Deblyn

I have ordered it from the library and am waiting until it is in. I only get to that library every three weeks anyway.

I never used to be a fan of roses until recently. I was brought up with hybrid tea roses and florubunda types which did not particularly appeal to me. Now I have my own garden big enough to plant almost what I like I have amassed quite a few. One on the front fence, called Albertine, is a rambler with pale pink flowers; it was in a sorry state so it has been pruned and fed and flowered last year for the first time. I am expecting great things of it this year! The first rose I bought for this garden is planted in the middle bed of the herb garden; it's Rosa Mundi and has pink and white splashed petals and is quite the lovliest rose I have ever seen. it was one of the first to be introduced into England back in the 1500's and was named for Fair Rosamund of France. The perfume is wonderful. I then planted and Eglantine rose because of its very very pretty flowers and I liked the name. next came two Zepherine Druin roses - a lovely deep pink with a heavenly scent; this is a thornless rose, soI have one by the front door and one alongside a path. i then bought a real curiosity - a green rose. It's rosa chinensis and has little green rose type flowers at the end of the stalks; not everyone likes it but I think it's really pretty. Why I am on the subject of roses is that I bought some more last night! We went to the big supermarket in yeovil to do out monthly shopping; sometimes they have good deals on shrubs. They had a dump bin full of roses, mostly hybrid tea and floribunda. But being me I scrabbled around in the bottom (Don't fall in Mum!) and found a pack of three yellow roses, shrub type. They are only named Yellow Old English Type but are just beautiful. The nearest I can find in my book to them is one called English Garden. it has tightly packed crumpled petals in a beautiful shade of yellow. so if the April showers hold off for long enough I will be out there digging a new bed for my new babies. Then ofcourse I need to get something to plant underneath them, don't I...........................?

I had never grown irises in the ground until i came to this house; the soil at the last house was unsuitable and the garden quite shady. a neighbour gave me last year some rhizomes of a dark iris she had in her garden and the first flower opened yesterday. it is exquisite - a dark dark rich purple that looks like velvet. There are several more buds to open on each stalk so more to look forward to. It shouldn't be too long before the irises in the ponds bloom as well. I could get into irises...........

white sprouting broccoli is a "cut and come again" veg - you cut off the sprouting tips (they would flower if you left them) and they look like tiny little cauliflowers on stalks. it's delicious steamed with a little but of butter on top. You can get purple sprouting as well and that comes in early and late varieties but I usually grow just the white as the flavour is better. You can't eat osteospermums -they are a daisy type flower from the Transvaal in south Africa; they bloom quite early in the year. The ones I have in the front are white with a dark eye - really pretty.

Glad they seem to be arriving OK - I'm always fearful they might go missing somewhere over the atlantic somehow! I'm looking forward to doing this one.

My Aunt phoned at the weekend to say she is sorting out the remainder of my granny's stuff from when she lived with her. Granny died about two and a half years ago now and Ann is slowly getting sorted out. She phoned to offer me Granny's china which was always kept in a glass fronted china cabinet - never used as far as I know!! The other thing she has is a box of old photos - some very old , including some of my great grandparents which I have never seen. Ann says I can go through them when I go to pick up the china. This is great news as the older I get the more interested I am in looking at the family. I have gathered quite a bit of stuff to start on the family tree now and hope to make astart in the next few months.. It will be good to put a face to the names with the photos. I suspect there may also be a couple of horrors of me in there somewhere too!!

Hi Dee, Glad your garden is going well. We had a long spell of dry very warm weather and now have very wet and showery weather. The garden has romped away and looks very green and lush and things are growing huge! This is what's been planted in the veg gaden so far: red onions shallots and carrots together (companion planting) cauliflowers new potatoes garlic pickling onions four types of pea two types of broad bean white sprouting broccoli parsnips leeks swiss chard broccoli summer cabbage kohl rabi Brussels sprouts asparagus - new bed in this year In the greenhouses the beans are sown and lots of stuff waiting to go out. Tomatoes and peppers are planted out in the borders and the cucmbers will be today or tomorrow. I have outdoor cucumbers coming along too. Stuff waiting to go out - sweetcorn, squash, courgettes, loads of basil, dill and lettuce. There are lots of flowers sown too and the annuals seem to have germinated well with the heat and the rain. The cottage garden at the front is looking lovely -the ostespermums are out already and the irses are just about to bloom. It shouldn't be long until the white ones flower in the pond. So at the moment I am very ahppy with the garden; the drawback is that the heat and warmth have started the weeds too! Never mind at least it is outside work.

