Make over for Christmas

Its Christmas and as is tradition with long holidays from school the girls get a make over and some colour in their hair, Sophie got purple but I think it looks very much like the pink we did in Summer.  Although Ella has little hair she didn't want to be left out so got a little red mohico and some gold glittery eyes. 

We're all going to the zoo tomorrow

 Ella turned 2 this month officially not my baby any more and now my little lady.  As she is starting to speak and enjoys seeing the wildlife around in the country, we thought it would be great to take to the zoo for her birthday treat.

 

 

The girls had lots of fun all day Ella especially being able to see lots of different animals she had never seen before, and with all that running around and plenty of ice creams the car journey home was peaceful, happy birthday little lady. 

Siblings in April

Siblings in April just chilling out at the end of the Easter Hols, how sad Monday will be.

Tree planting time

We are so excited with our plot and have been talking for a while about adding more structure to the flat green that is our garden as well as giving us more produce to harvest for the family.

 Here are 6 of our new trees that will be the new addition to the back of the meadow. We have a Butlers cobnut, a larger than the standard Kent cobnut, our resident squirrel has already been spotted rubbing his paws.  We have a Sunburst cherry and yes we are preparing for an on slaught from the blackbirds.  A Victoria plum, a Merry weather Damson, a late Sunset apple and an early Discovery apple.  We also have a Sumac, golden twisted willow, a lilac and a purple magnolia, to plant with in the main garden.

 Our first time planting trees and we put out the stakes for placement before cutting the turf 2ftx2ft before digging down to plant the roots making sure we gave the roots a shake to settle them into their new home.

 So you would think this whole experience a milestone for our garden would be a joyous one celebrating the planting of trees.   The whole experience was not, but one of 2 children kicking off, being naughty and crying hanging off our legs as you can see from the snot bubbles and dribble of Ella below.  I am just glad we didn't order more trees.

Sloe time in the meadow

We have had our first frost and we are lucky to have our own sloes growing in the meadow so no more tromping round the footpaths hunting for sloes, dragging children through nettles and thistles.   Ella is getting to an age (16 months) where she is getting to an age where she loves to help, she watches and copies and as you can see very insistent to carry the basket and pick the berries.

After the girls helped pick the sloe's we spent time pricking them before added them to our yearly few bottles of gin, a bit of mothers ruin to help sooth the day for mum and dad when the kids finally go to bed.  I know your supposed to wait till Christmas to let them infuse but hey make a few extra bottles mean we can start drinking it a bit earlier Cheers!!

A few years back we also made some slow wine which you can find out how to do below

Pots for winter and spring

 We are full on bulb planting round the garden at the moment and have bought around 1000 bulbs and it is now way near enough for the garden but a good start to build on over the years, Next year i will bulk buy sacks of bulbs as it is much cheaper per bulb.  We have bought loads of varieties of bulbs but the basic types are tulips, daffodils, bluebells, snowdrops,crocus and muscari armeniacum, hoping for a good splash of colour come spring time.

We have a large front walk way and have made a start at trying to pretty it up with some pots.  We are trying to have pots that give blooms for a good 6 months through winter and spring and we have planned the layered pot approach.

Starting with the lower layer we placed tulips bulbs then soil then daffodil bulbs more soil followed by the muscari armeniacum, we topped the pot off with a selection of winter pansies and cyclamen.  Here is madam hitching a ride in the trolley as we took the pots from the potting area to the front door for display.

 My other little helper was on bed duty using the best tool i bought for planting the many bulb, my bulldog garden spear, making planting quicker.  Looking forward to Spring now and seeing all new flowers after our hard work.

My Sunday Photo Colourscape

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Colourscape

Warning the following pictures are as taken, no colour correction or colour pumping has been adapted on the images.  You will not need to adjust your device.

Well what is this all about then??  The bright colours the strange inflatable the weird alien noises.

Welcome to Colourscape

This is a large inflatable sculpture of psychedelic labyrinths with injections of light fantastic, amazing atmospheres to escape into a parallel space with a unique sound of weird and beautiful music.  

It really is like stepping into another world of psychedelia and you might be excused into thinking you stepped into a scene of the 1970's Barbarella with large neon tunnels to wandering around. The girls were really taken with it, Ella adored the bright colours and soft squishy bouncy floor, As did Sophie who loved being able to run about, up and down the twisting tunnels, being chased and chasing daddy.  Even though this bright inflatable world seemed alien is was strangely comforting and safe feeling.

Sophie at the end of a tunnel

Around the labyrinth strangle and wonderful music floated around in the air.  Down one of the tunnels we found this lady wandering around playing on a strange instrument

Later the music changed to something totally different but outer worldly and at the end of a white tunnel was a large white bubble room where we found a man twiddling dials and playing music through his computer, doesn't he look great.  Just the perfect man to find down a strange tunnel!!

There was more music from another man who played a base flute the instrument below

The girls now have colourscape top of their list for Christmas !!!