Back from the brink - a twosome tale

So we returned from holiday hoping that all was well, alas it was not. Bellatrix (formerly the most aggressive of chickens but now the friendliest) was ill. She had a dirty vent and instead of pecking around with the others she was lying down, closing her eyes and generally not being her self. So off to the vets we went. The vet confirmed that she did not have an egg stuck and it wasn't that she was coming to the end of her laying days he thought she had an internal infection. An injection was given and when on Sunday I feared the worst (she kept on shutting her eyes as I sat by the cat carrier crying) by Tuesday she had eaten her own weight in mash potato and escaped her makeshift pen.

So it was time to rejoin her sisters in the big pen. At the weekend we had a bit of bad news (a shattered egg, dunno if it was laid like that or just soft shelled) Bellatrix was stood by it and clearly distressed so we took her out for a wander of the garden while we cleared it up and we haven't had any more since so fingers crossed it was just the antibiotocs working their way out of her system. Second up for coming back from the brink is my beautiful vine Vinnie. Jam bought him as a present for me last year from our local nursery. I had been wanting a vine for ages and Vinnie seemed perfect as not only was he a high yielding vine he also had beautiful large coppery red leaves.

May came however and he was still looking quite dead, the recent heatwave however seems to have agreed with him as he now looks like this. What a lucky girl I am to have them both still here. We managed to take a video of Bellatrix dust bathing & here it is

A list for summer

Lovely Elsie over at a beautiful mess (here) has put together a list of things she will be doing this summer (here). I love lists at the best of times so what better time to write some goals and have something to aim for (whilst still allowing copious time for lounging in the sun and eating ice cream obviously :-). This summer I will:

*Finish decorating the hall – this has been going on for ages and probably should have been finished ages ago, however the project seemed to double in size when we started stripping the wall paper, it’s anaglypta and boy is it thick/still pretty stuck) that’s off now though so it’s sugar soap washing the walls & then painting in a nice neutral (all the better for hanging my many masks on...).

*Buy a new hen house for Alice & Bella plus increase the flock – Alice wasn’t very well a couple of weeks ago, and should she have gone to the great chicken coop in the sky (which thankfully she didn’t, she’s much better now yey) Bells woul have been all alone, so I’m keeping my eyes open to acquire two more vampire chickens/arucanas (and yes I do intend calling them Esme and Rosalie) and upgrading their chicken residence.

*Pass my theory exam – it’s a music theory one, but I need to pass it in order to move onto the next stage of my diploma, being held on the 18^th June if you lovely readers could keep your appendages crossed that would be awesome.

*Have friends round for dinner – since the invasion of the moths (I have been asking about and apparently lots of local houses have them because of the warmth/dampness, this makes me feel slightly better), the social side of casa Rosa seems to have adopted quarantine measures (only authorised personnel in or out) before the end of summer I plan to exterminate the little blighters and have many more local friends round for a bite.

*finish the garden – this is well underway (see this post ) and with the addition of the awesome vine that Jam bought me, plus the ton of rain we’ve been having recently things are growing right to plan. Just a few little areas to tidy (got very excited as my *new* I’ve always wanted one but but now have one, passion flower has just come into bloom).

Down at the bottom of the garden

As the weather has improved myself and the Jam have been spending some time at home, admiring the pair of red Kites that seem to live around our house and sorting out the garden. First it was the really tedious weeding/clearing bit (with Jam seemed to love but with which I will not bore you) then came the adding new stuff/exciting bit. So with a clearish garden we started....

My mum is a bit of a green fingered wonder and very kindly supplied us with 3 lots of Potatoes, charlotte, an unspellable one and my favourite (because of the name) International Kidney. All of those as you can see are doing very well indeed. She also gave us a butternut squash and thanks to the wonder of the Internet/Twitter myself and folk legend James Fagan have begun squash racing (neither of us have grown them before, I checked the progress of mine last night & it's not looking good :-).

We grew from seed 3 different types of bean, my dad's tried and tested runners (prizewinner they are called, he has grown them every year since we were little), bollotti beans and some french beans as well. All the Raspberry bushes have been cleared (and are spreading like wildfire) as have the redcurrants, blackcurrants and rhurbarb (although I caved in and bought more strawberries after outs got killed by the frost, these are residing quite happily next to the Fig). The 'Rose Grove' (my tiny collection of Olives from which one day I will make oil) is also still doing well.

