We need more people that give a s£$7

For many years I have been on my own journey to do what I can.  Be it beach cleaning every time I have walked the dogs over the past year, eco cleaner, leaving all the packaging in the supermarket as a statement (I follow my sister in doing this), home made knitted dish clothes made of bamboo to be able to compost them...  and so many more things I have learnt along the way. I go along the Tesco's line of "every little helps". 

Then I see something like this and I think, "Holy s£$7, I need to do more".  I am sad that the {Greening of Gavin} is no longer a blog but you can find him on Facebook.  To push myself to do more I am hoping to get more into the local community here and at least litter pick and volunteer at their monthly meetings where they clean the verges and hedges on the way in and out of the town.  

I am going to stop talking the talk.  And I am going to walk the walk and hope others come along for the ride.  Plus you get a nice hi viz jacket.



For the greater goooooooddd - semper ad maiora

Greetings fellow Earthlings

Greetings fellow bloggers.  How are you?  Where have I been?  Well get a hot drink whilst I tell you a yarn.

Life has sure taken some strange turns this year.  See the picture?  Guess where it is, whilst I bring you a little up to date.

This is not a political rant, so please make no comments about it, I dont care to read it.

Whilst minding our own business living what I thought was my dream, Brexit has come as more of a reality.  Posh Boy (the Mr) came home and said that the company he works for, had offered him a permanent job.  They said we had 3 months to decide.  In the interim my mother and father's health have taken a battering and at one point my father was fighting, sepsis following a gall bladder removal.  When you havent got anything nice to say, dont speak, is the saying.  Well I had nothing nice to blog about whilst as a family we converged on my parents to help where we could.  My father only just came through this with his life, a shadow of his former self both in size of his body and his mind.  We have well and truly taken a battering as a family. 

Back to the job offer.  The job offer came about as the company he works for is moving from the base in London, to Glasgow and Edinburgh.  Yes, you read that correctly.  Scotland.  The company is obviously hedging their bets on what will happen after Brexit. 

Fast forward to a month ago, we have moved to Scotland.  My parents are more stable and have help that goes in.  I am slowly finding where all the shops are and the quickest roads to get about.  {Dave}, I have street lights and I am 7 minutes walk to a vibrant little town.  It could be worse. 

The garden is very unloved.  I have no idea what I can grow here, veggies or plants due to the wind from the hills and it being cold.  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I am waiting for the snow and ice storm to hit.  I best be off and get some more wood in.  I will tell you more about the house another day.

Speak another time. 

Sol xxx

Orange like the sunset...

I am loving that we found a patio under the grass, along with some path ways.  We now have an area to put the patio table and chairs.  And my favourite thing, the orange parasol.

The bridge is filthy and the washing line is still up, but this shows you the area closest to the house.  it is zoomed in to miss the orange wheel barrow and buckets that are lined up.  In the back ground you can see our newly made fence to keep the dogs in this area in the garden, where they cant make a break for freedom.  They pace the fence like you see animals in the zoo.  Looking for a weakness I expect.  Then they flop down under the shade of the apple trees and then 20 minutes later pace the fence again.  I wonder what they are thinking...

Plants in the rubble

Found this in the rubble at the end of the garden.  I have no idea what it is.  Some one told me it is a dragon arum.  Any ideas?  It is in a small pot, it is about 2 feet tall, it could be a much bigger plant but it is pretty pot bound.

The leaves are approximately 4-5 inches long. And have these white lines on the veins.

The stem of the plant resembles lizard or snake skin.  Weird right?  Yes those are weeds in the pot, brambles and some awful one that if you touch it the seed pods explode and the seeds go EVERYWHERE!  They are like a weapon!

A new succulent, also found in the rubbish pile.  It is in a recycled pot and has long triffid tentacle!  See below.

I accidentally broke on if the stems trying to get it out of the rubble.  I have planted it in some soil to see if it will grow.  Lets hope so.

p.s. this table is sitting on the patio we unearthed.  getting good at finding things arent we.  I must be a Womble.

by hand

This is the reason we need to clear the garden by hand.  There are lots of plants hidden in mess.

Keep going!

