A blogging good year!

For myself,  as for many others, this year has not ended on a high note thanks to the economic downturn.

However I do feel that it has been a blogging good year!

It’s been my fourth year as a blogger and I’m enjoying it as much as I ever have, and perhaps even so with my Flighty’s plot posts. I’ve continued to do my  regular Thursday and Sunday posts every week, and  a few more besides.  I’m also thankful to everyone who stops by to read them, and especially to those of you who comment.

During the year there have been a some  changes to my Lawn loungers favourites, which I suppose is inevitiable. A few weeks ago I was surprised, and sad,  to find that Aboveboard had deleted her blog without warning.

Looking at, and often commenting on,  all these favourite blogs has long been part of my blogging routine and I look forward to seeing  more excellent posts and photos next year.

As it’s unlikely that I shall be posting here again this year I would like to wish you all a 

Happy Christmas reading!

I generally buy myself a non-fiction book for Christmas.

This year it’s The Bedside Book Of The Garden by Dr. D.G.Hessayon. On the back cover it says...Gardening is about planning and planting and pottering, but it is also about sitting back occasionally and just looking and imagining…

I shall enjoy sitting down to read it with the obligatory cup of tea and a couple of the Royal Edinburgh All Butter Shortbread Assortment that I’ve been given.

Happy Christmas reading!

My heartfelt thanks…

to everyone who visits  here.  I wish all of you the very best for the festive season which I know is a particularly difficult period for some, myself included.

This is the picture on the front of cards that I sent to some good friends.  I bought them from Thrive, the horticultural charity that uses gardening to change lives, which is a good cause that I support.

Christmas TV

There are a few nature and wildlife programmes, mostly repeats, among the more usual fare that’s  seen at this time of year.

Being repeated on BBC2 weekdays all next week and the one after are The Life of Mammals with David Attenborough at 8.30am followed at 9.30am by both series of Wainwright Walks with Julia Bradbury.

Over on Five next week is Penguin Adventure with Nigel Marven being shown each weekday morning at various times.

On Christmas Eve on BBC1 at 1.40pm  is Big Cat Diary – What Happened Next? and over on Five at 6.30pm is  Polar Bear Adventure with Nigel Marven.

There is an intriguing looking programme being shown on Sunday 28th on ITV1 at 6.00pm. It’s Help! I’m No Bigger Than A Bug in which naturalist Nigel Marven, along with his team, are shrunk to half-an-inch tall then attempt to cross his garden. They’ll investigate the daily fight for survival that takes place in this miniature jungle.

On Monday 29th on BBC2 at 6.15pm is another showing of the delightful documentary Joanna Lumley in the Land of the Northern Lights.

I will be doing entries as usual over the holiday period but the next two Thursday entries will be a day or two earlier than usual.

Have a good weedend!

The plot and the hut

It rained all day on Saturday so needless to say the plot is not only looking rather bleak but extremely soggy as well. I guess that for the next few weeks I’ll be doing little more than refilling the bird feeders

and checking the pond

That’s a Starling on the nut feeder, and in the second photo you can just about see the pond to the middle right. I presume the the flattened grass to the middle left was made by a fox curled up and resting.

The horticultural society held it’s Christmas party in the hut on Sunday morning. There were around 40 people there chatting, eating and drinking for a couple of hours. Towards the end a raffle took place with Santa handing out the prizes. I actually won one of them much to my surprise.  It’s a cast resin(?) decorative which can be hung on the wall  with hooks for keys or whatever.  It’s on a sheet of A4 paper to give some idea of size

The frogs aren’t part of it but were inside Christmas crackers that I, and someone else, had!

I also got given a large paper bag full of various bulbs, mostly daffodils and some hyacinths.

Yesterday morning I was back there to help with stock taking which didn’t take more than a couple of hours. I came home with a very generous  doggy bag which included a big slice of very tasty Christmas cake.

The hut will be closed for the next two Sundays so I had to buy lots of bird food to hopefully last until it re-opens.

Next year I’m on the rota of hut helpers which means being there one Sunday morning a month for the couple of hours that it’s open.

Plot plants ~ Sunflowers

Sunflowers were such a delight to see on the plot that I intend growing lots more next year.

