Relax

I have kept myself busy over the last couple of weeks making sure I'm using the unexpected time at home to do things. I've started to feel a little overwhelmed by everything going on which comes out in frustration at things that wouldn't usually bother me. So today I decided to have a relaxing day. I got up and made some bread as we are out of it, prepped dinner for tonight, a quick tidy through downstairs then I've done things I wanted. A little weeding in the veg patch and sowed down seeds. Since lunchtime I have been laid in my favourite garden chair with a book. Just what I needed to recharge the batteries.

We have some little mining bees on our garden. Very sweet to watch them about their business.

Strange times

It is very strange in the world at the moment. I am working from home for the majority of the time, just going in a couple of days a week to care for the children of other key workers. We are only allowed out once a day for exercise so I go out for one dog walk a day and make sure Teen-girl comes with us. This means I haven't been running for ages.
The Manchild has taken himself off to his girlfriend's parents whilst this is all going on as his asthma is bad, he has had several chest infections already this winter and with my job I pose a big risk to him. It's very strange without him home.
I have spent time doing up our little house. I have decorated the bathroom, decorated the kitchen and spent time sorting the garden in the effort to have a more productive vegetable garden this year. I am missing a few seeds I would like to have planted; tomatoes, peas, green beans. I might be bale to get some the next time I head into town for food, but I am hoping not to need to do that for a while.
I have planted kale, lettuce, carrots, pumpkins, various herbs, cabbages and cauliflowers so hopefully some of these will germinate although it may be a challenge as some of the seeds I have used have been lurking in the shed for a few years. It's all a bit of an experiment.
The garden is looking tidier, still more to do on it but it is getting there.

Weeding with my helper

Some old seeds planted with optimism.

My helper laying the weed membrane.

What are you doing during this strange time period? I hope you are keeping well.

Garden

While we are distancing from the world I am working to make improvements to our home. I started today with the garden. I have cut the free grass, it was so long it took me nearly two hours but its done now.
.

I then weeded some of the vegetable beds. I built them from old pallets when I first moved here, they are starting to rot now, I'm thinking of removing them and just having them as open beds now they are quite well established. 

Once is pulled the weds out I found some lettuce, I sowed the seeds at the end of last summer and nothing happened but now I have some

Made me feel very happy to find this. 

Tomorrow I need to do some more weeding. I'd like to plant some seeds as well but I have ran out of compost so I'm trying to decide what's best to do now. 

How are you filling the days? 

Food.......

My little lady came back from Brownie camp today. Excited, but shattered!

I needed to pop to town to get some cash out and pay for a couple of coach trips we have planned. In a nearby town a lovely youth worker organises trips for families every summer. We are always invited along to join in, all for the princely sum of £5 each. We have one trip which is to an air show and the other to a nearby seaside town. Well actually they are both coastal seaside towns. The first one is an hour and 40 minute drive away the other is 1 hour and 20 minute drive away. Both towns have parking costs over £10 for the day for little car like mine. So these trips work out much better value when you think they don't cost me in petrol or wear and tear on my car etc. Also I like to go out with other grown ups too! LOL

I have also pottered in the garden and collected these;

Stephanie gobbled the peas quickly and had a very sad face when I said that there would not be many more this eyar. Next year I need to plant a variety of pea plants so we get a longer cropping season as they are a favourite here.

We had half these carrot thinnings with our dinner, the others in the fridge for tomorrows lunch.

We had half the green beans with our dinner, the others I have frozen for another time as I get this many almost everytime I go hunting in the bean bed at the moment. I am the only one who really likes them, Stephanie will eat a few and Dylan won't touch them at all.

I also spent a little time crafting with my girl in the garden;

 

Before we both decided it was time to sit with our feet up!

Summery summery summer prep

I have been saying for around a year that  was going ot patio over part of my garden. I decided yesterday was the day. I measured up got some advice from family and headed off to B and q. a bit of a wobble when I got there about the many different bags of sand etc for the job. Made my decision and after a couple of trips had all the things I needed. I did the journey in several trips as I didn't want too much weight in my little car at once.

