Pre-Easter Weekend

 

So this weekend I've been tackling my own garden before we get down to laying turf in Julia and James's garden next weekend (over the Easter weekend). This is the front garden all mowed and edged just before the rain came in for the whole afternoon - why are my days off wet and my work days nice and sunny??

And this is the back garden mowed and edged on Saturday morning before the rain & hail kicked in and the bird house acorn popped up on the garage wall complete with fake bird because trying to manage it at a height of 2m isn't going to work for me!

So here are some images of said hail, boy did it come down! Like bobbly snow! So much so it collected outside the backdoor 🥶

And because next weekend is potentially going to be busy I thought I would put up the Easter decs in the porch today!

And it's been productive on the gardening level as Dad came by and managed to dig out the two fuchsias that I've been trying to kill off because I'm fed up with them after all these years, too big for where they are growing and prone to the fuchsia gall mite which leaves them looking awful. So now the ground is clear for me to plant some ornamental grasses which I bought a few weeks ago, Festuca Intense Blue! Should be good.

More Still Life Weather!

 

So in preparation for another wet Off Friday I froze some water in a tub and placed this pink gerbera on top and then added a little more water and popped it back in the freezer over Thursday night into Friday.

Setup in the studio with the 77D fitted with the 60mm macro lens on the tripod legs and had a good session as the ice melted. On occasion adding the smallest extension tube to the mix.

It whiled away most of the morning and then played in the afternoon with this daisy type flower:

This was sitting in a small bud vase with my tinfoil covered box behind it for a rather unusual backdrop.

All in all a good camera day :-)

Still Life Weather!

 

So as this weekend, including my Off Friday, has been mostly wet weather I took the opportunity for some still life photography to keep me from getting too bored. Using my lightbox and various props I spent most of the morning and some of the afternoon taking photos. Including playing with some old sweet film wrappers in front of the built-in flash...

This is one such example using a piece of red film - naturally! Really like the effect and cheap as chips too although now the Quality Street brand from whence these pieces of film came have moved to recyclable wrappers so glad I saved as many colours as I could whilst they were still available. This set of old bracelet beads were shot on an old box covered in scrunched up tinfoil which makes for a quite interesting background. All in all it whiled away time on a day where going outside was out of the question.

Saturday saw me and Julia shopping up at Bluewater, mainly for New Mum items for James's sister who is about to have twins!! So lots of useful but perhaps less exciting toiletries for her and the new bubbas when they arrive next week (via a C-Section) and some time saving bits for her like dry shampoo and hairclips because new mums don't have time to fuss about washing their hair! Julia and James are excited to become Auntie & Uncle - especially Julia as she has no siblings and sees James's brothers and sister as her own.

Sunday has been brighter weather for once, been outside briefly in the garden but still too early to do much beyond a little tidying up and trying to hopefully kill off a couple of old fuchsias that I'm looking to replace with alternative plants because they are rife with that fuchsia gall mite. Hoping that if I can kill them off then digging them out will be less of a challenge. Fingers crossed ;-)

Shopping & Plant Supports

 

So this weekend has been about nipping up to the top shops for a nose around and to get some fresh air away from the bloody rain and shoring up the daffodils and crocuses which are being battered by the crap weather.

Using some thin sticks and garden wire I've managed to hopefully hold them up, for now at least or until more grow and are outside the rim of the wire. Weather is beginning to get on my nerves, too much rain and wind and whilst I'm grateful we've no snow or floods I'm looking forward to some decent dry weather and time to get out in the garden and start planting up this years flowers.

Got two sets of modular planters to utilise rather than individual pots, those with bulbs will be left to settle until next Spring rather than planting on top of the bulbs like last year. Going to focus on zonal geraniums and petunias as you get a lot for your dosh with those plants and they need little looking after other than watering and deadheading.

Also going to plant a couple of hanging plants, Lobelia most likely, in the plant rack on the yard wall rather then keep buying artificial plants which fade in time and last year's lot had pots which weren't supposed to be outdoors - something that wasn't made clear when I ordered them from Amazon! Pre-ordered a stack of self-watering pots which will hopefully stop the water running down the wall. Maybe I need the bigger size for the wheelbarrow to replace the spring bulb pots?

