Cake Face

Better late than never.....

Being a newbie blogger I stumbled on The Gallery and thought that's right up my street as I'm always snapping this, that and the other.

This is for the theme Mustachioed and is my Little Bird having his first taste of homemade chocolate cake whilst creating a cakey facial hair look. I can assure you that his response is now much improved.

Il pleut

I wished for rain and it arrived. Now I want it to go away again....just for a little while.

My lawn is squelchy, my allotment squidgy, slugs aplenty and my socks are damp. No longer washing blowing in the breeze but the dryer eating up our pennies.

Our shoes are all muddy, the dogs smell musty and the floors are slippy. My big fat jumpers are back out of storage, I'm feeling gloomy as we can't always go out to play and we're huddled in a blanket on the sofa.

However, my son has a snazzy raincoat and I have snazzier boots and we love dancing and twirling on the decking with light rain on our faces.

Everywhere is fresh and zingy green with crystal droplets.

Kitchen garden treasures are growing well and we have many books to read whilst snuggling under our knitted blanket.

But I think we are still ready for the sun to come back.

Full Throttle

Everything in the garden, allotment and home life has been absolutely non stop. My list(s) keep growing as quickly as the weeds on my plot. Mainly I have been pricking out seedlings and potting on everything from Calendula and Nasturtiums to Ornamental Gourds. It's the first time I have grown the latter & I have lots! The germination rate of this v v cheap packet of seeds puchased from Lidl has been amazing. I am going to grow them up wigwams and arches for interest as unfortunately you cannot eat them. It will be a surprise to see what weird and wonderful fruits appear in late summer.

We all had a day off from being busy and went to the annual event in my town, the Thundersprint. This is a motorcycle festival with racing, vintage bikes and entertainment where the whole town is descended upon by bikers from near and far for the entire weekend.

The town is buzzing and a highlight of the event is a three lap cavalcade around the streets with weird and wacky bikes and a few scooters thrown in for the Mods.....

.... but the Rockers ruled.

Perhaps I'm biased though as in my salad days I had a motorbike.

However, I prefer my new salad days of a more gentler nature.

Royal Wedding Fever

Have a lovely day xx

Easter

Easter was spent either gardening or out and about around Cheshire with the buggy and a picnic. The best day was at Tatton Park for their Alice in Wonderland event (an obsession of mine).

Since getting my allotment this is the first time that I had revisited the kitchen gardens at Tatton so with a head full of vegetables I whooped and skipped around marvelling and informing Daddy Bird of all my new found knowledge.

I'd love one of these even though I don't think I'd use it for fear of weakening the plant. My crowns of rhubarb at the plot have suffered after being moved in the reshuffle and are half the size they should be. This year I'm not harvesting any sticks and nurturing it. Grandad Bird has rhubarb on his plot that's absolutely massive so I'm relying on his generosity.

Obviously it's still early in the season so there was little to see but I loved the raised beds with their lovely rows of lettuce, radish, spring onions and beetroot.

I'm also growing turnips (Purple Top Milan) at my plot, part of the brassica family and as I've found out with my radishes are prone to Flea Beetle - even those at Tatton. However, up to now they have not affected the root, just the leaves. Apparently they prefer radish so if you chuck a line of them in alongside your other brassicas they should just munch circular holes in the radish. I am now trying this experiment.

For the last couple of years in my garden we have made a scarecrow for the pure fun of it and this year will be no exception. Tatton's kitchen garden had a few jolly ones dotted about and I particularly like this one with a plant pot for a head.

Hope you all had a great Easter.