Visitors in the Snow

Who invited the fat cats? (Click on link to YouTube for better quality images)

Feedin tha birds

The old folks next door used to feed the birds, sadly Jean died in summer, Laurie moved down south. One of the garden suppliers has some nice looking bird cakes in fake coconut shells - but why wait for fake coconuts to arrive in the post when there's a real coconut sitting in the conservatory, fat from the frying pan sitting in a tin, seeds, nuts and dried fruit in the cupboards and lard in the fridge...


Mrs blackbird seams to like the bird cake, she was there over 1/2 hr. Starlings like it too. The one on the line's been pecked at and was spinning when I went to the shed for a shovel early on. Robins and crows seem to enjoy the Polish bread.!. Loadsa wood in the shed, a proper bird table could be a good project when it gets a bit warmer, brrrrrrrrr.

Video:

New pal

Nothing really impresses this guy - walking the turtle, repulsing monkeys, black dragons showing their talons - he just sits there staring... probably has a good laugh telling his pals later ^^!

Autumn's arrived

Busy spider!


Sweet Peas



Last of the Blueberries

August highlights, 2010

Tatties in sacks - dying off above ground, and on a plate (reds: Maxine, purple: Blue Danube - both very tasty!!!)


Sweat peas by the bin and what a few years good pruning does for a Buddleia

Firsts of the year ...all on the same day

1st strawberries:


1st rose


1st snappy Snap Dragon


1st almost black blackcurrent

Pests in the garden

No we're not talking about Pu3 and... it was much much worse!! (sorry Putz^^ it was just too tempting -IOU an icecream huh? ...dearest pal!!!)

Caterpillars on the white currants! A few leaves should be removed at this time of year to help the berries ripen, but not this many... Caterpillars have now found a new home.

For the full horror, see the moving pictures:

Troughs, bags n wigwams

Home-made sweat pea trough and bags o tatties


Home-made wigwam for French beans

Spring onions

Arghhh!! No onions in the cupboard - what's beneath the soil?

phew good!

The finished meal - crab fried rice, click to see spring onions!

recipe from Everyday Harumi

Spring flowers - Apr 2010

Heritage variety of Broadbean with red flowers

Redcurrant and Damsons flowers

Flowers in front garden - Pansy, Cellandine, Fratillary

27 March 2010 - out the back

Quicktime video showing what's been planted out and what's surviving (don't "full screen" it else it'll look really awful - it's been compressed for easy download). Since Sunday we've had very strong winds and now snow, it'll be a miracle if the French beans survive - most have got one of two leaves missing already... poly-tunnels next years, that's what's needed!

The Ice-Spider cometh...

Feb 23rd 2010, 8am: Outside temp -6C, inside conservatory ...didn't feel that much warmer inside :-)!

A spider who spins webs of ice has been on the conservatory window!!

Prawn Crackers

Not so much a Petesgarden blog as a peteskitchen blog. Created using the Nokia N95, some photos from the SLR and the Mac OSX software i-Movie. Note: the frying is all done in real-time, it really is that fast! Don't worry that the 'poster frame' is black, for some reason the way Blogger embeds video it refuses to display the first image or pre-set poster frame... such is life!


Original movie format: .mov (Quicktime) File size: 5 Mb

Audio version in stereo: (1Mb)
What I forgot to say during recording... Before you fry them the 'prawn crackers' are hard transparent disks about 20 mm in diameter. Total frying time is around 7 seconds, AND this is actually Podcast No.3, oops ^^!

Jamming on a Sunday afternoon

Too wet to go out gardening, so after a batch of Blackcurrant and Apple jam on Saturday it was time to make the more exotic Date and Lemon variety (NOT home grown tho!)



Audio Podcast 2: jamming
Recipe as mp3 file kindly read by Nina and Michael from www.readthewords.com

Audio diary No 1

Podcast No. 1 Sat 16th January, 2010 (Audio: mp3 format, Length: 2mins 09 secs)

(click on photo for enlargement)