 

A little before shot of the area to be patioed.

 

Almost finished. Not perfect for all you builders/perfectionists out there. But I am pleased with it. I stopped there as I was unsure how to cut the slabs to make them fit. I don't want to buy expensive tools I won't use again and it turns out nobody nearby has them either.

 

So I went in had dinner and puzzled it over. This morning I got up went for a run, yes still at it!

Then I came and decided was going to finish the job. I used a rubber mallet which means the pieces didn't break perfectly so I have a crazy paving effect. Which incidentally I love;

 

 

My very own patio that I can sit at in the garden

 

 

And do things such as eat my breakfast;

 

 

 

Or write blog posts as I am now. I may even do some paperwork out here later!

 

Enjoy your sunny day I am off out for a pub lunch with family very soon.

 

The joys of a sunny day

We had a lazy start to the day today.

I got up and went for a run first thing while the children were snoring still. Then I came back and started looking for cheap half term breaks. I whittled it down to a choice of 3 campsites in the area I would like to go. Then once the children were up we decided together. It's all booked now. I like to have something to look forward to :-)


Then we decided it was time to do something with the garden;

 

A bit of a chop and a sweep and it's all looking better and full of promise;

 

 

The raspberry bush has lots of flower buds appearing, fingers crossed we should have a plentiful supply this year.

 

I planted some salad leaves, some carrots, garlic, red cabbage and pumpkins in here.

 

The Strawberries are starting to flower

My recycled pots anging space is coming along nicely

 

Much better now that it is tidy.

 

My garden is very small just a few metres long and even less wide. I like to combine as much of growing our own spaces with family play space as possible. hence the lots of hanging containers and around the edge space. Hopefully we will get a plentiful supply for our needs this summer. Square foot gardening taken to the max here at the littlefamilyof3 house.

 

Do you have any tips for me on how I can maximise our tiny space? or indeed anyone who reads this with the same/similar issues

 

 

 

 

Knole country house

Yesterday was my last daytime to myself; Dylan was due home after dinner. So I decided to take the time to go to a country house. The children enjoy walking and playing in the grounds of these  places, but they don't like to stop for long enough for me to read and admire the fabrics and furnishings which I really enjoy when we visit. So I went alone so that I could enjoy these at my leisure.

I chose to go to the Knole Country house as it is a place we used to go as a family when I was young, we never went in the house but used to picnic in the grounds. We used to call it 'the deer park' as there are so many deer there. It also has the added bonus of being a National trust property so I was able to enjoy it for free as part of my membership. My membership saved me £14- £4 to park and £10 to walk around the house.

It is such an impressive house.

The deer ornaments.

Currently there is a lot of restoration being done to fix the roof.

There was lots of the decoration like those on top of the gate throughout the house.

Absolutely beautiful grounds surround the house.

you can see the difference in the seasons when you look back at our visit earlier in the year.

 

When I got home I spent some time pottering in the garden;

I have had to empty this patch of garden, I was growing peas here, but the neighbours cat has decided it makes a great litter tray and now nothing will grow. I have removed all the compost and will have a little rethink about how to use this space and deter the cat!

I then sat and did some knitting. I have managed to finish the school shrug for Stephanie, although now the weather seems to be turning decidedly autumnal so she may not get much use out of it!

 

 

a pottering kind of weekend.

I have loved this weekend, it has been very calming. Friday night was a meal and a few drinks for the end of term as 1 is off to China and another Chicago. A great time was had by all.
Then up early Saturday morning to help decorate the school float for the village carnival. It was good fun and fantastic to see how it all comes together. I remember riding on the float in the village when I was a child and loved it. I ended up riding on the float as well, I loved it as much as I did as a child- I'm such a big kid! I am definitely doing it again next year and sneaking Stephanie on with me as I think she will love it too.

Today Dylan and I spent some time trying to fix my bike as we plan in cycling much more this summer. We couldn't do it, we had to call in the big guns AKA granddad. He has shown us what is wrong but by the time he managed to get here and figure it out the shops were shut. Still as Dylan is not in school tomorrow he is going to run some errands for me as I have been selling on Amazon again, so while he is posting things he'll pop into Wilkinsons and get the part I need. Expect lots of cycling posts very soon!