Have also managed to squeeze a resin bird into the bird house so it looks like it's in use but not! I'm not a bird lover per se plus having to put it up at a 2m height is going to be awkward for me so opted for the faux look! At the moment the acorn house in indoors but once the yard bits go outside I'll hang it up somewhere where I can see it :-)

And the narcissi in the front garden are now blooming, like baby daffodils 😍

And on my second trip to the shops today I bought some more of the windmills to go into the garden to replace the others which have faded although they have lasted a lot longer than I'd anticipated! I love windmills! Also bought these two blue ornamental grasses, probably to replace the fuchsias that I'm looking to dig up given I'm fairly sure that the disease they had last year is unlikely to have disappeared. Plus they are getting hard to manage, very woody and lots of thin branches everywhere. These grasses are evergreen and need minimal maintenance - what's not to like? If they are successful then I may look to pop a few more in here and there, they provide quite good ground cover.

Feeling frustrated at the moment that there isn't much to be doing outside and not enough decent weather in which to do it. Most of any nice weather often coincides with me  working which isn't very helpful. I feel jealous of those for whom retirement is already a reality and feel like somehow I've been left behind. There never seems to be the opportunity for what I want to do on my down time.

Packing up work for good cannot come soon enough!

Spring is Sprung!

 

So Spring has started to make its presence felt in the garden with my bulbs shooting up and in some cases blossoming :-) Miniature Iris, Crocus and Snowdrops to mention a few.

Some have even started to push through the lawn although now I'm thinking I should have planted them closer together rather than spreading them out. And the wind/rain isn't helping as it's knocking them over when the stems are quite delicate.

Even the Hellebores are getting in on the act - I transplanted two from Dad's garden last year, one each of the purple and white. It's been quite slow going but I have new leaves and in the case of the white plant, some buds!! Looking forward to seeing them bloom, although nicknamed Christmas Roses they rarely flower at Christmas but are another sign that Spring is coming.

The rest of the bulbs planted last year are all coming up and buds are beginning to form, should see some daffodils soon from the pot I bought to go by Mum's sewing machine last year. They were planted into the garden where I would see them flower. I love daffodils. I have a mix in the garden of mainly daffs and tulips, even the alliums got planted into the front garden from last years pot - they were a disappointment, all white even though they were supposed to be mixed and instead of a collection of blooms I got one at a time pretty much. Lets hope they do better this year. Bluebells are the other bulbs popping up everywhere and I'll have a riot of blue a bit later.

At least its a sign that Winter is receding - evenings are staying lighter and hopefully better weather is on it's way.

Dad's 86th Birthday

 

So this is us all around the table at our usual haunt to celebrate Dad's 86th birthday and a good excuse to catch up with my brother and family.

The boys get taller each time they visit, especially George who is towering over all of us now.

After a lush dinner we went back to Dad's and had some cake:

Here it is before we lit it, a Maltesers one 😋

Not the best of images, think on wide angle my hand, or someone else's got in the way, but it's the memory that counts! Dad about to blow out the candles and cut the cake.

We had a good catch up, including Annie who got her Christmas treats from the boys who had wanted to see her open them. A game to find her treats and some treats of course! Annie being Annie proceeded to bite most of the game but she'll get the hang of it eventually! She's a clever cookie 🐶

January's Bits 'n' Pieces

 

Finished this Granny Square finally, after a collection of other more pressing crochet projects. This little coverlet was to take into work for over my lap as the air-con had been broken for some time and so the office days were bordering on the fridge end of the thermometer 🥶 As luck would have it, by the time this was ready to take into the office the air-con had been fixed and so it's sat in my locker ever since!

Having got Dad to buy me a cordless combi drill/screwdriver for my birthday to use instead of the old electric drill, this was my first project. Drill more holes in the sides of this single part of the wardrobe so that the shelf Dad made could be lowered, thereby attaining more storage space above the bagged up Christmas Tree. I've restacked the shelf since snapping this so there's even better use of the space and whilst I don't need any more Christmas decorations at least I have room for the ones I may inevitably buy 🤣

So a couple of snaps here of the Spring Bulbs starting to sprout out in the garden and the yard pots. Gotta love a snowdrop, they are the quintessential sign that Spring is around the corner. The others are a variety of crocus, daffs from last year, miniature daffs and grape hyacinths and tulips and there is more to come from the front garden. Hoping to see a riot of colour when they start to bloom which is still a month or two away.

