Spring has not really sprung

Hope everyone's having a decent weekend despite the freezing weather. What a rotten start to Spring this is! The noise of the wind is really starting to bug me now...and Thomas and Tara have almost put aside their differences just so they can keep an eye on everything that keeps flying past the windows whilst still keeping warm.....

 .....they really aren't happy and are keeping their little legs crossed till the last possible moment before dashing out and back in again sharpish!

I'd really hoped to make a start on tidying up the garden. It's looking a real mess now after all my hard work last year. There are weeds and grasses coming through. Long, straggly remains of Nasturtiums and lots of unidentifiable bits that need sweeping away and clearing up so that I can get on with the fun part of planning, planting and enjoying some colour with a bit of luck. It looked so sunny the other day and I ventured out only to change my mind when I felt the force of the cold winds. 

So, I spent the morning planting seeds instead and now the conservatory has taken on the appearance of a greenhouse....

 

....as you can see! I've planted lots of Sweet Peas, including a really beautiful variety called Memories, Giant Pansies, three types of Sunflowers including a "pom pommy" type called Teddy Bear, some Poppies and, of course, my favourite Nasturtiums. There's also an Erica ready to be planted out and a tray of little Violas - they were a real bargain at £1.49 for a tray of twenty plants! 

Hope you like the toilet roll pots! I read about this but I ran out of loo rolls so made my own as well from cheap cardstock rolled and secured with staples. There's a sunflower seed in each one and the idea is that, when they're ready for planting out, they can be put into the ground still in their tubes so there's no disturbance of the roots. The tubes just rot down and the roots can grow through them. Hopefully it will give them some extra slug protection too....last year was a real baptism of fire regarding those slimy pests! Needless to say I have been checking the trays every morning for signs of activity...so far there are fifteen Sweet Peas and ten Nasturtiums sprouting up - I did plant two trays a couple of weeks ago, my fingers aren't that green!

I have my new garden arch that was a lovely Christmas gift, so I've decided to erect that behind my bench so that it will eventually give me some extra privacy when I'm sat there with a cuppa in the Summer - fingers crossed! I'm not quite decided, but I think that a climbing rose (or two) might be perfect to grow over it, as David really wanted lots of roses and thought that a garden wasn't really a garden without them. The Sweet Peas are going to give it some quick cover meanwhile - once these icy temperatures have passed of course!

I thought you might like a little nosey at Country Love Crafts studio where I was last week. 

I was with some of my colleagues from Personal Impressions and we were having a training day with new products from Deco Art. There are some fantastic new paints and I'm really looking forward to making a start on projects with them. 

In the background of the photo you can see the displays of wonderful pieces that Andy Skinner has made using an array of mediums. He's a creative genius! We were making frantic notes as Andy gave us lots of ideas and technical data. 

I had an up and down week with the trip to the training event definitely being the "up" part. Unfortunately I wasn't well on Thursday and Friday so I feel pretty drained today. Nothing major, but I occasionally get something called Gastroparesis which makes me feel as if I've been punched in the solar plexus. That, coupled with how cold it's been, led me to retire to my bed at nine o'clock last night. I decided I'd get snuggled in and watch some telly for a couple of hours before going to sleep....however, after no time at all I'd drifted off and I slept right through till seven when Tara and Thomas chasing each other around the house woke me up! Guess I must have needed the sleep!

Well, I'm going to make a light dinner now (still a little fragile in the tummy department!) and I'll probably have another early night. Tomorrow is Palm Sunday and we are having a real live donkey in church! I will be taking my camera and hoping to get chance to stroke his ears - I do love donkeys and it's a sad fact that they are the single most badly treated animal on earth. This one is from a nearby sanctuary, so I'm sure that he is well looked after and happy despite whatever his previous life might have been like.

Here's hoping for a raise in the temperature tomorrow!