Happy Birthday

Today it is My Girl's birthday - 19 years old today and doesn't the time fly past!   We are having a bar-be-que this  afternoon, just family and a couple of My Girl's friends I think there will be about 16 of us in total.

So today we will be busy!  Mr Milly has made the burgers and humus, and this morning we have a mad rush to tidy up house and garden ready for our visitors.

My Girl managed to look after everything quite well whilst we were away - although the Lottie is looking very very weedy!    The morning we left for our holiday My Girl was a little sad as she was staying home, anyway the taxi arrived to take us to the airport, lots of hugs and kisses as we loaded the car, then we were waving bye bye  My Girl  love you have a good week,  the taxi  went along the road a little way and then turned round, we drove past the house and My Girl was now waving frantically - I realised she was waving for us to stop - What's up?  - 'Mum I've looked myself out of the house'!!!!!   What is she like LOL!!  The front door had shut behind her and there she was on the doorstep in her PJs and we hadn't even got out of our road!      We did chuckle all the way to the airport me and Mr Milly!

El Medano beach

View from my sunbed!

Another  view from my sunbed - isn't it gorgeous!

We're Home

Tenerife was lovely.  Mr Milly and I have had a really chilled and relaxing week,  spending our days sitting in the sun, reading books and people watching.  Just bliss and exactly what we were looking for.

The hotel was in a very quiet resort - we looked for something quiet,  just 4 hotels in the whole town.  El Medano holds the world Wind surfing championships, so it is always quite windy - but this suits me just fine a constant breeze whilst laying in the sun which is my ideal really.

A couple of quick pictures for you and more holiday news to follow.

The pool and sea

Mr Milly at the terrace bar - lovely views!

Kite and windsurfing beach

My Turn!!!

Now, This is the Girl Milly and its my turn to blog!

My folks have gone away (probably enjoying the sun and the pool by now) and I have the house to myself for a whole week, I dont know what I am going to do other than have a few people over and enjoy a few drinks! I am going to miss them loads and I hope that they have a really FANTASTIC time!

  

Nasty horrible creatures

Here I am sitting in on the sofa - suddenly a terrible din is coming from the chickens, not normal chicken bok-boking,  a true alarm call......  a fox was standing on top of the ex batts run drooling and staring at them!  How horrible is that!  I ran bearfoot  in my PJs  into the garden to chase it away,  but that really is too close for comfort.    I'm going to check every inch of both of the runs this morning to make sure they are as secure as I can make them.     The chickens seem to be OK,  just a bit quiet at the moment none of the normal morning noises, I expect they will perk up as egg laying time approaches!

Luna and Flora - the ex batts  at home.



Early morning eggs



That's confirmed it - Gillian can't read!

A sailing we shall go.....

My Girl, Mr Milly and My Boy managed to work out the collection and delivery of the boat and storage is sorted - Yippee - its not on the driveway!

I'm told a naming ceremony will be in order when the boat is finally lauched  (I have volunteered and am currently researching a hat to wear!!  LOL!!)

Grumpy, Grumpy, Grumpy

That is me today - GRUMPY!  There is no particular reason for it - maybe its the terrible weather - I don't know, but I do know that early to bed is definitely in order today.

My Girl has now had the offer a boat from Freecyle - she is not really sure where it is going to be kept, but I suspect our driveway will be housing it for a while.   She is now on the lookout for an outboard motor - I have no doubt that she will find one!  There is a bit of dilemma in the house at the moment - how is she going to collect the boat????  I am leaving that decision with Mr Milly, My Girl and My Boy to work out!

I did manage to pop to the Lottie today - nothing really to be done there at the moment, but I just wanted to check that all was OK.  I did pick some more blackberries so more bramble jelly on its way. 

As I was leaving a flash of red caught my eye -so I went to investigate and found this little Lottie - completely covered in all sorts of flowers

I think it is really pretty.

Wash out

Complete wash out this weekend,  the weather has been horrible - I really don't think we are going to have a summer this year.   The weeds certainly like the rain and are growing and growing, and I am told that weeding in the rain just helps them to spread, so no weeding this weekend.    Everything is growing pretty nicely now though.

Me and My Girl popped to the Lottie today - we dodged the showers and managed an hour before the heavens opened once again.    Today we sowed some more seeds - turnips, perpetual spinach and 2 different lettuce  another packet of wildflower seeds were sown too.

