Slugs and snails and puppy dog tails....

Sorry for the lack of recent blogging. The arrival of our new addition (more on her in a moment) coupled with half term has meant my time has been spent either being a UN Peace negotiator or being on constant house training watch. The house training is still not cracked.......it had better crack soon or I will!

I was expecting today to be another dull day, limited to where and what we can do due to the puppy (honestly have a human baby, at least these are portable). But joy oh joys the sun has made a magnificent appearance. Time to put my motivational boots on and get out in the garden. Lots of cutting back and tidying up to be done. I can't say in all honesty it looks masses better than before but however the benefits mentally and physically have been wonderful.

My garden lacks colour at this time of year. The pups have worn away the grass in parts exposing mud, plants have either been cut back or pulled out completely and it generally looks an overall shade of brown. With bits of evergreen inbetween. Not very inspiring. Hower during my cutting back in some glorious February sunshine I came across these little nuggets of colour.

My single, solitary snowdrop. I had another in a different place but puppy decided to eat it!

Look at what I spied whilst tidying up my little herb trough. One of many I saw in the garden having a mooch about. A sign that spring is on the way or just like me taking advantage of the sunshine :)

I got all manly.

My axe skills are a bit like lightening. I never strike the same place twice ;)
I went to continue cutting the other side until......

She (I assume all Ladybug's are girls for some reason, I think it relates to the nursery rhyme) came close to be scalped. I told you they are everywhere today :) A bit more hacking and well little flowering cherry tree didn't so much fall as it was pushed ;) I shan't be ready to start singing I'm a lumberjack and I'm OK anytime soon though.

Chopping down has been done for these, my bargain apple trees from Aldi. OK they aren't much more than twigs at the moment but hoping in a few years time to be able to harvest my own apples from my own garden. I'll never quite be Tom and Barbara from The Goode Life but all these little things are a step closer.

So no slugs and snails but I definately have some puppy dog tails :)

Let me introduce Luna our gorgeous little bundle of puppy love :)

A bit of respite for me whilst she sleeps.












Forgive the look of this post.....have been having a play with how I present my blog posts :)

Where did it all go Wong......

Perhaps it was the water not being the right temperature. Perhaps it was the 6 sachets of gelatine I used instead of the instructed 3. Perhaps it was James Wong, scientist and gardener, who has made "Growing Your Own Drugs" look so easy.

My horse chestnut tincture, which has been fermenting in rum (oops I forgot which bottle was vodka and which was rum) since October. The recipe called for crushing the horse chestnuts. Fat chance of that.....have you ever tried crushing one of them?! I decided the let them stew wholesale and it turned the booze a charming brown colour (apologies for the dark picture it was a dull day when I took these)

Heat the water, add gelatine and tincture and whisk, whisk, whisk. Yes that is a Nutella Jar, I am confident I won't have remembering that this is not edible. Seems to be an awful lot of foam......

To this. What looks like the dregs of a pint of bitter. Not to mention it is rock solid. That will be the extra gelatine I added. Oops. Not sure this is something I will attempt again, the tincture gave me the most horrendous headache. Didn't you know fermented horse chestnuts smell decidely awful.
So this foray into the world of home made beauty products (this was for varicose veins in case you were wondering) has been a total disaster. Perhaps I shall stick to what I know best, feeding my stomach rather than my skin.


Apologies for the lack of blogging lately. Time has been running away from me and if I am honest I haven't really done anything worth blogging about.
Future blogging may either be somewhat erratic as this coming Saturday heralds the arrival of one of these

This is not the acutal one.....what breeder has time for posing puppies in front of a white screen for photo shoots.
I am likely to turn into a puppy bore. You have been warned ;)