Week 25

I spotted this grasshopper on one of my gladioli on Sunday evening, and I instantly rushed inside to get my camera.  It was quite a big creature as you can see.

I have begun adding a few of owls from my collection to my pots, just to give them a extra little touch. 

T-shirts
I bought myself a new t-shirt this week and it is an Italy one.  I have always supported both England and Italy in World Cup matches.  I was very disappointed to see England perform so dismally and lose their first 2 matches.  They are now well and truly out of the world cup and their next match against Costa Rica, will be rather meaningless.  I do hope they will go all out to score a few goals, just to at least win 3 points!!
Will Italy make it through to the next stage, I wonder? They play Uruguay next week....

 

 

As I am on the theme of t-shirts, I thought I would hunt out a few in my drawer, which have a special meaning for me!

Below the t-shirt I bought in Assen in 2004 for the Moto GP.  Valentino Rossi came first in that race and went on to become World Champion that year.  I have worn it lots of times and washed it, and it is in fairly good condition after 10 years!

 

Below is one of my most treasured gifts from a group of FCE students, given to me 15 years ago.  I have never worn it because I want to keep it for as long as possible without having to wash it, and risk having the lovely messages being washed away.  Reading them all again after all these years, made me smile, and  look back with great fondness for that particular class, who were a delight to teach.  They got this t-shirt made for me as their leaving gift. The joke is that I always asked them to come to class 'on the dot', as I was (and still am) very strict regarding punctuality. 

The weather this week was mostly miserable with lots of heavy rain coming down in buckets.  Our road is now well and truly a mess again, and all the work done on it recently has come undone.... This has made us feel a bit despondant, and will mean more communication with the local comune..... I really hate having to write emails / letters about this issue.

It is now set to be very hot and sunny over the next few days, so at least that will be good to get out in the garden again.

Below one of my gladioli that has come out - the colour is really vibrant and looks lovely in a vase!

I gathered lots of buckets and containers to collect all the rainfall. I was able to collect nearly 60 litres of water, to use in my garden. This will save a little bit on our water bill.  

One of the kttens has decided to use a pot planted with lillies as a sleeping area.....

 

Victoria has taken to sleeping in an Orlando cardboard box, which I placed for her on top of a small table.  She loves it!  These boxes come in useful for all sorts of recycling purposes, and when I finish with them, they go straight into the compost bin.

So Week 25, has been a bit frustrating, with the weather, the road coming undone so quickly and with England out of the World Cup so soon.  Let's hope Italy can go through to the next round, as that will be something to cheer about :-)

Roll on Week 26, the halfway point of the year!!

Week 24 - Boots, Tyres, Toads and Land Work

Fluffy has been recovering from a few cat fights and he is now feeling a bit better.  Photo taken by K.

The kittens continue to have lots of fun and here's one with their mum.

 This one is very lively and mischievous!

...and is also known as the 'food sweeper' kitten!

It was very hot on Friday 13th and in this image, you can see 3 kittens and Olivia and Socks all having a cat nap.

That night I got a picture of the full moon but it looks a bit blurred....

Gardening..
One of the pot courgette plants in flower

K has given me some of his old CapoNord motorcycle tyres to recycle, and I have used them as a container for my Sedum plant below and more courgettes in the veggie plot!



K's old boots have been recycled and now they are unusual plant pots!

 
A very ugly toad caught in a dark corner of the garden.  He nearly scared the life out of me! He is so cleverly camoflaged, it was no wonder I didn't spot him.  He then proceeded to hop onto my pots, as seen below.  I have to confess I don't like toads at all, but recently the snails have not been visible, so that is a good thing a toad does, eats them all up!

 
This huge lizard was caught by one of the mummy cats to give to her kittens.  She is feeding them very well indeed!  I guess this is a lizard who had  an untimely exit.

The fields opposite are full of bales of hay, waiting to be collected by the local farmers.  The weather is very hot, in the 80s!!

Of course we can't afford a professional baler, so this is what my gathered hay looks like!  It was very hard work in the hot sunshine..

Only a third of the land has been worked on so far, but not bad in a day's work!  Before it used to take us a week or so to do the same amount without the cutter!

 My cap, garden sack and raker is all I have to do this sweeping-up job!!

