Jopanofmanypets

ME!

2012-02-01T16:19:00.003Z

2011-12-31T09:59:00.000Z

I got asked out by a man 43 years older than me last night. It was strangely flatering he was very cool but it was also very very wrong. What a strange man. I did actually get some drinks bought for me too by someone else. I never ever get men wanting to buy me drinks. That was so nice... I do have to say that even if a man would ask me, if I would like a drink i would normally say no. Unless i'm too drunk to pass up free booze. Which i might have been.
Don't worry I will soon start talking more about gardening. I think I've been very depressed recently, but i think i'm started to feel better.

Sometimes I really do make myself laugh.

2011-12-28T08:26:00.001Z

Actually going to start trying to do something with my life.

2011-12-22T08:40:00.000Z

You know I've always been the sort of person that's just completely gone with the flow. I've never really had a plan or a view of the way that my life was meant to go. Except that i didn't want to end up like my mother. Which meant I wasn't going to spend all my life working and I was never going to have kids.
Now so far so good on this front. But it also means, because I've never really taken an interest in my own life, that I've never, and by God I know its sad, had a boyfriend. I have lots of friends, but that's all they are. I intend to take steps to change this however, there must be a guy out there that doesn't find me repulsive, or insane or whatever. I am actually going to try and live this life of mine before I'm dead. Wish me luck?

sigh

2011-12-18T08:41:00.000Z

An operation well thought out and carried through.
The most well thought out plan to hurt a woman that could be conceived without the use of violence. The sad thing is he warned me that he hated women... So it meant thankfully that i expected it, but it also means I cant be too angry... I did enjoy spending time with him. Despite the fact that every particle of my body was telling me 'be weary he is deceiving you'. There was also a part that was saying beneath this there is something real. I guess I've never been attracted to normal men.

And this anyone that wants a dog

2011-12-11T20:42:00.001Z

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=586803488#!/photo.php?fbid=158660454235285&set=a.108142085953789.9478.100002739946905&type=1&theater

any dog lovers may want to look at this

2011-12-11T20:40:00.001Z

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/stopcastlefieldskillingstrays/signatures/page/4

2011-12-10T15:49:00.001Z

I was right! I knew it!

2011-12-06T07:40:00.001Z

I think I'm being played like a fiddle and I don't like it. I know i am a distrustful person, always have been, but this is differant and I can't walk away... Yet?

people.

2011-11-30T15:03:00.001Z

I find it very difficult to understand how other people think. I've never been a sociable person and so have never gotten the hang of being around people. The way their minds work is something completely alien to me and I am more often than not completely bewildered by the actions and workings of them. I wish that people came with a how to manual.

Banjo!

2011-11-28T20:06:00.001Z

My Banjo has arrived! I am so excited! I would start trying to play it right now but I'm so exhausted I can hardly lift my arms to type. I'll just be satisfied with sitting looking lovingly at it till I fall asleep.

2011-11-26T16:56:00.001Z

Where is my Banjo? I want my Banjo! I even looked in all the out houses to see if it had been left in there.
I'm quite worried about myself at the moment, i seem to be lacking in self control. My self control used to be iron firm but now I'm feeling things starting to waver and I'm doing things on a whim. I don't have the personality for following whims, I keep giving myself panic attacks. Should I be worried that I can't trust myself anymore? I'm certainly worried, but I can't quite decide where this worry is coming from. I feel that something is wrong though.

2011-11-26T06:39:00.001Z

I'm finding myself really considering the reasons behind why people do things. What it is that motivates them. What it is that makes them disregard how it may effect others.

2011-11-25T09:57:00.001Z

All this effort for a bit of squash... Ah its worth it. I love squash with a passion. the last two days I've had roasted squash and onion with a red wine and vinegar vinaigrette type thingy for tea. Absolutely lovely. And that was just a small squash, just imagine how many days this babys gonna feed me.

2011-11-25T08:54:00.001Z

My sisters new mastiff puppy Haku with good old niche. This picture is old he is about four months old now, and was two and a half months old in the picture. This is what he looked like the last time i saw him.

2011-11-24T18:56:00.001Z

I finally have a day off today. which is a rarity at christmas. I think i must be one of the only people in the world that truely dreads christmas. I have so many things that i want to do today I don't know quite how i'm going to get it all done, or even if I should. Surely i should spend my time resting?

Well enough of that. Today i have to:

1.Walk the dog along the canal as i promised her i would.

2. go to the gym.

3. buy some clothes that actually fit me (i hate clothes shopping with a passion)

4. Check all my Dahlia tubers for rot.

5. buy some food.

6. Brush the dog.

7. Make the christmas cake.

I doubt very much that I'll be able to bring myself to do all that. At the very least gym, dog walk, clothes, and shopping. The other things can go hang until another rare, rare day off.

On a lighter note, I've lost another pound.