I ordered mine today in the terrestrial library; usually things are there within a week to ten days. I've never heard of her before so should be interesting.

I presume you do know that Edna is a man???!!!!!!!!!

Two peanuts walk into a bar. One was a salted. A jump-lead walks into a bar. The barman says "I'll serve you but don't start anything!" A sandwich walks into a bar. The barman says "Sorry - we don't serve food in here!" A dyslexic man walks into a bra. Two ariels meet on a roof fall in love and get married. The ceremony was rubbish but the reception was brilliant! Two cannibals are eating a clown. One says to the other "Does this taste funny to you?" Man with a strawberry on his head goes to the docotr. Doc Says "I'll give you some cream to put on it" "Doc I can't stop sining "The Green Green Grass of Home" "Sounds like Tom Jones Syndrom" "Is it common?" "It's not unusual!" Two cows standing next to each other in a field. Daisy says to Dolly "I was artificially inseminated this morning" "I don't believe you "says Dolly. It's true - straight up no bull!" Two hydrogen atoms walk into a bar. One says "I think I've lost an electron" The other says "Are you sure?" The first replies "Yes I'm positive......" Answer phone message ".....if you want to buy marijuana press the hash key......." A man takes hi Rottweiler to the vet. "My dog's cross-eyed. Is there anything you can do for him?" "Well " says the vet "Let's take a look at him." So he picks up the dog and examines his eyes then checks his teeth. Finally he says "I'm going to have to put him down>" "What? Because he's cross-eyed?" "No because he's really heavy." Two elephants walk off a cliff............boom boom! I went to buy some camouflage trousers the other day but I couldn't find any......... My friend drowned in a bowl of muesli. He was pulled in by a strong currant. I went to a seafood disco last week..... and pulled a mussel. Two fish swim into a concrete wall. One turns to the other and says "Dam!" Two fish are in a tank. One says to the other:"I'll man the guns and you drive!"

I know that face!!!

I've never tried bottling (canning) beans as I heard they can contain botulism. I read a book once where the main character poisoned her MIL with botulism beans! I have however regularly preserved them in the form of wine.........!

Thanks Cappy - that's brilliant. The children loved it and I've put it on the favourites so we can visit it regularly. Are you into falcons or just taken by the site?

Is she going to hatch the eggs?

Just to let you know my squares are on their way to the nine ladies whoa re taking part in this with me. I'm not that efficient - just had to get them out while I had the spare cash!! Looking forward to getting some back from everyone; it's lovely to get stuff from overseas instead of just bills and junk mail. I have now received 18 squares in total from the other exchange so am a quarter of the way there with that one! I want to somehow incorporate all the letters and notes that came with the squares - maybe a little pocket at the back; I will do the same for the Mrs S quilt as well. I think they will both go on the wall when they are done; too precious to use!!

I found out today that Mother Earth news has put all their back issues on to a web site so you can read through lists of articles and print out those you need. Some of the things that caught my eye: How to pickle quail eggs Macrame your own hammock Home sweet recycled home The Mad Chemists's winter solstice project Feed back on fleas and ticks Feedback on mother's methane maker The sensuous gadgeteer Cure your own olives A simple wind powered washing machine you can build (*this I've GOT to see!*) The site is at: http://www.motherearthnews.com/archive/index.html#top Hope others find it as useful as I think it will be to me! Let me know what you think...........

Our newlyt refurbished village hall is due to be opened officially next weekend and as part of the project we have made new curtains for the main hall. One of the committee members offered to take on this part of the project - measuring purchasing the fabric and overseeing the ladies who offered to make the curtains. Sadly this lady's son became very ill and subsequently died so she was obviously unable to help at all. In these circumstances i stepped in and took it over. Three people have done two pairs each and a fourth lady recently moved here offered to do two pairs. there was some understanding (long story) but the upshot was that seh cut the curtains short by 18 inches! PANIC! I just had enough matching fabric on the roll to cut out two more pairs and had litereally half an inch to spare. The same lady was unable to sew the new ones as she is expecting twins and was going in to hospital this weekend to be induced. So I ended up sewing curtains anyway - someone up there was determined I was going to do them it seems! Another death in the village meant that the lady who offered to help complete the village wallhanging for the opening of the hall is now unable to help so I have that to finish as well. Just as well I like sewing isn't it?!!!!!!!! Although because of the tragic circumstances in both cases I obviously don't mind.

