if I'll bother with peas again, but other than that I think there is a great selection

I've tidied the two small raised beds in my garden, topped up the soil and put netting over one in readiness.  I'll be planting all the salad stuff at home this year, It'll be easier to pick as I need it.

Out of the three raspberries I planted last year only one survived, but I'm happy to see that there are more shoots appearing this year.

I'll plant my salad stuff in this one.

The grass still hasn't been cut, the top of the garden where these beds are is still a bit spongy and will probably need re-seeding again.  The other lawn has faired better but I'll still hold off cutting for now.

Other things are coming to life, the hostas are growing rapidly

The camellia is full of flowers

We also have a couple of forsythia doing well and the peris is just about to flower.

Inside, my amaryllis has all four of it's flowers open.  

This was one I bought after Christmas to replace the one Stevie bought me which didn't grow.  The one she got me was one of the more expensive ones, this is a cheap one from B&M.

Both Bonnie and Jacob completed swimming badges last week.  

Jacob achieved his 25 metres certificate, he also got star of the week at school, so a good week for him

Bonnie had to swim as many meters as possible and did absolutely amazing.  She completed 600 metres, that's 24 lengths of the pool, and she did it in 27 minutes.

The swimming instructor had already told Joanne that she could be a competitive swimmer.

So proud of them both ❤️

-X-

Spring is springing

I love to see these daffodils dancing just outside my kitchen window, It's such a cheery thing to see when you open the blind of a morning.

 And the view from outside is just as lovely, yellow is such a happy colour, especially with all the grey days we've been having.

We have seen the sun a little more this last week though and it's been nice to get outside and make the most of it. 

On Wednesday I looked through my seed tin and made the most of the sunshine to sew a few seeds, again, I seem to have a lot of yellow going on.  My cosmos didn't do too well last year, I had a very poor show of flowers so I've tried a different variety this time hoping they'll do better.

 

I bought pepper, cauliflower and lettuce plants from the garden centre this week which I need to transfer to some pots to grow on a bit before planting out.  I'll keep the peppers in the greenhouse this time, the lettuce I'll plant up in the raised bed we have in the garden and the cauli will go to the allotment.

And look what's in my little wildlife pond.

 We have frogspawn 😀 

I haven't checked it for a couple day's but fingers crossed we will get some little froglets :-)

I hope everyone in the UK enjoyed Mothers day yesterday, I was gifted some lovely thoughtful presents and Joanne cooked a fantastic Sunday lunch which I enjoyed all the more because It's not very often I get a meal cooked for me 😁  Later we went to Stevie's to help move and arrange some furniture they had bought.  The weather like today ended up rainy and windy, but the sunshine is due to reappear later in the week and hopefully I can get a bit more sorted in the garden.

-X-

Today would have been my dads 100th birthday if he were still with us.  He died in 1987 aged just 61, so long ago and yet no time at all.

Of course It's also Mother's day here in the UK on Sunday so my eldest sister and I took flowers to the crem for both of them this morning.

I don't think you ever stop missing or thinking about your mum and dad, however old you are.

-X-

His & hers

 I wanted to try and knit a box of socks this year, I'm alternating knitting a pair for myself and a pair for Mark.  

He's taken to wearing the ones I've knitted him more this past Winter so I know he will appreciate them.

These were finished in February and are knitted in the owl colourway by West Yorkshire Spinners.

I finished the pair for myself on Sunday.  

This yarn was purchased a couple years ago from the Birmingham yarn show, I'm not sure now who the dyer was or the colourway name as there was no belly band, but It was lovely to knit with. 

It looks like the colour is more concentrated in one sock from the photos, it's really not that noticeable In real life.

I used the Jemima sock pattern by Kay Jones, I've knitted this pattern a couple times before, I love the texture and how squishy it is.

So that's three pairs in the box already, and I cast on the fourth pair yesterday 😄

-X-

Black blue and green

 Our local council has implemented a new recycling scheme starting in April and today was delivery day for our new bins.

From April our normal black bin waste will be collected every two weeks.  I have no problem with that I only put it out every two weeks anyway.  We will still use our blue bag for paper and cardboard, again every other week, same as before. There is a yearly fee for our green garden waste bin, (which we pay) and that is collected every two weeks.  But now we have a blue 240 litre bin for plastic, cans and glass, again to be collected every other week.  I can't see me putting this out every other week, it's going to take us ages to fill even half way!

We also now have waste food bins.

The smaller one is supposed to be kept in your kitchen for food waste and then emptied into the larger container which will be collected every week.  

Like many people posting on the local FB page I will not be using either of these two food waste bins.  For starters we don't have a big kitchen so nowhere to put it, there is just enough room under my sink for the waste bin and some general cleaning things, so it can't go there, and in any case we have very little food waste.  There has been valid concerns raised over attracting rats in the garden with the food bin. 

 They are locked by putting the handle down, but, my smaller one came with the side bent meaning the handle doesn't go down, good start, but as I said I won't be using them anyway.  

Having all these bins is all well and good, but less packaging on items would be even better, and our council only actually recycles 35% of collections, way below the national target.  

The food waste scheme was rolled out in other boroughs and the take up was so little that it was abandoned not long after.  So perhaps council money could have been put to better use?

There is also the problem of storing all these bins!  

We have side gate and luckily enough room in that walk up to the garden to store them, but there are a lot of terraced houses here in the UK which do not have side entrances and bins are kept on the pavement, (looks awful and unsightly), but other than pull the bin through the house what do they do?

I'll probably take the larger of the food bins down the allotment, it'll come in handy to store my gloves and trowel in 🤭

What does your council do in the way of waste and recycling collections?

-X-