Discovering the Garden

Over the past couple of weeks while it has been dry, we have tried to get in the garden as much as possible, it is amazing now to go home after work and spend an hour digging and clearing. Discovering what lies beneath all the ivy.

I have cleared quite a bit from the terraces, but have not managed to get all the ivy off and the grass at the top seems to be stuck right in.  We are starting to get a feel of what the garden was like though, well the structure anyway.  I have been trying to find some pictures of a similar garden in the 20's or 30's but have not had much luck.  
I was so pleased to find the bulbs all coming through when I cleared the ivy off the right hand bit of the steps, I'm thinking they may be tulips?

Me and Tony were trying to decide what to do with this section.  We were thinking the borders need to be dug up and the shrubs cut right down, maybe planting cottage garden flowers and having  a little walk through them.

As I started to dig I discovered some stones under a thin layer of grass so I started clearing more and more to find a lovely stone path just where we had walked.
My hands were hurting and arms aching when I got to this point, I did try carrying on the next day but didn't have the strength.
Whoops I left a mess;) Tony is clearing all the grass I dug up while I'm making another tea.

The first section is nearly finished..just got to grow all the plants to go in the border :) Arthur will be having a little shed?playhouse there.
The view from the balcony is getting better, but still a long way to go.

I finished the path last night and did take a picture but for got to bring the camera to work, so will add it later. 

Can't wait for some seeds to grow, that will be the next project.

Spring is in the air!

I awoke early this morning and was lucky enough to see this very misty sunny start to the day:)
Really I should have stayed in bed as it was Mothers day, but Georges alarm was going off at 6.30 which woke me up. Once everyone else woke up I was sent back to bed with a Croissant and a magazine:)
As it was such a lovely day i persuaded George to come for a walk with me and Athur, Tony and Harry went off to a rugby match in Wareham. Just outside Wincanton is Penselwood which is a short walk from a nature reserve. The Crocuses were out in full bloom a beautiful sight.
The walk down to the woods was full of snowdrops another gorgeous sight:)
I can't remember the last time I went for a walk with George he's usually off skateboarding. It will not be long before he's off to university..infact he's waiting to see if he got into Falmouth to do a foundation. He is quite stressed not knowing and it has been 2 loong weeks since the interview.
The boys got to the nature reserve before me, I was taking photo's of the flowers with cry's of 'Mummy look what we've found' cutting through the silence ;)
They went into a bird hide then ran off following the map Arthur had picked up at the gate.
We plan to have a picnic here next time.
we went past the lake and up into the woods.
A few more signs that spring is here at last!
Arthurr wanted to go 'into the dark' so George took him and played hide and seek and throwing sticks.
I sat down while they climbed what was an Ancient Hill Fort.
Arthur did amazingly well, if I had gone on my own we would not have gone so far, I gave him a few piggy backs and George gave him a few carry's.
Arthur loves watching George do stunts and is trying to work out how he can do it! Usually I am in the background saying don't show him that! But if I have my camera I am to busy taking photo's lol.
Arthur had a go
then got a little help from his big brother.
he soon got his strength back, I was not running at this stage..but realising how long it had been since I went for a long walk. The picture above will become a painting eventually, I love the feeling of freedom the boys have as they run off :)
Stopping to look at a ladybird.
and finally back to the van, with a promise of a hot chocolate and one of my special Mothersday chocolates when we get home.

We have just finished a takeaway curry that Tony got so that I didn't cook, so a perfect end to the day :)
A Happy Mothers Day to all you very special Mums :)

half term and a bit of crafting :)

I can't believe half term is over already, the week went really fast. We managed to start on the garden. Clearing flower beds and Tony went around with the strimmer finding new paths and underneath all the overgrown grass and ivy there is a lovely garden just waiting for a bit of TLC. Me and Arthur bought masses of seeds and having been saving all the plastic containers that food is packaged in to use as seed trays. As soon as it warms up a bit we will cover the balcony in seeds which will hopefully grow so that we can fill up the flower beds :)
We visited the Tank museum with Harry and Arthur. Arthur refused to look at any tank until he had had a proper look at this one, which he thought was a police tank. He spotted it from the cafe which over looked this hanger of tanks.
Harry had a try on of the uniform, which brought a tear to mine and tony's eyes..cause he is applying to join the army at the moment. Quite scary but its what he'd like to do. Its going to be a huge adventure.
We managed to get to the beach to, very cold but so nice to breath in the sea air. We had a picnic in the van with the roof up, Harry and Arthur sat up the top and had great fun :)
I have been working hard since xmas and making lots of new things. I have discovered 'my thing' which is freeform crochet. The necklace above is a dorset button (made during one of the workshops in my shop) which I have crocheted around and then done a length of freeform crochet with beads for the necklace.
Then I started on this bag, you can make lots of little bits of crochet then crochet them together filling in the gaps as you go...
and then crochet over the top and down the sides and turn it around add another colour
and keep adding more until you get to a shape you like. I was aiming for a bag shape.
This is the result. I love the fact that you can use all sorts of yarns together, thin ones to make a warp that you can weave the thicker ones into and fluffy ones for texture...very handy having a shop full of yarn to experiment with :) I am very lucky ! I am going to have lots of fun designing with this method of crochet.