Prepped this wooden sign ready for Easter using some coloured pencils I bought rather than the crap tiny felt pens included in the pack from The Works. Quite pleased with how it's come out, it can hang on the porch door when I decorate for Easter 🐰

And this weekend's DIY was to put up my 40th service certificate having finally received it from work. Suspect it's a generic fill in one seeing as how despite the firm logo it just mentions "your company" rather than naming the firm and isn't quite as nice as the 25th service one, although it did come framed. Once I'd managed to hang this I decided to finally tidy up the utensil rack in the kitchen which I put up years ago with just a couple of nails which ended up bent out of shape as it's on an outer wall which is much harder to nail into than the internal walls - which are hard enough. Managed to get the old nails out and drill into the holes left behind, a couple of raw plugs and screws et voila - now it's nice and sturdy. No threatening to fall off the wall every time I reach for something! Mind you, looking at the state of the nails I pulled out I'm surprised it's stayed up on the wall this long 😂

So this is January's "what I've been up to", obviously it's included my birthday, 59yrs young this year and another step closer to retirement. As my birthday always falls on a busy working week I was not only in work but in the office too, along with some cakes and sweets. Out to dinner in the evening with Dad, Julia and James at The Honourable Pilot and then back to Julia and James's for a cuppa and some cake. And to see their latest DIY project - creating more of an obvious lounge space. 

Let's see what February brings, hopefully some better weather and lighter evenings, the Dockyard reopens at Half Term so a visit is long overdue. Maybe a visit from my bro' and family for Dad's birthday.

Whistlestop Catch Up

 So having realised the last time I posted was for Annie's birthday I thought it best to give a summary of the time in between rather than lay it all out!

Fireworks:

So Julia and I did the Scouts Fireworks on Friday 3rd November followed by us, James, Dima and Charlie doing Leeds Castle on the Saturday

Christmas Lights @ Bedgebury:

So Dad, Me, Julia and James spent a chilly evening walking around Bedgebury for the Christmas Lights, Dad and Me snapping away on our respective cameras. Excellent evening!

The next day Dad & I did the Wartime Christmas @ the RE Museum.

I had a go at a honeycomb decoration kit over a weekend which proved far more difficult than I envisaged and having got the Xmas decs out to put up found that my Christmas Tree was finally without lights for the first time in its 10yr service. Amazon came to the rescue as usual and a new tree was delivered the following day - this one 6ft but a pencil slim design - excellent.

We had a visit from my 'bro and his family and we went out for our usual meal @ The Honourable Pilot.

Santa Run & Santa Paws:

So this is a quick collage of the few phone snaps taken of the local Scouts Santa run on the 17th December.

And this is us with Annie meeting Santa @ Dobbies - she's always so good bless her!

The Big Day!

So this is us having dinner out on Christmas Day, again at The Honourable Pilot - lush. Back to Chez Bailey afterwards and having left the camera at home this is a still from a little video of Annie getting help with her presents!

So we've had a good Christmas and my break is almost at an end - last day today in fact (01-01-2024)! I'm not quite as miserable about returning to work as I'd anticipated but that might change come tomorrow morning! At least it's only one day on site as it's a short three day week for moi and I wonder how Joanne will settle in her newfound four day week albeit still working a full 37hr 😱

Oh and on a rather disappointing note this is the 2023 camera stats...

Just over 800 images less this year than last year and that was disappointing enough 😭 Didn't even break the 2000 mark. With no family challenge anymore and camera club hanging in the balance once again it begs the question of whether this is the future rather than a blip? Maybe I need to retire to give me more time out and about with the camera 📷 Seems everyman and his dog/cat are going down that road.

Annie's 6th Birthday!

 

So this was Annie, waiting patiently for this birthday biscuit whilst we sang "Happy Birthday" to her whilst on a walk over the fields!

This delicious looking biccie (they smelt like hooman food!) was from a pack from Julia & James and she took home some biscuits and a birthday cake from Daisy's Dog Empawium in Bluewater.