I just keep hacking away at this mess.  Most of the garden looks like this.  That is about 15 feet high and at least 7 feet deep.  Now you can see why areas of the garden were lost in brambles and over grown hedging.

So tired of it all now.  

This one area here will be able to home at least 4 raised garden beds for vegetables.

Garden things

The green house is smashed to heck and there are trees growing through the glass.  As I have said before the house was empty for 3-4 years before we bought it.  Nature has been claiming it back.

Bit of common comfrey (Symphytum officinale. I am trying to learn the Latin names...)

We hacked down a wall of brambles and came through a wooden arch, I think it is called a Pailou.  There is a wall of bamboo and the stream here.

More pulling up brambles, made it so I accidentally pulled up loads of grass.  Under that grass was a patio.  This house and garden really are crazy. Its like Jumanji.  

What is this vine?  The leaves are waxy and quite large.  Maybe 8 inches long.

The pear trees have blossom.  The pear and apple trees will need a professional cut at some point.

I am liking the look of some {Plymouth Rocks} and Bluebell Maran right now.  I said we wouldnt have them, but I am coming around to the idea.  They have to be pretty though.  Right?

Out and About

Been to the Lost Gardens of Heligan today.  It was very busy at 10.15, already into the over flow car park.  Lots to see.  I cant work out how to get the pictures off of the SD card so this picture from my phone will have to do.

Apple Trees

First of the apple trees that we have nearly freed from all of the brambles.  still so much to cut back to the boundary.  Super thick and over grown, we need to put better fences up to keep the dogs in.  

Happy weekend everyone!

Easing back in

I am not sure what to talk about, but whilst I formulate my book reviews, I thought I would show you some pictures from here.

Life sure has been different since we have moved.  I walk so much now, all around the coastal paths, I try to find one new to me beach a week.  Apart from the odd day where we had snow, it is defo warmer down here.  At our house it would seem that during the winter, the mornings are sunny and the afternoons over cast or a little drizzle.  

Above is on the coastal path 

This is the coastal path near Mevagissey

Portmellon and Mevagissey in the distance

This was an evening walk with the dogs.

I am trying to show you how tight the roads are here and how steep they are.  One very tight car width.

Ok, this is the start of me trying to blog again.  What are you up to?

Have you seen my mojo?

Have you seen my Mojo?  

I have lost it.  

Sorry no reward!

Happy St Piran's Day

This is my Eden, this is my Cornwall.

All the P's

The above picture is vegeree, its a Jamie Oliver recipe.  Nothings special about it?  Well other than the yoghurt (white splodges), all of the ingredients came from my store cupboard or freezer.  The eggs came from the neighbour.  

It was delicious by the way.

I was talking to my sister earlier on the phone.  She had been to lunch with her family for a celebration, when they got to the restaurant the sign that greeted them outside said that they only had 5 items on the menu.  And that her son in law had gone to the supermarket to get some milk and a loaf of bread for breakfast and school lunches, he got there at 10.30 and there was no milk or bread in the shop.  Nothing.  He went to another store where he found milk, but the older couple in front had taken all of the full fat blue top milk from the shelf.  10 x 6 pints.  Now I will give them the benefit of the doubt that they were shopping for neighbours.  But really I think these people were freaking out.  The weather here was 11 oC today.  (I was out sorting fencing in a tshirt). Kind of late people, the storms have already been and gone.  Then I saw {pictures like this} and I was like 'WOW'.

On Thursday we had no water coming from the borehole as the pipes had frozen and I think the solar panel inverter failed.  We used a heat gun (that you would normally peel paint with) to heat the pipes gently, on the lowest setting from a distance.  We managed to get buckets and the bath filled for flushing the toilet.  In my food storage we have enough water for us and the dogs for 5 days. 

There is still some ice about and snow that is against hedges where the sun does not reach. Today we went to the beach and on the way there was a lot of mud on the road.  Were people being careful?  Nope, they were hurtling along the back roads at extreme speed. Dangerous people.  The roads near the supermarkets were choco-block.  Like the shops will never open again.  It was a little scary on the roads.