George went for his interview to Falmouth during half term, he's not really sure how it went. He worked so hard getting his portfolio together, fingers crossed he will get in. I am very confident he will, the worst thing is waiting 2 weeks to find out :(

Happy Christmas Holidays :)

We had a lovely relaxed xmas, really just hibernated! Xmas Eve we had our main dinner as the older boys were off to see there dad and uncles and aunts on Xmas day.
Father Christmas always drops a present from his sleigh on Christmas eve ;) Arthur was very Happy with his transformer, he had put out some special sparkley food for the Reindeer earlier in the day, and made it into an x marks the spot, and amazingly thats where the presents were found. In the dark, Tony had to shine a torch on the garden from the balcony, which got Arthur very excited.
Xmas morning Tony was busy cooking a lovely big breakfast while the boys enjoyed hot choc and squirtey cream, mmm.
There have been some amazing sunrises over the xmas hols, beautiful colours..but very coooold!
When the frost cleared on xmas day it was amazingly warm in our garden, I managed to have a lovely couple of hours knitting and reading mags in the sun, it felt like a real holiday :)
Tony enjoyed the peace in the dining room, with sun streaming through the windows :)

We had Tony's family around for New years Eve and it made the house really start to feel like home :) I cooked a huge indian feast and gave the dining room a Bollywood feel Lol ;) I really enjoyed cooking for everyone and must get back to having people round for dinner in the New Year, it would be great to be sociable again.
New Years Eve went with a bang, we all watched fireworks going off across the Blackmore Vale it was lovely .
New Years Day I started as I mean to go on, I am aiming to do a 5 minute sketch or watercolour a day of the sky and landscape outside my window, and will aim to get back to painting and hold an exhibition before the end of the year, which will include photographs and large paintings.

Wishing you all a fantastic New year and Hoping that all your wishes for the next year come true X X

How does your garden grow..

Above is the view of our garden from the top bedroom. These pics were taken 2 weeks ago when we had a break in the storms, we had been planning to start tackling the garden on the Sunday and were amazed to get a gorgeous sunny day to start. Take a walk with me to see the very exciting but daunting project. The garden has been neglected for many years so we aim to clear it and cut back the shrubs to see what there is to work with. I am sure it will be a fairly slow process one little bit at a time until next spring.
I have been clearing the patio area and the terraces below.
With the aim of planting herbs in pots and covering the different levels of terrace. I love to use fresh herbs in cooking and just go outside the kitchen door and grab what I need will be a dream come true :) I also have the book 'grow your own drugs'..medicinal ones! and would love to test out some of the recipes.
I think I may clear a bit more ivy first.  It would cost a fortune to fill the garden using garden centres so I intend to do some swaps with friends for plants and cuttings, possibly some gardening in return for raiding there gardens ;)

Above is the view back up to the house from the first grassy patch.
This section we have already discovered little paths through and I would like it to be full of cottage flowers and roses, honeysuckle with a small bench. mmmm I can just smell the summer:)
Getting further down the garden now..
possibly a veg garden ?? not sure we have the time, but eventually i would love to grow all our veg.
Tony's potting shed..needs a little tlc and electric! with kettle and cups..it's a long walk back up for a cup of tea ;)
lots of hidden paths.
lots over grown..

This is the teenage bit, right at the bottom of the garden where next summer they will be able to have camp outs, though Harry is imagining a nice shed..free cycle I think :)
A small amount of clearing to do first!! It's going to be a great family project and we are hoping for a few more sunny sundays :)
Tony and harry playing with the new toys! They did clear quite a long way down and it already looks better.