2011-11-24T18:49:00.002Z

I've not lost 2 stone and 12 lbs and you know what... I still feel unattractive... On a happier note. I have bought a banjo. Hopefully i will be good at playing it. I've never really played an instrument before. I may find a new skill... Psh.

2011-09-12T07:38:00.003+01:00

the moon was very beautiful last night. I was out with the dog in the pitch fields looking up at her. I saw two barn owls which is one more than I'd ever seen in my life. I guess they were together, one of them was killing something, hard to tell what, i could see white and little else... The noises on the other hand... i had no problem hearing. I do love living in the countryside.

2011-09-01T06:30:00.001+01:00

Can't eat, can't sleep, got the shakes. Whats wrong with me?

i feel strange today

2011-08-27T06:47:00.001+01:00

pretty darn strange.

2011-08-26T06:30:00.002+01:00

OK I've lost a further lb today, i don't know what I'm doing but that's five lbs in a week. I think because i stayed the same for so long despite going to the gym its all decided to come off at once. I hope its not going to be temporary. I have been working hard to get this weight off. one more lb and its two stone gone.

I'm going to have to go clothes shopping.

2011-08-25T06:58:00.003+01:00

I hate clothes shopping and i thought I'd never have to go again as i don't care if i live in rags, alas I have lost almost two stone (that's not the bad part) and now all my clothes are like tents on me. Well they always were like tents because i wear my brothers clothes. (he's 6 feet four) Well they're actually not functional anymore so I'm actually going to have to find some clothes that fit and are meant for girls. I would like to point out here and now that i could always get into girls clothes i was just too comfortable in huge fishing and beer t-shirts (hence the lack of a boyfriend) I now just have to wait for my sister to return from Utah in two weeks time before i can go. Obviously i cant be trusted on my own to buy clothes as I've never really done it before.

2011-08-23T06:11:00.001+01:00

I think I'm in danger of becoming one of those crazy people that walk around muttering to themselves.

2011-08-21T08:24:00.001+01:00

uuhh got home from the night before at 4am... up now for work!!! bloody hell!

2011-08-15T15:53:00.003+01:00

did you ever see the movie Bronson? well i think i found the place that they made the Bronson type person. I just applied for a job at a gym and the people that i saw there are the most buff and to be honest a bit scary looking men that I've ever, ever seen i don't think i will be able to deal with a job like that if i was offered it. I'm just too fragile emotionally. And I'm not skinny so i think I'd get bullied. I mean I'm not huge, but I'm not Jessica Alba you know. Yeah, i reckon that's not the job for me. I'm totally exhausted now. I've walked to the gym and back, done 450 calories at the gym, and been to the interview. later I'm gonna have to walk the dog (i was going to take her to the canal which is an 8 mile walk)i think I'll just talk her the usual 4 miles. I tell you if anyone ever dared say i don't get enough exercise I'd have to punch them in the face.
I'm also gonna turn the compost pile, yesterday we emptied the two compost bins into a compost bin dad and I built (mostly dad) so I'm turning that in a minute.

2011-08-12T08:03:00.001+01:00

somebody is stealing the milk off the my doorstep! The world really has gone down the toilet. i feel like I'm living in Gotham city.

2011-08-11T08:06:00.003+01:00

I'm looking after my nieces guinea pigs right now and i think I've become obsessed. I'm on the guinea pig website all the time seeing what to feed them. I think I'm falling for the angry little balls of fluff. I really enjoy feeding them cucumber because they LOVE it, but i have to feed it them in moderation. :( I'm gonna go forage some dandelions for them soon too.

2011-08-09T13:35:00.002+01:00

on a lighter note, since i started going to the gym and eating a little less chocolate and stuff i have lost 22lbs. I've been loosing it very slowly, I've been actively trying to be more healthy for just over a year so you can see how slowly, but still 22lbs yey! I'll be relatively happy to loose a further 8lbs and then, well i wouldn't say I'd be happy, but, I'll see what i think. but even if i loose the 8lbs I'll still weigh way more than the 'ideal weight' that the doctor would give for someone my height. But bugger that, they're unrealistic.

2011-08-09T09:15:00.003+01:00

the riots are getting closer, they're in Derby now. are we gonna have to barricade ourselves in? Give me guns, pikes, bottled water, storable food and dobermans (Puppys will be fine)... I bet the bureaucrats wish they'd been allowed to fortify their castles now.

