it was around this time last year that i planted my garden and i must say that it is looking good. i have orange poppies going crazy, pink and white flowers who's name i do not know and all sorts of other in the way to flower. i have never in my life kept plants alive for so long!
here is my first rose bloom this year! this rose bush was light pink last year, what happened?
i love my garden. my turf has taken really well and is growing with gusto. i have some deep blue, hot pink and yellow flowers in bloom. my tomatoes and courgettes have definite buds that are looking suspiciously like flowers...which mean food will be growing soon! my strawberries are flourishing and i have my first pea shoots!
look at my first pea shoot!
i cannot wait to eat you.a few weeks ago i decided it was time to attack the over-grown wilderness that was my back garden. i was high on the sunshine at the time.
imagine, if you will as i didn't take any 'before' shots, this mash of tangled weedland covering my entire back garden up to your knees. it was a forest. and old forest. the roots grew deep.
i enlisted some help of alex and his mother as there was no way i could tackle this wilderness on my own but 3 cheers for alex who basically cleared the whole thing by himself! as you can see he and i both gave up towards the back of the patch and laid some paving tiles down to separate the wasteland from the garden. that back patch may be a job for another day.
once everything was cleared we ventured to the local garden centre to pick up some plants. the theme is 'cottage garden'. unfortunately nothing has really bloomed yet so the theme is not obvious. but i have poppies, lupins, lavenders, periwinkle, heathers, clematis, and others i cannot remember. i also picked up some turf so i can have a little patch of grass to lay my head. this weekend i found some dreadful strawberry plants that i saved from the indoor horrors of tesco grocery store and planted in a large tub on my patio along with another tub for herbs *cross your fingers that the strawberries survive*. next weekend i think i'll get another tub or two and plant some vegetables. beans? tomatoes? courgettes? yes i think so. can you grow courgettes in a tub?
i have bumble bees visiting my garden regularly as well as squirrels and a variety of birds. that makes me happy. now i want to get a bat box, a ladybird house and possibly a bird feeder. i could really go crazy. check out flickr for more picture goodness.
but i sure do enjoy a safari park. who knew lions and zebras and giraffes lived in england? alex and i ventured to longleat safari park on the way back from glastonbury a few weeks ago and i just realised that i didn't tell you all about it.
you basically drive around this HUGE estate for a couple hours and see all the animals. you can walk around a small bit but for the majority you have to drive which is slightly unfortunate. you can have your windows down for everything but the monkeys and big cats. the monkeys climb all over your car *and in your car if the windows are open* and the lions could eat you if your windows are open.
it's really alot of good fun. i'm not sure about the ethical issues behind keeping animals in a colder climate than they are used to but they really have vast areas to wander in and that makes me feel better about it. it's something i suggest you see if you're in england. check out flickr for some more animal photos.
this is my back garden. the snow shows not sign of stopping. i was wearing cropped trousers, flip flops and a t-shirt 2 days ago and i was all hot and sweaty from walking around in the sun. yesterday was 10 degrees.
the saying goes...april showers bring may flowers....not, april snow showers kill may flowers. luckily i remembered to take in my potted plants that i put outside for some spring sunshine yesterday.
this is not right, i should not have woken up to this. as i can tell there was little to no warning for this snow shower either. i watched the news before going to bed and the weather prediction for today was sunny intervals with the possibility of sleety showers. there was no call for big, fat, thick snowflakes falling from large, dense, white clouds.
3 cheers for my dad and his insomnia! i left it up to fate as to whether or not i would see the lunar eclipse. and sure enough, the universe wanted me to photogrpah it as my dad woke up me at around 3 am.
here's a picture from the lunar eclipse visible in london back in march.
i forgot my tripod so the rest of my photos from march are all horrible and fuzzy. but i had my tripod last night!
i think i'm getting too old to be staying up all night or getting up in the middle of the night for a sunrise.
alex and i didn't venture to stonehenge this year, we stayed closer to home and went up to primrose hill. it has some lovely views of london.
sunrise was very nice, there are some flickr pictures up if you want to have a little looksie.
the weather is great for the longest day of the year and all i want to do is go back to bed.
i hope the sun is shining on all of you.
the weather could not have been more perfect for last night's lunar eclipse; there was not a cloud in the sky. alex and i took a drive out into the kent countryside where the only light was that of the full moon. ever so slowly the moonlight faded into a red glow. magical.
i unfortunately have lost my tripod, as the moonlight faded so did my picture quality. i just can't stand still enough in comparison. but as fuzzy as my red moon is...it's still evidence that i was present.
the next total lunar eclipse is a little over a week away. it's my favourite sort of eclipse as you can look directly at the action without going blind.
unfortunately for you lot over on the west coast of canada, i don't think you'll see much. but i am smack in the middle of the goodness! now i just need to find somewhere dark to set up camp and camera.
every year, around this time, i feel the pull of my catholic school upbringing. usually the approaching holy week would be enough, but in the middle of lent there is a partial solar eclipse over london. how can i not believe in god?
my class and i played outside from 10:30 untill lunch in the hopes that the clouds would break and i'd get to glimpse the eclipse. but alas, it was not to be.
"On 15th December 2005 the British Government announced a twelve week ‘public consultation period’ to consider whether and how to kill badgers."but, others think that,
"Many people consider that this consultation is a sham to soften our response to what has already been decided - a mass slaughter of a ‘protected’ native wildlife species."
i just woke up with the sunday morning bbc style show. it's a good program but doesn't have a website, so i can't share it with. it usually has environmental undertones and a green bias and today's show was about the 'fashionable safari'. the subject brought up all the moral and ethical issues of; fake fur, african safari, local endangered eco-systems, etc. one segment involved cameras following the keepers at paignton zoo in devon. what amused me was how much the keepers dislike the public.
i like the idea of conservation and research zoos on paper. but then i visit one, and i remember why caging up animals is terrible and feel guilty about supporting it.
but this zoo in devon has peaked my interest. is it the wide open spaces and natural atmosphere portrayed? probably not.
but, a weekend away to the devon/cornwall region could be good fun! devon has some of my favourite british countryside. and who 
isn't a fan of cream tea and cornish pasties?
and i could go back to the eden project. everyone should go there at least once. it's waste neutral!