I managed to take a couple of very quick pictures - it was in the rain though, so they are not great - but hopefully you can see how the veggies are coming along;-

Sweetcorn - not looking so pathetic now

Runner beans - nicely climbing their poles



Courgette - starting to flower but only Male flowers at the mo!




Cabbages really starting to look like cabbages!

Yesterday My Girl was very excited, she had her freebie tickets for Harry Potter and was buzzing all day - there was a Harry Potter fair in our local town, so we went for a little visit,  My Girl had her photo taken with the man himself - at least she was trying to convince us it was the man himself!

Oh I nearly forgot - Just 5 more sleeps now!  I hope my foot is better,  my turn for an injury - I dropped my very heavy 24 year old sewing machine on it this morning!  Ouch!!

Predators

Now its  6 sleeps, still 28 hours to work until we are off to the sun.   The Lottie, parrots, dog and chickens will all be left in the very capable hands of My Girl, the Portuguese Housekeeper and Mr Milly's little sister - girl power will rule in our house whilst we are away!

This morning I was woken at about 6.00 with the dog barking and crying and making a terrible din - not the best way to way up on a Saturday morning,  but I knew that something was wrong and had quite a good idea what it would be.........  Urban Foxes!  They are everywhere,  there are a couple of farms close by to us and lots of fields and with the bi-weekly collection of refuse we are plagued by the things.

We did loose our 2 ducks to foxes at the end of last year and very recently little Flora had a very lucky escape from a fox when the chickens were free ranging in the garden very early one evening.   We did think we had lost her, but found Flora hiding in her house minus lots and lots of feathers and with a bite mark on her back.

So the foxes are a constant threat which leads us to have to limit the time the little chickens spend out of their runs.   Its a shame as I love their bok boking, and watching their fluffy knickers in the air as they scratch about for whatever they can find.

I managed to take a couple of pictures this morning of the foxes - they were sitting on the top of our neighbours shed,  taunting the dog as she could smell them and hear them, but not see them - and they have absolutely no fear.  The pics are not the greatest quality!

Countdown

This week has been long and tedious.   I went to Colchester on Tuesday,  should have been for one night and ended up being 2.   I feel like I haven;t been at home all week and the poor Lottie has had to fend for its self.

My Girl has had another great Freecyle week,  she has now picked up an electric scooter - for spares or repairs so she will be using the bits she needs from it to complete the earlier Petrol Scooter.  Today she has acquired 2 tickets for the new Harry Potter film - what a result that is!  So tomorrow night she is off to watch the movie.

Are you wondering about Countdown???  Me and Mr Milly are going on holiday - we are of to the sun next Friday,  now the countdown begins

• this time in 7 days we will be arriving
• 7 sleeps
• 28 more hours to work

and not a lot of time to get everything ready!!!

Punctures

Its not Mr Milly this time, but My Girl with a puncture - the scooter was fired up last night and taken for a spin in the local fields,  10 minutes into the ride and My Girl rode over some wire and ripped the inner tube - the Portuguese Housekeeper was not happy as she didn't even get to try it!

Today My Girl, Mr Milly and the Portuguese Housekeeper have spent the day tinkering with the new toy - its been stripped, cleaned, the puncture has been repaired about 10 times,  foot board has been cut,  and sanded (I did a great job with the sander!) and loving painted by My Girl.  Varnish has been found and brake cables are currently been attached and fixed.  My Girl now has her fingers crossed that a bike will come up on Freecycle as they now need a saddle (my bike is currently missing a saddle - I'm promised they are just borrowing it!).  Although they are a little fed up now as they have to order a inner tube - they have had fun for the day and with the cost of the brake cables the little project has cost the grand total of £2.99!!

Footboard loving painted by My Girl - can you see the glitter??



Scooter in mid repair


We managed to find an hour to pop to the Lottie,  a quick watering of  the veggies,  removed some weeds and sowed line of swedes and purple haze carrots -  we picked a jug full of ripe blackberries from around the Lottie - these have now been stewed and are running through a jelly bag.  I haven't made jam before - fingers crossed it turns out OK!!

Jam in the making with a bit of luck!
It looks a bit peculiar in this pic.