2011-08-03T13:16:00.002+01:00

just spent 15minutes dead heading marigolds and I'm sweating cobs! man oh man its hot! I just had to hose down the floor in the greenhouse and poly tunnel as it is over 40oC in there! I got out pretty quick though. I don't know how my poor plants feel. I guess the Mango will be loving it, but maybe not everything else. The aubergines if I keep um moist will like it I guess.
I dug up the first potatoes of the year yesterday, well I say I did, Dad did and I supervised because I've buggered up my ankle. its three times the size its meant to be and it hurts to walk on it, that's not mentioning the dreadful agony that walking downstairs causes me. so anyway, the potato's are Anya, I love Anya potatoes and I would grow a field of them if I could. They were new potato sized and waxy and lovely, didn't need butter, just had a bit of ketchup (i have ketchup on everything) The sunflowers in my garden are so lovely right now that i had to bring one into the house, my sister said they're a horrible colour, kinda a bronze colour, but i love them. The immortals (if thats how you spell it) are looking good too, I've one of those in the house and a teeny, tiny dahlia all in a jam jar. (I'm so classy)
I'm just trying to decide whether or not to empty the compost bins and leave them in the open air or not. i think i will but i might wait until its a bit cooler, we've been promised some rain tonight so if its not thundery i might do that in the rain. I do love the rain at this time of year, it smells wonderful and you just can't get that same smell any other time. it's kind of a burnt asphalt, and soil smell with a weird heaviness in the air. Very strange, but wonderful.

2011-08-02T07:02:00.000+01:00

i don't understand...

2011-07-31T20:03:00.002+01:00

i just watched the road to perdition, i love this film so much. I've seen it maybe four times and it never gets old, even if it is set in the 1930s...You know i think i love programs from the 1920s and 30s, i like boardwalk empire, road to perdition, the green mile. I wonder if i had an interesting former life in the 30s.

do you ever have days when you're almost 100% certain that you can't possible be human? No? Just me then.

2011-07-28T11:04:00.001+01:00

2011-07-25T22:40:00.001+01:00

uuummmm hershey chocolate bar.

2011-07-24T21:04:00.002+01:00

dug an extra two feet by three on the flower garden planted the rest of my echinacea's the whole bed is now about seven feet by three, i measured it by lying down next to it and guessing how much longer than me it was. it looks like I've dug a grave to be honest, I haven't though i promise. it's mostly echinacea, rudbeckia and immortels and sunflowers, I'm very pleased with it. Next year the dahlias go in. I know I'm repeating myself a bit but i just like to be sure i know what I'm doing.

the cat woofed!

2011-07-24T09:14:00.002+01:00

she was asleep on my pillow (where I'm meant to be sleeping I'd like to add) she woke, stretched and meowed as she stretched and she said moowf. which must be a cat woof.

2011-07-22T06:27:00.002+01:00

watching a program that's trying to see if plants have ESP. seems they freak out if they 'see' you with secateurs. I feel so bad right now, i recently pulled a load of leaves off my tomato's. poor buggers.

more pictures from the garden.

2011-07-20T09:38:00.004+01:00

this is my bronze sunflower, I've had loads of flowers off these plants (i have five, three of which are flowering now) the bees seem to love these plants.

this is a sweet potato :) I'm told i can grow the vines out of this and then once the vine is 15 Cm's long i should be able to plant it and get some tatos. its probably too late in the year but its a nice experiment.

Nicotiana. i really, really love this plant. it smells wonderful. the bumble bees go crazy around it but they cant fit inside the flower, i do feel bad about that, but smaller insects and bees should be happy. even though it says they attract humming birds i haven't seen any yet, perhaps they're on their way over the pacific as i type.

i don't know what these red flowers are but i love them, i bought them before they had flowers and I'm so happy with it. truly lovely, i put a pink snap dragon with them, which has gone to seed now, and the two just looked great together.

this is my last dahlia to flower and i LOVE it! its the best colour and its a great shape and i want more! I'm actually looking forward if a little nervously to the autumn when i get to take a look at the tubers.

pictures from the garden.

2011-07-19T20:43:00.002+01:00

black eyed Susan's
veg patch - i took out the broad beans and the garlic and planted Brussels and more cabbage.sweet scabius, in the flower bed.my little jungle, A poly tunnel jungle.

pumpkin!

Flower arranging. When did i turn into such a girl!?

2011-07-19T10:16:00.003+01:00

Not to mention the knitting and the baking. but the knitting and baking are all helping me become more self sufficient. The flowers are just gravy.

2011-07-13T20:56:00.002+01:00

I've added even more to my flower garden. I've dug out just another foot and I've put two echinacea plants at the end so i now had four rudbeckia, two echinacea, a whole hog of the summer solstice flowers, 4 sweet scabius, 4 purple dwarf sunflowers, 6 coleus, erm... is that it? Yes. I think that's it. Hopefully it will look good, remember that half of those flowers are for next year though. plus I've been collecting seeds, about a thousand aquilegia seeds. before that i collected nicatiana seeds, about a hundred of those. Hopefully I'll have some snap dragons and alliums too soon.

