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)

Damsons in distress

My damson tree's never been that happy, it always gets attacked by aphids which make the leaves curl. This year for the first time I managed to harvest enough damsons (sour plums) to make Damson and Apple Jam. All the books say damsons make the best jam ever - they are SO right. They give the jam a very sharp taste without it being bitter. I only got enough for 4 jars (or was it five?). I'll sort those aphids out next year, I'm not having damsons in distress nay more, they're just too nice!

Giant rhubarb and summer colours

Rhubarb's from behind the compost bin, lens cap included for scale - it gets no fertisers, or any sort of care whatsoever! The white clematis grows on a trellis by the front door and needs frequent cutting back, else I'd not get in nor out the house! Photo taken looking down the hill towards Danestone and Bridge of Don one sunny morning in May.

Garden Planning Tool

Finally, I bought sufficient soil to fill my new raised bed, so today's job was to plant things in it. So as to remember what went in I did my sketch but thought it too plain and dull to go online. A Google search found a nice wee tool from www.growveg.com/ There's a 30 day free trial then it's £15 per year. There's advice on crop rotation, frost alerts etc. Think I'll buy it, seams nice:

Row 1: Radish,
Row 2: Rocket and salad leaves,
Row 3:Spring onions,
Row 4: Dill,
Row 5: Beetroot,
Row 6: White turnip,
Row 7: Oriental raddish.

Some might say rows are boring, but I wanna see if anything gets eaten by beasties - I hope not, but...

Not my tree, but...

it's a nice one: Acer griseum (Paper-bark Maple), Cruikshank botanical gardens (behind Zoo Building) ...my second home. For years I thought it was a kind of Tibetan Cherry, nope - wrong genus and it's from central China. In Pinyin, should you want to speak to Chinese person about the tree or buy one out there, it's xuè pí. Taken with the Nokia N95 on the way into work on Wednesday morning in bright sunshine (nothing lasts does it?)

Yellow flowers

For some reason in full sun I've got to underexpose yellow flowers and then increase exposure slightly in the photo editor else they look totally washed out!

Dark leaved Celandine don't wanna wake up @ 8am


By 11am they're quite happy!