Living it up by the sea

uralmaid

Hi @Humboldt. I am ok. Been busy.  Was out with the gardening group earlier in the week - weeding all the flower planters.  Been busy baking today as going to see out daughter in Yorkshire tomorrow and always take some goodies. Staying overnight and home on Sunday.  Going out for a meal tomorrow evening with relatives too.  Also bought some bedding plants last weekend and got them planted up.  Waging war with a squirrel. He managed to chew the mesh part of my nut feeder even though it is a one with a cage.  Had another older one which has sturdier  stainless steel so fingers crossed.  How lovely seeing the chicks being fed.  Hopefully it is going to be a lovely weekend weatherwise. Enjoy!

bluenose1

Hope you enjoyed your visit to you daughter @uralmaid and you are winning against the squirrel.
Loving this beautiful weather, walk with a friend in the woods, then  most of day in garden, the roses we inherited from previous owner have started to flower and the garden is looking lovely. We bought some dahlias from the local garden centre, so with the geraniums we bought from Lidl have some nice colour in the pots.
I bought a metal rocking bench last year from Home Sense and had a pleasant read reclining on it earlier. Used our beach car parking permit for an evening walk, it was so busy but as beach massive easy to leave the hordes behind as most people tend to stay by their cars.

uralmaid

@bluenose1 thankyou. Had a lovely time.  Got to have a good catch up with my daughter and Grandson and we facetimed my Grandaughter who is in Manchester doing her Masters degree.  Had a pleasant evening and a nice meal with husbands family.  Today we had breakfast at my daughters then met up with Brother in law and Sister in law at Yorkshire Sculpture park for a walk around and to visit the spot where we scattered Mum and Dad in laws ashes.  Then to Sister in laws for a spot of lunch before travelling back home.  Glorious weather all weekend and came home with a Basil plant too.  Hopefully your pots will look lovely this year. Bet it was nice on the beach.  Going to have an early night as we are both shattered.  Busy week coming up.

Humboldt

Morning @uralmaid you managed to pack a lot into your lovely weekend away.  Great to read that you had sunshine too. We are our buying bedding plants this weekend, these along with the overwintered geraniums should result in some nice pots to enjoy this summer. Good luck with the squirrel, they can be tenacious when it comes to food.  

@bluenose1 a rocking bench in which to sit and read a book sounds perfect.  We only have one rose in our garden, but it does have the most wonderful scent. 

uralmaid

Thanks @Humboldt. We did manage quite a bit.  This afternoon I have a meeting of the Social Centre committee. We are trying to plan some new events.  Tomorrow is village gardening group - we have a lot of planters to fill with newly acquired plants.  So far I have managed to thwart the squirrels latest attempt but not sure how long for.  I am going to plant out the geraniums I grew from seed as the are a good size now.  I am envious of @bluenose1 and her rocking bench.  We were only away for 2 days and the garden has gone mad. Lots to do.

Clowance

I have never seen it mentioned but our B & q and likely others usually have reduced plants near the back of the garden centre or occasionally by the tills. Got some lovely violas - I think 8 per pack recently for £1 and also sweet williams and assorted other things. Very moneysaving. The plants often look worse for wear but generally recover.

uralmaid

@Clowance.  I have had lots of plants from the "poorly" table (as I call it) at B and Q.  Whenever I go to any garden centre I always head for theirs too. It's amazing what you find and they mostly recover as soon as they get some TLC.  

Humboldt

@uralmaid your posts provide a real insight into what others do when they are retired.  Your contributions to your local community are commendable, and hopefully will inspire others to consider what is available in their own area.  

@Clowance I too love nursing a plant back to life.  I despair when I see racks of plants outside shops, on garage forecourts, etc that are just left to die.  It's such a waste when you consider the amount of effort and resources needed to sow, nurture, feed, transport, those plants. Just a good soak and tidy up often results in them bouncing back to life. 

uralmaid

@Humboldt thanks for your kind words.  Spent Friday getting all my planters potted up with my geraniums grown from seed.  Hopefully they will flourish.  Yesterday was spent doing a pile of ironing and cleaning everywhere whilst hubby was out for the day.  Today we are eagerly awaiting the arrival of my Daughter and Grandson plus one of his friends. She rang yesterday and said could they come for the night as her hubby who is a big football fan will be glued to the tv.  Lovely to see them especially when it is unexpected.   
We have a busy week this week and have friends coming to stay for a couple of nights at the weekend.  We are all going to the Steampunk event in Whitby in July and need to make plans.  Also finally got a dentist appointment.  I am terrified of dentists and have found one (albeit private) who is supposed to be very good with dental phobic patients so I plucked up courage and made an appointment. Won't be getting much sleep between now and Thursday worrying about it though. Got another couple of plants from the garden centre poorly table this week too so they got planted up.
Hope everyone has a good week.

bluenose1

@uralmaid. Hope you enjoy the visit from your family. I’m not your trip to the dentist as well. I hate going as well but in my experience, the thought of these things are often worse than the actual event. I always think of the mark Twain quote   “I've lived through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.”  

One of my general aims in life is to worry less about things that haven’t happened yet, not just dentist but life in general. I am conscious now that I have had a tendency to do it throughout my life and now realise it gets me nowhere. I don’t watch the news as depresses me, and don’t read anything sad. 

Enjoy your friends visit and hope your plants recover well, I need to start doing that as noticed there is quite a lot in our local Dobbies. I want to start getting low maintenance,  evergreen shrubs.