Well i'm knackered

2011-07-11T21:01:00.002+01:00

me and the dog had a day out today, we traveled to matlock, a kind of seaside town away from the seaside. i caught two buses to get there and all together it took 2 hours and 10 minutes. I had gone there to visit a friend of mine who was renting a house down there. Her house is beautiful, stone double fronted with a lovely front garden and right beneath a cliff. i spent a bit of time going through some gardening know how with my friend and had tea and a sandwich before going off with the dog in tow to the green places of matlock where we explored the high tor and we had some breaks in a couple of pubs. we had a few shandy's and it was lovely, the weather was beautiful and it was a lovely day. It was such a long trek though and i think I'm ready for a very good nights sleep.

2011-07-07T13:17:00.002+01:00

The day before mum died, when i was still happily ignorant of my mums impending death i made this little flower garden. i have since doubled it in size, surrounded it with bricks (well i ran out of bricks so i have surrounded two thirds of it) when i get around to it I'm going to take a picture of it. its full of sunflowers, rudbeckia, coleus, sweet scabius and helichrysum summer solstice. Its a work in progress because the rudbeckia isn't going to flower this year, and once the summer solstice flower has died or when I've dug more garden I'll add some echinacea that i have growing in pots and hopefully next year i will have a beautiful African style garden.

2011-07-07T13:05:00.003+01:00

do you know i think there is some sort of conspiracy in my world that's trying to keep me fat. i do loads of exercise, and just when i start to see a difference something happens, like i hurt my back, or my gammy ankle gives out or i get too busy to do the exercise. this time its my back. I'm going to keep going at the gym because I'm very determined not to be fat.

2011-07-07T07:58:00.002+01:00

It only took 25years, but i finally learnt how to knit. Mum tried for years to teach me but couldnt cause i'm "kaggie handed" (left handed) I learnt thanks to the internet, and possibly with a bit of help from my sister.
please don't critisize, i know its not perfect. thats why i like the unclear picture.

on wakefulness.

2011-07-04T04:40:00.003+01:00

i woke up at 3:50 am and couldn't get back to sleep, I've been having trouble sleeping of late, starting to feel a bit like Hamlet. :)
I've changed the covers on the spare bed already because the cat has been making a mess (don't ask - she's old). it's not actually the spare bed, its my bed, but I've been sleeping on the spare bed to see if it helped me sleep. The cat followed me so I'll probably have to change that one too soon.
I'm now watching Bright Star with Ben Whishaw, its rather good, and his acting is rather decent. Oh why am I awake? I have work today. i had an incredibly busy day yesterday and that includes a very extreme gym trip, so why did i not sleep like a log?
Its at times like this that I want to re-read The Secret History by Donna Tartt, a truly excellent book. Truly. I particularly fell in love with the character of Henry, and i believe he's the reason I've read the book about a dozen times.

2011-07-03T16:31:00.002+01:00

managed to burn off 435calories at the gym today in roughly 50minutes, i think i might have overdone it. Knackered. now i have to walk the dog and plant up the garden. I might do the garden first, as i can sit down to do that.
on a different note, I've been trying (again) to learn how to knit, and i thought I'd finally figured it out, but then i looked at the knitted...erm bit, and it looks wrong. WHY?

2011-07-02T08:33:00.002+01:00

Happy Saturday.
i spent a nice night in with a Friend, we watched Dark knight and red eye. Drank one entire bottle of wine. Been invited out to Nottingham city too to see another Friends new flat and to go out for a meal. A nice civilised day out.

2011-06-29T01:27:00.001+01:00

i seem to be awake. i have work today and i seem to be awake.

2011-06-23T08:11:00.003+01:00

Oh i love watching man versus food, its hilarious! although it seems every advert is about funerals which is something I'm trying not to think about. as you probably guessed my mum died a week ago yesterday.

I'm trying to think of good funeral songs, and nice messages to write on the flower cards.

I'm trying to get back to 'life as normal' what ever that is. I went back to work yesterday, and I've started back at the gym, which is something I've not been able to do for about three months.

i burnt off 335 calories which i think i good to say I've not been exercising for ages. I admit though that my bum and legs hurt today.

I've been eating healthier than normal too as the outfit i have for the funeral is quite tight (something i first had bought for me at age fourteen) We'll see how it goes. mum would want me to look nice, and i would like to look nice too (and yeah I'm too cheap, and skint, to buy a new outfit)

I've been going mad in the garden recently, since mum died, I've been trying to drown out the thoughts in my head with weeding, digging, planting, re potting. Because of this and because i gave half of my plants away to a Friend who was moving house and needed an instant garden i have very little in the poly tunnel. this isn't a bad thing really though, i couldn't use all of them, but it looks so empty in there! never mind, more room to make more plants.

Even that big plant in the middle is now in the garden.

2011-06-14T17:45:00.003+01:00

OK, I never mentioned this before because i couldn't bare to, but my mum has been in intensive care with cancer and other cancer complications for the last seven weeks. And today the doctors tell me that they want to take her off life support because shes not getting better. My mums going to die.

ha ha! did it.

