New herb garden.

In the small area of garden at the side of the house there was a ground cover conifer which was camouflaging a manhole cover. As it was becoming rather large and untidy looking I had it removed and was left with the problem of how to hide the manhole.  Around the manhole there were also several rocks so I think originally it had been a small rock garden.  I decided to keep the rocks and make it into a herb garden. 

After spreading the contents of my compost bin around the area I started the planting with four different varieties of thyme this was in mid April. The bees love thyme and they are good ground cover plants. 

When I visited the RHS flowers show I bought a few more herbs.  Mint, cat mint, sage and borage.

Here is Poppy sampling the cat mint, I think she likes it. 

When I went to the spring Fayre at Llanyravon Manor I bought some wooden signs for my herb garden. There were five in the set. They were made by some disabled people and they were kind enough to make me five more different ones. 

I planted the mint in a pot so it won't spread everywhere.  

Borage

Chives

 

  Everything planted

 Next I planted some trailing plants in planters to put on the manhole in the hope that they will eventually trail over it to hide it. 

 This lavender I had growing in a pot for a couple of years on my patio so it now has a place in the herb garden

 These photos taken today, 30th May, to show how everything is growing. 

 Poppy has to get in the photo. 

Borage will be flowering any day now. 

 The marjoram, oregano and chives were growing in my rock garden so I moved some here with some Rosemary too which is not doing very well just yet.

It has been mentioned to me that it looks like a graveyard! 

Busy Bee

I have been doing a bit of sewing lately.  I have joined a group of women who are making items to "furnish" the 16th century restored Llanyravon  Manor, which is near to where I live.  At the moment we are working on a traditional patchwork quilt. Every body has been making diamond shaped patches out of tiny hexagons.  I have finished one and half way with my second.  I think then there are going to be enough to start joining together, which we are going to start doing in two weeks.  They are sewn by hand and are all different colours as people have used their own fabrics. They do all have a cream or white border though.

This is my completed diamond.  The dark stitching will of course be removed when they are joined together.

There are more projects planned for the Manor when the quilt is finished.  We are hoping to make white cotton pinafores and mob caps for the children who visit to dress up in.  They have groups of school children visit when they are learning about the period when the house was built and also later periods in the house's history.  Another project is a collage of the house, using different media, to hang in one of the rooms.

Also completed yesterday was a dress for my granddaughter Safeya.  Glad to have finished it in time for her 2nd birthday party.  She was two on April 30th but they are having a combined party for her and her brother Zachariah on 25th. he will be 5 on June 16th.  Just hoping it fits her as she is not here for fittings. 

 I had started to knit her a dress in September last year, hoping to finish it for Christmas but I couldn't concentrate on the pattern so have given up and undone it. Now working on a cardigan but not sure I will finish that for the party. 

Easter Saturday

Another busy day with the grandchildren Stuart, Jakob and Jasmine.  Easter egg hunt had to be on Saturday as Stuart wouldn't be here on Sunday.  Sam organised it, writing the clues and hiding the goodies.  Rather a long post for this as it was a very busy day

The race round the garden didn't take long so back indoors with bags of goodies. Even Jakob had a bagful which is unusual as he generally eats them as he goes. 

Time to make more Easter nests. Stuart already made some on Thursday when the other 2 grandchildren were here but as Jakob didn't want to make any he helped Jasmine.  We needed more as Katie has a gluten free diet and can't eat the crispies so we made them with gluten free cornflakes. 

In the afternoon a trip to the park,played football and cricket and went to the playground. 

 This photo below was taken in 2006 and I wanted to take one of them in the same place but Jakob refused to sit in the helicopter.  I think they have grown quite a lot since then!

Jasmine called on the fairies but they weren't at home

After an ice cream and a walk round the lake the boys did some stone skimming in the river, I photographed wild flowers and ducks then we went home.  All very tired

Kingcups

Wood anemones

Red campion

Mother duck with her babies

Finally a little video of the children playing

Good Friday

Eldest son Darius and his family came on Good Friday.  We had planned a long walk up the mountain but they arrived later than planned so we had a shorter walk and not quite up the mountain.  They were late because they were part way here when they realised the children had forgotten the Easter gifts they had made for us so they had to turn back.  I was glad they did because they brought lovely hand made chocolates.  They even made the boxes.

This is the chick box that Jakob made, it even has wings

A selection of 2 chocs in his box

With full descriptions of what is in them. 

Jasmine's box is an Easter bunny with a lovely border

and the chocolates were all a surprise.  All were very nice, so glad they went back for them. 

I had made a picnic lunch for our walk so we set off as soon as they had arrived and I had sampled a couple of chocolates.  My friend Edwina also came with us.  Our walk was in Blaen Bran Community Woodland which is only about 3 miles from home so it didn't take us long to drive there. 

We walked up to the reservoir where we had our picnic as we were getting quite hungry by then. 

We then walked through the woods looking for a Geochache with Jasmine leading the way.  We did eventually find it hidden in the roots of a tree. 

Jasmine with the compass

 

As usual Jakob has inappropriate footwear for walking, at one stage he got stuck in the mud and had to wash his feet and crocs in the stream.

Not sure he is reading the map 

got there eventually and I found the rather soggy cache under the tree. 

 It was a great tree for climbing

But help was needed to get out again. 

Spring flowers starting to appear

Not sure what this is 

Delicate wood sorrel

We continued our walk along a path until we came to these steps, which we followed down

This path led us to the "Forest School Area"  The woodland manager is very handy with a chain saw and made the train and all the seats.

 Story tellers chair

Cherry blossom

It was a lovely afternoon.