Lily Pad Cards- Love it!

I became a Member of Lily Pad Cards today!  I love this site, there's always something going on and the Sunday vids are great! Check it out :)

so seriously....

Finally I have some energy back-feeling better but my voice still sounds like I swallowed a frog, some might say nice and husky? please please let the snot be gone! (I know I can say this coz few read the blog haha!)
Anyhoo...it's now April and I've been feeling like shit most of March, I think it's time that I get totally better now and get back with the programme!

On the bright side, the weather is doing just that and last weekend Brian and I spent most of it in the garden, preparing the beds, the greenhouse, planting seeds and yes...again chasing the damn hens out of the afore mentioned. We did remark to eachother that we need to do the gardening BEFORE we let the hens out of the run for a roam..Hmmmm, deja vu from last year? Yes indeedy! And I will endevour to remember all Summer long ;)

Here is the apple tree that will give us a lot of luscious apples this Autumn! She's looking good unlike her counterpart who fell over this Winter and had a rough time, we may get a few apples from her, but not the bumper fare from last year I fear.

Ahhhhh, the beds look so empty, but I love this time of the year, the promise of things to come, we have a little look every day to see if something has sprouted and are delighted when the weather forecast says that the growing is good. Really, it does! I've left space in one of the beds for Mum and Dad, their favourite veggie is being winged over from Europe in seed form, but I'm sure we'll get the endijvie to sprout and prosper by the Autumn :)

The greenhouse...a little plasticy one, but boy does it get warm in there! Plants are growing like the clappers and we have some early strawberries, beetroot, rocket and herbs on the go. I might have to put the geraniums back in as the hens are loving the tender green shoots...grrrr! Good thing their eggs are so tasty or they'd be for the pot!

Waxwing!

Yes, a waxwing graced us with his presence in January...we were so excited to see one this far west! He was incredibly easy going and a wonderful model as he withstood the 700+ shots I got of him, Overkill I hear you say? Nope, I was shaking, some over-exposed, some under...nightmare! But I got some very good shots all the same. Digi is fantastic!

Nature at it's best-yes spring has sprung

A few piccies from the last couple of days- I just love this time of the year!

Above is mama frog and to the right, hopefully her babies! The water is dark and horrid looking but it's a bog ditch-the peat makes it that dark,dirty colour










A few little birdies caught on camera-they are so so busy right now

Top-  Great-Tit
Middle- Robin singing it's heart out
left- Blue-Tit queuing for his turn at the feeder. This feeder is busier than Heathrow, hence the holding patterns observed by all

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

It's absolutely freezing! -6C an hour ago and more snow forecast for tomorrow.
The hens are hating it, yesterday only Mathilda ventured out of the coop. It's great fun (not) running in and out every hour to refresh the solidly frozen drinking water. Poor birdies!

2 snow days so far, nobody showed up for school, I wonder what today will bring?

The last little frigid apples on the tree

Re Dara O'Briain

Cream soda cleaning out the sinuses is a special thing.
 on Gillian McKeith.....'you might as well eat broccoli because the imps will come and mine the fat off your arse in the night'


On the three states of Irish legality.... Do something a bit naughty, 'That's grand'
                                                        Something a bit worse, 'Ah now don't push it'
                                                        Something quite bad, 'Right you're taking the piss'

I know I'm a very bad Blogger!

Due to the fact that I abandoned all attempts yesterday due to a timely phonecall :)
I feel quite happy wittering away to myself anyway- so here comes Octobers bits.

Firstly, Brian phoned me from work on a Thursday evening (after 6pm and this is important) to let me know we were going to the 'Stand up to Cancer' Ball the following night. OMG! Hair, nails, dress? Later it transpired it was on the Saturday, so that gave me a full 30 hours, very generous I'm sure you'd agree ;)
Loads of flapping about but got there in the end.

The dress needs to be taken up an inch now where I kept tripping over it and put a few little holes in the bottom Doh! We had a brilliant night and it was worth all the effort to get things organised in time.

By the way, can anyone tell me how to put the photos beside eachother instead of underneath in a row? Ta :)

From the 16th to the 19th of October, My gorgeous, crazy husband took part in a charity cycle from Belfast to Cork in aid of the Marie Keating Foundation. You can see more Here !

I only have a couple of photos as I forgot to bring my camera and the I-phone pics weren't the best.

Well done to my sweetie and to all the other guys and gals who started and finished this great endeavour. 

Back to the garden!
The garden yielded four beautiful pumpkins, which the children monitored carefully since coming back to school in September. Last week, we harvested two of them using one to make Pumpkin Soup and carve, the other is on the nature table for inspection. I have a couple of piccies buy have given the kids special adobe treatment to respect their privacy

( Two proud kiddies with their produce)

 Hmmm, what to do with a green pumpkin?

 Ok, so the carving is totally rubbish, sorry Liz ;) but the kids loved it to bits and that's the main thing!


Otherwise, Things have been mental harvesting the apples and trying to eat and preserve as many as possible. I feel a mega freezing session coming on as I'm running out of jars.

Some have pretty labels and covers, some still have to be done, I'm getting there! I hope the chutney tastes good though, you never know until you let it sit for a couple of months. Fingers crossed!

Sigh! Time to go and relax now...See you later :)

Really???

Oh ye Gods.... My Sis took these photos this morning at the bottom of the garden (thanks Nat!)
Please spiderlings.....stay there and don't migrate to my bedroom!

You'd think I'd learn.........

After the Strawberry fiasco earlier this year.
Only now the hens are bigger, bolder and will go where no hen has previously gone before.
Let me explain..... While trying to dig the last of the spuddlies for dinner tomorrow night (Justin and Aydee are coming over!) {Yay} the darn hens got in and snatched up what they could and pecked holes in everything that wasn't 3 foot off the ground, including pecking off the plaster on my finger, but that's another story.
I plucked some Curly Kale for dinner tonight, placing it cunningly on top of the nets and out of reach, only for the blimmin wind to blow it onto the ground  behind the nets. Unfortunate for me, fortunate for the hens as they were able to get into the small space between the nets and the very thorny rose bushes and have a lovely feast. The eggs will have a faint cabbagey flavour tomorrow methinks!
Ah well, I suppose I can live with the loss of the cabbage and the plaster, a few spuds were saved for tomorrow and I managed to get in before the next tropical storm hit *Rolls Eyes*

Friday morning surprise :)

Oh lovely! The Chickensoup random generator picked me out as the winner of the July recipe challenge. Hurrah!
A lovely way to start a lovely weekend, thanks girls!
I think there will be a few goodies for me from 'A trip down memory lane' Thanks Mel and Jill, I love parcels :)

Brian and I are celebrating our first wedding anniversary tomorrow, and we're heading off to a secret location for a bit of R&R, camera is locked and loaded, bag is packed and I just need to get away from the computer now and get purtied up.

Hopefully the weather will co-operate and there will be some good shots for the next recipes that the chefs conjoure up!

Have a lovely weekend all :)