2011-06-09T19:06:00.003+01:00

I baked some cookies (i think they're rusks) before i went out to take pictures of the flowers I've fallen in love with... unfortunately my camera really doesn't like to take pictures of white flowers! they're white with hints of purple and yellow along the skinny bits, and they smell wonderful.Nicotiana or sweet tobacco. They're beautiful.

This is the most advanced sunflower i have, they're dwarf and bronze coloured.

This is one of my pumpkins, I've always wanted to grow a pumpkin inside so now i have. Yey.

I'm off to a wedding tomorrow in oxford. I've never been there before so I'm quite exited and yet scared (I'm a terrible traveler) here's hoping i get there OK.

2011-06-09T14:27:00.002+01:00

turnip kale

that was my first crop, give or take some radish.

this was actually my poly tunnel two weeks ago, it takes me a long time to get around to writing these posts. I'll go out and try to take pics of everything so its more recent. i especially want to show you the nicotiana as i am in love with it.

attack of the dahlias!!! I love them!!!

right, time waits for no wo-man

2011-06-09T10:24:00.003+01:00

OK so I've got about twenty minutes to do this post before I've got to go out.

This (finally) is the post about the jam.

The jam did turn out to be plum, plum and apple, it made about 2lbs so four 1/2 lb jars, here it is in picture form.

Beautiful plums from last year. still frozen:

In frozen form with the pips and skin still on there was about 2lb of plums, i added a half lb of apples because i knew that when i took out the skin and pips the plums would way much less. So about 1.5lbs raw ingredients if your being conservative:

1.5 lbs of sugar.

Cook the fruit until everything was soft, i added a bit of water just so it didn't all burn the bottom of the pot. when all is soft add the sugar (never before its all soft otherwise you get jam with bits of leather) Don't forget to dice the apples into 1cm chunks or less. the smaller you go the quicker it cooks.

Four rather mis-matched jars of jam.

2011-06-06T20:47:00.001+01:00

If anyone has any spare luck going I'd appreciate it if you sent it my way! i really need some. Thanks in advance.

2011-06-06T09:46:00.003+01:00

i wanna cook something, wanna, wanna cook something! I have plums from last year, i have gooseberry's ready for picking. i have some very sour apples i don't like. I'm gonna make some jam i think. plum and apple and then I'll pick and freeze the gooseberry's. they're so sweet this year.

2011-06-02T07:04:00.002+01:00

i seem to have lost 4lbs in like ten days... i bet it doesnt stay off though.

2011-05-30T20:18:00.001+01:00

i'm on a little bit of a detox, fruit, fruit, fruit and...Tea! well i couldnt give up tea...
we'll see how long this lasts.

2011-05-30T19:21:00.001+01:00

Pretty.

cheeky

rampant

classic

What is it?

2011-04-30T12:09:00.002+01:00

orange flowers, don't know what they are but they're pretty. broom

poly tunnel!

2011-04-29T09:02:00.004+01:00

i ordered a tonne of sand yesterday for my tunnel project. It should arrive by Thursday. I was slightly surprised that it was going to take exactly a week to get my sand but hey ho, at least i have time to rest my back.
Well its the start of the Beltane weekend today and i am going to bake a fruit loaf for today and it seems that's all, I've not heard of anywhere local that celebrates it and short of knocking on likely looking houses i haven't got anywhere to go. (enter the worlds most tiny violin) so yeah, fruit loaf, eh, i might build a raised bed into the tunnel now that I've come to think about the week of waiting. Yes, that's a plan.

The poly tunnel is built!

2011-04-25T07:32:00.002+01:00

And already it has about a dozen flies in it and a couple of spiders. The green house on the other hand is full of baby spiders.
all i need to do to the poly tunnel now is, level the ground on the inside of the tunnel, fill it with sand, and cover it with tarpaulin. Pictures soon!

polytunnel people have sent the missing part

2011-04-22T09:21:00.001+01:00

the main frame has been build one door has been fixed, the other door is build and needs fixing and the heat resistant tape needs adding and then i can put up the plastic and it will be done!!!
not including making the inside look pretty but thats not actually a job, thats something i look forward to.

2011-04-19T06:36:00.003+01:00

written to the poly tunnel people, they are sending the missing part. I'm starting to get excited now. I'm starting to plan the arrangements of the vegetables and the flowers. I'm looking forward to growing Barlotti beans this year, I've not grown barlotti's for about two years.

I'm also thinking about arranging the colours of my flowers and making things look good. Now I'm not very good at that sort of thing, my brain doesn't recognise what looks nice, i just like bright colours and my main aim is to create nice smells. (i know all of that sounds weird) So this is going to be a challenge.

this is my apple tree in blossom, the one I've been waiting for.

poly tunnel!