There’ll be the classic Giant Singles (above) and some multi-headed Autumn Beauties (below),  which didn’t fare too well this year due to the miserable weather soon after they bloomed.

The Great Sunflower Project may be of interest to anyone in America or Canada.  My thanks to Tina who did an entry about it recently on her blog  Happy Hobby Habit.

Gardeners, flyers and wildlife

Tomorrow evening I shall settle down to watch two very contrasting programmes on BBC2.

At 8.00pm there is Gardener of the Decade in which five previous winners of Gardener of the Year compete for this award. It comes from the Eden Project in Cornwall which has long been on my must visit list!

That’s followed at 9.00pm by an hour and a half documentary RAF at 90. I shall be particularly interested in the early years as I’ve recently read a couple of books for this period including On a Wing and a Prayer by Joshua Levine.

There’s nothing new on next week worth mentioning here but there are two repeats on BBC2 Sunday evening .

At 7.10pm there is Natural World Cork – Forest in a Bottle which explores the Alentejo region of Portugal which has some of Europe’s rarest wildflowers and nesting places for booted eagles.

That’s followed at 8.00pm by Coast Cornwall and The Isles of Scilly.

Lastly I have a confession to make! I’ve been watching some day-time television. Last week and this I’ve been watching Gardeners’ World Top Tips and Nature’s Top 40.

I’ve  enjoyed the latter and was surprised to see what is at number 24!

Have a good weekend!

Thanks to More Veg

Having enjoyed growing some vegetables this year and got a lot of satisfaction eating them I’ve been thinking about what to grow next year.

Seed Potatoes and onion sets I shall buy from the Horticultural Society in the new year, and I’ve got a couple of packets of tomato seeds – all of which I’ll write about another time.

I made a list of what I’d like to grow, and following a couple of recommendations I decided to order eight packets of vegetable seeds for just over £5 inc. p&p  from More Veg. As the  excellent website says they supply vegetable, and herb, seeds in realistic quantities at affordable prices.

I ordered online on a Thursday evening, got a confirmation email the following afternoon that they’d been posted and received them the following Monday. Not only was the service prompt but the packing and contents were first class.

This is what I got, and note that the figure in brackets is the number of seeds.

Beans, Runner White emergo (24)…has white flowers, a vigourous nature, withstands adverse weather and has a delicious flavour.

Beetroot Burpees Golden (50)…a sweet tasting orange-yellow root that does not bleed.

Carrot Little Fingers (150)…just 10 cm long, sweet and tender which can be harvested in 8/9 weeks.

Courgette All Green Bush (6)…a popular and reliable variety with dark green fruits best cut when about 10 cm long.

Cucumber Bush Crop (4)…a compact bushy plant with 15 cm fruits.

Lettuce Buttercrunch (50)…has small dense upright heads with a crisp and crunchy texture.

Spring Onion Summer Isle (100)…has a sweet mild flavour and is early maturing.

Sweet Corn Golden Bantam (20)…is a classic old variety with slender 18 cm cobs which is wind resistant.

I reckon that for anyone who cannot afford  to spend much on seeds or just has a small area, perhaps even a few containers, to grow vegetables in then buying them like this really does seem a sensible option.

I thought that I did quite well this year despite doing little more than just planting the seeds. Next year I shall be devoting more time and attention to them. With that, and hopefully some better weather, I should be eating more veg thanks to

That time of year

As it’s that time of year all I have to say is…

‘It’s behind you!’

.

There’s nothing of note on TV next week that I’d mention here so I’ll end this brief entry as I usually do.

Have a good weekend!

Froggy things!

Back in October I received a parcel full of froggy things for my birthday from Glo(Porcelain Rose)

At the top is a handmade Froggy card, below that to the right is a chocolate frog, the gold foil wrapper contained a delicious dark chocolate wafer, in the middle is the only copy of the Frog ponderings book and over on the left are the Frog Canook twins who we’ll have a keep an eye out for on the plot

Some time ago I mentioned in a comment about possibly turning the plot into a rice paddy if it kept raining! Well Nikki and Beginninghere remembered that and sent me a fine pair of wooden chopsticks which they figured would be useful if I did!

They also me sent a wonderful hand carved Frog Socal , which you’ve already seen sunning itself on the plot log pile.

Once again my thanks to you all for these froggy things!