March 2007 Archives

I decided I really needed to tackle the fish tank today, we've had a few deaths in there recently including quite sadly 'Mr Sucky Fish' (he was some sort of sucking loach but known to us as mr sucky fish and was actually the second version!) there was also a nasty case of green slime going on so I gathered the buckets and sorted it out , here it is looking a lot cleaner and welcome to the new arrivals - not including a new mr sucky fish as I couldn't see one in the fish shop and didn't like to sound like a loon asking for one when I had no idea of his technical name (it's rather full of professional fish fanciers in there!)

I then cleaned Bob out (quite a task as he has a 3 floor hutch and the wind had got up so ended up with more hay on me then in the hutch) here is only it's from behind as he was engrossed in a bit of dandelion and wouldn't turn around.

I even treated the wormery - I've ordered them a new blanket and a top up of worms as they're a bit slow after winter and aren't keeping up with the rate of kitchen scraps, though I've not taken a pic of it as rotting food with worms in isn't the most attractive! But they do make the most excellent compost (eventually) and 'worm juice' which is fab plant food.

Tiggy has attempted to help with all this action but after the day she didn't realise the lid was open on the fish tank and accidentally jumped in I've been very careful to keep her out!

Apologies it's been 12 days since I last posted! It's been one of those periods when you seem to be trying to get so much done and cram it all in that time just flies past without you noticing! So what have I been up to?

After spending the first half of our week off gardening we then went 'down South' to catch up with friends and family, it was my birthday while we were there (cue my over reaction to my birthday that I've been having since I turned 30 - namely getting ridiculously depressed after too much to drink about getting older) we went out for a lovely meal with friends Paul and Gill which continued into cocktails and ended in silly dancing wearing a purple glittery cowboy hat?!? Well that made me feel young again - nearly! The next morning we went to meet Paul and Gill's new additions to the family - chickens! Had I not been so hungover I'd have taken pics to post as they were remarkably entertaining chickens! particularly the escapologist one that no sooner had it been put back in the run it popped up in the garden again!

I had a lovely parcel waiting for me when I got back from Max wit some fab Decole Mushroom Magnets, a book and some Divine chocolate (not in the pic as I ate it straight away!).

When we got back Nicci from next door who is lovely about looking after Bob the rabbit every time we go away explained that in the gale force winds one of his hutch doors blew off! but after searching all over the garden panicking and wondering where on earth she was going to get a geriatric old rabbit from to replace him she found him sheltering on the other floor of the hutch! sensible old bunny, who is moulting at the moment so looks a frightfully scruffy little old bun' and covers me in hair when I pick him up no matter how much I brush him.

On the knitting front I have finished the lovely summer top from the latest Rowan book and I'm rather pleased - I just need a large shell with a hole in it to thread on a cord for the back detail, here it is from the front (the back scoops down low).

As a final note, the scottish heather border at the front is looking lovely in full bloom!

Well I think that's me caught up, promise not to leave it so long again!

Apologies for rather sporadic posting lately, mainly due to an awful lot of gardening (much of it in the rain!) and spending most evenings in the bath recovering. This is what we've achieved this week:

We put in a water butt to the greenhouse which with the aid of a clever watering system will water the greenhouse much more thoroughly than in past years and I'm intending when it's full to put 'worm juice' (from the wormery, mainly consisting I think of worm wee and sweat but very very good feed!) into the butt so everything is getting lots of feed!

We recycled some more wooden boxes to create a raised bed for salad crops where there had previously been the 'dumping ground' so we made several trips to the tip with tub trugs full of rocks dug out of the garden. I'm rather pleased and it will hold a lot more than the greenhouse which gets over run with tomatoes and be easier to harvest at dinner time! However as at the moment it is just boxes of compost Tiggy thought we'd just opened the latest in public conveniences for cats!! so that will have to be discouraged!

We finally got the potatoes planted which turned into an epic when in my last trench I came across something solid where the potato needed to go - after about an hour of Paul and I digging and levering we finally got out not just a rock but a boulder about a foot square! I then had to reconstruct my carefully dug trench and carry on planting!

And finally here's Tiggy who seemed convinced that there was something for her in the gift bag!

So after the last few days hard graft I was very glad to get to a nice relaxing knitting group this evening!

Ha ha Paul must have been buying me presents from Amazon as they've sent him an e-mail of recommendations which are all knittng books!

Knitting group this week had settled down at around 18 of us - rather difficult to count though as we kept wandering around to see what everyone else was up to - but it's a nice group with a lot of regulars getting to know each other, and we've all agreed to knit a jumper for a penguin!?! I'm looking for a chart to do a fish picture on the front that I thought a penguin would appreciate!

Seedlings are going well on the kitchen window sill - may have to do some pricking out this weekend, there is nothing so relaxing and satisfying as a bit of pricking out in my shed with the radio on, Tiggy likes to join me but she tends to try to sit in the potting tray which is a bit inconvenient. I now have the dilemma of whether to spend this evening finishing the front of my knitting or making little pots from newspaper (tried to delegate this to Paul last year but they mostly fell apart - not sure if he did this on purpose to avoid the job this year or he's just crap at making pots?) Problem is that both of us had rather crap days at work and hit the red wine rather early and neither of us are really up to making a good job of knitting or making pots!

Anyway here's hoping that the rain forcast for tomorrow is wrong so we can get back out digging in the veg. plot!