2011-04-17T20:35:00.005+01:00

This is dad hard at work building the door to my poly tunnel, i know, i know why isn't it me doing it...Well, to be quite honest i wouldn't know a hammer from a screwdriver (slight exaggeration to allow for clearer understanding) But yeah, i was always there ready to help him. I helped hold the wooden sides down while he hammered nails in to keep the netting straight for example, i dug holes (I'm good at that).Niche was giving us moral support at all times, except when she got bored, or tried to chase bee's. Notice one of her favourite dog toys is a doggy beer can. Poly tunnel-ness. The inside will be sorted out soon.

OK, this picture was taken just to show you how it looks from the kitchen, i am struck by the way it looks every time i look out the window. Now you may have noticed that it is not yet complete, well this is true. We have discoved that a peice is missing and we must wait for it to be delivered to us. this slight setback although inconvenient do's have its good side, it gives me time to sort out the inside of the tunnel.

2011-04-15T21:42:00.003+01:00

I just had to sieve my homemade wine through kitchen roll to get rid of debris, Then i drank it, of course. I'm so civilised. :)

2011-04-13T16:26:00.001+01:00

the proper name for my wild violets is the 'common dog violet'. i don't care if they're common, i love them.

i'm feeling very mixed up right now.

2011-04-12T20:47:00.000+01:00

pictures of a beautiful day part two.

2011-04-10T21:42:00.002+01:00

Hehehe. Isn't this a cool picture?

need more space!!!!!

pear tree. Victoria i think.

this is the sweet pea patch. there are seeds in there. we just need to watch and wait.

pictures of a beautiful day!!!

2011-04-10T21:23:00.002+01:00

Wild violets! and dandelions but you don't need to pay attention to those. magnolia flower, i wish you could smell them (i wish i could smell them better - i have a cold)

magnolia bush! I'd like to say tree, but it's just not a tree, it's a bush. now this, i think, is a wisteria flower. We've never had one off the plant which is about six years old and we are all very exited.

this is the baby gooseberry with his first flowers. This seems to be a year of firsts. First blossom on apple tree. First wisteria, first baby gooseberry.

i love gardeners world!

2011-04-10T08:50:00.002+01:00

I really love gardeners world, I think Monty and Carol are amazing, and the entire phenomena is both exiting and reassuring at the same time. There are so many ideas to be gotten from it, i certainly have had a lot of ideas, and i intend to try out a few. I'm going to grow Daffodils from seed, and try growing tulips from seed too despite the fact that its supposed to take four years to get a tulip flower from the process. I just have to ask myself, do i feel patient..?

2011-04-09T20:35:00.002+01:00

Just found three pounds of fruit in the bottom of the freezer, made some lovely jam, the first of the year. I've had some on bread and its lovely. From the look of the bags and from memory it is sloe, blackberry, elderberry and raspberry. I also kept all of the plants I've had in my room moved to the greenhouse overnight (they'd been acclimatised) and after a very anxious walk up the garden i found that everything is OK... Except, the violets, they're looking a bit erm sad (which is weird because they came from outside). I'll give um a couple of days and hopefully they will be OK. And then we shall have pictures...

2011-04-06T23:16:00.002+01:00

i just found sweet violets growing in my garden yey! and because i found one, i searched and found more. one of them was under a bush and not happy about it so hes now mine. i potted it into a big flowerpot and placed him in the shady corner of the greenhouse. Happy day! violets! i also spent a large part of my day potting on tomato's, busy Lizzy's, nicotiana, cauliflowers and erm...i must pot on my salad leaves and pretty much everything else. right. night night.

sick

2011-04-04T12:17:00.002+01:00

just got sent home from work cause I'm sick. I'm really useless when I'm ill I'm also pathetic and man flu-ish. I'm going to sit at home drinking tea and I'm going to will myself better. I only work part time so this being ill when i have work is really stupid. i was ill yesterday though which was my first day off in a while due to it being mothers day the other day. but I've had loads of days off so i feel quite bad. but i suppose it can't be helped. And when old people are in your shop you don't want them to catch your cold.

2011-03-31T21:15:00.002+01:00

i don't like getting up at five am! i have been leaving the house at 6:45 to catch the 7am bus to be at work for 8. I get back at 5pm and I'd go to bed at 8pm if i could manage it! I don't like it! Just one more day and i have the morning off. then a whole day off. Patience, patience. Sleepy time now.

2011-03-29T20:38:00.001+01:00

how on earth did it take me twenty-five years to become aware of jeff buckley? every time i hear one of his songs i want to cry. Truly beautiful.

catching up.

