One year on

 

I realised the other day that it was a year last month since I retired from work, so I've been thinking back on the last year.

In the weeks leading up to my retirement, many of my work colleagues asked me what I was going to do with myself when I was no longer working.  I had lots of plans and projects in mind.  I was looking forward to having more time for the  garden and allotment. I was going to be looking after 2 of my grandchildren before and after school 3 days a week. I had hobbies which I'd not had much time for in recent years and wanted to take these up again, knitting, sewing, crafts, baking.  There was also the pastoral work which I am involved in at my local church.  That was enough to keep me busy for a while.

I worked for the NHS as a ward clerk on a busy orthopaedic ward. It was a very demanding and at times quite stressful job.  I was very well organised, in fact I was probably a bit of a control freak. But I really did love my job. When I went back a few months after finishing work to see my work colleagues, they were surprised when I said that I didn't miss work at all.

I was so glad to get away from that mad, manic busyness.  It was great to be able to relax and please myself what I did everyday.  I am still busy, but busy doing what I want to do.  There aren't enough hours in the day sometimes.  When I worked I often heard retired people say they didn't know how they had ever had the time to go out to work.  I now know what they mean by that.

I saw retirement as a new phase in my life, another role to take on, like starting a new job almost.  But doing what I wanted to do, not being bound by rules and regulations.  I'm still very organised,  having grandchildren commitments means I have to be and I love being involved in their lives.

As I look back on the past year  I can see how much I've achieved.

• I've lost weight and I'm more active now. I don't 'do' going to the gym--walking and gardening help me to keep fit.
• I've mastered  my camera and how to upload photos. I'm now sorting them out into folders. Still lots more work to be done there.
• I wanted to improve my writing skills. I've made  a start, here I am writing a blog.
• I've converted a spare bedroom into a craft room.
• I've had a massive paperwork clear out and reorganised our filing system for bills, statements, policies etc. There's still 2 bin bags of shreddings waiting to go on the compost heaps when there's more room.
• Done loads of knitting.
• Tackled a few new projects in the garden.

These are just a few of the things I've done this past year and there are still projects I'm wanting to get on with. Now maybe I'll start to make my plans for the  next year!

Mustard seeds

 If you read my blog last week,  fairies, blackberries and toadstools you will know that my grandchildren marked out their names in a seed tray of compost and sowed mustard seeds. I was quite surprised to see that the seeds were starting to germinate 2 days later. So today, a week later they were looking very green.

 But as you can see we overdid the seed sowing a bit!  However after a bit of thinning out, tweaking and trimming, their names are a bit more recognisable. Hoping they'll like this when they come home from school later.

I don't think I'd be any good at topiary!

Planting leeks

Last weekend's important job at the allotment was to plant leeks.  I'd been waiting until all the onions had been lifted so I could plant the leeks where they had been. We took our 2 grandchildren with us so they could help us. After I had prepared the ground I went round with the dibber making the holes for the leeks.  Both  children wanted to help with this and although I let them have a go, the soil is quite heavy in places and this proved too difficult for them. The leeks which had been sown earlier in the year in a seed bed were lifted.  This was where the children could help. We got a good system going--as I made the holes with the dibber, they followed me round putting the leeks into the holes and then filling each hole with water.  They really enjoyed this. We planted 56 leeks.

Meanwhile my husband did some weeding around the raised beds.  There are some horrendous weeds on the plot and it's a difficult job trying to keep on top of the weeding. The biggest weeds are around the fenced area  and the edges of the raised beds and at this time of year Himalayan balsam takes over. In the raised beds the main problem weeds are mare's tail and bindweed, but there are also docks, dandelions, nettles, couch grass and lots more that I don't know the names of yet.  We took the childrens' garden tools with us and the 5 year old enjoyed helping Grandad to weed. I think he just liked digging holes and raking up the gravel really!

The brassica frame seems to be working to protect the cabbages against caterpillars, but of course the slugs can still get in there, so there is  slug damage on some of the cabbages. The worst affected ones are not wasted but given to Riley the rabbit, who belongs to my daughter's family.  We may have to remove the frame soon as the purple sprouting broccoli is growing too tall for the frame.  I'm  wondering at what time in the season they will be safe from the cabbage white butterflies.

