Reasons to be Cheerful !

There are lots of reasons to be cheerful, first of all, today was a glorious sunny day and secondly, spending time out in the open planting, and tending my allotment, (even though I now ache from the digging) was a wonderful way to spend a few hours on such a lovely day. And last of all, I harvested some purple sprouting broccoli, some baby spring cabbage leaves and lots of tasty leeks, so today I am very cheerful. Below is a selection of photo's taken today mainly and one or two at the weekend.

I would also like to say a thank you to everyone that takes the time to visit this blog and leaves a comment. I try to make time to visit back, even if it's not immediately, because I like to, not because I feel I have to ! as I always enjoy seeing what others are up to, and other times I just answer the comment on my blog. I wish I had more time to visit all the lovely blogs out there. It's amazing how many keen gardeners and veg growers there are and it's always great to pick up new tips.

The Dahlias as they were just starting out.(above)

This was taken today, my how they have grown.

This jolly chap was at the Easter egg hunt on Sunday, at the National Trust's "Hinton Ampner" house and gardens in Hampshire.

Snuggling with mummy, sheep on the "Hinton Ampner" estate, roaming freely among the visitors. so sweet !!!

Rosie has my old wellies, shame she can't help me dig !! she's a bit of a lazy girl really, sitting there day after day ! and she can't even scare pigeons !

Beautiful Pansies in a pot outside the lottie greenhouse, they survived the harsh winter and are blooming again, amazing !

The lottie greenhouse is getting rather full, I can hardly move in there !

And last of all, my tasty harvest from today. This makes all the hard work worthwhile !

A little bit of everything

I only went to the lottie for a short while today, to check on the dahlias and plant out some more sweet-peas. I have taken some photo's of various things today, so I thought I would blog them. see below.

Tomorrow I will be in London, so I am going to do a post with some photo's of other plots on our allotment, there really are some very beautiful ones. I am going to try the post-dated thingy to see if it works, I will check when I get back to see if it posted automatically.

Photo's from the top are,

1st-My bargain pansies ( I can't resist a bargain),

2nd- is the CERINTHE all grown up and almost ready to plant.

3rd - my garden table taken over as a nursery.

4th- My recycled wheelbarrow, taken from a skip (with permission!) and planted up.

5th- The Dahlias in the lottie greenhouse, growing at last.

6th- The Wallflowers outside the lottie greenhouse, just beginning to flower

7th - The summer house in my garden (click for a closer look) it's very cosy on a cold day.

Rosie is back on the plot and looking pretty in pink

It's been one of those busy busy days

I have had one of those days where if I had to say what I've actually done, I would have to really think about it, all I know is that it's been very busy. I have pricked out and re-potted tomato seedlings & onion seedlings, ( the onion seedlings went into huge seed trays for more space ) I had a bargain buy of some Pansies reduced to 50p- yes ! 50p !! how could I resist. So they have also been planted up in my window boxes.

I have made tomorrows lunch, which is Butternut squash & tomato soup. I also baked a pumpkin pie. I had some pumpkin puree in the freezer from my last pumpkin. We had that as our pudding this evening with some fresh low fat cream, it was delicious.

I have also been preparing my sewing. I am making another Pooh Bear cushion for my next grandchild due to be born in a couple of weeks. I have traced the design onto my fabric ready to embroider, and bought the fabric and wadding to quilt the cushion yesterday. I have posted here a photo of the last one I made for my grandson Bertie (16 months ago)