Done

What's done you might wonder?!   Well the biggest bed we have created so far is DONE!!  Woo hoo!!

The huge new bed - done!

It's taken me and My Girl 2 whole days to mark out the bed, remove the grass, dig over the bed, dump the removed grass, straighten up the bed edges, fork over the bed and finally we reached the planting stage.  Planted today;-

24 late  chitted Potatoes
6 Cauliflower plants
6 Brussel Sprout plants

The potatoes are planted!



What a relief to have them in the ground... Mr Milly was around today to make tea and supervise - he supervised the digging of the potato trenches and then between the 3 of us we managed to erect the protection frame for the new brassicas and peg out the net.  Mr Milly kept me sane whilst unravelling all the netting - but we got there in the end!

All in all a very satisfying end to a hard weekend,  me and My Girl are aching in places we didn't know you could ache in,  and the blisters on my hands from the digging and using the Azada are HUGE!




No 95 is really looking like a proper allotment now

 

To top our busy and productive weekend, we have had a good Freecyling weekend too,  I found a 'Dalek' compost bin and  a hoselock hose and reel . I missed out on some Jam jars which is a disappointing but My Girl has acquired a petrol scooter!  The Portuguese Housekeeper picked it up today, we laughed at her as she said on the phone it was missing its seat - we thought that was funny as it is a scooter.   We have collected the 2 of them tonight, the Portuguese Lovely and the scooter and its a funny thing that should have a seat to sit on!  I think it might also need somewhere to put your feet!

The lady it came from has had it for a couple of years, but never used it,  and didn't even know if it would work.  The Girls tell me its going to be their little project to do it up and get it going - I think that is going to be a bit of fun for a while for My Girl, the Portuguese Housekeeper  and Mr Milly!

They have been tinkering with the scooter for all of 10 mins and its working!!  Black smoke all around the garden,  but it is working LOL!!  2 very excited girls in the house now - I think I going to lock up my bike as it is being eyed for spares!!



Petrol scooter for a bit of inspiration.....







Digging

Digging, digging, digging and more digging!  In fact I am fed up with digging!  My hands are sore now so didn't quite get as much done as I would have liked!  Never satisfied\ :)

I started on my own at the plot this morning,  I roped off the next bit to be dug over - I was a little shocked this week at how very quickly the grass at the front of the Lottie and the brambles, which have been cut down but not dug up,  had grown this week - very disheartening, but it has spurred me on now to start tackling the front of the Lottie.

A couple of hours after being there, I had a call from My Girl,  she wanted me to pick her up so she could come to the Lottie with me,  BUT she was feeling a bit shaky as she had been knocked off her bike!   I honestly despair with her - she is the most accident prone person,  almost matching Mr Milly!  She is OK,  a few bumps and scratches but fortunately nothing major!

Anyway she still wanted to come and spend time with me, so off we went.  We had a really good system,  I was taking the grass off and filling the wheelbarrow,  My Girl was digging, she would empty the wheelbarrow and I would loosen the earth with my Azada ready for her to dig, whilst I took more grass off.   It worked great and we even had time for a sit and couple of cups of tea along the way!

Newly dug , but not finished!

Gorillas

Today I am in Bristol.   As usual its been a very long day.  Tonight I have been out with the lovely bubbly Steph - often when I am here she will come out with me for the evening,  she likes to treat me as a tourist and take me to different places and see different bits of Bristol,  I always have a great time with Steph,  she really is very good company.

So this evening we went to Clifton.  Clifton is a very very pretty place  - a different piece of  Bristol to visit.   We  had a meal in a little Italian restaurant and then to the Avon Gorge Hotel,  its has a garden area which sits just under Clifton Suspension bridge and at the top of the Gorge - its really was a bit too cold and wet to be sitting outside - (well what do you expect with the British weather -  it is the 6th of July!!!).  The view  from the Hotel garden  is stunning.

At the moment in Bristol there is an exhibition of Gorillas to mark the 175th anniversary of Bristol Zoo,  there are apparently 60 gorilla sculptures scattered around Bristol which are on display for 10 weeks and tonight I saw 2 of them!  Each one is unique - they certainly are eye catching!


