Labyrinth and the New Pumpkin Patch 2017 update

Well we are really quite lucky in that after these chilly nights ,we have been having some beautiful sunny days . I,ve been able to get outside again and play in my garden .

I pulled a few leeks from the veg garden , I think these are Pot Leeks ..I,ve grown bigger ones , but I,m quite happy with these this year .
   Then to sort out my labyrinth ...oh dear ..well I,m grateful to my husband for cutting the pathways over the last two years ,while I,ve been recovering from kidney cancer op ...but now I,m up for doing it again myself . I,m not going to start talking about that , don't worry ! I,m much better now and even doing two dance classes again on Wednesday evenings !

                            It has begun to lose its shape a little ... not unlike myself !

 It needs tidying and sharpening up again . Sometime during those murky two years , my old faithful lawnmower packed up and a new ..cheap lawnmower came along that really was not up to the job ! Also to save time my husband used a strimmer over the top of the "walls" and this has caused moss and thatch to build up inside ...so all this will need to be raked out . I used to cut those walls with the lawnmower on the highest setting and it seemed to do a better job .

The new lawn mower also has to be recharged..which is extremely annoying !
It doesn't go along very smoothly ,so I took the collecting box off of it . Now my old one would just drop the cut grass underneath ..but this one throws it all over your thighs ...sigh ...I just had to get on  and do it and put up with it .
    Anyway , I made a good start on it .  I love my labyrinth  .

 The Purple Kale is way too beautiful to cut and eat  , you really must grow this and I must grow more of it ..it makes me happy just looking at it !

 And the plain old ordinary green curly kale too ...so good for you  . I grow lots of it ..so easy too ...the luminous lizard is still in amongst it keeping the slugs and snails away .

               The good old leeks , and lets check out the new Pumpkin Patch 2017 .

 I am so excited , we,ve been building up layer on layer of leaves , newspaper , manure, grass, seaweed ..tea bags , cardboard ..I,know , I,ve told you all this before ...but look ....

 I didn't have to remove the grass  ,I just covered it over, I have not dug  it over at all except the edge which you can see in the picture above. That was just to make a neat edge and here you can see the orange clay ..now look at the picture below ...

This is further in to the new bed , I have not dug here at all . The humble earth worm has worked it all through for me .

                                 ..and still we are adding more and more layers .
I need to make a rabbit proof fence around it , but there is still plenty of time ahead for that .
Other garden news ...lettuces a plenty in the veg trug. After the news item  where they were talking about courgette shortages at the moment - I thought to myself why are people not eating vegetables that are in season in the U.K ? hmm . . . I ordered some courgette seeds..very cheap and easy to grow in the summer .
 I,m nursing a bruised cheek at the moment , not a good look for dance class. My garden loppers decided to fly out of my hands and bash me in the face , whilst cutting and pulling ivy off a wall .... Karma ? What did I do ? ! :(
   So now the cottage smells not only of Friars Balsam for the chesty cough , Arnica oil for aching gardening and dancing muscles..but now also the wonderful fragrance of T.C.P .

                                           Little bat is still there fast asleep .

 ......and I have made a good start on my new ,though vintage , Elsa Williams Woodland Crewel Kit ..but I will talk about that on my other much slower paced embroidery blog .
 Time for a long soak , in a hot bubbly bath , scented candles and a couple of seed catalogues ......