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Thursday, 20 June 2024

New resident

 Last time I told the sad tale of the frog in my pond being carried off by a visiting crow; so I had to pop in and tell you that happily I have another frog in my little wildlife pond.
I spied him on Saturday night, (while I was on slug patrol), and so far he has been there every night since, yayyy.

It was still light at almost 10pm last night so I was able to get a photo of him.


I was ridiculously happy to see that this little fella had chosen to make use of my creation. ๐Ÿ˜€
Fingers crossed there will be more in the future.

๐Ÿธ๐Ÿธ๐Ÿธ 

Friday, 14 June 2024

Flaming June

It's not been a good start to the Summer months, the weather is really mixed up and I know that a lot of you in other countries are experiencing the same sort of thing.  It turned so cold one day this week that I gave in and turned the heating on for a couple of hours, very unlike me to be that cold. 
 
The garden is confused too, plants that shot up quickly in May when we had a rainy spell followed by sunshine, now seem to have come to a stand still.  I think I've lost my cucumber plants and my pepper plants have hardly grown at all.   The tomato and courgette plants seem to be doing ok, although they are smaller than I thought they would be by now and I'm not sure my peas are doing so well, there are flowers and even a few pods but the leaves are turning yellow, no idea if this is normal or not.


The potatoes look to be doing alright, although the leaves still look green and healthy so are not ready yet


Strawberries have been very good, I've not had more than two or three at a time, but that's ok, there are still plenty to come.


Plants in an around my wildlife pond are growing well but there is a sorry tale to tell.  Although I have been checking to see if we have a frog I hadn't seen one, then, last Wednesday me and Jacob were sitting in the conservatory having breakfast and watching the comings and goings of the birds on the feeders when Mr crow came, he comes every morning for something to eat and drink and I never thought anything of it when he hopped over to the pond and sat on the edge, next thing I saw was him dropping a frog on the grass!  Before I could get out there he picked the poor frog up and carried it off.  I know it's nature, but I felt so sorry for the little frog that I didn't even know was there. 


I had to stake the foxgloves because of the wind and rain, they are almost over now, does anyone know what I do with them once they finish flowering?


I sowed lots of lupin seeds but they just weren't big enough to plant out this year.  I've potted them up into larger pots and hopefully they will survive for next year.  This in one of a few I planted last year and they have done well.



I have had one surprising success this year.  I accidently broke some some pieces when I was deadheading my hydrangea this Spring so I just stuck them in some compost, never really thinking they would take as I'd tried it before and nothing came of them.  But this time all five are doing really well.
Not sure when I should plant them on their own, I'm assuming I should leave them for this year and pot them in their own pots or in the garden next Spring.  If you know please leave a comment.


Hopefully the weather will start to settle down a bit in the next couple of weeks.  We have plans to re-vamp the summer house, I say we, I really mean me, but Mark will be doing the work ๐Ÿ˜  He has already made a start by fixing the doors and putting new perspex in them, the rest of the work will have to be done as and when he has time at the weekends, at the moment he is laying a patio for Stevie and Darren on his days off.  There's no rest for the wicked๐Ÿ˜‚ 

Have a good weekend
-X-

Thursday, 6 June 2024

The love of books

 My love of books started when I was very young.  I remember loving and collecting all the Ladybird books, when I could go to the library on my own I discovered the Nancy Drew books, I absolutely loved those stories, I think that's where my love of mystery and crime novels comes from.  Later I remember my mum buying me The Old Curiosity Shop, A Tale of Two Cities and Little Women.  I haven't read those books in years but would like to again at some time.

There was a time when I kept every book I read, I'm a little more selective nowadays and only keep certain books now, (I might show you those another time, if anyone is interested).  
 I'd been thinking about starting a collection of the Penguin Clothbound Classics but kept seeing reports of the print rubbing off on the cover and in some cases even the print on the pages smudging, although they are lovely It put me off, so when I saw this collection a few months ago I fell in love with them, they are so beautiful.

From what I can see this collection from Timeless Classics was part of a monthly subscription a few years back, although I can't recall seeing it advertised anywhere.  There were forty or so books to collect, I'm not sure I would have wanted some of the titles so at least now I can just buy the ones I want, and at £8.99, they are reasonably priced too.


So far I have seven titles, the covers are just stunning and the paper is good quality.  The covers are much more vibrant than my phone camera can pick up.


These sent me down a rabbit hole of searching out some of the books I loved as a child and I discovered the Puffin Clothbound Collection.  There doesn't seem to be an issue with the print on these as far as I can see, and the covers are beautiful.  So far I have only three of these.


I must admit that I have never read Charlotte's Webb, but I will at some point, isn't the cover lovely?  
I loved Stig of the Dump


I think Black Beauty was my most favourite book as a child, I will definitely be re-reading this soon.


There are more titles I want to collect but these are a bit more pricy at £14.99.

Do you collect any special edition books and what were your favourite books growing up?

-X-