Macro Monday June 17th

Macro Monday 2

Today's Flowers

Silent Sunday

Photo Challenge - June 8th - 15th

8th - Daddy thought it would be funny to make the dolls do headstands on the stairs. The girls didn't even notice as far as I know or if they did they didn't bother asking because they knew who'd done it!

9th - Working in the garden at Nanny's and I couldn't resist taking a photo of these gorgeous lilacs :)

10th - Chi-Chi visited the doggy parlour and had to have a very short hair cut to remove the long hair that had tangled. Ella is not a fan of the new Chi-Chi and wants the old one back!

11th - Ella made her Rainbows promise and was very proud of herself :)

12th - Doing the school run in the sunshine and being able to leave coats at home makes me happy.

13th - We noticed baby pine cones on the way to school and the girls love them.

14th - There was a big patch of dead grass/moss on Nanny's lawn so I dug it out and re-turfed it with the turf we'd dug up from the stone area. It looks so much better now. I'll be posting the before and after pictures on Thursday's How Does Your Garden Grow? post :)

How does you garden grow?

My blog has been neglected this week and this post will show why!

I've been busy working in my mother in law's garden at her new house. You may have heard me mention that she's moving closer to us but before she can move in there's lots of work needs doing, including in the garden. While the SWH (super wonderful husband!) is beavering away removing old insulation, putting down new insulation and boarding the loft floor, I'm getting stuck into the garden.

I have total garden envy! There's lots of work needs doing but it's huge, has lovely trees in it and I'm really enjoying making the changes.

It feels like fairies should live here; the overhanging branches form an arch, there's a gnarled old tree stump that would make a perfect fairy house and even though the house is just the other side of the bush, it feels secluded and magical. The girls are going to have so many adventures playing in this garden!

This week we started on the stone pot area. My stepson, Jervais, and I dug up the turf on Tuesday. It was back breaking and blister making but it felt great when it was done!
Yesterday we broke up the soil, raked it and started getting it level in preparation for the edging and weed matting to go down before we put the stones on.

There are some lovely bushes and shrubs, loads of mint although these ones have much bigger leaves than the mint plants I buy from Tesco so I'm not sure what variety they are and hidden surprises like this peony that was just poking its head through the ground when we went to view the house a few months ago :)

Lilac tree? Whatever it is, I think it needs a good prune next spring!

Mint

And finally I have to mention this old bench that we're going to rescue. It's going to get some new slats, a lick of paint to bring it back to its former glory and give it a new home in our garden :)

I'm going to be working on this garden for the foreseeable future so you'll probably be seeing a lot more of it!

Macro Monday June 10th

I'm not sure what this is called. It's in our rockery and I bought it last year but I didn't make a note of it and my memory is terrible! I love the tiny pink flowers :)

Soon to be, Elderberry flowers :)

This is heuchera but I'm not sure which kind because I think there are lots of different types.

While searching for the plant above, I found out that this one is called Heuchera Coral Bells :)

I know they're classed as weeds but I've loved buttercups since I was a little girl and I can't bring myself to pull them up!

I bought some ivy a couple of years ago for display in a pot with other plants and it's doing really well. I've changed the other plants a few times but the ivy is constant :)

My new thyme plant :)

Macro Monday 2

Silent Sunday

Photo Challenge - June 1st - 7th

1st - I bought a fuchsia for the bargain price of £1.49! I can't wait for it to get bigger and start flowering :)

2nd - We all went to Derbyshire on Sunday to celebrate my Nan-Nan's 80th birthday. It was a lovely afternoon and I'll cherish this photo of us all together because we don't get to see her very often.

3rd - Chi-Chi's becoming a regular on my weekly round up! Nanny's put her house on the market and is very busy getting her new house ready to move in so we're looking after Chi-Chi for a while until things calm down for her! As you can imagine, the girls think it's wonderful and love taking her school in the mornings. They give her a good workout and she's shattered when we get home!

4th - Sunshine makes me happy!

5th - New summer clothes :) I bought both girls new clothes for Nan-Nan's party. I was going to get them both party dresses but I figured it was more practical to get summer clothes that they'll both hopefully get lots of wear out of over the coming months.

6th - One of Ella's poses...you can see the full size photo plus lots more, here!

7th - Enjoying the sunshine. It has been really lovely relaxing in the garden with the warm sun on my face. The girls joined me when they got home from school and enjoyed eating their tea outside (they'd had a hot school meal for dinner so chose to have sandwiches for tea).