I've started walking again

 After losing my closest friend last year I hadn't felt like going for a walk on my own.  Yesterday I woke up with the urge to get out for a walk. And that's exactly what I did. Then this morning I went for another walk. Though it's not the same without Marian I think I'll start walking every day again. And it looks like I could certainly use the exercise.  Our ceilidh friends sent me a little video clip from Friday's ceilidh.  Crikey I've piled on the pounds. I do always look big next to Tony as he's shorter than me but I think I'll trade him in for a taller bloke just to make me look slimmer.  😃 😊 

Lovely evening

 Tony and I have spent the loveliest evening  entertaining our friends Brenda and Brian.  I love cooking for them as they are such good company and always so appreciative.  They took the leftovers home so that we aren't tempted to indulge ourselves with loads of carbs. 

Brian keeps chickens so I pulled a tatty cabbage and a load of chard leaves for them as they're struggling to source cheap greenstuff for the hens. Pulling the cabbage means that as soon as the current cold spell is finished I'll be able to get that particular raised bed ready for planting. There's plenty of kohlrabi seedlings coming on nicely and they'll be big enough to plant out in a few weeks.

Who's a domestic goddess then.

 We have friends coming over for tea tomorrow so I've been busy prepping.  I've cooked a gorgeous beef curry for the meat eaters and a big pan of tomato rice. I've cooked a huge bowl of pasta ready to turn into a macaroni cheese tomorrow and all I need do tomorrow is make the cheese sauce and prep a bowl of salad. Curry is always much nicer if it's allowed to develop and apparently cooking and chilling rice and pasta reduces the starch. I'm trying to get into the habit of cooking and chilling them the day before I need them.

Tony saw a big frog in the garden yesterday so I'm hoping it'll find the pond. 

Lovely gardening weather

 It's been absolutely gorgeous today. My solar powered pond fountain arrived and after faffing about for ages it now looks gorgeous.  I can't wait till the plants start to fill out a bit. Next month I'll pop a few pond plants in and with a bit of luck it'll quickly become a wildlife haven.  I'm hoping that it's not too late for frogs and newts to find it. 

Model garden update

 On Tuesday while I was at my woodcarving club my friend Jim pointed out that my model garden now needs planters and clothes. We'd been talking about my latest garden acquisitions from Aldi. So of course last night I made a start making the miniatures.  I've just given them a lick of paint and when they are dry I'll make the plastic covers

It's gardening weather

 Yesterday I spent pretty much all day working in the garden.  (In between cooking a big pan of beef and veg broth). The broth was absolutely delicious and I have left a big portion for Tony's tea tonight as I'm going over to a friend's for lunch. We're a small group of friends that have been meeting up for a meal every six weeks or so for about twenty years. We're all retired now so last year we decided to take turns occasionally hosting an afternoon buffet and it's been great fun. We're planning on making soup through the winter months but Lynn is cooking chilli today.  It's an hour's walk to get to Lynn's so I am meeting up with another friend and we'll walk together.  I haven't had a decent walk since losing my best friend last year. 

My garden is looking very colourful at the moment and the pond is settling in nicely.  Last night we bought some watercress and it's hopefully going to root in a couple of glasses of water. I'm reliably told that it makes a great pond plant. I'll chuck a couple of spare bits straight into the pond to see if that's a better way to root it.

Pond update

 The pond edging strip arrived and we've installed it in the pond. Two metres wouldn't have been quite enough so I had to buy an extra metre. Rather than waste it we have simply used it to line the entire pond. We took it back out of the pond and removed the black edge  strip as it looked a bit unsightly. I've just discovered that you can grow watercress as an oxygenating plant. The bags from supermarkets are really easy to root and are great as pond filter plants.  Newts will lay eggs in the leaves. I'll get some tomorrow night at Sainsbury's and root it in water before I just throw it in the pond.

Sending seeds

 We don't all need the entire packet of seeds and it's lovely sharing with other gardeners. These are going to my friend Ali.  We're online friends and are unlikely to ever meet but have shared seeds with one another for over a year.

 

And here's a birthday card that I've made for a family friend.  I'm not great at male cards but Phil loves travel so it's quite appropriate 

Our lovely new pond

 The pond is almost finished.  All it needs is the pebble edging which will arrive tomorrow.  Originally we had thought about using gravel and large cobbles but worried that they'd simply slide into the pond. I recalled that a friend had bought a pebble covered edging strip for her pond and to be honest it wasn't much more expensive than gravel and cobbles. I paid a bit over the top so that it would arrive tomorrow. It'll be perfect for frogs and newts when it gets established.  We're going to buy some small pond plants tomorrow and it won't look so bare.

Gutted

 The strong winds through the night have tipped over my mini greenhouse damaging most of the seedlings that I'd been hardening off. I'm so disappointed as they were growing really well. The wind also battered my lovely white nine star broccoli which had just started to produce heads. It's beyond salvaging so I've lost this years harvest.