Spring in my step...

The new week has started and having had some sunshine over the weekend, I feel energised and ready to go.  It's amazing just how much nature is starting to change now - in our park, the azaleas are starting to bloom and there are tiny buds on most of the trees now.  I wonder what it is like in your part of the world now?

I am excited about planning what will go in the vegetable patch this year.  Last year was a bit of a disaster but ever the optimist, I am hoping that this year's crops will be better.  So, today will be busy with planning and organising my seed collection.  And there will also be more baking and cooking - that goes without saying.  Which brings me to the latest recipe I have tried - chicken kiev.  I have had the ready-made version of this before but not made it at home, so another first for me. 

The first one I made was a bit fiddly but by the second one, I had got to grips with how to fold the meat.  We really enjoyed this one and I hope you will too.  With hindsight, I probably didn't add enough of the garlic butter filling (see photo) but it was tasty nonetheless. 

I will be back in a little while with a separate post with a couple of announcements...uh, sounds exciting :-)

Puffins!

Back home now after a couple of adventures...went to a family party in Germany over the weekend, then an overnight stay in Pembrokeshire at the lovely "Jabajak" (restaurant with rooms) and a trip to Skomer island - perfect!

Puffin on Skomer island...

Now, I don't know how this happened but I have always wanted to see puffins and was terribly excited about our visit to Skomer.  The island did not disappoint - what a place!  Fields of bluebells and red campion as far as the eye could see, stunning birds including the cutest of them all: the puffin!   I managed to take quite a few photos of the little fellas (see above) and we just couldn't stop watching them!  They are busy building nests at the moment and in some cases chicks have already hatched, so you can see the adults flying in from the sea with a beak full of fish.  What a treat!  Can't wait to go back again!

Simply stunning

Chives in flower...

Here is to enjoying the small things like chives in flower looking beautiful in the sunshine!  Simple pleasures are the most profound!

Of slugs and wild ponies...

It's been a few days since my last post and since then we have had lots more rain but also some glorious sunshine over the weekend.  That mixture of moisture and warmth has meant that all the plants are growing rapidly, well, apart from those that got eaten by the slugs :-(  I have only two out of my seven broad bean plants left and the Valmaine lettuce has not even made it further than germination before they got snuffled.  The only way to protect the plants and the pumpkins I am planning to plant out soon is to get a great big cloche or some netting to cover everything.  Very frustrating but not at all unexpected!  At least the spuds, onions and garlic are still going strong as are the plants growing indoors...luckily, the slugs haven't found a way yet to break into the house and let's hope they don't! ;-)

We took the dog for a lovely walk up Cefn Bryn yesterday - it's probably one of the most stunning places on earth and really not far from where we are.  The photo doesn't do the view justice but you can see that the wild ponies were enjoying it as much as we were...

Wild ponies at Cefn Bryn...

Bloomin' marvellous

Azaleas in full bloom...

 I love the beginning of May - it's the time when both of our pink azaleas are normally in full bloom.  Don't they look stunning?  The photo doesn't even do it justice!

Just as I was looking out earlier today, a duck landed in our pond, had a little (very little) swim and then took off again.  How on earth he managed to spot our little pond from up in the air is beyond me :-)  Unfortunately, I only managed to take a quick snap through the closed door but at least I got a picture!

A visitor to the pond...

There seems to be lots happening in the garden!  Only yesterday did I notice one of the birds - a great tit - investigating our dog's tennis ball on the path and then picking off fibers which were no doubt destined to make the nest more comfortable for this year's offspring.  Again, I was amazed how this little creature realised that this strange object would be a good supplier of bedding but I guess nature never ceases to amaze :-).  I managed to shoot a little film but will have to tidy it up a bit to zoom in a more, so footage to follow...

Beautiful views...inside and out

Despite the April showers the park looked beautiful this morning and the view down to the sea was stunning! 

We've had lots of rain over the last couple of days which mostly fell overnight, filling up the pond to the brim.  With periods of sunshine added to the rain, everything in the garden is growing incredibly fast and I keep having to earth up the potatoes.  And even the plants inside are doing well - a tiny pepper plant is beginning to uncurl with others hopefully to follow and I now have three pumpkin plants!  High time I got more pots for planting on as they will soon outgrow their current home.

I quite fancy baking something today, so I might attempt bagels for a change.  I have never made these before but am intrigued that they get poached before baking and want to give it a go.  I will post an update later - hopefully with a photo of some yummy bagels accompanying the post :-)

Bloomin' marvellous...