This is our 2nd year with the allotment and we have really noticed how much more produce we are harvesting. This is probably thanks to soil improvement and gaining some extra growing space. The council have delivered some free manure recently so it's been a free for all with all the plot holders barrowing the stuff back to our plots.  We've bagged ours up and left it to rot down for a while as it was too fresh to use immediately.

Our next job will be weeding and more weeding, we're determined to conquer them!

Fairies, blackberries and toadstools

For the last few days of the summer holidays I'm looking after 2 of my grandchildren. I try to make their time with me interesting, fun, enjoyable. Usually I try to make sure that my husband is available to help on some days, although he is not fully retired yet, so that is not always possible. We don't do big days out with them, the sort of thing that costs the earth, we might go to the seaside or visit some local attraction but nothing too expensive and most of the time it will be going for walks, doing things at home--craft work, gardening, shopping, going to the park. And really they seem to be quite happy with whatever we arrange for them.  They can be hard work, occasionally naughty, but it's mainly  just their high spirits which can be tiring for us.


One of my daughters bought me a book for my birthday called  'Toad Cottages and Shooting Stars' . It's a great book aimed at grandparents, with lots of activities and interesting things to do with your grandchildren. It is American so some of the things are not appropriate for us in Great Britain, but it's easy to adapt some of the activities.

Today my 7 year old granddaughter and I looked through this book and she wanted to make a fairy garden and house.  We went round the garden looking for things we could use like leaves, twigs, acorns, flowers and seed heads and some shells and pebbles from the house.

Her imagination ran wild, I just provided the basics for her as she made a garden in one  terracotta plant saucer and a house with a lounge, bathroom and bedroom in another.  We placed these in a little corner of the garden under a tree.  Meanwhile my 5 year old grandson who was not the least bit interested or perhaps did not have the imagination, was doing what he does best--running around the garden, digging and raking with his own garden tools and generally just enjoying himself in his own little world.

Not wanting him to feel left out, later on we sowed seeds in a tray with both children's names. I filled a seed tray with moist compost and levelled it off.  The children marked out their names in the compost with fingers or a twig, then we sprinkled seeds in the marked areas.  I used some mustard seeds or you could use grass seed.  This was then covered with more compost.  Hopefully the children will see their names appear as the seeds grow.

Later on we went out for a walk and picked blackberries, another simple activity, but one which they really enjoyed doing.  We even found a toadstool which they both thought might belong to the fairies.

Bonython estate gardens

 On our recent holiday to Cornwall we discovered  some lovely gardens.  Bonython estate gardens was one of the ones we visited. It is situated on the Lizard peninsula a few miles south of Helston. The house is a private home and the gardens have been under restoration for  the last few years. The grounds cover 20 acres and include woodland, a walled garden, herbaceous borders, a potager, orchard, and lakes.

When we arrived at Bonython there was no-one on the entrance desk, just a sign telling us to pay the gardener in the walled garden.  We didn't see a gardener in the walled garden, but there was an honesty box for our money which we duly paid.

The walled garden has huge colour themed herbaceous borders, a pool and pool house.  There was a border alongside the pool full of verbena bonariensis and another full of blue perovskia.  Both very striking and light and airy looking. There seemed to be a lot of blue, purple and pink flowers here.

This seemed a very deserted place, no one around, just one or two other visitors, no sign of a gardener, but obviously well looked after .  I loved the succulents in pots around the pool house, they reminded me of my own back at home, although mine are much smaller!  My husband pointed out to me the lovely azelea in the corner.  I looked and all I could see was a striking blue hydrangea.  Ah well, he does appreciate plants, but he just can't remember the names!

From the walled garden we went through to another garden which was oozing with flowers, mainly pink. There were several raised beds which all had  an overgrown look to them, which you often get at this time of year. There were  masses of sweet peas, phlox, dahlias and herbs.  We wandered around with me spotting plants I knew--oregano, mint, rosemary.  I was trying to work out if this was a scented garden, because of the sweet peas, phlox and herbs, but then there were other plants which weren't scented. Then I read the leaflet, I should have done that first of course, but oh yes it was a potager! That made sense--herbs, vegetables and flowers for picking. There was a propagating house with an area for plant sales ( another honesty box) and a massive fig tree in one corner. I'd like a fig tree in our garden, but having seen the size they can grow to I'm now not so sure!

