Beans update and ... heck, more flowers

OK so I've been a bit remiss lately and I do apologise. Some of the time life seems a bit tricky at the moment, between my health and my Mum's. However, today is lovely and sunny, so that's always encouraging. Here are some violas and crocuses, out in the garden today.

I love the purple stripes on these.

Yesterday we took some of those beans in tp tubes up to the plot and planted them out. Annie took a shot with her phone and, as she said, I look truly eccentric, wrapping netting around my baby bean plants so that the local birds don't just eat them!

I aim to get back up there this week and plant some onion sets and some turnip and carrot seeds. So, there may be more photographic evidence to come ...

Meanwhile we have had the carpet in the living room cleaned today, so we were sitting out in the conservatory this afternoon (porch) whilst we let the carpet dry. We both heard a fluttering sound and found what we assume to be a moth, with very lovely lacy shaped wings. Inside the wings were brown and orange but she/he didn't want to pose with open wings, so this is what we have.
She/he kept bashing against the windows so, after a bit, I gave up with photograpy to help her/him to safety - outside! Needless to say, by that time a certain terrier was also becoming interest in the fluttering noises ...

Growing stuff and a hero

Today's post is inspired by some sunshine. This morning is quite chilly, (36, according to the puter) but lovely and sunny. So, I have nipped outside and taken a few shots of the flowers in the garden (yard). One thing that makes me sad about spring is that we don't get to spend that much time in the garden as it is not warm enough for too much hanging around! This is more noticeably a shame now that we have been here a few years and so I have quite a few things planted and coming up all prettily.

One of the best things about spring, however, is watching stuff grow. The allotment gives me lots of excuses to grow different plants this year and this shot is of some broad beans (same ones that I planted at the plot) growing in TP tubes, in the house.

It is said that if you start some off indoors like this they can produce beans earlier, so I decided to try this out. The TP tubes are supposed to give them a good start as they are deep-rooted plants and the tube can go striaght into the ground, protecting the roots. So the next step will be to harden these off a little and then they can be planted out, in a few weeks. Naturally, I will keep you posted.

And finally, here is our plot hero, Colin. He has now given me his permission to publish his picutre which I suspect is a good thing all round, since he's clearly going to do a lot of work at the plot and I'd hate him to be invisible on the blog. I think he looks quite bemused by the taks here, and who can blame him! Thanks already, pal :-)

Morning all, K xxx.

Allotment

"Allotment (gardening) in the United Kingdom, a small area of land, let out at a nominal yearly rent by local government or independent allotment associations, for individuals to grow their own food." (Wikipedia)

We have begun to take care of some allotment strips this winter, on behalf of the charity that Annie does work for. Fantastically, these strips are located just across the field from our house and so take us under 10 minutes to walk to. My Dad also had an allotment until a few years ago and this was always known as "the plot" and I notice that I have slipped back into using that term.

Our good friends Colin and Manda are also involved and the bulk of the work so far has been digging over the soil, in which Colin has been our local hero. However it has been excellent, now that the weather is slightly less freezing, to wander to the plot and do a bit of digging ourselves.

Millie is now quite used to trotting over in that direction, when we're on a walk around the field, just to see how things are looking. Though we do tie her up when we're working on there as she's otherwise prone to run around like a mad thing, over everyone's veg patch .

Last weekend saw our first planting of the season, some broad beans, so here I am - in action! So, hopefully, there will be more to report on this, as the growing season gets warmer (we hope!)

Dessert hearts

This post concerns hearts and cakes. I have some friends and family who have very loving hearts and this has been as clear as ever to me, over the past few weeks. Whilst my mum has been ill, I have kept on being sent simply gorgeous flowers as well as text messages, emails, facebook messages and phone calls. All of this helps a huge amount, when times are tough. Here's a couple more images of some of the flowers.

Right now my mum is home from the hospital and doing fairly well, though it is not that easy for her to do very much for herself, as yet. She came home on Friday 13th, which turned out to be a really tough day for her, although in the end I know she was glad to go to bed in her own bed.

The next night, we were invited out for Valentine's to have dinner with
some friends. In true Midwest tradition we had offered to take dessert. So here is our dessert heart for Valentine's. I'm sorry you can't taste it (as it truly was scrummy) but I know you'll like the picture. It's a chocolate torte with hazelnuts, covered in chocolate frosting and with chocolate swirls and chocolate dipped strawberries, as decoration. I was fed up that I couldn't get the glare out of the picture but Annie assures me that the cake just *was* that glamorous! lol

My beloved also sent me flowers, for Valentine's, so here are my pretty red tulips. Flowers shaped like hearts :-)

Flowers and other happy thoughts

Today Millie and I went to Worthington Park again. We often go there on a Monday as Annie's voluntary work is nearby and we generally give her a lift there on Monday mornings. Today there was a sprinkling of snow on the ground and some serious chill in the air.
However, we had good news before we set out, that the hospital are considering letting Mum come home pretty soon, and there were flowers waiting to be photographed at the park. So, we had a lovely walk around, and took some better shots of the snowdrops; found a few early crocus in flower, some primroses and some blossom on a tree (maybe almond, but that's a guess). Millie is never that pleased with me for stopping to take pictures, but she did seem content with her walk today.

Mum has been taken to try out stairs today, by a physical therapist in the hospital, and apparently did fine. She's also made a cup of tea and some toast and did well in the kitchen too, so she's quite happy with how things are going. My lovely cousin, Janice and her husband Martyn came to visit today, so they found us all in a good frame of mind. There are a few more meetings to take place (I think) but all being well I think we'll have Mum back to her own place pretty soon.

Somehow the triumph of spring flowers on a cold day seems the perfect accompaniment to this news :-)

Running

We went out to Wythenshawe for our walk today and took Millie's ball and throwing device (plus the new camera, naturally). The thrower is like a huge spoon that helps the mere mortal to throw a decent distance. Here's Annie, hard at work with the throwing. So these shots were taken with the telephoto, whilst Millie ran back towards us in triumph, having collected her ball.

She generally finds the ball pretty easily and runs back, tremendously pleased with herself.

On the whole though she does not think it is proper for a terrier to give the ball back to a lady afterwards. So a decent level of bribe is usually offered, if one wants to get the ball to throw again. This is usually sniffed for quality, before a decision is made about swapping ball for treat!

The picture below was actually earlier in the walk, before we arrived at the throwing field, but I've saved it for last as I think it's just gorgeous. The muddy pup, heading for her pack. lol

This line of trees is along one side of the field we do ball throwing in and you'll know the shapes just appeal to me.

Hope everyone is well. Much love, K xxx.

Good things

We'll start off with the news that Mum is doing better and that I have yet nore totally beautiful flowers. These are from my wonderful Sheila and Andy and pose nicely for their picture, I feel. Millie had one of her good things today too. Heinz Tomato Soup. She really does love to clean out a tomato soup cup, should there be one on offer, around lunchtime. So here she is, hard at work.

Some of the soup has been known to stick to her beardy bits. As you'll doubtless notice. And then, on a good day, there might be a second cup too!

After which, it is possible to pose for some further photos, though Millie ahs found the papparazzi very annoying these past few days!