Feeling blue

 Feeling really low today . Did a bit of polishing .

Picked some flowers from the garden .

       A lovely antique mirror that I'd bought arrived smashed  . Sigh .

It had been so beautifully packed with lots of bubble-wrap  in a wooden crate .

There was a big dent in the wooden crate as if it had been struck with a axe . 

To cut a long story short , both my good seller and I received a full refund .

.....and I am now wondering how expensive it might be to replace the bevelled mirror and where might I go to have this done .....I really have no idea  .

So that is also on the table waiting to be fixed .

Also as you can see , my camera is still playing up  . 

It is going to be a week of trying to fix things . See the pretty statue in the background ?

Well , it's been packed away in a box under the stairs for years . My husband bought it years ago in a market in Quito Ecuador  . 

It was placed on top of a chest of drawers in our bedroom .

Because I wasn't with him when he bought it and because of other things that happened around that time , I didn't really have any loving feelings towards it  and then also while he was away , I got a beautiful rescue dog golden retriever . The biggest and most handsome boy  you ever did see ! 

Anyway ,the first thing he did when I brought him home to our little cottage , was to do this thing that dogs do .....he dashed about casing the joint , into every room sniffing and quickly learning where everything in his new home was . He ran thundering upstairs , bumping the chest of drawers and knocking over the statue as he continued on his way  .

Beautiful  , handsome boy , my best friend ....long gone but forever in my heart .

Statue went into a box .....cupboard under the stairs .

Anyway many years have passed and as I am clearing out stuff ,as we all collect over the years  , I find myself to be a different person to who I was back then  ...... well , in some ways  .

So I came across it the other day and took it out . It is now also on the table waiting to be fixed . I have some super glue .

  I couldn't fix it back then because we lived in a little cottage in the middle of Salisbury Plain not far from Stonehenge . If there was even such a thing as super glue back then , the one tiny post office /shop in our hamlet would not have stocked such a thing ...and there was no such thing as computers or shopping on-line .

                                               Chasing off the Red Kites

Meanwhile , back  outside ....one of our Raven chicks was found fallen from the nest up in the big pine tree . They have been working so hard back and forth feeding and guarding the nest .

I'm not sure if there are any other chicks in the nest . We are watching and  listening ...but I think it might have been just that one little chick .....I think it was seagulls that tried to get the poor thing ... but we have also been seeing a pair of Red Kites scouting about and yesterday there were four of them .

Beautiful birds , sadly my flaming camera refused to zoom in on them . 

Tired , from things going on in my life and not having a best friend to hug , feeling blue .

It's cloudy this morning so I don't  have to dash about watering so early . Yesterday the sun shone but there was a bitterly cold breeze coming from the East .

Yep , I have to try and turn all this around , starting with that statue .

                                                        🤍🕊️🤍

Another Epie flower !

 

So it turned out that my hospital appointment was for today , early . I had to dash about watering a couple of things and open up the greenhouse at a crazy time this morning . 

As I walked up to the greenhouse I could see through the window that another Epiphyllum had bloomed  .

I couldn't wait to get inside and take a closer look .

                         

So I had my scan , I now have a fat dressing of cotton wool taped onto my arm for a little while .

Instructions to drink lots of water to flush out the dye contrast and hopefully not too long to wait for the "all clear" phone call . 

 Putting my feet up again now . 

Hope everyone is having a great Bank holiday and half term school holiday  !  🦋🌿🐝☀️ xxx

Celery and Dwarf French Beans planted out .

 So today, as forecast ,was a very hot 70 degrees F . Once again I was up early to plant out Dwarf French  Beans "Slenderette "and a lovely pink Celery " Blush".

I have planted them all along  in front of the Runner-beans .

Celery "Blush " already has slightly pink flushed stems .

The Runner-beans already have some flowers !

I am watering the vegetable garden with watering cans while we are having a hosepipe ban . I hope we will have some rain soon as my water butts are now empty . Some proper rain will really help these freshly planted beans 'n' celery babies get their roots down .

I am hoping and praying that nothing comes along and damages them this year . The two fat toads are still in there to gobble up the slugs .

