Tuesday ,Tuesday

#tuesdaythoughts what does Tuesday mean to you. My #Tuesday was #ᴛᴇɴᴅɪɴɢ to my #roses, picking #Trays of raspberries from the #garden , #Thoughtful #guests , then #Time for #Tea at the #thestarinharome with little #treasures Tucked in the Wall and to #Talk to old friends. My Tuesday was a good day #thankyou Hope yours was as good

August and we are into the 8th month

Can't believe where time has gone this year. The garden though I must say is about as good as it has ever been and guests like to sit up in the raised patio as it is sheltered and west facing so the best way to end the day. Although it has been known on more than one occasion that breakfast has been enjoyed up there too. It is getting to look more as I want it now and less of a plain shelter. I have mixed flowers and vegetables and fruit so from lavender to rhubarb there is something popping up every few day. I have harvested the angelica and collected so many seeds to grow on .It is a very easy plant to grow and looks quite exotic so if you are coming to stay and would like to have some seeds, please think to ask me for some when you are here. The strawberries are more or less finished now. The raspberries have been a poor crop as only got 2 good pickings from them this year. I am disappointed with the tomatoes too, dont think the bees got to them enough to pollinate them. So glad my Dads supply of tomatoes is more plentiful. I think I must have put too much Tomarite on the flowering pots as they have gone leggy and rather out of shape but hey ho they are full of colour and the bees dont disapprove. Minty, our little cocker spaniel, is enjoying the garden too and the attention from guests.She enjoying following the hose pipe about as I water the pots .For those of you who love herbs I cant recommend the Daisy Plant Centre,just off the roundabout at Kirkbymoorside, enough. As I am far from green fingered, I dont take any gift of gardening from my parents, but the herbs seem like to living here and are in abundance under the dining room window. Hope you are enjoying all your gardens and if you havent a garden then the parks. It is hard to believable that in London with all the parks and balconies that bees produce more honey than they do out here in the countryside. We have the benefit of heather on the Moors and as the bees fly is less than a milehere for them to collect the nectar. . The Moors are a carpet of purple at the moment and well worth a visit. When I was a child, we used to go in my Dads little black Morris Minor, RWX 872, with its split windscreen up to the Moor. Choicing a big sprig of heather then sticking it into the chrome radiator cover next to the chrome and yellow AA sign. That little Morris Minor used to have red leather seats. Swinging our legs from the seats, on the way home we used to sing 'Show me the way to go home" little did I know that the words drinking meaning someone had had too much to drink rather, I thougth it was drinking water as we used to stop down Wass Bank at the spring that comes out of the woods and cup our hands together and drinking the ice cold water.Happy Days.

Friday ... and appreciating what we are surrounded by

Lockdown for us is watching nature carry on undisturbed and we know we are lucky. I have to write and tell you  about this little blackbird. As much as I dont like blackbirds when they have robbed me of fruit in the garden.  The nursery rhythm of 4 and 20 blackbirds baked in a pie , doesn't sound like a bad idea on these days. .But this little character doesn't just sing from the roof top he sings from the highest point which is on the top of the  chimney pot.  He sings from morning till night.  Here you see him getting ready for bed as his song isn't quite a trill. He is obviously tired and looking to going to his bed .The second little snip shows him flying off to bed. He preens and prunes between his trills and has a look around. You could actually sit in the garden for ages just listening to him and how he is part of a choir that all have their own parts to play. Or even sit in the shade in the porch by the front door and watch the other birds and their activities around the garden. One lady has noted 32 species of birds in 24 hours. There is the green woodpecker which very rarely comes before May and likes to have the length of the drive as his own race track. Were as the black and white woodpecker is a visitor to the garden most days through out the year. bringing a splash and dash of red with him .  We have seen the swallows, they can a few weeks ago and I worry this cold snap will be detrimental to the breeding pattern with the lack of tiny insects they feed on and catch while in flight.  Unfortunately we haven't heard the cuckoo near the house. I always think this makes Summer but it has been heard  a field away.
The Live Cam is back on, but not always on to the bird table now as it in the winter ,but over the countryside so you can enjoy the scenery even though we cant be open yet to guests . You can find this on the right hand side on the home page of www.carrhousefarm.co.uk

How does your tomatoes grow...

My Dad is the professional ,when it comes to growing tomatoes.  This year as we have all this extra time to do the things we used to do .When we were young we pack so much into a day. We worked hard, played hard and still found about 4 hours to sleep .This years I set out to grow some tomatoes and see how they compare to my Dads.
 Tonight as I was setting my lemon tree straight in a new pot and some John Innes No 3 instead of citrus compost as it didn't seem to like that. I went across to look at my tomatoes. They will soon need rodding so they dont fall over. My dad said yesterday he had flowers on his .In fact he had rung up to tell me the flowers were on his Shirleys . Now proper gardeners talk about the plants by name but not by species. When I called today he was still on about his Shirleys having flowers on . I know what the flowers look like, but mine were lucky to be growing and no yellow in sight .
We have had a busy day. We went to see a tractor that Jack is wanting, so he can top the grass in the dog field and extend the garden making another part of the field for us to make us even more self sufficient . I wonder, will it just feed the rabbits and deer who come on a night when we are in bed.
Then we are sorting out having the drive concreted . The bad weather in the winter and heavy rains has taken its toil on the drive and so we are taking advantage of not be able to  having guests here that we can crack on with it . We have decided to go for concrete instead of tarmac as we had the entrance done a few years ago and it is just more resilient than tarmac .
The first stage is to have a drain put in on the high side of the drive to take in the water that drains off the field and what runs down the road.
So just before I turned in for the night I took a closer look at my tomatoes and lo and behold my 4 largest plants have flowers on them...Now the race is on to see who has the first formed baby tomato or Shirley as my dad would refer to them as .

First day of Spring . The #CaringAndSharingTogether virus

Today is officially the first day of Spring and of course a slice of tea loaf ....

From tomorrow the world will be a little lighter and brighter for longer each day, until the Summer Solstice - the longest day of the year. 

We must all come together sharing and caring and thinking of others . I really think as it sinks in the position we are in across the globe  and everyone takes stock of the situation that good things will come out of this.

Most of us are all guilty of taking things in our lives for granted and rushing about and not appreciating the little things of life. Did you open your door this morning and hear the birds sing . The black bird being supremo in this song . The gardens starting to come out of hibernation. There will be weeks growing by hey ho the flowers will look beautiful too and most scent the air too .

We had sunshine this morning and so I took my work into the garden .The accountant wont believe I will probably one of the first to get my books in for the year end rather one of the last.

Trust me it really does make you feel a little better when you feel the sun .It has been a long winter without much sun ,this is what we need so much >Warmth and sunshine .. It is good for our immune systems too . Mother Nature has her way of looking after us .

So if there are little jobs that you can take outside ,pick them up and take them outside  and let the sun do its job. Even if it is just chopping your vegetables

It is time to start to plant your seeds for fresh vegetables and fruit and flowers to cheers your day.
My Dad is a wise one and he is working like a beaver sowing seeds and tending his plants .  He is 97 and if he can do it so can you .He gets great satisfaction from growing things, watching for that first tip of green pushing its way through the soil .And then having a race with his friends to see who can produce the first, biggest, best.