I have also spent time pottering in the garden. We have made the hard decision to give up our allotment we just don't have time for it now I am working full time. So we will be clearing out my shed over the next week and handing back the keys. I am a little saddened by this, but we have plans to make our small garden much more productive to try and compensate a little. I had a tidy up and then Dylan and I planted some more seeds. Have a peek how it is going now;

Up by the back gate I'd love to have some plants growing up in a kind of arch here, I need to look into this more.

Lots of strawberries and peas growing here at the moment.

this is the right hand fence if I stand with the house behind me. Growing in the containers you can see here are carrots, salad leaves, potatoes, dwarf beans, plum tomatoes and cherry tomatoes.

this is the left hand side by the back door, we have peas and strawberries in the baskets, my lovely large raspberry bush and our greenhouse that has lost its cover. At the moment not a problem as it is the sunniest part of the garden, hence the frazzled plants!

We have planted lots into the greenhouse today.

This is 'Stephanie's garden' she has mixed flowers and strawberries growing in her containers.

The greenhouse looking slightly more organised.

 

Then finally what do you do with some over ripe bananas?? Make cake of course! Today I experimented and made chocolate and banana cake, it tastes more of bananas than chocolate and is very yummy. I might have a little with some cream I bought reduced earlier soon.

Sunday

I have so much to share with you all, today has been busy. I'll post about one thing each day until I have caught up, that should help with the mid week lull I get from having so much to do from work.

So today here is the garden update for this week it's starting to do well;

When I got up this morning I discovered that Stephanie had written a sign for her garden. I love it!

Raspberries are starting to bud

The peas are beginning to flower

 

Carrots are sprouting up

This pea is really doing well

Strawberries are beginning to fruit

I seem to have forgotten to photograph them but the beans are doing well too. All looking somewhat behind due to the late start this year, but never mind we are getting there!! Alsways makes me smile when I can see things beginning to grow in the garden.

Kids Grow Wild

This is an entry for Britmums' #KidsGrowWild challenge.

Yesterday we went to the post office retrieval place, I had missed a  parcel on Thursday but as they shut before I finish work I had to leave it there until the weekend. Not easy as I didn't know what it was, and I am hopeless at waiting for surprises! I also knew I had not ordered anything as I am really trying hard to curb my spending.

As soon as I saw the box I remembered, I had entered to join in with the Moneysupermarket and Britmums' kids grow wild challenge. This was my box of goodies to help with this. So I called Stephanie down to open the parcel, not telling her what I expected to be inside.

 Mum there is a letter in here! Along with the letter there was a gardening bag, which contained a watering can, a hand trowel, a hand fork, a pair of gardening gloves and three packets of flower seeds. A perfect gardening kit for any child.

 

 Being the avid reader that she is, she set to reading the gardening tips page included in the package. this has useful ideas for how you can use the contents of the package with your child, for example making a scrapbook to follow the process of growing your seeds. About encouraging your child to read the instructions and lead the way in following the process of planting by asking prompting questions. The one I am really taken with trying is growing a bean seed so that you can see the roots etc form. I am going to do this one with her today.

So after Stephanie had read the sheet I asked what she would like to do. She immediately put on some shoes, the gloves from the gardening bag, which she also picked up and went outside. No words but that simple response showed me she wanted to get planting!

 

I gave her some empty planters to use and went and dug some compost out of the bin. Here Stephanie is reading the seed packet for what she needs to do.

Sprinkling the seeds into her pot.

Getting a little help from big brother to fill the watering can from the water butt.

Once Stephanie had finished planting her seeds I gave her the choice of several places in the garden to form her garden. She chose along the fence where I don't have any pots already. We moved them in to place together ready for watering. I also gave Stephanie a couple of my strawberry plants I had growing, as she loves strawberries and so that she has something immediately to be taking care of, so that she doesn't become bored waiting for the other seeds to grow.

Here she is admiring her hard work.

 

I have a feeling that this is going to become something that really interests her over the summer.