Sez It All...

Overheard in the Kitchen (2)

I was questioning Youngest on something a friend had told me last night to see what she knew, and did my usual opening of: 'I heard on the grapevine...'

She gave me one of those looks she does, combination of sceptical, curious, cagey and amused all in one, and remarked:

'Mom, at this stage I'm surprised you haven't got a whole Vinyard to yourself!'

We all burst out laughing- the mental image that conjures up is just too hilarious!

Put nosey Heckety in her place!!

Beatrix Potter I Ain't!

I know very well that being a compost addict brings with it the possibility of vermin. Of course I do!

But when I lift the lid of the compost bin and have a large, audacious rat shake his fist and rattle his sabre at me I think I'm entitled one loud 'eek!' ?

Cheeky so-n-so, better remember to kick the bin before opening it next time as I do really detest rats.

Overheard in the Kitchen

Youngest was cleaning up after a baking session whilst Eldest sat at the kitchen table texting and playing with an iPod...

Youngest: 'Would ya remove the technology, please? I'm trying to wipe the table here...'

Snort-laugh-giggle-snigger...

Of Time Lost

Golly to Goodness but where does Time go? Blink and you miss a week...or two...or three! I know I've been busy but didn't realise I was THAT busy!

School's back and and after a crazy-mad few weeks, everything is beginning to settle into its usual hoppity skippity progress, as in one day you think you've almost got a grip on work and the next two you wonder if you ever will...

Since Middlest moved home at the start of the month I feel as though I'm running a student hostel which leads to some interesting scenarios- I thought I was waking up Middlest the other morning and another girl's head popped out from the duvet!! Poor thing, she didn't want to be woken up at all!

Middlest's man, Car-boy, for future reference, is also around a lot, which is fun as he is a gas character, also he is quite happy to hang out with Youngest, and not every boyfriend would be as easy- going.

Youngest has begun her final year of school, kinda scary, you never think your youngest will actually grow up, do you? Ok, you might, but I didn't! She's had two friends here for the weekend and they have baked, cooked, watched films, gone jogging and talked the hind leg off every donkey in Connaught!

So it goes. The greenhouse progresses not at all, the weather has been unseasonably (and unreasonably) cold, the charity shops have nothing in my (ginormous) size, and four horses broke into the garden a fortnight back and ate all my trees down to the ground.

Things gotta be lookin' up soon....

A Greenhouse?

Yup! A greenhouse!

The Hub has agreed to build me a lean-to greenhouse against his beloved shed:

Site of future greenhouse!

Materials (you may need a magnifying glass!) timber, plastic from skip, perspex.

Tidied up compost heap, courtesy of the Hub- he can't bear a mess not of his creating, and the compost heap is MY mess...

A jungle tamed!!

A nicely weeded and mulched bed- with SUCH a straight edge!

I've started off so many vegetable seeds and they have begun sprouting now so I hope he really does built the greenhouse as promised. I'm going to be the most organised vegetable grower in Ireland come Spring!!

Funny thing a friend said last week about when I told him about the proposed greenhouse: 'The Irish do love their lean-to's, they even build lean-to's onto lean-to's!' And when I thought about it, its true!!


On another note, back to work/school yesterday, although the children don't return until next Monday. I thought it would be a nice gentle ease-in but no such luck- parents wanting second-hand uniforms, phone hopping, returning messages, booking services for office machines, staff trying to get organised, builders problems, Principal catching up on paperwork...and just what does all this have to do with me I ask?

Dunno, but it sure keeps Muggins busy!

Gardening-Oh My!!

What IS it with gardening?

What person in their right mind voluntarily goes out for hours on end in order to get dirty, hot, sweaty, burned (wind, me dears, NOT sun), scratched, bitten, stung, blistered (fingers) and end up aching all over?

And yet here we are in love with and possibly addicted to our gardens...out of all proportion to their beauty or usefulness!

Is there any other sport, hobby or activity which causes such bodily discomfort and damage for so little material gain????

Flowering montbretia on the driveway.

Boring old day lily, but so beautiful while they last.

This has a lovely yellow flower, but I can't remember what it is called, apparently I've been calling it the wrong name for years so of course I cannot get the correct name into my head now!

I've just spent hours on a stint of very satisfying destructive gardening, and the cherry on the cake was discovering a rose I thought was well deaded alive and flowering merrily under all the weeds!