genialgemsandothergabblings

Just had to share the newest variety of tomato that I have had a go at growing this year. It's called Nosy parker and I think you can see why! The wind and rain that is coming in over the next few days will probably put paid to the lovely tall Sunflowers  and other summer ones that have still been flowering .I  will have to go and plant up some bulbs in the greenhouse and keep out of the worst of it. We went out o the boat again on sunday, concious now that the mellow days that make it such a pleasure are dwindling away . Only up as far as Myerscough but  after a walk  to the college Plant Centre we rewarded ourselves with tea and carrot cake and I spent time browsing at the wonderful plants they have on show. The small Tortoiseshell  butterfly was on the Sedum as were many others. Bebe is not impressed that the interloper is still with us. He[Snowy] is a lovely cat and is feeling much better and has on the whole been good around the others. Amazingly Oll...

+ At last we made use of the lovely pinic hamper that I  bought with my Birthday money way back in  February. Gawthorpe Hall near Burnley was our destination  having  briefly called there once before we  promised to return one day and explore this very old Lancashire Manor House. We toured the house and saw the beautiful Kay Shuttleworth Embroidery collection which really is stunning if you are at all interested in textiles.  The house itself was built around 1600 but the Shuttleworth family had been in the area for 200 years before that. I have to say that having a picnic with a' proper 'picnic basket adds a new and much more enjoyable dimension to the whole experience and now all I would like is a really old open top car to take me to more picnics in real style!

With the lovely sun putting in an appearance this past week it spurred me on to have a go at making a herbal wreath as I have quite a good collection growing about the garden. It looked and smelt really lovely as I was making it and after a couple of days left in the shed it had started to dry off nicely,as had the gorgeous faded hydrangea heads I had already picked. These will  look lovely in an old vase when the days are getting darker and cooler and summer seems a million miles away. At last I have Sunflowers and the bees and other insects are busy making the most of them in these late summer days. When they have finished flowering I will cut them off with a portion of stem and hang them around the garden for the birds to feed on through the Autumn. On Bank Holiday Monday we had  a really great day out  with Mark and Emma on the boat up to Garstang where we stopped at the canal side pub for a lazy lunch  before heading back. Everyone was happy and relaxed a...

I have found out where the cat that Peter has called 'Snowy' has been living, in a shed in next doors garden.  I think he may have been there a good couple of months as I now remember disturbing a cat in June when I was watering the plants when the neighbour was away. He has now taken to turning up when its meal time with the others and he has even taken a cat treat from my hand, although still very nervous. It doesn't take them long though to 'catch on does it? We had a nice weekend and how lovely again to enjoy some sunshine. We headed off to a new garden centre that I had found out about near Bury. It was lovely and  they have a bistro there and of course we had our lunch.! After which we went into Bury itself and that was a revelation ,I had not expected the lovely modern clean town that we found, packed full of new shops. It really beats most places near  here face down! Yesterday on the canal we spent a quiet couple of hours having  a coffee a...

This is the question  that has kept us busy this week. We noticed the cat a few days ago sneaking into the garden to clear anything left on' our lots plates'. He was so nervous and would not go for the food until  I retreated .  He ate like he had not seen a meal for a long long time! Then he missed a day andI  thought he had gone but since then he appears every teatime ,eats and then goes off through the hedge. If he keeps coming and gets a little less nervous we will try and arrange a trap and see if we can get him to a vet for a tag check and a look over, at the moment his long coat is a state. I am trying to keep Ollie from seeing him too much , the others seem just to stare at the interloper! Found a little time to do a bit more scrap booking using some of the lovely papers from Crafty hearts . I am so sad that that lovely little shop will be closing but I wish everyone there well in the future. Bebe as you can see in the top photo is just as soppy as e...

I spent yesterday chasing up and down the canal towpath,camera in hand trying....... and I do mean trying to take pictures of  a Dragon fly and  this elusive butterfly. They would hardly settle even for the briefest moment to enable me to get close enough to make the shot worthwhile.  I had been on the track of a huge but rather boring brown dragonfly and then as luck would have it the yellow stripey one appeared and landed for ages! He is blended so well though with the foliage that you have to look hard. Last night I looked out the back garden and there waiting alongside Tom was the little Hedgehog. He was only small but seemed healthy and was soon tucking into pieces of chicken and cat biscuits and then he raced off right down the garden at a pace that would have done a sprinter proud!

Well you certainly can't wait around for good weather in this part of the country and we try and get out and about as much as possible. At any rate even if it rains we are under cover on the boat ,as were all the people on the day trip boats on the canal on Sunday. We spotted not one but two Kingfishers, together  and an array of other wildlife all doing what they do best in the summer months. The tomatoes in the greenhouse are huge fat ones this year and have only just this week begun to turn red, through lack of sunshine and my crop of Sunflowers are suffering this too. The new summerhouse came into its own last weekend when despite the rain we were able to enjoy a lovely tasty bbq out there with Ginger and Tom sitting with us waiting for bits of chicken and the remains of our Raspberry  cream desserts! On a more serious front I have joined the National Osteoporosis Society, as  mum, once again, has broken ribs after a fall . This is cruel and horrible illness that ro...