Lottie the Scarecrow

My two little nephews spent sometime at the lottie with us last weekend.  What glorious weather we have been having!  We had a lovely day,  me and Mr Milly,  My sister-in-law and her hubby and their two lovely little men.

Encouraged by Mr Milly the boys decided it was time for Lottie to come out of hibernation in the shed and be set up on the plot for the summer.   A bit of a combined planning and thinking and Lottie now has pride of place in the flower garden.  Lots of photos to follow taken by Mr Milly and the sort of photos I think are the best - natural, uncomplicated and with a little story!

The Littlest nephew choosing the best spot for Lottie

The Oldest Nephew is about to join in.........

One thoughtful,  one doing......

One still doing,  the other giving instruction.......

That's it ....  a helping hand required

A perfect joint effort and don't they look pleased with themselves!

The littlest one is definately very pleased with his efforts - and I am too!!

Thank you for your help boys x  Auntie Ali x x 

Funky Pharoah

I was given a project just over a week ago,  due to the doldrums having set in for a while I haven't been crafting,  however this one had a deadline and was fairly quick and easy to do.

My oldest nephew has been studying Egypt at school and this week - tomorrow in fact!  Is dress up day.   Everyone has to dress in an Egyptian theme - so that was the project for Auntie!

Google supplied the idea and given the seal of approval by the nephew,  bits and pieces were purchased on the internet and then his mum was given a little list too to complete the outfit.   It didn't take very long to put together with lots of hand sewing  - which I find gentle and quite soothing.

Anyway the outfit was completed and has been hanging up for a few days for the grand try on - unfortunately there is no prize for the best outfit as I have been saying all week that he had better win!!!!  LOL!

Little Funky Pharaoh

I couldn't leave the little nephew out and as he loves to draw and colour I made him a little crayon caddy for carrying around.   A few bits and pieces of fabric from my stash and an hour or so alternating between the sewing machine and the iron - a quick visit to the local supermarket for a pack of pens and some stickers and he seemed pleased with his gift  - he immediately got the bits and pieces out of the caddy and made a card for his friend.  I guess that means a success for him too!

Individual pen pockets

One pocket for paper, another for stickers

A little carry around caddy

Dear Blog

I haven't forgotten you although it is a while since I visited.   Life is running at a slow pace at the moment and my mojo seems to have left the building!

I will be back to visit soon...  with a little Egyptian theme is to follow shortly.

Alison x

Garden Visitors

If you have been following my blog for a little while you will know we have a resident tree dwelling fox, you can read more  here and here.

Today we had some new visitors to admire for a little while,  a family of parakeets were in the trees at the end of the garden.   The parakeets have made Surrey their home with colonies of upto 7000 being recorded locally.  There are many theories as to how the parakeets came to reside in this area,  but whatever the theory it is good to see them.    They are very noisy though and squawk when they fly, they sound like a squeaky kiddies toy!   Today there was 7 at the end of the garden,  Mr Fox seemed quite interested in them and at some points they did seem to get very close to him!

Spring is in the Air

Sometimes I feel that I send myself loopy with reading different ways to do things/plant things/sow things.   Try Googling 'Sewing leeks' and you will see what I mean.  To stop this loopy-iness I have now decided to read a few 'how-tos' and then do what feels right.  Fingers crossed my decisions are the right ones and then wait and see what happens.

Anyway spring is in the air - the days are becoming longer and mostly a little warmer,  daffodils are out and on the plot and few bits and pieces are coming to life.  The autumn planted raspberries are beginning to grow some new canes,   the rhubarb I thought I had lost is now poking its head about the soil and the newly planted garlics now have a couple of inches of green growth on them.