Hard to believe we've had this girl back in the family for the last four years, especially when there were plenty of traumatic times in 2019 when we thought we'd never see her again 😭

But sense finally prevailed, she came back to Chez Bailey and has been living like the Doggie Diva she is ever since 🐶

Her intelligence and Alpha Female traits never cease to amaze me, I've never come across a dog like her before. No wonder she failed the GD training, Annie is not a dog to be expected to toe the line, she is independent, wilful, deeply loyal and only willing to live her life on her own terms. Everything we came to love about her when she was with us during her training.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANNIE!!!

Bespoke Furniture Cover

 

So my bespoke furniture cover arrived earlier than anticipated and here it is, in situ, covering the new stackable decking furniture.

Left the cheap kettle BBQ one underneath but this cover is uber thick, like an oilskin tarp kind of material and has a handle on each side. You can request different bottoms to them, drawstring, zipper, metal eyelets etc. I went for just a simple hem as I've no need for anything else. Whilst the furniture will be stored inside the garage and so the cover won't be outside, it would easily cope with all sorts of inclement weather.

Really impressed with the quality and sizing, it can be real hard to find covers to pop over your outside furniture and this company can help take the guesswork out by creating bespoke items.

Halloween & Harvest Festival Exhibition

 

On another day of my weeks leave I popped down into Rochester to Eastgate House for their Halloween and Harvest Festival Exhibition.

I love Halloween and it was a good mix of the two subjects with plenty of informative cards at each display.

This display was explaining the origins of Trick and Treat.

One of the favs was a piece explaining what was expected of a housewife back in the day...

Apparently there were even a few books on the subject, written by men naturally!

St Mary's Island

 

So spent one of my days on my week off visiting St Mary's Island. This was a favourite image shot using the trees as a frame for the houses looking over the far basin.

Tedster and I had a lovely warm day in the sunshine and enjoyed the mooch with the M50 camera.

New Decking Furniture!

 

So this is the new decking furniture for next year - a compact, bottle shaped stacking set for two which quite frankly, considering it's just me, myself & I most of the time, is plenty big enough.

The existing set will have a new home next Spring at Chez Bailey.

This is much easier to manoeuvre on and off the decking, I can easily do it on my own, no need to call in the cavalry to help plus it will take up far less space in the garage during the winter months.

For now it's allowing me to also enjoy this last minute.com Autumn sunshine:

Table is still wrapped in it's protective cellophane but it looks good on the decking, is easily moved around with the sun and seems low enough to the ground to prevent a build up of leaves underneath. Also I quite enjoy the decking being less crowded, I'll still pop the bistro table and chair up there no doubt next Summer but for now I can pop one of these chairs up there whenever there's enough sun and time to sit up there for a while.

Which is where I spent most of this afternoon :-)

Ordered a bespoke cylindrical cover to pop over it when stored away for the winter, gonna get a folding crate to hold all the knicknacks and lights for next year and then I should be able to store it all in a much smaller space next year. Maybe two crates given all the stuff I have!

And this time around I went for the grey rather than the black (which is in fact a charcoal grey) as I think it stands out a bit more than the darker colour plus you can more easily see the striped effect. Whilst the little cushions are handy for aesthetics in reality there isn't really the room for a back cushion - more useful to create a good photo and ambiance than practical.

Anyways, uber pleased with the latest purchase and I look forward to using it in earnest next year. 

First Dahlia Flower 😍

 

So this is the first dahlia flower I've had from my five tuber varieties I planted way back in the early part of the year. This is Lucca Johanna and is only the second plant to have grown and survived being eaten by whatever.

Considering how much I love dahlias and how expensive the tubers were to buy I am considerably disappointed in what has actually managed to grow and more importantly flower.

The front garden tuber has been dug up and I may offload the others, at least two more, to my Dad who seems to have a better time in growing them. If I'm going to have a pot plant I'd rather it be a hydrangea than a dahlia at this rate.

I'd such high hopes for these plants, imagining them flowering all over the summer and filling my garden with bursts of colour. Sadly that's not been the case. Some never grew at all (I admit to planting a couple upside-down) and the rest were methodically picked off by the local wildlife. Definitely buying the pukka slug pellets next year, no more of this watered down "kind to everything" variety. I'm sick of the buggers eating my plants like they are some sort of private salad bar 😭

Lets hope I have better luck with the Spring Bulbs!

40yr Service at Work

 

So this Wednesday, 13th September, marked my 40yr service at work - wow!