Fruit and veg pretty much sorted (we planted some chard, beetroot and onions in a spot by the house, but they haven't come up, so let us never speak of it again) I then turned my quite short attention span to flowers. This beautiful clematis was a survivor from a couple of years ago so it got repotted and made centre of attention next to a 'rescued' (read half dead but cheap in a garden centre) *%£^&$£% and a hydranger that I got last year. The major new additon was a beautiful passion flower (I've always wanted one but they are expensive!) which my mum's cousin very kindly put some money towards it (I've started experimenting with pressed flower cards again and one of the first of the new set is a passion flower thank you card for Auntie Adrienne). We've also just had a new garden centre take over where a old rose breeder used to live. The new garden centre were selling off the dwarf roses really cheap (£3, they used to be loads more expensive than that) so I bought two of those too, one is white but without a label, the other purple/blue and called rhapsody in blue. The plan is coming together but like most things it will be a while before it's completely perfect...

Chelsea flower show - the beginning

My mum now she has retired, has started a list of all the things that she wanted to do when she was working but didn't have the time/money. Her Birthday is the 12 of May and I decided that instead of buying her the usual assortment of quite useful but lovely stuff (with which she would only clutter up the new 'retirement pad' I should take her to do one of the things on the list. Every year she bemoans the fact that she hasn't been to Chelsea flower show, so I got in there early and bought us both tickets to the final day. I've been having a really rough time in my personal life of late so mum like the awesome person she is came down early on the Thursday night and we went out to our local (and lovely) Lebanese. Friday she amused herself in Abingdon while some of us went to work (!) then on Sat it was up at the crack of dawn to make the first train to London (Waitrose breakfast on the train, glad she didn't spend that day off in vain). We got there pretty early but already the crowds were pretty dense, I had some vague idea of buying one of the show Orchids (Orchids being one of my favourite flowers, we also seem to have the perfect light for them on a window sill in my house, which helps maintain my enthusiasm a lot!). As soon as we were inside the marquee it was pretty much love at first sight with this lovely thing to the right (there were so many beautiful ones but most of them I knew there was no way I would be able to keep alive, they almost were not of this earth). So we put a reserve on one of these (it's what my Auntie Sylvia advised if we saw something we liked) and headed off to see the rest of the Marquee. My mum had been to Hampton Court when she was at university and was looking for piles of sweet peas and tall blooms to replicate what she had seen there, I think we managed that in the marquee alone without looking at all the small gardens outside and the bigger show gardens (more on these two in the next post for now I leave you with me and mum making the most of a patch of sunshine (we asked a random passer by to take a photo explaining that it was mum's Birthday treat and I think the responsibility of being a 'photographer' got to him slightly. He arranged us in from of one of the show gardens and was saying things like "to the camera girls" and in this one he made me kiss my mum, to which she replied steady on. It was all great fun, now onto the next post some of the stranger things that we found at the flower show plus a VIP guest.

All the fun of the fair

Hope everyone in blogland enjoyed the long weekend. I certianly did although rather more of it than I though was spent in bed as the horrible cold I have had for (count them) three weeks seemed to come back, but worse than ever (is it possible to have a cold relapse?). Despite this and some extended lie in's (which reduced my gardening time substancially) I had a lovely weekend. Saturday was mainly spent catching up with Fi (who finally got my spinning wheel working perfectly (I love it, leaving it to come to work this morning was quite a strain)). Sunday I cleaned out the chickens (Trish & Malc are away for 3 whole weeks so in the meantime I'm birdwatching) and went round to Robin the violin tutor's for an evening BBQ. What I wasn't prepared for was that the chickens would decide to roost somewhere other than they are supposed to, meaning there was a slight stand off between me and Philip the cockrel (, he though I was messing with his birds but I stood firm and eventually he backed off, some photos of him & the lovely ladies will be appearing later on in the week, have no fear).

The BBQ itself was really nice, Robin cooked enough to feed the 5000 and I suspect had an ulterior motive for inviting me as he has confirmed a few more gigs he want me to do sound for (one alas that clashes with Towersey festival, and there is no way I'm missing that). Also in Steveton was this amazingly old fashioned fun fair, which it being some odd time on a Sunday night was deserted but I think these pictures give something of the feel of it. Yesterday it was supposed to rain so Louise and I pencilled in some Twilight action, in the end it was a lovely day so I used the morning to have a serious hack at the vegetable patch (the pumpkins and bolloti beans really do need to go in) but then gave in and headed round to hers laden with Pizza and crisps. I thought I'd finish the digging off tonight but my nose is running like a dripping tap and the lemsips seem to be having no effect whatsoever, I think it might be Gok & then bed. Foiled once again!