Today in Our Garden

Yellow Welsh Poppy

Orange Welsh Poppy

Oriental Poppy

Our Caldey Island Fuschia

Phlomis

Allium crishophii

Yellow Flag Iris

Our 2022 Christmas Tree

Oak Seedling from My Mum's Oak

Our Garden

Growing Apple

Valerian & Field Poppies

Bog Plants & Pen Inspection

We found a parcel waiting for us this morning from Hampshire Carnivorous Plants. They literally brought our bathroom windowsill to life:

It has been a bit of a hectic week at work. My application for a new job has landed me an interview next week, so I have at least a glimmer of hope for a fresh start. Whilst it is great news that I have the chance for a new work position, it makes for a stressful weekend as I prepare for the forthcoming interview. Whilst the written word presents me at my best, interviews tend to present me at my worst due to my anxiety/

Anyway, time to get my head down. I'll end this post with a short video I took of little fudjcat being introduced to my new pen lol: 

RHS Malvern Show 2024

After two late nights, visiting the RHS Malvern Horticultural Show meant an early start this morning, no matter how exhausted we felt. 

The showground estate was massive, full of colourful plants, busy crowds, food and drink vans catering for every diet and taste, gardening talks from top TV personalities and even music.

This post cannot hope to capture the full breadth of the show's atmosphere, but I have given it a try with a handful of snaps, some ambient audio field recordings (including a couple of the talks), and some of the gardening purchases I made on the day.

All in all, a day well spent and a pleasurable conclusion to a bit of a hectic weekend:

 

Ambient Sounds from the Malvern Horticultural Show 2024:

My Gardening purchases from the show:

My favourite purchase of the day, however, was this vintage Coca-Cola crate offered by one of the vendors in this show. At just £15, it was an offer I just couldn't not resist.

Trichocerues brisdgessi Monstrosa (Long form)

A Day in the Garden

The first real warm and sunny day of May. Took the opportunity to sit outside to catch up on some writing and give Monty (who is 20 next month) a much-needed day out in the sunshine :)

My Niciotian rustica plants (centre right in the pic below) are growing nicely, and I am still hopeful of getting them to flower by the end of my GNS zine project:

Catch Up

Gutted I missed out on this year's May Day festivals in Glastonbury yesterday (especially after seeing these pics by someone who did attend 1  2 ), but I made up for it by getting a lot of work done on both my Swansea and Gower websites.

It's been a busy few weeks, as regular readers of my blog as facebook page will be aware, so I thought I would use today's post to publish some recent photographs I haven't has the opportunity to publish yet.

I'll start with this pic of our 8-year-old chickens, who remain at our old home while it's being refurbished but get daily visits to ensure their wellbeing. Here they are, photographed sometime during mid-April freelancing around the garden:

Next up are a few 🪴 pics (yes I still like to keep my fingers green).While I lost one Mandrake during the awful wet Welsh winter we have recently emerged from, this one survived and has sprung back into leaf: 🙂

And while my Mandrake is doing well, this gorgeous Crassula ovata (money tree) is currently displaying a Ruby flush that is gorgeous:

And finally, for now, here is my prize cactus, which is now sitting before the landing windowsill of our temporary home:

Well, that's me all caught up here now. Until my next post, keep well and happy.

5/100

Thursday, 04 April, 2024

Guy N Smith project 5/100. Just sown these babies with the mission of getting them to flower and to get some decent pics of them before the 100-day deadline hits.

Carnage

Monday, 11 March, 2024

Here are a few pictures of the carnage. The worst part of today? Having to throw shelf after shelf of signed books, collected over many years and at great expense, into the bin!

Burnt to a char and still a smile on his face. I'm gonna be keeping this
fella no matter what he looks like after a scrub.

The cause of the fire - faulty electric socket wiring

Our digital clock

Our once bejewelled bedroom ceiling light

Our bedroom TV

The view from the bed

Our telly

My old Jaws shelf, videod here just the other day

Our bedroom fan

The plants in the front porch, however, loved the burst of heat.
I've never seen this Jade looking so good!

Caught the highest tide of the year briefly as we drove back to Mumbles after house-sorting:

We saw something strange as we approached the Airbnb then. Dont Ask! But it ended with a furious dog chasing me from the scene:

Been a busy day but can't complain when there is still time to chill with fudjcat and a good film - The Black Phone. It's our last day in this Mumbles holiday let tomorrow. On Wednesday we relocate to a cheaper caravan/trailer down Llanrhidian for a couple of weeks. Our landlord reckons it will take at least 6-8 weeks to make our house habitable again...