Through the gate, beyond the potager was an orchard of cornish apple trees which led down to one of the lakes, a beautiful view and a perfect place to sit.  Refreshments were set out in a sort of large summer house with a thatched roof. It was a help yourself area with an urn, cakes under covers and a box to put your money in. There were birds nesting in the eaves of the summer house and I did wonder about this as I helped myself to cakes and tea, but they were all covered up and I am still here to tell the story.

We sat whilst I had tea and cake ( a must for me, but not for my husband!). We watched the swifts darting about, took in the view of the lake  with the massive gunnera and planned our route around the rest of the garden.

A stream ran from this lake to the next lake (Lake Sue). 

We walked along a path which bordered the lake and it was here that I was stopped in my tracks by the most amazing display of hot coloured plants. There were ornamental grasses with soft, swishy, feathery flower heads which  gave a pink hazy effect, orange cannas, yellow rudbekias and  heleniums, pink echinacheas, red dahlias, crocosmias, persicarias and lots more plants I couldn't name, but I had a good go at plant spotting.  It was a wonderful kaleidoscope of late summer colour, which had a tropical feel to it. I've since found through reading the leaflet ( I really should do that as I go around ) that there is a South  African theme because that is where the owner is from.

I've been trying to improve the late summer colour in my garden and this colour and planting scheme  gave me some ideas. There was no separation  of  colours here, pink flowers were next to orange or yellow flowers and it worked. Maybe I can do something like that on a smaller scale in my garden.

The path led to another lake named Quarry Lake.  There are steep rock sides  around the lake, the stone here was used for the building of a nearby manor house in the 18th century.  It was a very restful place and it was here that we finally saw some gardeners. They were driving a tractor and trailer full of garden rubbish.  They looked very happy in their work.

 

We walked through a woodland area with lots of tree ferns.  I loved the tree ferns, they looked so upright  and, well, just ferny! They made me think of a group of people singing with arms raised in the air.

 

The walk took us around the other side of the lakes where we saw swans and ducks and another view of those lovely hot borders.

We missed the path for the car park on our way out so we ended up back on the road and down the main driveway for the house, which wasn't the way we came in with the car.  This was a good thing because we were able to view the long driveway bordered with blue hydrangeas which was a wonderful sight.

We loved Bonython, it was very uncommercialised, obviously well loved and cared for and a place we would go back to

A Soggy day

Today we went to Fleetwood to watch our daughter Sarah run a half marathon. The weather was awful, wet and very windy.  Who would want to run on a day like this?  It was the sort of day you would not bother to venture out in normally.  But she went to run and we went to support her.
 

We saw her off at the start of the race. She was about 4 rows back here!

 Then we all walked up the prom and found a cafe where we could have a warm drink and dry out.

 We met her as she was arriving back.  The guy running alongside her is her husband!!

She ran her race in 1hour 51 minutes.  I don't know anything about running but I believe that was good. We were really proud of her today, but we're also proud of all that she's achieved this year.  Her amazing weight loss, her determination and commitment has inspired others including myself to lose weight. You can read about her journey on her blog http://soggous.blogspot.com/2011/03/losing-weight-sog-way.html

Yummy rhubarb

When I picked some rhubarb from the allotment the other day, I remembered that years ago I used to make a lovely spicy crumble. I searched my recipes and was amazed to find I still had the original recipe in an old and battered scrapbook. It really is delicious especially with cream, but also lovely with custard, ice cream, or on its own. So here it is, sorry there are no metric measurements, but it is an old recipe.

Spicy rhubarb crumble

Ingredients

1-1 ½ lb rhubarb

1oz brown sugar (demerara or light brown, not the very dark kind)

¼ teaspoon ginger

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

For the crumble topping:

3oz flour

3oz brown sugar

2oz butter

Pinch of salt

¼ teaspoon ginger

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

Preheat the oven to 400 gas mark 6.

Wash and slice the rhubarb into 1inch lengths then put this into a pie dish

and sprinkle with 1oz of brown sugar and ¼ teaspoon of ginger and the same of nutmeg.

For the crumble top, mix the flour, sugar, salt and spices together, add the butter and work together until the mixture is crumbly.

Then spread it over the rhubarb in the dish so that the fruit is completely covered.

Place in the oven on a baking tray and cook for about 30—40minutes or until the fruit is cooked and the top well browned.

Serve warm or cold.

I've since realised that the crumble mix ingredients need to be doubled in order to completely cover the fruit