Blossom

Enjoying this year's blossom. It reminds me of my childhood when I would collect it in large pink hand spilling bundles and select a few to place in my hair or plunge petals into jam jars of water to make blossom perfume.

The same cherry blossom is still standing in my parent's garden. Gorgeous confetti. Each frilly flower head so delicate. The perfect shade of pink.

My own garden has some bright pink blossom. Not quite the same feel but still beautiful, especially vivid against the yellow of the play house.

We have enjoyed looking for blossom trees wherever we go. Scattering petals against verge edges and blowing across lawns. Branches look like huge blossom posies and I wish it would last much longer.

A bit of rainfall and some gusts of wind. All gone. Blossom pathways trail through the garden and slowly the petals fade to transparency until next year. 

Our garden makeover using the Outspiration app

We love the garden although sometimes it can be a struggle to get the motivation to get out there and get going. Sometimes I look at a forgotten corner and think - what can I do with this space? Luckily there is an inspiring new app, Outspiration, available now for the iPhone, that will help you with your outdoor DIY projects. 

Outspiration from AkzoNobel, who produce the well known products Cuprinol, Dulux Weathershield and Hammerite, will encourage you to make the most of your outdoor space, whether it's the front of your house, courtyard, large corner plot, family garden or humble backyard. The app has a section full of help and advice that provide some great ideas of things to do from ways of decorating a shed to giving your home curb appeal with a brightly painted front door. There are some great videos of projects which are both inspiring and full of useful DIY tips for your own projects. I loved watching through these and saw some great ideas such as Sarah Beeny's pub shed! The app also has a neat Visualiser, take a photo of your space and then see how it would look painted in one of the many colours of paint available from the AkzoNobel range. 

At the back of our garden was a sad forgotten area, littered with junk, dull, boring and yet clearly visible when you look down the garden. Your eye was drawn to it, which isn't great in a small-ish garden.

As you can see, an area crying out to be transformed and what better way to do it than using some Cuprinol paint which is specialised for wooden surfaces.I have used this before in the garden and I love the huge range of shades available. For my project I chose the shades Country Cream and Coastal Mist. My idea was to make an upright planter using an old pallet - a bit of a thrifty project as this was going spare and I like creating things from junk, like our pallet fence and gate. You can upload your Project to the Outspiration gallery and take pictures as you go along. The project is shared with others and you can look through other user's projects too. I love this. It is so interesting to see other people's ideas and have a nosy! Over time this should be a huge resource of ideas to look through.
The Outspiration app also has a useful Promotions section where you can see products on offer that will be useful on your project. A great money saver to see where special offers are on. 

Firstly we needed to paint the fence area and for this we needed a dry day. The Outspiration app has a handy Met Office Weather Checker that will tell you what DIY the day is ideal for. Hoorah! A dry day! So off we went with paint brush in hand ready to turn a boring corner into something of beauty. 

The paint goes on very well and doesn't just seem to soak into the wood and disappear. Only a couple of coats was required to get the desired effect so the job was done quickly and easily. Weed suppressant was nailed to the back of the pallet in double thickness and then the next job was to paint, fill up with multi purpose compost and plant up the pallet. 

The pallet was then painted in lovely cool Coastal Mist which is a lovely contrast with Country Cream. I find the Cuprinol colours go so well together and it is nice to have a couple of them together to create interest. The pallet was then secured to the fence and posts for safety - very important. 

Our little helper :) I like the garden to be full of interest for my little boy as he loves being outside. The pallet garden will create another sensory area perfect for him with plants, decorations and of course the calming colours of the paint. Inspired by the name of our paint, Coastal Mist, we decided to try and create a seaside theme to the pallet garden so planted some rosemary, thyme and maritime thrift, pretty bedding plants reminiscent of coastal displays and a seashell decoration.   Over the summer, the pallet should have pretty flowers cascading down it in pinks and will look great against my Cuprinol colours.   What do you think of my pallet planter? Will you be outspired to have a go too? It doesn't take much to update your garden at all. A small project such as this or repainting a shed can make so much difference to the look of your garden and the Outspiration app really helps you to visualise this and it is FREE, so download today. To celebrate the launch of this nifty app, there is a competition to win a fab barbecue and a personalised hamper worth £100 - ends Monday 12th May, perfect for summer entertaining in your garden. You can enter the competition when you install the Outspiration app. 

For some more great ideas, have a look at the Cuprinol Facebook page. 

Disclosure: This was a collaborative post for which I was compensated for. All words are my own based on my honest opinion. 