Next job will be to plant out the Butternut Squashes . I have put down some chicken pellets and sorted out the chicken wire and rods ready to put around this bed and a couple of paving slabs to make it easier for me to step in to attend to the plants . 

Tomorrow , I will fix up a pig-wire frame for them to climb over ....sometimes they climb ...sometimes they don't . The variety that I am growing is Hunter . I get good results from it .  I have been bringing them on in pots in the shed . I want to see the roots coming out of the bottom of the flower pots  before I plant them out  . However I did give my neighbour a couple , which he planted straight out ...and they look very happy ! 

I have hospital on Tuesday , which I am all anxious about and won't be able to do very much while I'm feeling like this  , so I think that maybe I'll plant them out on Wednesday .

We go on a picnic every day ...today we drove over to Falmouth and I took a pleasant walk along the sea front .  

 ...........but it's late and I'm off to bed now . I'll show you more tomorrow !

                              Sweet dreams x

Up early - Plant out the beans

 

                                                                5am 

First job and the first proper harvest of 2023 - pull out my garlic .

Garlic Germidour which I planted out on the 12 October 2022  - Very happy me ! 

Next to plant out the beans .

They were beginning to climb and get tangled up in the shed . Also the peat free compost that I have been using is really attracting the horrible sciarid flies like I have never been troubled with before .

So I have been really keen to get them out !

It took me a good hour to get a row of Runner-beans and a row of  Climbing French Beans "Blue Lake" planted out  . 

 Before I placed them into the planting hole I also dropped in two or three more bean seeds .

Watered them all in , still nice and early before the sun got too hot .

Hopefully my new Toady family will help keep the slugs away .......

                              ........which just leaves one little problem   🤔

                                     Fix up chicken wire  🐇🐰🐇🌿

                                                          ........and go cook brekkers !  

                          Have a great weekend my lovelies 🌿🦋🐝 xxx 

Nopalxochia phyllanthoides - Empress Josephine

 Well look who has come to visit us in the greenhouse today ! 

She is a little shy , peering out between other Epies , scabbling about as they do .

Some years ago I bought seeds from Terry Hewitt of Holly Gate Cactus Nursery . He had been experimenting with cross pollinating Epiphyllums to create maybe new hybrids . I was thrilled to take a part in his experiments , but sadly he passed away the following year  and his cactus nursery closed down .

I had sown them and germinated them and have been bringing them all on . I was so sad when he died and even after all this time I haven't done anything with them . They are still in the same very large hanging pot  .  I need to tip them out and give each one it's own pot  now . Nurture each one and bring them into flower and see what Terry had created .

This is the first one to flower , and I am pretty sure that this is Nopalxochia phyllanthoides also known as Disocactus phyllanthoides also known as the Nopalxochitl , but also more commonly known as Empress Josephine .

Wife of Napoleon Bonaparte , Empress Josephine 1763-1814  passionate collector of plants .

 This lovely Nopalxochia phyllanthoides was brought from South America to add to her collection ...first flowering in Europe in May 1811 . It was one of her favourite plants in her grand glasshouse at the Chateau Malmaison on the outskirts of  Paris .

So it seems that this tiny seed was not to be some extraordinary new hybrid ...but just to stay the same delightful species that nature has intended her to be . 

                                 💮 ...... and I really don't mind at all !   💮 

                                                     🐝🐝🦋🐝🐝

The Giant Echiums in my garden this year ---- Echium pininana

                                                              Red 

                                                              White

                                                           and Blue  

                                                           🐝🦋🐝      

Toads

 When you're trying to finish fixing up the Runner-bean frame .....

....and you find two sweet toads .....very much in love .... 💗.....

..and then spend an hour finding broken pots and things to make them a toad hotel with a luxury pool .

I did finish the frame ...but no time to plant out the bean plants .

Off to the health centre , blood tests . Scary scan next week  . 

Trying to keep busy to take my mind off it . Feeling scared and a bit weepy again ....don't know how I'm going to get through this week .

                       Foxgloves are coming . Foxgloves make me happy  .

Did you guess correctly ?

 

Did you guess it right ?  🌿 Well , one of the buds opened this evening , at just about sunset .