Weekending

 Hello, my lovely friends. Can you believe that August is marching along and that we are but a hop, skip, and a jump away from Autumn? Oh I know we still have a good few weeks of lovely summer weather but my thoughts are already turning towards autumn because September and October are bulb planting months and preparing the spring garden. This is the thing with gardening, you always have to think ahead!

This past weekend we had some stunning weather and we spend time enjoying it in the garden. On Saturday we enjoyed a lovely lunch under the gazebo. The soft breeze brushed over our warm skins and we soaked in the peace of birds singing, bees buzzing and butterflies softly fluttering from flower to flower.

We spoke about our gardening plans over the next few weeks which was all about getting ready to plant our spring bulbs. New beds need to be dug and soil in one raised bed needs to be reconditioned with a healthy dose of compost. We also sadly said that in the next month or so we would need to think about dismantling the gazebo and packing it away before the autumn storms begin rolling in.

I'm expecting the autumn garden to be a very busy time - we are surrounded by deciduous trees and all those leaves are going to keep us occupied every weekend once they start falling. The garden brings us much joy. We are not fantastic gardeners by any stretch of the imagination but we do like to potter and perhaps we learn a thing or two as we go along. 

My sweetpeas are producing teeny tiny bouquets at a time. I don't think I will grow them in pots again, I must be doing something wrong but they are not flowering as prolifically as I would like. I don't know if it is my potted plant skills which are not great or the fact that the seeds were who-knows-how-old. Next year's garden will be much better as I now have time to plan and plant of course!

After lunch, DH mowed the lawn and I pottered about dead-heading the flowering plants. The foxgloves have now finished and set seed although there are a few late-season small spikes which I left. I cut all the seed heads off and gave them a good shake over the bed then watered. This is going to be my foxglove bed for years to come so the more plants that self-seed the better. They have quite a long flowering season, the bees love them and I find them utterly delightful.

Once I had washed up after gardening I decided that a cinnamon pear cake would be wonderful with a cup of tea. I discovered this recipe a few weeks ago when I needed something quick and easy to bake to serve to a friend who was coming over for tea. It is such an easy cake to throw together, it doesn't look like much but it is utterly delicious in its simplicity. The original recipe calls for tinned apples but I only had pears so that's what I used on both occasions.

The recipe will be in my next newsletter which will be going out this week. If you want to sign up for it you can visit my dedicated craft and home blog HERE. 

Oooo, I nearly forgot to share this sweet little picture of a small hedgehog we found whilst gardening having a nap in the woodpile hedgehog hotel. We were thrilled to find him here. We have spotted signs that we have hedgehog activity going on in the garden, and seen one run across the lawn once but to have one taking a nap in our garden...it's so very exciting!!! Foxes and hedgehogs are my favourite British mammals 😍.

Right, I'll love and leave you now and hope to see you all back here very soon.

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