Monday 13 March 2017


Good Morning Sunshine!!!

Doesn't it make you feel better? Coda thinks so too! (rubbish pic)
This weekend has been dry and mostly sunny.With great help from H. who is EGD's boyfriend, David has taken down an old damson tree that was quite rotten. This tree had grown between three outbuildings and supported a tree house covered with ivy. As the house, tree and even the ivy was crumbling it had to go. Once this was dispatched (a BIG job) and onto a big bonfire, apart from the good wood for logs, the rest of the family arrived and did a great job cleaning up. There was a huge amount of well rotted leaf mould which was a bonus.
Here they are. Note that the girls are cleaning and the boys are watching!
That was Sunday, when all the family and the occasional friend (yesterday it was EGD's friends and their baby)come for a roast dinner. On Friday David and H. attacked the wisteria on the front and side of the house. It was good to have the help of a young man who is happy to scramble up a high ladder. David is extremely good at pruning wisteria for flower and was able to teach H. who is a tree surgeon this skill. Here is ( a very small part) of the pruned  plant.
And the bonus bye-product of the pruning... weaving material!
Some of these are 20 foot long and I hope to make a couple of log baskets with them, with fresh cut willow as stakers.
I looked in the pond last week and saw a large lump of frogspawn. Hurrah! I looked again on Saturday and there was none and the water was disturbed. Our neighbours saw a heron on the chicken hut that that overlooks the pond. Would a heron eat frogspawn?
Yesterday I looked again and there were at least eight frogs having an orgy, so I will find some sort of netting to put over the pond and we will hope to keep any frogspawn.
I have been tidying up my followers list as there were several bloggers that seem to have disappeared. I'm quite sad at the loss of some of these bloggers who have just fallen out of blogland. I often wonder what happened to them, don't you?  I've asked my family to close my blog with a quick explanation if something awful happens to me. Is this morbid?!
Well I started off all happy about the sunshine and have ended up on a negative! So to move this on, the damson is in bud and with all the bulbs and catkins in flower there seems to be plenty of forage for the bees which have flying with gusto over the last few days.
Gillx

9 comments:

  1. Hope I'm not one of the bloggers crossed off your list? Just got broadband back after six weeks! Occasionally used the local library to catch up on some of my bookmarks.
    Envious of the wisteria prunings! can't wait to see your baskets when you have made them.

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    1. No Sandie, you certainly aren't! Some bloggers hadn't posted for a year or several months and I guess won't do so again. Some of them I had felt an affinity with and miss their posts.
      I can't wait to get going on the baskets, but there are other more pressing jobs on at the moment.

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  2. I have given my family the same instruction lol

    I think some blogger have left this earthly realm, some bloggers get tired of blogging and some bloggers get disheartened when their followers comments dwindle - or cease. Comments are so much part of blogging and encourages the logger to bigger and better things, don't you think?

    Love your weaving strands - have a yearning to do some myself...

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    1. My daughter set me me up with my blog, so knows her way around it better than I and will close it one day no doubt!
      When reading the last posts of those bloggers there seems no clue that it will be their last. really strange.
      I'm looking forward to starting the baskets and will share the results (good or bad)

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  3. Hope no one in the family has to write for you for many many more years!

    I've deleted quite a few people who don't seem to blog anymore and still haven't finished copying my list from old blog to the new one.

    Good to see you are keeping busy!!

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    1. same here. or for yourself.
      i really would like to know what happened to Dreamer for example and a few others that I became "close to" in a virtual way!
      I see you too are getting your gardening mojo back. So much more you!

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  4. I noticed yesterday that we have flower buds on our wisteria. Ours was pruned back quite hard this year.

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    1. You are a little in front of us and I know that your wisteria is a picture too. David usually does a softer prune in the late summer too, but didn't last year so the plant was in a mess (hence the great weavers)

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  5. I have missed several blogs I follow lately but then one of them started blogging again and one reappeared with a new blog.
    One I am really missing is, happening on happiness, any clues?
    I enjoy your blog, especially when you "rant". It usually gives me something to think about. Sue

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