It's been a stunning weekend full of sunshine, relaxing with friends and having good food!  We made ice cream - one was vanilla with millionaire shortbread chunks, the other was kiwi sorbet and both were very yummy indeed!  Can you think of anything better than sitting on the lawn with friends and indulging in a homemade treat? :-) 

More and more flowers and bushes are coming into bloom and the garden looks beautiful as does the park across the road.  It is supposed to be getting cooler over the next few days, so I hope the blossoms won't suffer too much.

I noticed a few days ago that the potato plants are slowly beginning to come through the soil in the grow bags, so they will need earthing up soon.  No sign yet of the broad beans germinating but apparently that takes a little while (several weeks if I am not mistaken).  Off to the garden centre tomorrow to get more seeds...lettuce and peppers if I can restrain myself from buying any others... 

The little tomato plants are coming along leaps and bounds and I will have to replant them shortly into bigger pots.  Can't believe how much growing they have done in such a short space of time!  I really do hope that they will bear some lovely tomatoes for us in a couple of months.

Little miracles

Tomato seed germinating...

Now, I don't know about you but I never cease to be amazed at what nature does! 

It's only been a few days since I put the tomato seeds into compost and under the propagator and look what happened: the first little fella appeared yesterday late afternoon!  Not only that but by this morning he not only had straightened himself out but another one did exactly the same thing as did a couple more in another pot!  Amazing to think that (hopefully) these little chaps will grow into tomato-bearing plants in just a few months! I find it all rather humbling!

I am checking every day as to what progress the rest of my crops is making.  So far, nothing else has come up but at least I can see that the garlic is growing nicely. 

Ta-da...two little seeds have germinated!

I am experimenting with yellow pepper seeds as well - just took a few seeds from a shop-bought bell pepper and put it into compost & into the propagator in a sunny spot.  I shall report on any progress ... if there is any...

It is still really sunny here, so running by the sea this morning was beautiful - well, the view was...the running was rather hard but enjoyable nonetheless.  The weather is forecast to last until at least the weekend, so I will definitely have to remember to water the crops! 

Springtime

Springtime in our park

It is an absolutely gorgeous day here today with the sun shining, the sky a perfect blue and the birds singing in the garden!  I love Spring!  Everything is waking up from its winter sleep - lots of buds on the trees, the camelia in full bloom and tadpoles wriggling in the pond.  I seem to have more energy now as well, so I went for a run first thing - it was stunning down by the sea (unfortunately I didn't have my camera/phone to take a photo).

Afterwards I took the dog for a walk and he loved being out in the sunshine - the photo is of the park during our walk.  How lucky are we to have such a stunning place right opposite our house! 

The sunshine is supposed to be staying with us until at least the middle of next week which is great but I do hope there will be some rain at some point soon to help the crops, plants and wildlife.  What we really don't want is a hosepipe ban like the one in England.

Stunning places

Now, I am not sure how 10 days have passed by since I last wrote a post - that's shocking!  But then again, we have had one of my sisters visiting from Germany for a few days, have had quite a few things going on anyway, so that the blog got pushed right to the back of the list of priorities.

In the garden, things are slowly picking up.  We have had some beautiful sunshine and can almost hear the plants grow :-)  Even my garlic is poking through the soil in the raised bed!  Tomorrow the potatoes will be planted in the grow bags and I will put some onion bulbs into the ground as well - the lovely weather is due to last for a couple of days, so we might as well make the most of it.  And in order to do exactly that, we took the dog for a beautiful walk to Cefn Bryn today - it must be one of the most stunning places on this planet with views that almost make me cry they are so beautiful. :-)  How lucky we are to be able to go to these places that are so unspoilt! 

Inspiration

See what you can find when you look closely enough...

We were very lucky to attend a talk by wildlife cameraman Doug Allen yesterday evening!  He shared his experiences of filming in the coldest places on earth and showed the most breathtaking footage (some of which has been seen on "Planet Earth" and similar programmes).  What an inspiration!  I am not sure that diving and filming under 12 feet of ice would be my cup of tea :-) but thanks to films and photos captured by people like Doug, those amazing secret worlds are made accessible to the rest of us. We got hold of a copy of his book "Freeze Frame" which can also be ordered on his website - simply stunning!

We have been very priviledged to have some incredible wildlife experiences in South Africa and Tanzania with expert guidance by our friend Marius of Clearly Africa but we have also seen amazing things in our own garden, just by watching the birds, frogs etc. When you truly look at the natural world around us more intently and closely, you will find astonishing things! And when you think about how everything interacts and is connected, you realise that we ourselves are just a part of the big puzzle called nature and you also realise that we have no other option than to protect our planet!