A weekend at the coast

We escaped to the North Yorkshire coast at the weekend for Hubby's annual wargaming extravaganza.

He's been preparing for it since last years event but there was still lots of last minute panicking trying to finish painting these tiny figures, which he completed the night before we left. He had great fun meeting up with old friends and has already ordered his figures for next years event, talk about keen! Still now it's all over I can have his undivided attention (hopefully) to tackle some jobs I need doing.

This year we rented a cottage in the village and it turned out to be a real gem. This was the view from the kitchen, overlooking fields and a ruined castle, and look BLUE SKY and no rain! We were really lucky with the weather all weekend, it was a bit cold but it stayed dry. 

George and I had a brilliant time,on the first day we went to Scarborough. There was plenty to keep us entertained all day, shopping, ice creams, museums and penny arcades. Then back home for tea and a film. 

On the second day George and I were out early in order to get to Whitby for breakfast. Hubby was very jealous of this plan, he had to get his own before heading out for day 2 of his game. Of course when in Whitby the best breakfast is Whitby kippers, delicious, straight from the smokehouse up the road.

Again we had glorious blue skies, so ideal for a stroll along the empty beach.

By lunchtime after all the fresh air we were hungry and it would be rude not to have fish and chips, so that's what we had. We seemed to spend the whole weekend eating! 

We had a great day in Whitby, it is my favourite place and would love to live there. Maybe one day, a girl can dream. Back to the cottage where Hubby graced us with his presence for the evening as his game had finished and everybody had left. We were all completely exhausted so we flopped in front of another film.

I took my crochet with me but didn't actually get round to doing any, I was too tired at the end of each day to attempt it.It's all that sea air.The next day we went back to Scarborough for a visit to the Sea life Centre. We were there too early and it wasn't open so we wandered down the beach and found a cafe and had a hot chocolate, it really was bracing that morning.

I had planned to buy some wool while we were away so I could make this hot water bottle cover, but I couldn't get what I wanted so when we arrived back home, before Hubby ordered next year's figures, I got my wool order in. It came yesterday and I started straight away. It is my first attempt at fair isle and found it surprisingly easy and managed to do 35 rows without any problems. However when I picked it up today and casually glanced at the pattern I realised I had used the wrong sized needles and it was going to be too small! So I haven't got a photo to show you as I had to unravel the lot and start again! That will teach me not to read the pattern properly. 

That's all for now, back to the knitting.

All set for the weekend

This weekend the boys are doing this...

For those who don't know what it is, it's THE wargaming event of the year, so I'm told. There is much excitement in the household about it, and money has been saved ready. They will leave at 6am tomorrow and return about10pm on Sunday, so a weekend all to myself. Do you want to see what I will be doing? I've stocked up today on these... 

they will be accompanied by a few chunks of this...

and a couple of glasses of this...

and as the weather is going to be rubbish and I won't be able to do any gardening, I intend to curl up in my nest here..

and do a spot of this.

I may flick through this new book and decide what my new knitting project might be, I do like that cushion on  the front cover. 

Whatever I do it will be lovely and peaceful and I won't have to organise any meals, I can just please myself for two days, but I will miss the boys and can't wait to hear what escapades they have got up to. Enjoy your weekend whatever you are doing.

Protected fruit

What do you think of my new fruit cage? It's great isn't it? My lovely Hubby built it over Easter, I'm really pleased with it. It's high enough for me to walk in and work in comfort, it pays to be small sometimes!

The bees can still get in through the mesh to pollinate the plants but the birds can't, so hopefully WE will get all of the fruit this year. 

I managed to get these photos in between the rain/hail showers today. I also managed to do a bit in the garden. I built the bean support using the trimmings from the Silver Birch which we felled earlier this year. Hopefully it stands up to the winds we get whipping through the garden, time will tell. 

I planted out the broad beans that have been ready to go out for a couple of weeks but the weather has played havoc with my planting plans. Talking of playing havoc- I was hoping to show you a couple of rows of Swiss Chard seedlings that had sprouted in the veg patch, but Hazel has been a bit of a pest lately. She keeps flying over her fencing when my back's turned and scratching all my seedlings up!Matilda watches her from the other side and shouts loudly until I come out of the house and put Hazel back in her coop. I don't know what to do about the situation at the minute because I don't want to have to keep them locked up, but I would like some veg!