At home the list is;-

Potatoes chitting in the shed
Leeks sown in cat litter trays in the plastic greenhouse
Sweet peas in pots in the greenhouse with a few new ones on a windowsill indoors.
Sungold tomatoes seeds sown - indoors
Alpine strawberries sown and germinated  - indoors
Chillis sown - indoors
Peppers sown - indoors
Melon sown - Indoors
Aubergines Sown - indoors
Gardeners Delight Tomatoes sown - indoors

At the Lottie
Brussell Sprouts - Polytunnel
Cabbage - Polytunnel
Calabrese - Polytunnel
Carrots - Polytunnel and direct sowing
Radish - Polytunnel
Little Gem Lettace - Polytunnel
Red Onion sets - Planted
White Onion Sets - Planted
Garlic - Planted
Shallots - Planted

Well that is quite a list isn't it!  I still have loads of seeds to be sown, and although it is tempting to be starting things off,  I have already learnt the hard way that too early is just no good,  so I am going to wait as long as possible before starting things off.

Today it has been lovely bright, warm and sunny.  The Portuguese Housekeeper came with me to the Lottie,  we took a little feast as it is hungry work and energy food is definately needed!

We spent about and hour and a half doing the dreaded digging and for me today that was quite enough!  Then we decided to tackle the greenhouse frame - and what a saga that turned out to be!   We did manage to put the frame together and I have to say we were pretty pleased with ourselves that the 2 of us girlies managed to complete it on our own without any male assistance!

Monster roots

This is latest one dug up.     That is my full size adult spade next to the root - it took the best part of an hour to get it all out of the ground.

It is very very very very slow going digging out this bed, which I think may not have been dug for 20 years,  this root was more like a tree than a bramble.   Poor Mr Milly sits and watches me and I can feel his frustration across the plots.   It must be incredibly tedious watching someone dig and not being able to help.   He did say this week, when I was grumbling about how slow I am - that I am not slow,  but I am very meticulous.  And that is why Mr Milly is good to have at the plot with me  - for the encouragement - he did make me feel better and I felt like I was doing a slow but good job!

More digging....

The buzz word for me at the moment continues to be 'dig',  to say I am fed up with digging would be an understatement.   Yesterday I dug the area which will be the base for the Greenhouse and then continued with the massive bed  which is between the 2 plots.   The digging wouldn't be too bad, but this area is so very weedy and rooty - I believe it is 20 years since this area has been properly turned over and don't I know it!  

It's not all hard work though - we make time for a cuppa now and again!  I wonder how many people make hot chocolate with marshmallows at their Lottie?!!

Anyway - that is enough about digging for now - today it has rained all day, non stop,  all the animals have had food and water topped up and changed - the chickens seems happy in the rain and charged around the garden looking for bugs for a little while.   Not too long unfortunately as I didn't want to spend too long in the garden with them today as I was getting soaked!   I did potter in the plastic Greenhouse in the garden and sowed a few more seeds - fingers crossed these do OK!

And that pretty much sums up the weekend....  digging and raining!

World Book Day

My sister-in-law came over a few days ago - she works in a school and it is World Book Day this week.   A bit strange as it is called World Book DAY - but her school and her sons schools held their book days on different days this  week!

Anyway - it is not just the children who dress up as a Character from a book but also the staff,  we needed our thinking heads!  She had decided to dress as Cat in the Hat as they have a Cat in the Hat hat at home from World Book Day last year.   We Googled some pictures to get an idea of what was required and then we set to work - well I set to work which I believe was the idea of the visit! LOL!  

I had a rummage and found some white flannelling  - that would do for the furry tummy,  a piece of plain red material - that would make the bow tie,  but I was missing black material for the tail.  I like colour and black is not something I keep on hand.   Anyway Sister-in-law promised to return the following day with some black material.  Google as usual came up with a tutorial for a bow tie,  slightly tailored to make it adult, Cat in the Hat size.  Then there was a question of what black top we would be using for the body - fortunately I had a suitable top,  one that is a little short on me, but would fit the bill perfectly for this project.

Anway,  it all came together nicely and I was chuffed with the end result.   My sister-in-law was too and fortunately all the children knew who she was, so we must have done a good job!

Cat in the Hat