Category — Gardening

The weekend was very exciting! Dad came over and helped Hubby lay the topsoil, sand and then ta da grass!!! It’s so amazing to finally be staring at grass as I type this outside!!!

Next weekend we get to cut it to the shape we want and put in our flower borders! So exciting, we’ve been waiting years for this moment.

Afterwards we celebrated with a BBQ with our family and of course cake

Hope you had a great weekend, what did you do?

xxx

On Friday I decided it was time for some gardening. I always find planting so therapeutic and satisfying, unlike weeding lol

We were given some tomato plants a few weeks back and I finally got around to getting some compost to fill this huge pot we have, that originally housed a Hebe but that died along with the many other things I have attempted to grow in there. I’d had it out the front by the door but nothing seems to like it much there. So I figured I’d bring it out to the back and use it for my tomatoes. So after some satisfying emptying, filling with compost, planting, adding in canes to make a wigwam and lovely watering…  ta da!

They smell great, so I am very excited to taste the first fruits from these. I’ve placed the pot just outside the back door, perfect for grabbing a few tomatoes when cooking!

That wasn’t all I was planting! I planted some home grown sweet peas again this year in the planter hubby made me but they got a bit sunburnt. Luckily, I had some more, so after moving them onto the patio, I decided to add a few more in. Again a lovely water and then….

Very excited about these, I got a new variety this year so will have different colours to last year.

Oh and do you remember the Cosmos I grew last year also? Well this year they are coming up again and I’ve sown some more directly to the soil in a totally different colour variety so in late summer our front garden should look really pretty. Will definitely take pics to show you.

The back garden is slowly coming along, we have ordered a skip for Friday so we can clear a lot of the hardcore and sub soil making way for the top soil and turf yay, very excited! Soon our garden will be the oasis I’ve dreamed of for so many years…

xxx

As promised more photos from France! The Chateau grounds were blossoming with lot’s of gorgeous blooms including these beautiful white blossoms.

Red ones…

I loved the red the best!

This is the moat around the Chateau, see those beautiful red blossoms.

Here is the large greenhouse that we where in and out of all week

This is the gate leading onto the woodlands, looks like the entrance to a secret garden doesn’t it!

So that was all the beauty of the grounds I captured and tomorrow I’ll be sharing our pics from our visit to Lille.

See you then,

xxx

{Blossom Photos now available at Etsy}

First there was Art Club at ours on Saturday, we made ATC’s which was great fun and great therapy for me.

Then after a great service at Church on Sunday we enjoyed the gorgeous weather and planted these beauties…

I love these large bellis (I call them puffs lol) and my mini daffs and pink primroses.

Our front garden is starting to look lovely again at last!

While Hubby planted those beauties for me, I baked some more apple sauce muffins and Ellie happily chomped on her bone.

The weather was so gorgeous Sunday we enjoyed a lovely long walk by the river and then came home for dinner before rushing out to our Churches evening healing service.

Today it was back to work, which I am very happy about! I got right back into painting and created another cutie for you to enjoy which I’ll be listing on ebay tomorrow, so look out for a blog post on that.

This short break has really helped me to see life differently (even more than usual), I’m always pondering but I felt like God has been really teaching me that I can completely rest in Him, have peace and enjoy everything He has given us…I fully intend to!

Live life to the full guys…

Love

xxx

P.S Today I added a cool page of Q&A’s to help you with your paintings. I also updated my About Me page with some fun facts. xx

The last couple of days it’s really felt like Spring! Beautiful clear blue sky’s and sunshine, it makes me so happy.

Hubby got back from work early today so we could go walking in the park and enjoy the sunshine. Ellie loves to pose for the camera lol.

All this sunshine is so inspiring, I’m sure there will be lot’s more ‘Blue Sky’ paintings to come. The one above is my latest called ‘Wild Flowers’ isn’t it pretty.

I adore flowers, remember me posting about these sweet peas I grew last year? Well I’m going to grow more this year, I just got a new packet of seeds yay I went for a different variety this year called ‘Big Tops’ funny name but they are meant to have a lot more colours in them so I’ll be soaking them tonight and sow tomorrow. I always find the growing process so exciting, seeing them come to life and bloom.

