Tree Today Gone Tomorrow

I love our front garden.  Its not very big, certainly very small in comparison to the back garden.  However the little garden is pretty and has a cosy feel to it, if you could describe a garden in that way. When we moved in to our house there were two little trees in one of the borders, they were fine and didn't cause any trouble at all.  Over the years the trees have gotten larger and have at times been in the way.  They block the light and  I cant see the children playing from the dining room window.  They had to go.
Our neighbour who is a keen chainsaw-er very kindly offered to do the deed for us.  So on Saturday we decided that while the rain stayed away we would go ahead with the job. Sol got very upset at the prospect of losing her trees.  She hid from the sound of the chainsaw and wanted to make a tree grave for our two trees.  She came round however at the promise that I plant something new and pretty, something that will attract butterflies in the summer. 

The rest of the week was uneventful.  We had another day up in the city of Belfast shopping.  Seb needed new shoes for his Boy's Brigade club so we made that an excuse to go shopping again.  He did well him and his sisters got chatting to the shop assistants in the Geox shop and ended up with three Geox watches to go along with Seb's new shoes.
Later on in the Castle Court Centre Seb was watching the Pretzel makers at Auntie Annes pretzel stall, he watched intently how they stretched and rolled the dough.  After a few minutes the pretzel guys came over and gave him this huge pretzel for free.  Seb was delighted of course and they were more than happy to give him further demonstrations in pretzel making.  I thought that was really nice.

An Apple

Sadly our plum tree, which was so laden last year has decided not to fruit this year.  One of our apple trees looks diseased, another has been a little windswept and the fruit is laying on the ground.  The cherry tree has been and gone too, I only got one cherry from it!  The raspberry bushes have been stripped bare by the children on several occasions. So that leaves one good healthy apple tree right in the corner which looks as though its going to give us a good crop. I am looking forward to making some jam in the next couple of weeks.

Birthday Blues

It was Sol's birthday, she is seven now. Sol has been looking forward to this day for such a long time and counted down every morning when she opened her eyes.

To be truthful the day could have been better organised. We decided not to have a party, instead Sol expressed excitement about going to a local beauty spot and flying her kite.  All week we watched the weather and prayed that it would be kind to us.  On the day we were woken at 7am with a very excited Sol and her siblings.  A few yawns and groans later we were ready to do the gifts. Sol was very pleased as she received a pink LED TV with a DVD player in the side, she wasn't expecting it which made for an entertaining display of arm movements.

The trip for kite flying failed the moment that the other half switched the 2012 Olympics on the TV. He sat there glued, explaining to me that there were only so many kilometres left on a certain race and how the participant's were so dedicated.  Three hours passed and I resigned myself to the fact we weren't going out to fly the kites after all, I was disappointed to say the least. If I had I known I would have organised a party after all, at least I would have felt like we had made an effort. Sol was still happy prancing about but still I felt the day slipping away with barely a moment that we could call memory making.

In the end I got cross and insisted that we all went to a near by walled garden to at least take some photos so I could have a birthday memory of my daughter. The photos turned out good and the whole family raved about how beautiful the Walled Garden was and how they were sorry thay had never made the effort to go there before.  

My Baby's Birthday

Did I say my baby? Well she is my baby, Sol now age five and a few days. I cannot believe she is five, its almost as if I went to sleep one night while she was still a new born and I woke up and shes all grown. It is scary how time flies by before you get to catch your breath. Anyway, enough of that mushy stuff just enjoy the photos pf the day. I took loads but I just randomly chose a couple, actually they were the first ones in the folder!

Sol is mad about Hello Kitty, so we just had to get her this delicious cake. By the way its from Marks & Spencer if anyone wants to get one.

Yes, you will have read the trampoline story ... we got a new one. Its smaller and its now round the front of the house so its less likely to get flipped by the wind.

Deja Vu

Do you ever get the feeling of deja vu? Well I did today ....

