Something for the Weekend

We have some nice plans for this weekend; we are, as usual for this time of year, addicted to gardening and the purchase of new plants. Our garden when we moved in was pretty empty so we have been able to plant trees and establish beds over the past year, now almost filled with a selection of shrubs and plants. Once a day, sometimes twice, we have a wander round checking on all of the plants to look for progress, new flowers, fruit developing and damage from the occasional passing dog paw or football! It is a lovely time of the day and a relaxing event.

We are lucky enough to share our garden with a growing population of birds, frogs and newts. The Starlings are bringing their demanding young in every day for a feed and bathing demonstration!

This weekend we want to purchase 4 more Pyracantha to fill some planting pits we have next to the rear wall of the house. They will make the patio area much more attractive and provide a dense, hardy plant with fruit to the birds tastes, particularly the Blackbird. They may even provide a good nesting site in maturity although I suspect the presence of our dogs will prevent birds nesting in our garden as they just won't feel safe enough. Thankfully we have many mature trees along the front of our house which provide a variety of nesting habitat for the birds in our part of the village.

We also need to cut the lawn this weekend. The dogs pretty much trashed the lawn within a month of moving in. It was not their fault, we got them a year ago last Sunday. The event was heralded by 4 days of torential rain followed by a very wet summer so the soil got churned up. They have also taken to digging (I find it hard to tell them off as they are dogs and it is what they do!!).

Anyway, early Spring we began a restoration program of the two sections of lawn in the back garden and it has been much more successful that we thought. We hope to have the lawn fully restored by the end of this summer so it will be a bit more durable during the winter.

We have a front lawn which is open onto the footpath at the front of the house. As such it is not used by us as a garden space but is in fitting with the area and provides a lovely view from the front room down stairs. The Blackbirds like is as it is mossy and full of grubs for them. The openness of the area also makes them feel a little safer as they have planty of warning of advancing cats. It is however currently about 5 inches long and in need of a cut. I have been holding off as there are daisies through the lawn in flower and they look lovely however a tidy is now required.

We have discussed establishing a hedge around the front garden so we could use it more. We have common land adjacent to the house so folk tend to walk aross that and cut across our front lawn as they pass. That's fine however if we put a small hedge up we could sit out there with the dogs and have a barrier to keep them in and passing people and their pets out. Anyway that's a garden project for another time!

I love the picture of the long handle grass cutting scissors but assure you I will not be using those! Although it would be very theraputic!

Yesterday I found a great online book with a wealth of fruit and vegetable smoothy recipes and so this weekend am planning to stock up the fruit bowl and full the vegetable rack so I am prepared and can endulge myself next week. You really feel the benifits of such drinks immediately; they are healthy and filling too.

I can be quite lazy when it comes to food. In the past when I have lived on my own I frequently bought 7 portions of one thing I liked and then ate that all week. It saved on thought and time for my meal. It is very different cooking for two as I want to cook something nice for my partner but also food is so much better shared so you put the time in. I always find it hard to get enthuisiastic about cooking for one.

I am hoping that the smoothies will prove convenient as a regular part of my daily diet and will allow me to eat well long term with out too much preparation and planning.

I have cooking spurts where I do a big baking day and for a few weeks we eat very well however there is always a lapse where I just dont have the energy or imagination to do it for a few days and I do so hate giving into convenience food.

It is my responsability to make sure that both of us eat well and enjoy the benifits of good food. Now I am aware that bad food can not only affect your physical health but your mental state too it seems so silly to be feeling off simply because you are eating badly! There are enough things in life to give you a bad day without it being self inflicted by your diet!!

So that leaves two things, the car to wash; my truck actually had a good clean last weekend but could do with a hover out. The sites I visit for work tend to result in mud, stones and dust collecting in the Cab and I like to keep on top of it. I also have to clean out the back often as dog hairs collect and the windows get covered in dog nose prints!

This weekend it is predominantly the turn of my partners car. It does not get cleaned so often as it does not need it however as we have the same occupation his car suffers from the same abuses and is currently desperately in need of a vacuum and wash, it's not as bad as the picture but not too far off either!

And finally something I am really looking forward to. I have been planning for some time to set up a website to sell pictures and other art projects on and am going to seek some advice on website design this weekend.

I have looked at ones online you can do yourself however there seems to be some bigger issues when it comes to setting up a relaible and secure payment system for your customer so I am going to go and ask some questions and then get this thing off the ground. I am collating images for the site and have the text planned. There is a very good shop in our local town who have given me advice before so I will start with them and see how things progress.

What ever you have planned this weekend I hope the sun is with you and you have a great time.

Image Credits: doroteos2.wordpress.com/2009/05/
www.reencoded.com/.../
www.happynews.com/.../beginner-gardening.htm
www.dsn2006.org/.../food_processing_machinery/2/
autos.aol.com/gallery/car-wash-myths

I have just renamed this post, it was called Plans for the Weekend however as my finger hovered over the Publish Post button one of my favourite pop songs came into my head, titled Something for the Weekend.

Pop music is not my favourite genre however I do like good pop. My fella does not but he does say I can pick a good pop song! It's still cheese, but its good cheese! So I have renamed this post and am going to post the song for your entertainment!