Hows my Garden growing?

It's been lovely all day today in Derbyshire, for a change, so a chance to sit out and enjoy the garden! We have done well this year with the fruit and veg, hopefully this may continue as we've set some plants for winter now in the front veg patch; cabbage, cauliflower & brussels.

It's been another summer of not being able to do too much in the garden myself but hopefully plenty of time for that in years to come once the babymaking is done and dusted and the kids are older.

Off to scoff a chocolate & coconut brownie, snarf!!! Have a lovely evening!

Special Days

The weather has been glorious here, I've been grateful for a little shade in the garden at times and my trusty fan at work, but apart from that I refuse to moan, it's so nice when the sun is shining, the best therapy there is!

Everything is growing so wonderfully in the garden, we are enjoying those fresh red strawberries I can tell you, well, when I get one, GS seems to find them all first!

The tractors have been so busy on the fields behind our house hay making. It always feels like summer is finally here when that happens, and GS adores watching them go round and round working busily each day/evening.

I will be 20 weeks pregnant on Saturday, half way through, I can hardly believe it! Next Tuesday is our scan, hoping all comes back fine. We aren't going to find out the sex as we've decided it would be a lovely surprise to find out at delivery, and especially for Mr G.T to let me know first at that special moment, so I'm sticking to my guns and resisting temptation to find out early! There have been plenty of kicks and my belly is definitely growing nicely now.

Potty training is in full swing here, and GS is doing fantastic. I have to say I am pleased we waited a little with him, he seems much happier now to be doing it than i think he would have been a few months ago. He has had a few accidents in his pants, to be expected I guess, but he is really getting the hang now of pulling them down and going in his potty, I'm so proud!! Last night after he had gone to bed with a nappy on he shouted over the monitor that he needed to do a wee so we trooped back up to help him out of his nightclothes on to his potty (he struggles to do this at night because he has to wear boots & bar because he was born with Talipes) and he did a wee!!!! Thats the first time he has actually told us he has needed to go, and so a big step! I have splashed out (is that an appropriate phrase lol?) on a travel potty too, not the cheapest but a good investment I think to help when he is out and about, he unfortunately had an accident in Thomas Cook yesterday whilst out with my Mum and seemed very sad about it poor dude, so hopefully this will help, thankfully the staff at Thomas Cook were very understanding.

A ride to Buxton

The road from Ashbourne to Buxton, beautiful Dale countrside!

Buxton country park

This old abandoned house reminded me of the beautifully haunting houses Jude meets on her walks in Crete so I felt inspired to take some pics!

Daddy giving GS a helping hand on the woodland walk

A rather large fallen tree root

The beautiful Buxton country park woodland we explored!


As you can see what a lovely relaxing Sunday! The sun was shining, it was cold (there was still snow in parts) but gloriously clear blue skies meant we decided to take the car and head out to the Dales to Buxton. We packed a picnic and ended up at the country park where GS amazed us by doing quite a steep walk in to the woodland, he loved it!

It's always so relaxing driving through the Dales and seeing such beautiful countryside; farms, stone walls, rivers, railways, and the 1st lambs of Spring!!

I am inspired to get cracking on the gardening today, GS & I are going to get the sunflower seeds planted and if it stays dry I'll get the garden weeded. As you can see from the title photo the bulbs are out and looking beautiful!

Painting Plans

Well the plans for sorting out the front garden are underway, Mr G.T has measured up how much decking he thinks he'll need and we hope to buy it in stages so we can get bits done at a time, realistically without taking a week off of work to do it is going to take some weekends to get it done. Mr G.T is never happier than when he has some sort of powertool in his hand so I'm sure he will enjoy every second of it! Meanwhile we (me, GN and GS) will be getting the garden sorted out and getting the fence painted on the back, it's going to be busy but worth it once it's all done. I've found it so easy in the past 2 years we have lived here to just sit back and take up the dutiful babysitting role, but this year I want to get things done, it isn't easy with a toddler but im sure he will help where he can and enjoy it, I am being more confident at getting stuck in and getting on with it now, I can't spend my whole life sitting back worrying about GS getting in the midst of things when we can have fun getting stuck in together.

There is also the inside to continue decorating, realistically we aren't going to get it all done this year but as GS is now out of the cot and in to his big boy toddler bed (fanfare please!!) we really want to get his room done for him! We were going with a seaside theme, but as he loves Buzz Lightyear so much we thought a space theme was much more him, I already have a star stamp and hope to get some more planets and stuff painted on to his walls once the blue paint is on, very exciting!

I am very hopeful that we may have another little family moving in sometime soon :) I spotted a Great Tit checking out our new bird box with great interest and being noticeably territorial around it (chasing off a poor sparrow trying to get to the seed feeder) so fingers crossed he and the Mrs liked what they saw!!

I've borrowed "Creative Play for 2-5's" by Dr Dorothy Einon from the library and love her style, lots of great ideas for creative play and also links to what it can help foster and develop in your toddler too, plus recipes for making your own play dough, paints and glue :) i love it! I have to admit to being a little bit too overcautious on the mess of "messy play" and feel bad now that this could hinder GS's enjoyment of crafts and creativity which after all i enjoy with them would be awful, so i'm going to relax a bit more, LET THE MESS COMMENCE!!

Feed the Birds

Despite the awful weather conditions we have experienced on the Hill in the past week (severe gales, lashing rain...) the garden birds have been out in full force feeding from our various seed holders, peanut boxes, fat ball feeders & bird table. Granted the gales have blown a lot of them off and we've had to launch a reconnaissance mission to retrieve them, and the bounty has fallen on the floor from the constant swinging, but the Robins, Wrens and Tits seem to love that even more, foraging on the ground for extra bits and bobs!
I only wish I could capture them on camera enjoying my garden, I can't wait until Santa has been and hopefully Mr G.T & I will be able to afford a nice SLR camera, as sadly my little point and shoot fails miserably at things like this, sigh!
So far this Autumn on our feeders we have seen;
Great Tits
Blue Tits
Goldfinch
Blackbirds
Starlings
House Sparrow
Tree Sparrow
Dunnocks
Wrens
Robins
Chaffinch
Collared Doves
Black Redstart
and even an occasional Sparrowhawk that tries it luck at grabbing an unsuspecting bird whilst they are munching away, cunningly evil but gorgeous creature!

I am hoping my passion for wildlife and feeding my garden birds will filter through naturally to GS, he loves being picked up to peek out of the window at whats on the feeders, he even points at our newly erected bird nestbox and says "Birdies make house have babies Mummy!" awww, well that's the hope anyway son!

There are 3 important things to remember when feeding garden birds, patience (it can take a while before the birds suss out the food and make sure the area is safe for feeding before they become regular visitors) and keep feeding throughout the year, it's bad news for birds if you stop feeding in the Spring or forget one year to put them things out, once they have sourced you out as a regular pit stop they will keep coming back looking for that lovely stuff you put out, so you have to take it on as a commitment, and finally water, the need this as much as food and it's vital to have a bird bath or just a tub of water for them to drink/bathe in. The RSPB have some terrific advice on feeding and encouraging birds to come in to your garden here http://www.rspb.org.uk/advice/helpingbirds/

Stay tuned for winter bird pics hopefully after Christmas, fingers crossed!