My little friends

I spent Monday morning plotting, mostly working on the areas where I  grow flowers. It wasn’t too long before I was joined by my little friend.

In a few weeks time I shall be hopefully emptying the compost heap and look forward to the company of a robin, or maybe two.

The RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch is this weekend, which I shall enjoy doing. I will be looking out of the front window at the area where I scatter bird food and no doubt that one of the birds I’ll see will be a robin.

On arriving at the trading shed on Sunday mornings I put the kettle on then refill the bird feeder. The robins there even come into the shed occasionally!

Seeing, and hearing, one of my little friends always brightens up the day.

Have a good weekend!

Say it with flowers

Nikkipolani noticed that I didn’t do my usual post on Thursday and made this comment earlier today.

I’ve had one of those weeks where I simply didn’t want to do much at all, and spent most of it reading four novels!

I didn’t even go to the plot, although that was due to the weather being mostly wet and windy.

I’m still struggling to write a proper post so instead I’ll say it with flowers.

I don’t think that I’ve shown any of these photos before and hope that they give us all something to look forward to again later this year.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

[Click on any picture to see a larger image]

Greenfingers

For the past three years members of Allotments 4 All, including myself, have done a Christmas present donation to a national gardening charity.

In 2009 it was to Thrive, in 2010 to Gardening Leave and last year Greenfingers was chosen.  I’d not heard of it so when it was suggested I looked at the website, and the Charity Commission overview, to find out all about it.

It’s a small national charity that creates magical gardens for children’s hospices to support children with life limiting conditions, together with their families.

As usual I set up a Just Giving donation page and contacted the charity to let them know what we were doing.

Greenfingers was clearly a good choice as the total donated was almost £670, our best yet much to our delight.  As one member commented…It’s really heartwarming to see such generosity, especially when things are hard for many right now, and it fair restores your faith in humanity.

This is another charity that I’m not only happy to donate to but support by including the logo as a link over on the right.  I also like it on Facebook and follow it on Twitter, where it’s @Greenfingerscha.

January plotting

I was plotting Monday and yesterday, when it was a very pleasant spring-like morning.

There were no robins to be seen but yesterday I saw a dunnock a couple of times which had obviously found something on the plot to its liking. It’s a bird that I rarely see to identify so it was pleasing to watch this one.

Daffodils are starting to peek above ground and these white crocus are several weeks early.  I’m hoping to see them open but frosts are forecast for the next few nights which may well finish them off before they do.

Thanks to the damp, mild winter it’s noticeable that the grass hasn’t really stopped growing and is still looking rather lush as you can see in this plot photo taken yesterday morning.

Over on Sofa flying there’s The joy of books… that I’m sure will appeal to book buffs!

Have a good weekend!

Here we go again!

Last week was very wet and windy at times for many of us here in the UK.  I looked round the plot on Friday morning when it was calmer and was relieved to see that all was okay.  It certainly wasn’t the best of starts to the new year for many gardeners.

Yesterday was calm, dry and mild so I spent the morning plotting. A few hours tidying and weeding in the fresh air was most welcome. Keeping me entertained were well over twenty parakeets flying round together and in smaller groups squawking away as usual. I’m told that at dawn and dusk perhaps as many as a couple of hundred can now be seen!

The coming week’s forecast is looking good so I shall certainly be doing some more plotting, and if the ground has dried out a bit even do some digging.

This year I’m hoping to grow better and successionally, and I’ll be growing pretty much what I did last year but in some cases different varieties. I’ll be trying broad bean Medes, runner bean Red Rum and sweet corn Sundance all of which have the coverted RHS Award of Garden Merit (AGM).

The horticultural society tradng shed has been closed the past two Sundays and reopened this morning.  It was fairly busy as during the week we took delivery of seed potatoes, onion and shallot sets.  I’ll be growing first early potatoes Vales Emerald, second earlies Charlotte & Kestrel and maincrop Desiree.  My onions will be Sturon, which I hope to be planting out at the end of February or the beginning of March.

Reading various gardening blog posts during the past week there’s been a definite sense of here we go again!

Happy gardening!

Onwards with G…

continues the occasional series A sort of Plot A to Z.

I have two groups of gladioli which provide plenty of colour during July and August.

As well as ordinary grass paths across, and around, the plot there are a few ornamental grasses. There are many species and varieties with over 80 being listed in the Chiltern Seeds catalogue.

I sometimes see Gatekeeper butterflies and last August was lucky enough to photograph this one.

I must give a special, and affectionate, mention to Glo (Porcelain Rose) who not only comments regularly but with great imagination has made various other contributions which have been most welcome, and always made me grin with delight. For example see the awards that she has given me for the previous posts in this series. Our friendship goes back nearly four years as you can see in A new friend, and long may it continue.

Edited Fri, 6 Jan to include Glo’s Golden Gardening Gloves Award (see comment).  It lists grapes which I do grow and should have mentioned!   Thank you Glo!

Have a good weekend!

Ho! Ho! Ho!

I’ve had a mostly quiet, and relaxing, time over the past couple of weeks  for which I’m thankful as I often find this time of year difficult to cope with.

I received some wonderful cards including this one designed exclusively for Thrive by Martin Rolfe.

A present to myself was a packet of Chrysanthemum ‘Crazy Daisy’ seeds. Among the other various useful presents and prizes I opened one package on Christmas Day morning to find that it included a large colourful woolly slug which had me laughing out loud.

The chocolate biscuits that I mentioned recently didn’t last long as I ate them whilst enjoying reading Alan Bradley’s fourth Flavia de Luce book.

Most days have been mild but overcast and often wet, which can get a bit dispiriting.  A few sunny ones would have been welcome for my occasional walks round the plot.  As it is I’ve spent much of the time armchair gardening and watching the antics of various birds out front.

Happy New Year…Flighty xx

Earthflight…

is the eye-catching title of what, for me, is likely to be a TV highlight.

Earthflight looks like being a fascinating new nature series which starts on BBC1 at 8.00pm this evening.

I hope that as well as being a happy, healthy year for all of us 2012 will see our gardens flourish and flower abundantly.

Have a good weekend!

Merry Christmas!

…Flighty  xx

Bright spots

This time of year is one of the reasons for my being noticeably moochy at present. Thankfully there have been some bright spots which have lifted my spirits.

Elaine, A Woman Of The Soil  has kindly given me this blog award. My thanks as they’re always nice to receive, and I shall be mentioning it, and her, again in a forthcoming post.

As you can see I was one of the surprise present winners over on Allotments 4 All, which is to do with the members Christmas donations to Greenfingers. The parcel arrived on Thursday but I won’t be opening it until Christmas day. I shall be doing a post about all this early in the New Year.

Watching the birds at home during the week has been a real delight as they have included a pied wagtail a couple of times, which was feeding on the crushed peanuts in the food I’d scattered on top of the brick pillar.

I went to the plot this morning but didn’t take any photos as it’s all looking rather bleak. Instead I turned round and took this. It’s been ages since I last saw a rainbow, and I don’t think that I’ve ever photographed one before.

Tomorrow morning at the trading hut it’s the horticultural society Christmas party, with free food and drink and a raffle.  Last year I won a couple of prizes, including a Sainsbury’s £5 gift card which I’ve only just got round to spending on a tin of Fox’s Wonders, which are an indulgent collection of luxurious biscuits covered in milk, dark and white chocolate.

Have a good Sunday!