2011-03-28T21:13:00.003+01:00

just came back from a very exotic holiday to Coventry. Ha! yeah, i got back this morning and went up the garden and took all the windowsill seedlings outside to the greenhouse to get some sun. I potted up cabbages (ten) coleus (fourteen) aubergine (five) summer solstice helichrysum (three but another three still in the original pot) i also sowed some beetroot. I'd only been away two full days and i was itching to get back to my garden! there is some sad news however. My globe artichoke seedling has died. gone. Kaput. plus, i saw lots of frogs having sex when i walked the dog. Some ten year old child felt obliged to tell me what they were doing. Now how does one react in that situation?

I want to start my own business.

2011-03-21T12:52:00.002Z

I have the space to grow a great deal of plants and i think i have enough time to create a little business. if i was to run a stall at a car boot and run it maybe twice a week i would be able to build up something nice. build up a bit of a name and create a website maybe.
Does anyone want to buy any seedlings? vegetables? flowers? :)

potatos

2011-03-20T16:45:00.003Z

OK, i have planted my potato's. I had been chitting the spuds for about five or six weeks in the computer room but today i dug a big hole along the whole lengh of the veg patch and filled the bottom with a mixture of manure and compost and nestled some Anya seed potato's in the hole. once the tatos were in i gently placed a bit of soil over them so that they wouldn't get hurt when i covered them with the rest of the soil. Once they were covered i threw the rest of the soil in the trench and smoothed it over and watered. After a request from dad i marked out the row of spuds with canes so dad knows where he can plant his stuff. I also marked off my broad beans, turnips, parsnips and onions "punions".
i also potted up some of my cabbages and sowed the last of my tomato's. (yellow cherries)

gardening

2011-03-20T12:44:00.002Z

I've just spent a good two hours in the garden, I've been de-turfing in preparation for the poly tunnel, if planted out some earlier sown onions in the little veg patch, I'm going to plant the first and only potato's for this year out when I've written this. I've watered all my plants in the greenhouse and have noticed that some of my little flowers in individual modules are starting to come up which is always exiting.
i also weeded the gooseberry which is looking very nice right now.
I'm quite ashamed to say it but I'm going to have to call for assistance from my dad as the poly tunnel area is covered in tree foots and I'm;
one - not allowed to use the axe
and two - worried I'd chop my own leg off.
so dad will hopefully remove the huge ruddy tree roots so i can carry on with the extremely hard work of leveling the ground (our garden undulates like a snake)

2011-03-16T20:03:00.000Z

i passed my first assignment for my second open uni course.

2011-03-06T19:32:00.002Z

Very atmospheric day yesterday, unlike today, we had beautiful blue Sky's and it was warm! i sowed broad beans, parsnips and radish in the veg patch. I showed thyme, sweet scabius, black eyed susan, and Echinacea in the greenhouse. I really, really need more seed space.

I don't know if you can see this or not but this is a hut in the woods, i'm pretty sure someone is living in it.

And i just thought this was a nice picture.

WALK PICTURES.

2011-03-03T19:57:00.001Z

yes i noticed that there is litter in every picture. if i had a gun and i caught people dropping litter...

so sleepy, But also very disturbed. warning, this post contains strong language

2011-03-03T19:47:00.002Z

You know today not for the first time I had abuse hurled at me by children, ten year olds they must have been. I shall share with you what they shouted as I walked past with the dog.
"oy Bitch! Keep the fuck away from my tree house".
Now does anyone else find this kind of behavior, terrifying? they were kids! when I was that age my twin sister was watching sooty! (I wasn't, I was watching vampire movies, but I was a strange kid) I didn't swear until I was twenty-three years old. I know that sounds strange, my friends considered it strange, but it's true. I really, really hate how the world seems to be going now, its the stuff of nightmares.

2011-03-02T18:11:00.003Z

Before and after, only about three days differance but i think there's a lot of difference.I did i little more digging in the veg patch, i just manage twenty minutes when i can.

And this is neche saying Play with me, play with me!!!

spring!

2011-02-27T09:10:00.002Z

spring really does seem to be all around us in Derbyshire, the Jasmin has come into flower which lends a welcome splash of colour to the garden.The crocuses have been out for a good while now and the daffodils are showing signs of flowering soon. The tulip leaves are starting to show now, although i didn't get a picture of them.
I have seen two colts foot flowers in the surrounding fields and the buds really are starting to swell and open. This is a major work in progress. i must level the ground before i can build my polytunnel. The sad thing is that i have no idea what i am doing and nobody will help me. Dad tells me he'll help me build it but not to dig. I get this, hes getting older and he's knees aren't great, but i need someone up there with me telling me what to do, as things stand I'm just digging a great big bloody hole in the ground.

2011-02-26T09:20:00.002Z

this is a picture i took to show you all just how much I've sown this spring. I've no more space on this windowsill, the other windowsill is the same and the other windows get too little sun to be any use. Plus i have something special in the airing cupboard. this is the little self seeded lemon balm that I've taken for my own. he does look happier in his little pot.

and this is the rhubarb that i grew from seed, year before last. i shall be getting my first stalks off him this year. If all goes well.

