Meet Nala

Well, we finally have some sun! I mean it's not lots, but we've got some :)

This post will be photo heavy as I've just managed to actually upload some photos to the internet!  Yay! 

Above are the only peas that I have success with out of two sowings.. The others just rotted away this year, so I have no idea what was so special about these ones....

This is Nala.  She's eght weeks old, and is the latest (and last!) addition to the critters in the Retro household. She is such a sweetie! She has a lovely personality, and is really friendly.

My biggest pumpkin so far! I am nursing this one because as much as squash are my favourite veggie, I am absolutely useless at growing them! 

I've put the tent up in the garden, and it stayed up in the terrific storm that we had several nights back now. I'm using it for extra storage at the moment. (I know the front pegs aren't in...:D )

These two photos are mainly of the seedling hibiscus that I collected from my old house. I plan to grow them on and then possibly sell them. There was so many that I had to plant some into my salad tub along with my salad leaves and a courgette (which is failing miserably).  But they do all appear to have taken, so fingers crossed for them....

Above is my little Miss Millie. This photo was just a couple of days ago. She has recovered brilliantly from her girly op. And she also had her 'spare' dew claw removed as it just kept on catching on things in the garden. I was really worried that it would get caught up good and proper and cause her more injury than taking it off would do...  luckily the vet saw it that way too, as I know its not common practice to take them off.....

Can you see him? :) 

 This is Jake helping me set up the tent lol.  As the saying goes....it's the thought that counts..:D

Above is what I call my 'lower' garden. It's the part of the garden right outside my kitchen window. The brown bit that's fenced off is the bit I've just reseeded. I know it;s the wrong time off the year, but I just had to try n flatten the lawn out a bit. It was driving me mad!

See Jake n Millie on they're deck rug? And that's where I sit to drink my morning coffee :)

And above is a little desk that I am in the process of painting and decorating. This is a piece for displaying treasures on to sell. Not to sell itself...  I'll post another picture when it's finished. 

Aaaw, here is a morning kiss :D    I do love these two. They keep me going and provide a great deal of comfort :D

Anyway's, that's enough for tonight. I shall try and keep my internet photo's updated so that I can post more often.  I really would like to keep more of a record of what I achieve in my new home and garden.

Take care now. Big hugs xx

So far....

Where does the time go? It's absolutely whizzed past since I was last on here!

I keep thinking that I haven't achieved much, but really, considering that 99.9% is done just be me, I've really achieved lots!  But it would also help me if I blogged a bit more and saw the results in photos!

I've added photos on here, but you must still excuse the messiness in the garden and house (!) as I'm nowhere near tidy yet! I have 25years worth of rubbish to go through.....-skipping swiftly on...:)

I've put membrane down on a couple of big patches in the garden, as I haven't had chance to dig them into beds yet, and I know the membrane will help me when I get around to doing it.

Above is my garden studio (ooo, get me :) )the water butt that need the guttering doing so it runs off the studio roof into the but, Millie in full action mode, and the membrane for the studio garden. 

Here's the greenhouse over run with foxgloves (I'll show you a more recent picture next time as this actually was a beautiful sight with the foxgloves reaching over seven foot.) Here is also Jake trit trotting along the edge of whats going to be my veggie garden (by next year!). Theres an awful lot of work to be done in the garden, but once I have Miss 19 sorted out, I'm looking forward to it!

Here are the 'steps' I had to make for Jake so he could get up on the windowsill. This was a favourite past time of his at my old house -sitting in my old bay window and nosing at folks walking up the street. Once I've got things sorted I shall make him a proper seat again. (Can you spot him on the windowsill? :)  )

The photos have come out in a strange order on here, but thats blogger for you :)

Above is the gorgeous rhododendron in the Church car park. It's enormous, and every year I think I'll take a picture, and I never do. But I managed it this year. 

Yummy blueberries :)

This is my lower garden. directly in front of my kitchen window. The shingle area is for the doggies which they're just starting to use. I put the trellis up for my roses, and I still have plenty to do...

And here's the apple blossom at my old house...looks like there would have been  lovely amount of apples this year...  

Anyway, I hhope to be back in a couple of days next time, not a couple of months!

Take care, big hugs x

Sunny weather..

What glorious weather we've been lucky enough to have these past couple of weeks! I'm ashamed to say I got very sunburnt on Thursday. I just didn't think about putting sun lotion on, and was so busy working in the garden that I just didn't realise at the time how burnt I was getting.

Managed to get the lower garden lawn strimmed. I shall be digging some of thus out over the next few weeks, flattening it, and re seeding..

You can't see very well in the above photo, but when I lifted the compost bins to move them right to the top of the garden, there was the most enormous ants nest in there! I left it exposed before spreading it as top soil on the old veg bed.

This is the top of the garden.  The new home for the compost bins. And I've managed to cover the whole veggie plot with membrane to hold back weeds until I can get in there!