25yr spent in Software and the last 15yr in Planning.

Here's a closeup of moi as a fresh faced 18yr old, part of the 1983 HND in Computer Studies intake along with a group of apprentices and YTS peeps. How times flies eh?

My team pushed the boat out quite spectacularly with flowers, a card and two gifts both personalised by our talented Jane and both wonderful keepsakes of what is quite an achievement. The company will pay me £500 for the privilege in next month's pay "packet".

Having come close I think to potential redundancy on a couple of occasions I feel proud to have stayed the distance, in years to come service such as mine will be less likely as people change jobs more often and start working later in life.

Time to start counting down to retirement me thinks ;-)

Halloween Wreath

 

Chuffed with my Halloween Wreath from The Works which Julia persuaded me to buy on our latest shopping trip. I'm not a one for arty crafty stuff, I leave that to her, but I thought why not and for £3 it wasn't going to break the bank!

Set up my gardening table in the shade of the garage doorway on a stupidly hot Saturday and sat painting all the requisite pieces, having to dig back into the memory banks to remember how to mix various colours from the base paints they gave you.

After lunch I glued everything onto the ring, note that sadly they didn't supply glue which seems like an oversight, but I had some wood glue in the kitchen cupboard so no problemo for me.

And here's the final result - pretty chuffed with it, not least because everything stayed glued on after I picked it up! Gave it a couple of coats of clear acrylic and it's ready for the Halloween porch dressing.

Revamped Fuchsia Area

 

Having decided to bin off the fuchsia in the yard area due to what I believe to be fuchsia gall mite attacking it, Dad helped me to get rid of the remainder of the root, and gave me some spare chippings to put down along with the triangle of slab and pebbles.

Over Elm Court I bought a T-Rex skull and a couple of ladybugs and here it is, a much nicer space to look at than some manky plant which is being eaten by bugs too bloody small to see and not much in the way of bug killer available yet to see them off.

Also replanted this years pinks in the front garden having binned off one of the old fuchsias round there for the same reason.

Salvaged a small section which will hopefully be OK along with the new fuchsia but only time will tell. Sadly this disease seems somewhat prolific once it gets hold and many of the bug killers on the market right now simply don't touch it.

Also had a second wind on the double petunias and my Godetias are flowering :-)

Happy 7th Wedding Anniversary!

 

So today marks Julia and James's 7th wedding anniversary and this image is one from their official photographer.

The month of May marked 17yr of them being together as a couple too, so they've beaten her Dad and me, not that it would have been difficult. 

Hoping they have spent an enjoyable day together although James alluded to them having had a rough night so might have been lots of sleep and an evening meal out.

However you guys spent it - here's to many more happy years together.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MR & MRS BAILEY !!!

More Gardening @ Chez Bailey

 

Another Sunday spent doing the garden makeover, we have finally got the soil raked, sifted and moved around ready for the turf to go down. We moved the cherry tree to a better, more balanced part of the garden leaving more space around it and the roses it was originally bunched up with.

Steps have been concreted in position, the gaps filled with stones from the soil and most of the wall block holes have also been filled with stones sifted from the soil. Meaning that filling them with cement is almost certainly no longer necessary unless James has any left over from any other jobs before the tops go on. Slabs needed for the steps but already they provide a much easier route down to the bottom area of the garden than we'd been used to using. 

The bottom area will be a project for another year, turning it into an outdoor dining area. In the interim the dross will be moved into a skip which will accompany the bathroom makeover and all the weeds sprayed with some strong weedkiller to send them packing over the winter months at least.

All in all we've worked hard to get it to the position it's in now but wow, when you look at what we've achieved I think we can all pat ourselves collectively on the back and say it's a job well done!

Hazel's Anniversary

 So today (13th August) marks the first year without Hazel. Hard to believe she has been gone all this time after such an inspiring battle with the Big C spanning several years.

Her regular Facebook updates on her ongoing treatment were so courageous and helped to put all our miniscule "troubles" into perspective. How she stayed so unbelievably positive still staggers me even now.

We all miss you lovely lady, none more so than of course your family and my heart goes out to them all today and every day that they have to carry on without you in their lives.

You really were a one in a million woman, stronger in spirit than anyone I know. The hole left behind by your passing can never be filled.