2011-02-26T08:56:00.004Z

i took a photo of the gooseberry to show you how well he's doing considering we thought he was going to snuff it. i also took a picture of the flowering almond which doesn't look very good but he really was a state last year.

so this is whats left of the gooseberry, he's been very heavily pruned and he's not looking too bad.
you can see the shoots are really starting to come out now.

this is the poor flowering almond or the 'pom pom' tree. he's only got the two branch's left, poor chap, but we'll see what happens.

2011-02-25T13:49:00.003Z

dug over a third of the vegetable patch, found a lovely little lemon balm plant in there amongst the weeds (it actually was a weed cause i didn't plant it) i dug him out of the soil and put him in a nice little pot.
I've watered the gooseberry again, its looking good, lots of green shoots. I cut all the dead flowers off the hyacinths and I'm gonna sow some thyme today and i might pot up some of my windowsill plants into individual pots. depends how much space I've got.

busy in the garden.

2011-02-25T08:29:00.003Z

yesterday was beautiful, the temperature got all the way up to 21oc in the greenhouse, i stopped everything, picked up a tray and gathering all of my windowsill seedlings rushed them out to the greenhouse for a bit of a sunning.
i got a bit more of the poly tunnel ground leveled and i pruned the gooseberry. We all thought that the gooseberry would have died due to a sever lack of water (yes, its my fault) this happily is not the case. half of the plant shows no signs of life and so i have pruned him quite hard (poor mite) and left only the healthy branch's. the same must be done with the pom pom tree (flowering almond) alas but the damage to that was cased by strong winds and not a lack of watering as that plant lives near the house and can not be easily forgotten.

busy, busy, busy

2011-02-21T19:46:00.002Z

well my windowsill can't physically fit anymore plants on it! I've reached my limit and the poly tunnel is just a hole in the ground at this given moment in time. Well actually, as its been raining all day it probably resembles a swimming pool.
I started my open uni course two weeks ago and i have started my first ever Essay for it, which is, to say the least, scary. its about Jane Austin which isn't too bad. I'm so glad i don't have to do wuthering heights again.
happily, spring is definitely on its way as i can see the Narcissus in the pig trough (big stone flower bed) which is about to flower and the tulip leaves are above the soil! Yey, for the promise of spring! Now back to my essay.

2011-02-16T21:35:00.000Z

how much, is too much, at the gym?

2011-02-14T20:23:00.002Z

well valentines day is over finally and thats year twenty five in a row of never having had a valantines card or admirer. such is life.

why am i awake?

2011-02-14T05:32:00.002Z

ok its 5:30am i have a late shift at work and i seem to be at awake. most odd, but even more odd. at 6pm i ate a bowl of baked beans and i went to bed at 8pm feeling very full. i wake up now with hunger pangs, whats that all about.
well who knows, im gonna eat something and head to the gym.

2011-02-04T21:04:00.002Z

I have bought many many packets of flower seed, some are on their way via the mail man and some i have bought from shops, now although i have a quarter acre to play with (having given up the allotment) most of it it lawn and is not to be tampered with, due to this i believe i will have trouble finding space for all of these flowers. This however is a challenge i think i shall enjoy, and i hope i shall make a very pretty but most importantly environmentally friendly floral garden this summer. Perhaps i should have gone for a gardening career...

rest in peace Pete postlewaite

2011-01-04T06:21:00.000Z

flu flu i have the flu!!

2011-01-01T15:24:00.002Z

but it didnt stop me from taking the dog a huge walk to see the trains and the canal. i do love the canal. i think the dog liked to see the cows more than anything though. Happy new year, i hope its full of things you enjoy, whether it be canals, trains, cows or whatever it is.

2010-12-31T10:15:00.002Z

new year, and I'm gonna be proactive about making things better. But right now I'm getting majorly into gardening again, I've been potting bulbs, I'm gonna stick some peas and broad beans in pots in the greenhouse and I'm listening to Regina Spektor. sounds good yes?

2010-12-21T12:49:00.003Z

Well its yule and i hope you all have a happy one. I'm watching JAWS yet again. i do love Richard Dreyfuss.
i used to hate the water.
i can't imagine why.
i just love that film completely.

I'm trying to get my own film made, i don't remember if I've mentioned it before. I'm hopeful but not overly so. i know it won't be easy.
Has anyone noticed how mind numbingly awful the television adverts are? Truly dreadful. Now you may have noticed I've not been writing much lately. Yes? well I've not been particularly happy but I'm starting to feel better and more hopeful. I've got a new laptop and I've found something to work towards. Roll on the better weather, roll on the finished version of my film script and roll on something altogether more positive... Please.

2010-12-09T07:56:00.001Z

I am SO tired, like all the time! i was shaking yesterday, i was in the house, it was warm. i'm i ill? come on spring, I know winters only just arrived, but come on, hurry up we need you.