The Snowman.

Fallon and her friend Ty made a snowman this afternoon so I decided to go and take a picture of it to show on here and while I was out with the camera I took a few other pics as well so I will put them on whilst I'm at it.



As you will see the these first two are of the snowman which I thought they did a really good job on.



This picture is just a snap of the tree we have in the garden. Its actually a Chrustmas tree with a twist as its a Eucalyptus tree rather than one of the standard varieties of Christmas tree.
This is an outside view of our cottage, the lights you see at the window is the curtain of light that I showed you the other week.
Next up we have Tommy faithfully guarding the Turkey - or something. By the way, there is a reason for the ball on a rope being fastened to the cupboard door, I will try and remember to show you what that reason is one day.

Paint Jobs

One of my duties besides gardening is to keep the furnishings and fittings of the garden looking good and this includes some painting, as with the greenhouse earlier this year. This winter I have to paint the garden benches that we had renovated this summer by someone from the next village. All the woodwork was renewed but not painted.

So this winter when we have days that aren’t so nice I will undertake that job. I have actually done one as a kind of trial as the boss wasn’t sure if he wanted them painting white or not.

So I did the one and it got his approval so now I have the two larger ones to paint. I do most of my painting work in the workshop I have in the basement of the summer house.

I think that in the days of large garden parties and such like it was used as the kitchen as there is a small cast iron range in there plus a water heater and there was also a boiler to heat the upper part of the summer house but that has been removed at sometime in the past. The one that is of interest to me in this present day is the range which is still serviceable and is a comfort on a cold wet day when heated by coals.

Its only a very small grate so doesn’t use a lot of fuel but its surprising how much heat it gives off when all the cast iron is warmed through and so after a couple of hours makes the place quite pleasant. Far warmer than the potting shed on the same day. The bit of heat also helps the paint to dry. So today I was in the summer house quite a bit removing some of the rails from a bench and preparing the wood for painting.

I just noticed I made a mistake with the date on the pictures. I put the date on manually when I down load the pics from the camera and I got the date wrong so sorry about that.

Work Book (Week 49).

Here are the pages from my work book for this week.

[Double Click each page to enlage for easier reading]

Christmas Things.

Hello everyone, tonigh we are going to take a little break from the garden and have a look what Vicki has been busy doing in the house in way of decorating for Christmas. Please don't all go picking on me because of the quality of the pictures as they are a bonus so for that we must be grateful for what we have. In actual fact I was playing around with the camera on my Sony Clie PDA so as its not really a dedicated camera as such the pics are not of the same quality as a camera would be but I think they're ok and I'm sure Vicki will be showing you proper ones in time when she gets through all the work at the flower shop. Its a busy time of year for them. Anyway I hope you enjoy.

This next one is of particular interest to the dogs. They are little metal buckets on a string each bucket having a number 1 to 25 - its a doggy advent calendar. It can be any sort of an advent calendar really but we have it for the dogs, all the buckets have a doggy treat in them for each of the dogs.
This is new for this year, its a curtain of light.
ChrisJ I think perhaps there is no place like home also I doubt if there is any place that has everything that we wish for. I would like to live somewhere warmer, mainly to make more use of my time but I know where ever I moved it wouldnt't be home.

The Weaver of Grass The pond is empty because of the children. The trouble is that when it was first drained, for some reason the dogs ripped holes in the liner so we had to take it up and now its not just a matetr of refilling it once the children are old enough, its going to cost a lot to get it back in order. It was very nice when it was filled with water and the little waterfall was working.

A Walk Around The Garden.

Today I had to take a walk around the garden with my boss which is always a bit of a worry but thankfully everything was okay for him and we mainly discussed plans for the furture.

The rest of the day has been spent tidying up in the Japanese garden. There were leaves in various places including the drained pond. I gave it a good sweep out so that should keep it going for the rest of the winter. It was interesting to see how much rubbish colleced in there which is something you didn't see when it had water in it as everything just sank to the bottom. Judging by what came out I think it would be worth netting it during the autumn if it ever get repaired and refilled with water again.


I realised todaqy that I only have another six days of work before Christmas, it's sure coming round fast. Before you know it spring will be here and we will all be huffing and puffin' about it being too hot!

Pam
You’re welcome for to the info Pam.

Thanks for sharing the hardiness zone with us Peter, I’m sure some people will find it useful.

The Weaver of Grass
That is exactly what I do with dahlias Bob - leave them in the ground to take their chance - it is the survival of the fittest I am afraid - and some of them come up year after year. I never lift lilies either - some I threw out years ago the farmer rescued and put in the veggi garden and each year they give a magnificent show.

Hi ChrisJ, I think when your grandfather was at the big house before world war one was a good time to be at a big house, except I don’t suppose the working conditions were as good as now but I think the big house would be running as it was intended and not as now in terminal decline. I do know of Thornbridge Hall and my home is/was just three mails south of Bakewell. I should imagine that California is a big improvement on Bakewell at this time of year. The picture on my banner is of Lanhydrock Hall in Cornwall, I took the picture during a visit three years ago. It had the best kept garden I ever saw and is a real inspiration.

Hardiness Zone 8b

Today has been a tidying up day after I got all my chores done, on this day the chores were seeing to the sheep and the greenhouses as is usual and then as there was a shooting party at the weekend I had to go and fill up the log box and bucket in the hall.

After tea break I cleared some stray leaves that were hanging around the potting shed area and also cut back some branches on a Fig tree. After lunch me and Tom made a start on tidying the old conservatory which as you will see from the pictures was in need of a tidy. It sits right under a very big Beech tree so it is always filling with rubbish of some kind. Anyway we still have some work left to do in there some time.

Hi Pam, Thank you for the comment on my blog concerning lifting the Dahlia's. You are of course right to question me about leaving them in the ground over winter and I must stress that the ones I left in are there to take their chance so to speak are just ones that I'm not really bothered about. I did make a point of lifting and storing safely two of each variety. Any that are left are ones that I have an abundance of. However having said that there is a good chance that most of them will survive as they're in a pretty sheltered position. Some have already survived two winters without being lifted. I recorded a temperature of minus five last winter and I only lost half a dozen or so. So really the thing is that if you have Dahlia's that you value in the slightest don't take the chance but if you have some that you are prepared to lose then take a chance with them. If you want to give them a bit of an extra chance pile some compost or soil over them and then in spring level it off over the border. I hope this is of some help to you. I think we are in Hardiness Zone 8b

Hi Sara, I actually preferred the breakfast party as it was more relaxed and also it didn’t mean turning out on a cold winters night – I didn’t even have to get dressed up either LOL!

Hi Weaver , Yes I’ve always lived in Yorkshire while I’ve been doing this job, in fact all the time I’ve been blogging. The farm I managed was in Derbyshire and when I left that job I came here, that was four years ago now. Yes it is South Yorkshire where I live now. I much prefer North Yorkshire which is where my family are from on my mum’s side but South York’s is where the work is so that’s where I am. Actually when the rain came that you mentioned I was back home in Rowsley and although it did rain it wasn’t so bad as in other places further north.

Work Book (Week 48).

Here are the pages from my work book for this week.