Long story short, I had popped out to Homebase to get some paint and wallpaper while leaving Roy at home. Roy was busy stripping in the bedroom while the children were occupied playing in their bedrooms. We got some great bargains at Homebase, but you know those bargains paled into insignificance when we received a phone call on the way home that something bad had happened at home.

We arrived back to this sight to find the trampoline which was at the bottom of the back garden was wedged against the back of the house.

This is the view from inside, you can see how far the trampoline travelled in the wind. It was up against the wall at the bottom of the garden and it knocked over the slide in the process of coming up the garden.


This is the back of our house, it has been an add on and we use it as a TV room. Note the picnic table has lost a leaf and the climbing frame is now up at the back of the house too.

The main frame of the trampoline is more bent than it was before.

The safety net is totally destroyed.

When we went out to the trampoline is was rocking precariously. We decided to unhook the mat rather than risk lifting or rolling the trampoline in the wind again. It took us at least an hour to unhitch every spring and remove the mesh so we could 'un-wedge' the trampoline.

This is all very dramatic, but don't be thinking that we were foolish and unwarned ... DISASTER

this is not the first time this has happened. Since the last trampoline incident we had the trampoline secured down, obviously not secure enough!

buzz buzz

We found a wasps nest in the kiddies playhouse. We took it down and put it in a jar somewhere sheltered and the few wasps that were left hatched out and flew away. Its amazing that such a structure was made by these tiny little creatures.

Frogs and Toothpaste

We downsized our fish tank last week, well should I say we were forced to because we are doing work in our house. I needed the large tank out of the dining room so I bought a little 24 inch tank and set it up in the kitchen. Kind of liking the 24 inch tank we decided not to set the large tank back up again.

With the old tank we made a little frog pond in the garden, got a pond plant and some chemicals to make the water good. We did brick steps up to the top and down in the tank too - a haven for frogs (I hope). We do need frogspawn now, but that will be another venture no doubt, the pet shop said they do some but I am sure I can borrow some for educational purposes.

The frog haven led on to a whole discussion about pond life, and I dug out all the pond life keys we had got when we visited the Balloo Wetlands last year. That resulted in an impromptu visit to the wetlands again. It was very cold, and sadly vandals had burned down the bird hide, but it is still a nice place to visit. We had a look around and studied the water for a little while but due to the cold a couple hours found us home again. The children spent the rest of the afternoon looking at amphibians and pond life in their books.

Anyway - here's the photos!

Seb and Sol warming up after we got back. It was only when I downloaded my camera I noticed what the children had laid out on the arm of the chair. Have a look - cars and a tube of toothpaste for some reason.

Cleaning up my greenhouse

Today I am clearing my twenty-odd tomato plants, eight cucumber plants
with cucumbers attached, and a dozen or so pepper plants. I have had
to throw every single plant out, barring a water logged chili pepper
plant.
I spent all summer nurturing these plants, twice a day watering,
feeding, spraying and loving. Space, effort, money and most
importantly my time.
In August my tomatoes were healthy green and swollen. I went off on my
holidays at the start of September, handing over the care of my two
greenhouses to my much trusted neighbour. On my return from my
holiday I discovered not one single plant had survived. Well one left
and it is a chili plant which is water logged and half dead.
I don't know what went wrong, some were water logged, some were bone
dry, none of the plants appeared healthy. One greenhouse was closed up
and clearly never ventilated, the other destroyed in the wind with
little done to rescue it's contents.
I want to cry over this, my friend who came in to help me clear up did
cry as she saw every week the progress we had made. I can't say
anything my neighbour, as I am sure she feels guilty enough. It's
hard, when they were gone in the summer I looked after their crops of
tomatoes and peppers for three weeks, it never occurred to me that
things could go so badly wrong.

SO FAR SO GOOD

My carrots! They have a bit to grow before they win any prizes, but so far so good.