Avon Gorge Hotel Gorilla - decorated by Bristol Young Carers





The Bridge lights have just lit up



Gorilla with top hat sitting at the base of the Suspension Bridge

A Night Out

My long awaited Christmas present arrived yesterday - Me and Mr Milly went to see Take That!  Mr Milly gave my the tickets for Christmas and last night was the long awaited evening - it's the 2nd time I've seen Take That live and they were brilliant!!  Mr Milly hasn't seen them before and I think he was even more excited than I was!   And a double treat for my lovely hubby - the show was in Wembly Stadium, he hasn't been in the new stadium and he loved it!!

It did take us 3 hours to get home after the show - 2.5 hours of that time was just to get out of Wembly, what a nightmare the traffic was,  and although we had a really good time and loved every minute of the concert - we were really glad to get home at 1.30 this morning!!

I had the day off yesterday - so I visited a Wyevale Garden centre which I don't go to very often,  I'm not sure why I don't,  just a little further to travel I guess,  but its a good one so think I will visit more often.    The have a gardeners club which is free to join, so I did!  So then I could buy half price seeds, so purchased;
Wild flower mix, Asters, Basil, Cherry tomatoes and had a packet of sweet peas for free,  then I found Rhubarb for half price,  £2.50 - I wanted 2 rhubard plants and with the one from my Uncle I now have 2!  Finally the lavender was half price also - so had one of those for the wild flower garden too!

On my way out of the Garden Centre and feeling very pleased with my bargain purchases I spotted a hand written sign outside of a little house - FREE tomato plants - well it finished off the garden centre visit perfectly!  And home with me came some Golden Plum and Sun gold tomato plants - they have today been soaked for a couple of hours and are now planted in the Lottie with their little red and yellow topped canes.   So all in all I think yesterday was a great day!

I can feel some painting coming on - I wonder where????!!

Cakes and Visitors

Its been a busy weekend again this weekend.  Friday evening my Auntie and Uncle came for a visit and dinner - we duly visited the Lottie for an inspection by my Uncle who is avery keen gardener and grows lots of his own veggies,  he brought me some rhubarb for my plot - to be planted as soon as I have a bed ready for it!  I think I passed the inspection - they both liked my little plot.   I decided my creative juices were flowing and with a glut of eggs I made a lemon meringue pie for dessert - its a very long time since I have made one of these but it was good!

On Saturday we had another visitor this one was to stay until Sunday night;-

This is Buddy

Isn't he just the cutiest little thing!!  He belongs to Mel who very kindly walks Star for us,  so we had no worries about the 2 dogs together, Buddy is just 18 months old and has know Star since he was 12 weeks old.  I have decided that I love him and want to keep him - he truely is the most adorable little thing and is very cuddly, just like a little teddy bear!  We have wooden floors in the house and we think Buddy must have carpet at home, so he found a little spot he liked and when he wasn't being my shadow or sitting on my lap you could find him curled up on the carpeted stairs!!

Mr Milly and Mr Girl both had plans over the weekend, so I spent a couple of ours on Saturday on my own at the Lottie - it is hard going when you are on your own and there is still so much to do!  I worked on the 7th bed and it was the worse one so far!  The ground was just a tangle of weeks and has taken hours just to dig out that one little bed - its a good job they haven't all been like that!

Creative juices still flowing, I made some mayonnaise and Wholegrain Mustard with beer,  all nicely sealed and labelled.  The Mayo and one of the Mustard was to be a birthday gift.




Mayo

 

Mustard



Today was My Bro's Birthday and I was delighted when I knew he was coming over to see me on his special day.  I had decided to make him birthday cake - Chocolate this time, I know he likes carrot cake, but his daughters are not too keen, but really like chocolate cake.   I bought all the ingrediants on Friday ready to get baking and then had a call from My Sister-in-Law to say My Bro would love one of my carrot cakes for his bithday - DOH!!!!   So the result;-

Two birthday cakes!



Chocolate cake, cards and jar!

Carrot cake



Chocolate cake with white chocolate curls and Carrot cake with cream cheese Frosting  - and both were yummy!  Twice we sung Happy Birthday as each cake came out!   I think he was pleased though - a little surprised too!!  Happy Birthday my lovely one and only Bro - love ya!!

After that - another couple of hours at the lottie - and finally the 7th bed was finished and planted with leeks which were a transplant from one of my neighbours plots.  A few sunflowers planted at the back of the bed, me and Mr Girl have now started a sunflower race!