One dog, two boys & alot of Frogspawn

One thing about living in the countryside is the abundance of lanes/sideroads around to go for walks on. We're very lucky to have one such lane within a stones throw of our house, just a pity we have to walk along a main road for a few metres before we get to it. Not exactly child friendly, but at least the lane is fairly car free.

Where I grew up as a child, with the Atlantic ocean on one side and the Ox mountains on the other, we had loads of choice of routes to venture on safely.We even had a small river (to big to call a stream) running at the back of my parents farm. A childs paradise, and I have loads of great memories of myself and my siblings conquering the world and its mother while on these adventures too.

Its a part of my childhood I wish for our boys, and bringing them on walks is my way of giving them some memories of adventure and family fun, albeit with a tag along mother and a Jack Russell.....

It was a lovely spring day yesterday and because it was World Book Day the boys didnt get any homework except to read a book (which they do anyway every night before bed). So by 3.30 we were  'venturing' down the lane.

And this is what we found ...

What I hear you say, (as you strain to see whats in the picture), well heres another one....

Any ideas yet? frogspawn................hundreds if not thousands of the wee dots. I'm afraid I only had my iphone on this walk, was sorry I didnt have my camera for better shots, ah well, next time..

Our lane (as I'm going to call it from now on) has a few streams flowing along it, and theres water, water everywhere. A frogs dream home.

And a swamp...

The Gardening has started!

And about time too!

Finally I can do some gardening, albeit indoors, on a windowsill.

I know Spring offically starts in our green isle the first day of Feb and the Daffodils have started to poke their noses out everywhere but our garden is still in the winter season (except for this one small group of minature Daffs).

This time last year I was outdoors tiding up and clearing ditches etc. The ground was hard after the long cold spell we had and the days were crisp and fresh (of course it was also our first spring in our new home too and were very enthusiastic).

But this year the garden is waterlogged, I have never walked on ground sooo wet. I need my wellies to walk around the raised beds!!

The pool in the above picture is a leftover of the extension work we had done last year to our house and lies as a constant reminder we need to drain our back garden.
So needless to say I have no motivation to do anything outdoors until it dries up a bit....

But one thing I can do is chit some spuds!
I bought some seed potatoes yesterday in the local garden centre and chitted them today.

Last year we tried Kerrs Pinks and Queens, both gorgeous flavour.
So this year we wanted to try something different so have first earlies Home Guards and main crop of Sarpo Mira.

And with saved egg cartons we 'chitted' them all, and now they sit proud on a bedroom windowsill.

Let the gardening begin!

Early morning drive..

I knew when I got up this morning it was going to be a nice day...it wasnt dark when I opened the curtains. The sun was rising and there was frost on everything.

Dropped the boys to school and went for a drive to Lough Sillan.

Its a very large lake, great for watersports and fishing.

I knew driving into the village of Shercock that the views over the lake were going to be nice, it was -1 outside, and there was a fog over the other wee lakes around the town.

The picture above shows the sun rising over the village.

Made me feel good to be alive this morning, I felt so lucky to be witness to this gorgeous view.

The last time I was here with the lake this still I had the pleasure of seeing 2 Otters swimming across from the Mobile home park on the right of this picture out towards the middle of the lake and out to another wee island.

I have also spotted a Kingfisher on the banks of this lake! but I didnt have either my camera or my phone on me, so missed taking a picture of him.

New Years day

And its time to get off ones ass.
Its been ages since I last blogged, but my excuse is I have been pretty busy, all indoors I might add.

I did think about snuggling up on the couch today, while the kids played repeatedly on their Wii/Ds games but mother nature called loudly to me to go out and enjoy some fresh air.

And even though the sky was grey (dont think it brightened up all day) and rain loomed on the horizon (wishful thinking on my part), I packed up 2 boys and a dog into the car.

Five mins later we were parking outside the nicest public park in the northeast (I will stand corrected if anyone knows of a better one). Sometimes I forget how lucky we are to live so close to Dun Na Ri forest park, Cavan, and most of the time I neglect to remember its even there for us to use.

The river was flowing fast and the trees glistened in green. The forest took on a life of its own with weird creatures being talked about and philosophical issues being discussed between the 9 year old and 11 year old (what if we were all in a dream and were to waken up in a white room). All the while our Jack Russell dragging me along to find the newest scent/smell.

I couldnt upload any more pics, the blog refuses to comply, so these 2 will have to make do....

Death brings new life

At this time of year, when we look around the garden, we see the last of our flowers struggling to keep in bloom.
We filled 2 hanging baskets this year with Antirrhinum (Snapdragons) and Violas. And they were gorgeous when in full bloom.
But the past week they have started to look a bit dreary, so I took them down to see if I could tidy them up a bit to get the most out of them before they die off completely.
But look what I found....

One of the most curious seed pods I have ever come across belonging to the Violas...

So whats a gardener to do but collect some! and maybe next year we wont have to buy any Violas!

On the Snapdragon front ...

Its a bit like beauty n the beast! but I had to collect some of their seeds too...

Now I just have to get pots, compost and time to sow some seed.

Autumns arrived!

Finally we have Blackberries in this neck of the woods, we've been waiting for these flowers to come to something, so we can make some jam...

Bet the birds are happy, the hedgerows are laden down with berries..

And in our front garden we have rose hips, might be tempted to make some syrup with them this year, in case we have any head colds this winter.

And in our polytunnel the first courgette has grown a bit...

So I picked it a few days later, along with some of our Tomatos....

Had a bit of company in the polytunnel, havent seen many this year...

Pepper pots vs growbags

Well it seems like a life time since I first sowed our first ever Pepper seeds, and ages since I planted them out in growbags in the polytunnel.

I have watched them settle in and flower, then as time went on the fruit started to set.

With the help of the couple of frogs visiting the tunnel I have managed to keep the slugs at bay, the only pests attempting to get at the plants.

But the plants in the growbags never grew well, unlike the ones I potted up in the 2 litre pots!

I dont think we will grow Peppers next year, ya win some, ya lose some.

I was thinking the same for our Courgette plants, I planted 4 of them out, (I thought 4 Courgette plants would be enough to feed us) and they were attacked by slugs and all 4 died.

But I had another 3 plants on stand-by in pots,(am brutal for throwing stuff out) and when I got space in the polytunnel I decided to stick them in there, less slugs.....

But up until today all the flowers have been male, and no sign of a female flower or baby courgette!
So I'm celebrating the first baby courgette of the year for us! Just hope the bloody slugs keep away from it now!