The tomato and spinach plants are coming on nicely...

Spinach bed...

Self sown spuds in the tyres. And in front and beside them I've dug in some of my seed potatoes.

My self sown asparagus spears :) 

Looking forward to them! But it will be a while yet! 

Getting on

Hello, Hello :)

Temperatures have been soo warm! It's been lovely here on the south coast.

Some days it's been too hot for Jake and Millie though they've just wanted to lay about most of the day!
I've been really, really busy. But I've also been including in that some gardening at the new house. Well clearing more than gardening really. I was trying to clear away some old tyre 'planters' but found quite a few spuds still in them that had been missed from last year. I've let them stay for now as I haven't had time to put my chatted ones in yet! They'll be late this year!

My cheats tomatoes (that I bought at the boot fair) are coming along beautifully. These ones are money maker. I have five cherry toms to go in somewhere, but just through lack of time I may have to just fit those in the greenhouse too.

Here is my new spinach bed. Some perpetual spinach that I've moved here from last year, and some new plants I got at the boot fair too. I love spinach and use it a lot in salads and cooking.

I shall sow some salad leaves in here amongst them. I'm not one for empty spaces :)

Jake (on the right) and Millie have been getting on well. Millie is quite a bit bigger than Jake and I still think she has some growing to do. I found out her exact birthday the other day 2nd September 2014. So she's just over seven months old. She's already learnt so much in the two weeks I've had her.

I do love my doggies :)

Anyways, best get on. Have a lovely week. X

First plantlets in..

Hello, hello,

Lovely sunny and warm day here on the south coast !
This is my car thermometer yesterday!
It did show 28c when  I first got in :)

I planted out some spinach plants and tomatoes yesterday

I put some spinach in the water troughs that are used as tubs, and I planted some in the greenhouse.

I also planted out 5 money maker tomato plants in the greenhouse.

I cheated and bought them all at the boot fair on Sunday. 5 for £1 .  Can't argue with that really, and at least it means I have something in! 

My buddy Jacob Riley... Aka Jake :). He's a real sun baby and will lay in the sun till he's much too hot and needs to find shade! 

The newest member of our family. Millie May Riley.  Aka Millie. (No our surname isn't Riley, just my dogs are! :)   She has certainly added some mischief to our family so far. She's about 8mths old and was climbing the walls when I saw her.  She's settling ok, and Jake is keeping her inline ;)

I'll be getting her spayed within the next couple of weeks as we I definitely don't want any baby Riley's about the place! I've gotta save for that one though .

Have a lovely evening folks. Big hugs. X 

New family member

Hello hello, 

I'd just like to introduce you to our newest family member :)

This is Millie May 😀

I wasn't planning on adding to our little family, but I just couldn't leave her so unhappy where she was :(.  She is a 6month old Jack Russell. Full of beans, and getting on really well with Jake 😄

That's my Jake in the background, and he and Millie were on their first walk together when this was taken. She's slightly bigger than him, and obviously still has some growing to do, but basically she just needs love and care....like so many un wanted dogs. ......

Trouble is, I can't just get em all! 

🐥🐣HAPPY EASTER to you all! 🐥🐣

I hope you all have a lovely time with your folks whatever you do! 

New beginnings...

Hello, hello 😃

So lovely to have you visit me here. This is my little blog that will (hopefully) be full of the goings on and ramblings in my new life! 😊

To be honest, I thought the first thing I would be blogging would be my house move and new garden project.

But...a few weeks back I received a phone call from the owners of 

Toad Hall, Wimborne.

They had a space for me there if I wanted it, so obviously even though I already had a plate full, I couldn't say no! 

Today I went there and filled up my little unit with handmade and retro/vintage treasures. I left my table coverings at home, some of my pricing stickers and my lunch! 

It took me around 6hours to fill the empty unit, and tomorrow I have to go back and price it all up, as I didn't have time to put one label or sticker on! 

This is what it looked like when I left today...

Luckily I had a vintage Irish Linen table cloth in the bottom of one of my baskets from my craft fairs that I could use for one table...

And I had a few odd bits of fabric, and some brand new Cath Kidstone tea towels that I could put on top of the other two tables.

But I've already put the cloths in my car for tomorrow so I don't forget them ! 

Alas, I only had Six handmade cards left as well! So I will be stocking my card spinner over the next few weeks....

I also set out (my only purchase for my unit since I signed the lease) some Easter eggs, and little chicks, just to look cute and festive to be honest...

I set them up on the big table with all my spring ornaments that I could find! 

I have to say that my unit looked quite a bit different to other folks. I had more colour,it wasn't all hessian (burlap) and grey furniture. Or lots of linen cushions etc... So that will either be a good thing or a bad thing 😃

I can't believe I actually got some photos to work! Goodness know how I did that one!

Take care folks.

Big hugs. X