Do you grow anything for your garden? I’d love to hear all about it, leave me a comment.

‘Wild Flowers’ is now available on ebay.

xxx

Aren’t these pretty!? They are some of the plants I grew from seed and have grown so well ~ I am amazed! lol

Finally the sun is shining here in England and so I could get outside and show you what I’ve been growing that has done well in the garden. (Yes some didn’t lol) I’m now wondering if there are any plants I can grow that are suitable for Autumn and Winter, any ideas?

The carrots we tried to grow were a total flop, the tops were growing really well…and then they got eaten by slugs and snails because of all the rain we’ve had. Never mind I shall try again soon. Our tomatoes are still growing strong yay! I can’t wait to try them.

My beautiful sweet peas that were bursting out the planter have all now died back and so it’s time to think of something spectacular to plant in there instead, not sure if I can beat those they were beautiful.

So that is what’s happening around our garden atm, our back garden is still being landscaped so mostly pots and planters out there right now till we get some flower beds. You can see the before and durings over on my Facebook album.

One last little note, my blog has been nominated for the Dorset Cereals Little Blog Awards which is very exciting and I wondered if you would be so kind as to vote for me if you enjoy reading this little blog. To vote simply click here and then click the litte box that says vote.

Thank you so much for reading, voting and sharing this life journey with me, have a lovely weekend!

Let's Chat: http://www.twitter.com/vintageniki

It’s a warm and wet Sunday here in England so I’m enjoying some quiet time this afternoon after a busy morning helping out at Sunday School. The kids amaze me, they are so funny and love to sing and dance they help me to remember to lighten up and enjoy myself too, it’s so easy to get bogged down with life and forget to have fun.

This afternoon I’m doing some crochet, I started on my first ripple blanket using Lucy’s pattern. It’s coming along great I’m on the second row, I think it will take me a very long time to complete this but it’ll be so worth it. I’m going to use it for our bed. Currently our house is in the process of being completely overhauled so every room needs a makeover! We bought it like that We do like a challenge. So this blanket is my attempt to start putting some love into our home and transform it into a beautiful vintage style country home I’ll make sure to show you some pics sometime so you can see the transformation.

It just downpoured so I thought I would quickly grab a photo of my tomatoes to show you, these have been grown from seed. I’m really pleased with how they have turned out, not bad for a first attempt. My carrots aren’t looking too hot though, they look like the tops have been eaten by slugs But I’m still hoping they will work out.

Thanks for all the wonderful comments on my podcast, I really enjoyed doing it so look out for another one soon.

I’m off to snuggle with Ellie. Have a great Sunday!

Let's Chat: http://www.twitter.com/vintageniki

Remember when I started growing my sweet peas from seed back in March and they looked like this?

Well now look at them!

I am so amazed by them! To think those tiny little seeds have produced such amazing beautiful plants and strong ones at that. I’m really excited about growing plants from seed, you can see in the pic above my tomato plants have gone crazy too, they are now starting to flower so it won’t be long now and they will be producing little cherry tomatoes yay!!!

Are you growing anything this year?

I’d really love to grow potatoes next, not sure when I can start those, do you know?

Aside from getting overly excited about my gardening and growing I have been working on a new painting called ‘Shabby girl’ and some other little goodies too. Expect to see them popping up very soon.

You may have noticed that I’ve been changing the layout and colours here, well I am in the process of making the whole site more in keeping with a shabby feel and I wanted more space here too, I hope you like it. I’m also working on a new gallery where you can buy my originals, this will be up soon too.

I want to say a BIG THANK YOU!!! to all of you who read, comment and buy my paintings, I really appreciate every one of you and am delighted that you enjoy my paintings so much. I feel very blessed!!!

How are you scanners getting on? Have any of you read “Refuse to Choose” yet? I’m still working my way through but almost done now and I have to say it is an amazing book. Really insightful and helpful too. Let me know your thoughts on it and what ‘type’ of scanner you are

Love to you all

Let's Chat: http://www.twitter.com/vintageniki