The shop and post office in our village has been up for sale as a going concern for a long while now. After a certain time if a commercial property is not sold then the owners can apply to obtain planning permission to turn it into a dwelling. This has now happened and we may lose our shop and post office which are a vital lifeline for many people in the village - we have a lot of elderly people and those who don't drive. The nearest post office and shop would then be 3 miles away along the main road so you couldn't walk there. It will be interesting to see if there will be enough concern to mount a campaign. People can be very lethargic and sit back and let everyone else do the work but we'll see what happens.

I keep all my chickens and ducks together in one area. For most of the time they get on pretty well; the drakes don't fight amongst themselves and the three cockerels don't scrap much as they each have their own set of ladies. I do however have one very large drake who is the size of a goose. He lost his mate at the end of last year and has been pestering the **** out of my two little Call ducks; he has almost blinded one of them in one eye and the backs of both their necks are red raw. I've had to separate them and keep the two of them inside one of the smaller houses until he gets it out of his system. He always was a bit on the active side in that department but since his mate died he's been 10 times worse. My friend is unable to take him and his little friend; my friend's husband is heading for 80 now and doesn't think he could manage another duck and they have problems with foxes where they live. So we have decided to pen off an area of the yard with the pond init and move the little house there and the call ducks can live in there. We will dig another pond for the rest of the ducks which will continue to live with the chickens. To compound the seasonal drake problems I have two little miniature Appleyards (Bob and Ivan) who were raised by chickens. As a result they try to mate with the chickens that they take a fancy to and spend their time trying to get up on the chickens' backs but end up just hanging on to the tail feathers and getting dragged about in the dust! Which is comical up to a point (not for the chicken!) but I lost two chickens last year when they dragged them into the pond to try and mate with them on the water. Males of any species are such a problem....................!!

On Sundays I cook a traditional Sunday breakfast. We have bacon, eggs, mushrooms and tomatoes juice and coffee and toast. We only have it on Sundays for practical and health reasons but you can't beat it!

Sorry Brigie - do come along! Do you like horses? Deb thought it was a different kind of stud farm..............! Don't forget the flask of tea..!

Not that sort of stud farm Deb unfortunately!! It's a horse stud farm! I'm back now having cleared hal fo the front border that needs doing first. It wasn't as bad as it looked so that was OK. He was pleased with what I'd done and just left me alone to get on with it so it worked out fine. The weather is breezy but warm enough to work in a t-shirt. I'm going out in MY garden now! see you later......

I start my new job today - nothing grand though! Af ew hours gardening each week at the stud farm down the road. They say they haven't enough time to keep on top of the garden so I will help. I've to start on a border near the road which needs cutting back and weeding; it's full of irises old roses and poppies - plenty of potential for cuttings then! They have a big walled garden behind the house but I haven't seen that yet. With one eye on the weather I may not get there today as it looks very much like long-needed rain!

Yesterday here was very windy with a strong north-easterly wind blowing. So I spent a happy afternoon pottering in and out of the greenhouses. I pricked out about 150 white snapdragons; 32 dahlias "Bishop's Children";20 pompom dahlias. I potted up a couple of plant roots someone very kindly sent me from ireland - two plants I have been after for quite a long time: a perennial honesty and some runners of white epilobium - the willowherb. It has been dry enough here over the past couple of weeks to get the hose pipe out and water the veg - cauliflowers and onions and shallots. So much for the April showers we haven't seen any yet! I also managed to find a plant I am very fond of at a little local nursery; it's pulmonaria David Ward. It is very difficult to keep especially over a wet winter. I found just one and snapped it up so I can try and get it established before the autumn comes. We also bought (another) a tree - a white barked birch tree; one with the peeling bark that reveals the colour underneath. We will plant it in a small patch of unused garden with a couple of other native trees and under plant it with bluebells to make a mini bluebell woodland. I want to put in other woodland flowers like anemones and violets etc. Should be lovely in spring.

I'll have to pass on ths one Reci but thanks for the invite and trying to get the idea going. Hope it works out.