With this in mind I am going to revisit my stock pile as it is sadly lacking since we moved and I need to build it up.  If the bad weather had lasted any longer I would have run out of flour and yeast.  This is my new priority.  I also urge anyone who is dependent on tax credits and is going to be swapped over to Universal Credits, that they should be getting items in to their stores right now.  I hope you wont need it, but if anything you should be prepared for it to go wrong.  Dont wait for it to go wrong for you to think about having a small amount of food storage.  Yes, it will be hard, but go a brand level under that which you buy now if you have to or even if you can.  Get cans of beans and cans of new potatoes, they are only 19p in lidl.  We had those tonight cut in half and cooked in the oven as mini roasted potatoes, you can also make them in to provencal potatoes with canned tomatoes and herbs.  And dont forget, they taste excellent in homemade potato salad with mayonaise and a touch of garlic powder from your store cupboard.

Be prepared people, be the smug git who sits back and watches the scenes unfold, rather than the moaning minnie who journalists love to talk about on the TV and social media.  Best foot forward people be the winner not the victim.

Snow 2018

This was earlier, it is still coming down.  The bit under the bridge is one of the ponds.  My poor frogs!  You can now see how close the pond is to the house in the bottom left hand corner.  

I hope you are all safe.  The wind and snow seems to be coming straight off the sea.

There you go {Dave}, the first picture is the part nearest the house.  It looks better in snow.  It is covering up all of the mud and weeds and brambles that have started to grow again.

Hope you are all keeping warm and safe.

Sol xx

These are my own pictures so lets hope I dont have a problem.

Vegetable Garden Planning 2018

As the wind and freezing weather are lashing the house, my mind has turned to summer and what could be our harvests.  The garden is large here and the area we will be growing vegetables is nearly as big as our previous homes garden.  It is going to take a lot of planning as the wind is fierce here and comes off of the sea from 2 sides as it is a peninsula.

Dont you just love the picture above?  I would love this to be my garden.  I have grand plans for my tomatoes this year.  I would like to grow as many as possible so that we can make sauce for the winter.  Although passata is only 35p a cube from Tescos at present, I have to see what we can get out of the garden as Brexit will surely make food prices go higher, especially as my beloved passata comes from Italy.

I also need to look into the longer term vegetables such as my lovely greens, I know some people hate them, but I love brussel sprouts, kale, chard, cabbage - anything that is green really.  I will for sure be planting mizuna and escarole (frilly endive), both are a bit punchy for a lettuce.  I am very interested to see if I can grow water cress.  

Unfortunately the ground here is pure clay, I could throw pots from it.  It is deadly slippy and I have fallen and hurt myself several times in the last 5 months.  Once only inches from my neck and head I got up to find 2 huge pointed granite stones, if I had fallen any closer it would have been curtains for me.

The garden is still extremely over grown.  What we thought were weaping willow trees are in fact very old apple trees that are covered in brambles hanging over like ropes.  At the time of viewing the house this area was completely impenetrable, at present we do not know how many fruit trees we have but there are at least 12 apples and 8 pear trees.  Some are in a really bad state and have had limbs come down in the bad weather.

There is also a very large fruit cage that is all brambles.  I had thought about chopping it all to the ground and getting some chickens in to clean it out and add some organic matter to the area, but I am not into having live stock really (although I am sure the dogs would love to sit there watching them like they do at my sisters house.  I presume it is like TV for them, they dont like it when they cluck too loudly though... ha ha).

I am most looking forward to salad items and herbs coming up in the garden.  They are quite expensive in the shops.

What are you hoping to grow?  

edit: this was a scheduled post, I am not sure what I did incorrectly.

Valentine's Day 2018

Hello my lovelies.  I hope you are all well.  New laptop, I have to sort out how it all works as it is a newer version of Office and I am not familiar with it.  How have you been?  

I have a couple of posts queued up, I hope I did it all correctly as I am a little out of practice.

This is a really interesting link

Hi there, I am blogging from my phone.  Apologies for mistakes.  New to me laptop arriving shortly! 👍

Surely we could do something {like this} in this country? We should be rain capturing and harnessing wind in our own gardens.  No new build house should be built with out, at least solar hot water.  Come on UK, we can do this!

p.s hope you are all well.  I hate post with out pictures but I cant do that on my phone.  See you soon!