Whilst out with K in our jungle, I came across thousands of cornflowers along the path K has created!  Their beautiful bright colour is so eyecatching. These are purple, as opposed to the usual bright blue, so I may be wrong calling them cornflowers....

 Naturally I picked some and added them to a vase!

You can read more in wikipedia about this flower-  Centaurea cyanus.

I have enjoyed working in the garden so much this week!  It was really high time I devoted myself fully to helping K out with keeping things in shape.  

I sometimes wonder at how life has changed, from being a city girl, to being a temporary land worker in 2014!!

Week 23 - Garden Stuff

This week, lots of photos connected to the garden!

This little kitten's first walk into the unknown.

Hand-picked mulberries, turned into delicious jams

Fresh flowers picked from the garden, consisting of a beautifully scented Lili Marlene red rose, freesias, snapdragons, rosemary & mini bush rose.

Below a bowl with the rose added to the pot pourris collection.  This way I get to enjoy it for a much longer period of time...

Another bus trip to Pescara, via the airport, with an image of this nice poster welcoming travellers and tourists to Abruzzo.

There is free car parking in Auchan, opposite the airport.

Two courgette plants in a pot ....

I am already cooking with the courgettes from the Cold Frame.  They are small but delicious when fried! 

I throw fresh herbs into the mix, such as parsley, sage, rosemary & thyme....

The potatoe tubers in a bag are doing well.  They are in flower now so maybe time to harvest the potatoes in a few weeks' time?

 The oleander cutting is growing rampantly!

The salad box is coming along nicely.  It is right in front of the kitchen, so hopefully easy to pick the leaves when they are ready!  The box consists of the following:

1. cherry tomatoes
2. basil
3. onions
4.  lettuce leaves
5. coriander
6. cress
7. parsley

   
A view of the baler in the top field opposite, image taken this morning from outside the kitchen.

So Week 23 has been a lovely one, doing the things I enjoy!

Week 21 - The Road & Countryside Pursuits

This week has basically been about our road.

The picture below shows you how perpendicular the angle was and our bumper was beginning to touch the road, scraping it and doing it damage. A quick temporary fix had been implemented to enable us to get out and about.

As a result of the constant friction between ground and bumper, our car is now under repair.. k has been busy fixing it, 3 new tyres ordered, which arrived mid-week after only a few days. My heart in my mouth every time we went up and down.The image below really doesn't do the terrible condition of the road justice. The middle bit was extremely steep!!!

Anyways, at least it was better than it was in December 2013.....

 
News Update
Our road has been fixed by the Comune, and it is now looking a lot better in the most terrible sections!

It looks rather rocky, and indeed big stones have been laid down in some parts.  We are hoping the Comune will add a finer layer on top of this..

Part of the top layer of our road..

 

What we would like to be added to the road...

 

We are very happy that this work has been undertaken, and we are very grateful towards the Comune.  We have heard through the grapevine that parts of our road may even have tarmac added, and this would be amazing.  Watch this space!!

Grubs
This week I have been out in earnest catching snails and then depositing them in our field as far away from my plants as possible.  I read that if they are placed 65 feet away from where you find them, they won't come back to the same place (ie pots).  Let's see if this works!  They have been decimating my plants, and this is not ok!

I have also been digging out all my fresh compost from the compost bin, to add to the veggie plot and towards the bottom I found quite a few of these grubs.  Please look away if you are squeamish!

I then placed them in front of the chicken pen and Freddy and co had a feast gobbling them all up in an instant!   

Thus, the life cycle goes round and round and then the chicken droppings will go straight into the compost bin and the grubs will turn the mixed contents of the bin around to make lovely fresh friable compost.  Nothing at all is wasted, and the book below, Soil, Humus & Manuring, printed in the year I was born, is providing me with invaluable advice about the gentle art of composting!!  It makes for fascinating bedtime reading, and I am not joking :-)  It's a really practical handbook.

 

Contents of the compost bin have been dug out:

 Not much left!

 

Added to the veggie plot area, ready to be spread out before planting begins in earnest at the end of May.

I have also been using this fresh compost in my flower pots and for seedlings.

Furkids' Update

One of the new kittens peeking out of a box

Samantha gazing out

It has been a very busy week, but ultimately very satisfying.  Roll on Week 22!