Gardening

 Our neighbour getting ready to plant tatties on half his chook patch

 Pirate getting ready to fill a hole...

Then to roll it

It takes all sorts!!
I am planning on the next vege bed...we are forecast a few cold windy damp days, so perhaps I might eveñ get some drawings done and put some more work in the Etsy shop.....

Up and...walking!

At last I have got something back in the Etsy shop! It is a beginning...I am aiming to have a page of prints on the blog as well...It is so long since I did the pots page, I have to work out how to do it!!

Taking stock

Starting with the small cards...
This is not my favourite job! However it must be done if I am not to get in a complete fangle.
I should be able to repost some on Etsy , just with an adjustment to the P&P as the postal rates have just increased.
Next up the larger prints, framed and unframed...then the pots.
Most of the pots are outside in the stock shed, so I am hoping for a little warmer weather for that job!

Meanwhile Pirate is busy spiking the lawns and filling a dip in the front lawn with a spare bag of earth.
I can't see the point....you can't eat grass!!

Life goes on

We have been getting out in the garden..but it is cold, not a lot above freezing.
Pirate has started clearing sheds, and found that mice had Ben in the workshop and wasps in the pot shed!!
The fruit bushes are beginning to blossom...already! And I have started sowing seeds.

Our neighbour is turning half his chook enclosure over to tatties...and giving his Fergie some exercise!

 And we are trying to barricade the house against the jackdaws..the local roofers said they would do it a month ago..but it is too small a job for them to bother..now they just use the virus as an excuse even though they could do it and we stay indoors and pay over the phone..

More baking!

 Mini gingerbread people!

 Split pea savoury, apple and cherry crumble with fruit from the freezer and a jar full of oatcakes..

Homemade lunch...plus apple and cheese.

Spring is teasing us..here it is still cold although you can feel that things are itching to grow..further South it is 5 degrees warmer..at least!! And they have sunshine!!
We had fog last night which thinned to mist by 10 am...and it has been misty all day...more if the same tomorrow...and clearer but colder on the weekend.

Baking and making

The blood orange marmalade looks a success, I tried a new recipe from Good Food.au . It took longer than expected...possibly as it was beet rather than cane sugar, possibly because the oranges were really ripe so that it would have needed more lemon juice to raise the acidity.
We will have to test it on the bread...which I hope will be good to eat...it overflowed the tins a little on the last rise. Next time the dough will get divided into three!

Life goes on

Our morning view as we ride our turbotrainers

Then healthy breakfast with a different smoothie every morning!

Pirate's walking exercise today was mowing lawns, this is next door's so that the grandkids living there have more playspace.

Today I learned how to make chapattis to go with our lunchtime curry...warming up was needed as the wind is strong and bitterly cold.

Monday washday

The sheets wash was in by 8 and dry before lunch!!
Looks like it will be ironing today as well.

Our turbo ride today was to The Cajun Classics, "C'est Fun"... Cue for a bit of fast pedalling 😎

Spring is sprung!

Safer on the mantelpiece!

Surreal

Pirate commented that it is like a dream that you will awake from..all this doesn't seem real.

Meanwhile we are riding our bikes on our turbo trainers for half an hour in the morning, then gardening for fresh air.
Walking practice will be up and down stairs for ten minutes...
Pirate is doing exercises to build up his shoulder muscles and arms after crashes in 2007 and 2009...the damage wasn't properly mended then. Its possible one shoulder could be reconstructed at last...

So we are keeping busy and healthy.
Pirate "rode shotgun" when I went shopping this afternoon...and stayed in the car...if I had gone alone, you can bet that the car would misbehave!!
Shopping was fine, I got practically all we needed..but then we don't buy ready made.
The loo roll , potato and flour shelves were empty. ..so I didn't get flour. 
However I have been brought up to keep a good storecupboard.
When the children were young we lived on a smallholding and were members of a food co-op, shopping every two months for staples and once a week for the fresh goods that we didn't grow ourselves. You learnt quickly to manage stores and have a backup especially in Winter when the delivery could be disrupted by snow and ice.
Who knows when this will be over...
It is the end of the world as we know it..we must respect the earth from now on and not abuse our resources with impunity.

We need a kinder society but will we get one?

When the panic buying in some places in the USA has been guns?

When so many people already have nothing..and many more will be without jobs and income

It is the Elephant in the Room..not just the virus, but how we are treating the planet we live on.

Today's projects

 Yesterday we supported our local family owned garden centre and took advantage of the usual Spring special offers

Then did a little hoeing and weeding

And this morning the jackdaw lovebirds were eyeing up our eaves where the soffit needs mending...

He is scarifying the lawn...just don't tell him that is the patch that is destined to be the next vege bed.....
And I have at last reached the sewing table..now to see if the tension is ok.

Gardens

A couple of days ago we weeded and dug a friends' garden...she isn't strong enough, and he has been through cancer treatment twice.
We brought our own tools  and lunch, and got the vege patch ready for planting and the greenhouse weeded.
Their gardener has injured his leg, so cannot work for a while.
This way it won't be a huge job when he is better again.
Our friend has rediscovered lawn mowing ...just the walking exercise he needs!

What was your garden like when you were growing up?
I was born in a thatched cottage with a well stocked fruit and vege plot..and I have always had something, even just a row of herbs growing on a windowsill in one student flat.
I was happiest with good productive gardens, one on our smallholding in North Wales and my two allotments in the South Wales valleys.

Food memories

I have just read Cro's blog on his 'must have' food, sandwich spread...and Lettice with the canapés being cheesy wotsits.
Pirate has to have HP sauce on eggs....during the war  theand in 40s, his family used to make bread into Cocoa Sop...soak it in hot milk with cocoa.

I am wondering what are my, and your food that you must have, or that brings memories.
My father's was condensed milk spread on bread...called Connie Onnie...and he would still sneak a slice when mother wasn't looking!
I carry on what grandma taught me, home preserving and bottling and baking.  We used to buy McVitie's Jamaica ginger cake, which you can still get...but it has shrunk massively!
I remember fresh fruit and veges from the garden.

How about you?

A different day

Certainly very different to our plans!
The weekly visit to the velodrome in Glasgow was cancelled, not just to avoid crowded places..but because of snow on the roads and high winds.
Then as we were about to go out for a short walk, we received a phone call...a friend's bike was freewheeling both ways! Luckily he was only five miles away. We collected him and bike in the car, his ride companion rode back to our home and he was given a wheel to borrow..and they shared a pot of tea before heading home.
After lunch we delivered a photograph of Pirate and his 1999 masters championship medal with the wife of the late club sponsor..a BMW dealer...by a large shiny car!...to the lady in question. The local paper had never given her a copy!

Over to collect the borrowed wheel then home again through heavy rain and hail showers....and arrive home at sunset....

As ever it was dramatic a mile from home...but no place to stop and take photos!

Two days away

 Carsphairn

 Southerness

 Dumfries

 Castle Douglas

 By Loch Ken

 New Galloway...the old town hall that the community hopes to buy

 and drawing re-started

Two days without phones or internet!