Things are growing well in the greenhouse even though it's been so cold. I've potted on the Tomatoes,the Dahlias and the Cosmos. They are still only tiny but I don't heat the greenhouse and it has been incredibly cold and frosty, so they aren't doing too bad.

These teeny tiny seedlings are Nicotiana Sylvestris, and they will eventually grow into huge plants with white trumpet shaped flowers. They are beautiful and smell fab.

It always amazes me to see how small they are and how big they become, it doesn't seem possible as the seeds are so tiny.

The tatty, dead corner above has been transformed into this enormous empty space, with loads of growing potential.  

The shrubs and Pampas grass that were in there were killed by the bad weather last year and needed to come out, but it was such a big job that I got someone in to do it, and he had cleared it all in a morning. It would have taken me weeks, sometimes it wise to just pay someone to do the horrible jobs.  

Before I go I just wanted to show you my latest potato print picture that I got from the Country Living fair. I've already got three and I wasn't going to buy another one, but I fell in love with this little wren and I couldn't resist. He was made by Julia Burns who runs Red hen originals and is very talented, check out her website  sometime.

A catch up

Hazel finally laid her egg this week after 6 weeks of waiting and checking every morning. It was a bit of a performance. She kept escaping from their fenced off area and running behind the greenhouse into the wilder area of the garden.She seemed quite frantic and kept squeezing behind plant pots, I didn't want her to get into the habit of laying in the garden so I locked her in her coop and waited. I sat on the bench for about an hour like an expectant parent while a lot of banging and scrabbling went on. Eventually Matilda ambled over to the coop and stood outside calling encouragingly to her, and then she emerged triumphant and desperate to be let out. Squealing to myself (luckily there were no dog walkers passing by ) with excitement I opened the nestbox and there it was, a perfect egg.

What a clever girl.

It's a lot smaller than Matilda's as you can see but they always are when they first start laying.

Geo decided he was going to have it fried for his breakfast the next morning, which he did and declared it delicious. She will lay most days now maybe having one day off a week, their first year is the most prolific, she is likely to lay over 300 eggs! Phew. It's great to have our own eggs again and not rely on shop bought.

Things are romping away in the garden now after that week of hot sunny weather. There are 2 rows of peas under this netting, hard to distinguish from the self sown calendulas, but I will leave them there for now and let them flower only removing them if they get in the way.

I've popped some herbs into this veg bed this year, I usually edge it in Marigolds but the herbs don't do so well in pots so I've given them a permanent spot. The other veg bed isn't suitable as we have a bonfire on that every autumn and I would have to dig out the herbs.

I've been busy in the greenhouse sowing seeds. I did these this week, there are Cleome, Cosmos, Borage, Sunflowers and Clary sage,

and I did these a couple of weeks ago, more Cosmos, Dahlias and tomatoes,and they have already sprouted and are doing really well. The broad beans (in front of picture) will be planted out next week and covered with a fleece tunnel to keep any frost off. The sweetpeas (next to beans) have germinated fine, I never bother to soak them or nick the seed case with a knife like the books tell you to, there's no need really just sow them like they are and they will be ok. 

The rather dull, boring and overgrown border I showed you a while back has really come into its own now. The Daffodils are flowering and the Tulips are budding and all the Aquilegias are growing.

This Clematis has started sprouting, it will have lovely blue flowers. 

I've got loads of self seeded Forget me nots in the borders, I just pull them all up after flowering and every year up they pop again.

This Primrose is rather beautiful I think it is called Hose-in-hose,not sure will have to check.

My Alpine strawberries that I grew from seed last year have started to flower, looking forward to eating those ,we got a few fruits off them last year but hopefully we will have a better harvest this summer.

The Redcurrant leaves are starting to unfurl, we had a bumper crop last year and I have planted another one and another Blackcurrant. Now my fruit patch has extended I have decided to build a fruit cage to protect them from the pesky birds.For the last couple of years I have just covered each bush with netting, but the birds still manage to nick all the currants and it makes picking the remaining ones difficult. Hopefully Hubby is going to have a go at that next weekend, he has done the measuring, so we just need to get the wood and netting now. I will try and get photos of the progress but I'm guessing that I will get chased away!   

It has been so hot here this week and we have all been enjoying the welcome sunshine even Poppy and Daisy( couldn't entice Rosie out for a photocall) who have been moved outside now into their summer residence.

 Hope you have all had a good week. Back soon.