Bindweed

I pulled up a lot of this yesterday !  

Give me your local folkloric names for this beauty .

Granny Pop Out of Bed  is one name , also a game that children used to like to play making the corolla pop out of the calyx . Supposed to look like grandma sitting up in bed saying her prayers !

Do children still play games such as these ?  🤔 

  Things to try during the Summer holidays .

 Making Daisy chains .

Buttercups - Do you like butter ? See if it glows under your chin ? 

Making the dragon snap with Snapdragon flowers .

Making loud squealing noises with a blade of grass or a reed  over their thumbs and blowing .

Making owl hoots by cupping your hands and thumbs together tightly and blowing through the tiny gap between thumbs .

Wolf Whistle . 

Whistle for the dog ...a good long loud whistle .

Whistle ..... can you whistle a proper piece of music ...in tune ! ...and with feeling .... with heart felt emotion ......really , really sad or what about really happy like the Flora Dance or a joyful marching song ? 

Find a four leafed Clover .......for very good luck ! 🍀

Press wild flowers , ferns and grasses .

Plait or weave a wedding ring out of grass .

Make a St Brigids Day Cross .

Weave a Corn Dolly  . 

Weave a simple basket .  

Make a really fantastic sandcastle on the beach ! No , I mean a really super-dooper sandcastle !

With a proper moat and draw bridge .

Make a Stone Henge and enjoy a fantastic picnic sitting in it . 

Make a sand mermaid , decorate with stones and shells .

Better still ...make a sand dinosaur ! 🦖🐬🦕🦈

Make a labyrinth ..if there's space on the beach ...everybody loves them .

Press different types of sea weeds , make a nice collection .

Find heart stones , sea glass , seashells , fossils , funny face stones 🤪🥴😶

I'll be making another little washing up bowl pond with my granddaughter to replace the one I did a few years back with my grandson . It's in my cool and shady secret fern garden . They are both big enough now for me to not worry about them falling in .  

 It'll be some brilliant muddy messy and watery fun !

Painting  and crafting .

Nature walks , climb trees , paddle in streams , find tadpoles , frogs .

Earning pocket money for doing jobs about the house and garden ....you'll find they love that one !

Paint the garden furniture ,wash windows , pick and shell peas ,  help me to find and fill my baskets with fir-cones and kindling ready for the winter.

I'm thinking of ideas .....  things that are interesting , mostly quiet , educational and teaches a skill , fun ,  more importantly .... FREE !

Of course we'll be out and about visiting some of the wonderful ancient places around Cornwall .

Lanyon Quoit , Men-an-Tol , Ding Dong Mine , the Sacred Tree with clouties and the  Holy Well at Sancreed , stone circles and fogous . We will visit the woods at Roundwood Trelissick , the Dry Stone at Goonhilly to name a few of our favourites . 

   Mine love playing water guns with my plant squishers  , involves lots of running , hiding and screaming . 

  It's an upgrade on the old fashioned rather boring game of "hide'n'seek ".....now called "Find and Squish " . It's a good one for a blistering hot day !   🤣

So I'm just thinking of all the things we can do ....and waffling ....the men arrived very early and are busy re-doing the drive ..it's loud and dusty !  It had to be done ! 

                                        🌿🤍🌿  

 CHILDREN 

They break up for their school summer holibobs next week  .  .  .  

                                                                                                             😱

               

The Ugly Side of the Garden

 

                Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day with not even the slightest breeze .

I knew this would be a good time to tackle the "ugly side " of the garden .

My new little folding saw had arrived and I set to sawing off the one last branch of my favourite Russet Apple tree . 

The idea being that one could throw a cap through the centre of the tree . 

Due to poor health , I haven't pruned this tree for quite some time . 

I hope it wasn't one branch too many ! 

I still need to clear some of the grass from around the bottom of this apple tree.

But I just really have to get on and sort out this ugly area . It is full of Bindweed . I tried laying old carpet down on it ,thinking the carpet was wool and so it would kill the Bindweed and then biodegrade .

Wrong !  The Bindweed came up through it !

I covered it with black plastic , but this was very thin plastic which strangely had tiny pinprick holes all over it , so the Bindweed came up through that too !

Well , I spent the whole morning pulling all this plastic off.

The carpet would not come up , no matter how I tugged and pulled and tried with the shovel . 

I had marked out roughly the edge of this area with rope . The carpet went out beyond and under the grass . I had to sort of slither the grass off the top . Roll back the carpet and then patch the edge up with the slithered turfs . 

  Tried again with the pulling and tugging ..... no luck . It would seem I did a really good job of laying the old wool carpet down there fifteen/sixteen years ago ! 

 I don't want to use pesticides .

So I am going to give it one more try with an even heavier black plastic sheet .

 

 Arm aching from sawing the apple tree branch down . Back aching from moving heavy fence panel , tugging and pulling ....I stood up to stretch out , take a little wander about . Admire the Snowdrops and the Cyclamen leaves .

..... and the beautiful yellow stems of this willow .  ( Another job to be done ! Has to be coppiced down so it will make even more beautiful golden stems . ) 

  LUNCH TIME 

After lunch , I don't know how , but I managed to get my aching bones back outside to finish off .

 I laid down the old thin sheets of plastic towards the back and lay the old fence panel down on it to hold it down . 

 I am going to try and find an old pair of scissors and little by little , cut the old carpet back as far as I can .

Beyond this are all my young tree saplings (the Jane Goodall mini forest 🌳🌳🌿🌳🐒🌳) and beyond that I have planted Griselinia bushes . I am thinking of fixing up some windbreak mesh along the wire fence at the very back , to protect the young trees from the North wind ,while they get going .

 

 Very thankful that the wind had died down today while trying to lay this plastic sheeting .

I have laid down some old fence posts around the edges to hold the new heavy black plastic sheeting down and the upsidey down broken old wheel-barrow .

 Eventually , I will be putting my potato tubs on here which will also help to hold it all down .

Sarpo mira potato seed arrived and are now chitting on egg boxes and I have Red Duke of York in small pots sprouting in the garage .

 

                                             Upsidey down broken old wheel-barrow .

Some hazel rods which I have cut ready to make an attractive woven Hazel path that goes between this ugly area and the bonfire heap . This little path will enable me to walk around to the back and tend to the hedging  .

I can't do this until the bonfire heap is gone . 

I want that bonfire heap gone because this area is facing South and would be perfect for growing lovely tropical things .🌴🌿🐒

  I still have three gorgeous Gingko biloba saplings to be planted out along the back here . ( which I grew from seeds  🌱🌱🌱 ) It will soon be too late to plant them out and then I will have to re-pot them into large tubs now .

           Above all ...I WANT THAT BONFIRE HEAP GONE !   

So that's what I did pretty much all day yesterday ......(.not the bonfire )

One more exciting thing ....

Cucumber Beth Alpha F1 -  have all germinated !   

                                  🌿Hope you're having a lovely weekend . 🌿

                                                            🐒🌳☀️