Log piles and the Gruffalo

 We are regulars at Delamere Forest now. It's become our classroom, our recreation ground and our place of relaxation. We are going to learn so much here. When you come across these huge log piles, you remember that it is actually a huge working forest.The Forestry Commission do a wonderful job and manage 1/5 of the forests in the UK. We are going to have so many learning opportunities here; the types of trees, the animals and plant life found here and the management of the forest. So many activities too such as the Gruffalo trail in celebration of his 15th anniversary which is currently encouraging lots of people to come exploring. You can find out about this here and see if your nearest forest has a Gruffalo Trail. There is also going to be a special picnic on the 7th June that you can get a party pack for.  There are lots of these log piles at the edge of the forest pathways at the moment. Not for playing on of course but interesting to look at. I have also seen the lorries stacked with timber travelling down the main road near our house, off to the sawmill.  Little Bird is very relaxed under the canopy of the towering trees and tramping through brash and pine needle pathways. It's great for him to burn off energy. There are lots of picnic tables where we can do some work and eat out lunch. I'm quite excited by it all and look forward to putting some lesson plans together for our home education journey. The dogs love it too at the forest and scamper about here and there enjoying the smells. All this and only 15 minutes up the road. Hopefully I'll share what we learn on the blog and the activities that we do. I'll be learning so much too as we go along. We are happy foresters now. 

Allotment round up

It has been over a month since I last showed you the allotment. I have been busy there and still plenty to do. The potatoes are now all planted, broad beans are flowering and the rhubarb is mighty! We have been harvesting it regularly now and have given some to neighbours. There is just so much of it.  My beautiful orange tulips have gone over since taking these pictures. They were such a great contrast against the green shed. I have a pink Fairy rambling rose to plant this weekend to hopefully scramble over our little shed and attract the bees.  The currants are in full flower although they are hard to see, delicate pale green and by July will be dripping in red jewelled fruits. Such a great producer, we will have currants all summer long. The allotment site is still looking a little bare as you cast your eye across from the main gate but May will be a busy month of rapid growth and things will soon change. There are suddenly lots of new people with plots, many are families which is super duper and I hope the dynamic of our allotments will change. All hands on deck clearing up neglected plots, little hands helping dig, sow seeds and make mud pies. Tonight there were some boys charging around and it was a breath of fresh air. Laughter tinkled across the cabbages and around the apple trees.
I have two blueberries in flower, I lost one over the winter which was annoying as it was a gift from my father. I moved them to the allotment from my decking area at home as Little Bird pulled off all the flowers last year, so inviting are the little pinky bells and hence we had no fruit. This year I am more hopeful as he doesn't come with me to the allotment that much (although I'd like this to change) so the blueberries might have a chance. The weeds appear as quickly as I pull them out. Row after row digging Couch Grass out and Mares Tail. The odd dandelion is the least of my worries and is welcome to stay.I'll be there this weekend planting celery and getting DB to do a few tip runs as I have so many weeds that the composter cannot accommodate them. It is quite warm too so the watering trips have started. The cabbages need netting and the broad beans staking. Busy times for May but then we can sit back and enjoy the wait for all the yummy produce.

Joining in with How Does Your Garden Grow? over at Mammasaurus. Hop over there to be delighted by such beautiful photos and lots of great garden updates.

Bye bye April

Bye, bye April, yet again. One of my favourite months for fresh starts and promises of gardens filled with lush plants and evenings sat on the decking chatting. A month of cleaning the house, changing things around, brightening the rooms. Pastels and polka dots. A month of starting to get the cookery books out again spurred on by Easter meals of fresh veggies and chocolate cake. Foraging and growing herbs on window sills for that spring risotto. A time of arranging flowers and weaving spring plants onto wreaths or displaying in pretty vases. From daffodil yellows to red tulips. The tulips are starting to go over and the blush roses are now waiting in the sidelines.  We filled the month completely with Easter and still need to take down the decorations. Perhaps they could stay a little longer. Could I decorate for May? Ribbons. Garlands. New bunting.

A month where I notice the birds chirping much more. The blackbird and his evening song or the song thrush who is ever so noisy but forgiven for he eats the snails that are already wreaking havoc in the garden. A whole row of bedding plants became stalks overnight! The sun started to shine and my cheeks became a little red on some days. Promises of summer on its way. Cold wind has become warm breezes. Jumpers started to find themselves left in the drawer and replaced by light cardies. Popping to the shops without a coat - hoorah! As much as I love April, it has to be said that I love May even more. May to me is the frothiness of roadside plants and trees arching over roads creating green tunnels. A busy time especially in the garden as plants start scrambling over each other and the mini greenhouse is overflowing with young plants, waiting for that last frost to be planted out.

Happy May everyone. The gateway to summer is here.