The Third Sunday of Advent

And so another busy week of writing lists and cards , sticking on of stamps , checking addresses , trips to the post office . Shopping and stocking up on festive food and drink . Already giving in to the occasional mince pie . Remembering to buy Oasis flower arranging foam bricks , white Madonna Lilies and some pink Carnations for Rita , who did a beautiful Christmas arrangement in the Lady Chapel . Will buy some more  next week to refresh this and also for Mary to finish her lovely Advent wreath around the Pascal Candle .
 Gaudete Sunday - Rejoice  or  Joy Sunday and the pink candle is lit ..and I cant believe how close we are now to Christmas Day . Kind people came and we all helped decorate the church . The Nativity set put out and the Christmas Tree with pretty sparkling fairy lights .
  At home our table is a cluttered chaos , with cards and Christmas wrapping paper , brown paper , sellotape , scissors , labels , sticky bows and tinsel , address book and stamps..never enough stamps .
 Escape to the veg garden with mug of coffee ...check how the new Pumpkin patch is coming along . We,ve had some rain and the cardboard and newspaper , seaweed, spend compost , horse manure, grass clippings , leaves are beginning to break down nicely and on further investigation with my garden fork , I can see the earth worms are now moving and munching their way through it all  . I sharpen up the edges of the bed and pull out the odd dandelion root .
  The weather is mild ... warm even  , misty, occasional drizzle . Full moon shining down silvery on my labyrinth . Owl up in the old pine tree .
 Last dance class before Christmas , tomorrow evening ...feeling tired but happy . Always the energy returns when the music is played .

                                                     What is in the parcel ?

                                     I might show show you in my next post !

Collecting Seaweed for the New Pumpkin Patch

So I,ll start again . Here we are down at Gunwalloe . There's rain coming in , but who cares ? !

The tide is going out and has washed up some lovely fresh clumps of seaweed .

I usually bring a black bin sack for us to sit on , but today it is coming in really useful ,  to gather some seaweed for the veg garden .

I filled it to about half way , since it is quite heavy and we had quite a walk uphill to the carpark . I can always come and  get some more another day .

Back home I empty it into my wheelbarrow and wheel it up to the veg garden .

              Seaweed is great in the veg garden , it really makes things grow !

I,m busy getting the new Pumpkin patch ready for next year , layering up newspaper , grass clippings , cardboard , horse manure ,  hoover bag contents , Autumn leaves , spent compost , shredded branches and seaweed  . The more effort that is put into the garden now during the Autumn , the bigger the pay off next year ....but this is no effort really , since it is our friends the worms that will do the work , chomping through it all .
 No hard , back breaking digging for me ..except just to gently turn it all over and rake it in the Spring .

                                                 Beautiful Cornish seaweed .

So the next  layer will be more cardboard ,then green stuff grass clippings, newspaper , I try to alternate it;  green stuff followed by brown stuff is how it really works and the air trapped within it keeps it all  beautifully light and smell free.....so no walking all over it !
     The worms love it !

It hard to see from my pics , but it is a fairly large circular bed ,but not so large that I cant reach easily into the middle of it without treading on the earth .
Not treading on the earth is very important , because in doing  so the earth  becomes compacted and the worms get squashed : (
   So there you are , my new Pumpkin Patch for next year . Hope I haven't put you off your tea ! : )

The new Pumpkin patch

I,m busy getting the new Pumpkin patch ready for next year , layering up newspaper , grass clippings , cardboard , horse manure ,  hoover bag contents , Autumn leaves , spent compost , shredded branches and seaweed  . The more effort that is put into the garden now during the Autumn , the bigger the pay off next year ....but this is no effort really , since it is our friends the worms that will do the work , chomping through it all .
 No hard , back breaking digging for me ...except just to gently turn it all over and rake it in the Spring .