Garden Update

 

It has been a while since I have posted any updates on the garden improvements. Progress a bit patchy with a lack of funds and time! I was given a free pallet and it sparked a mini project of creating a bin hide in the front garden. I have since acquired another pallet and painted them both (mostly with leftover paints):

They looked a bit boring despite the colours so I used an idea I had seen online and bought hanging plant pots. A pack of 10 from Amazon (affiliate link) plus some pansies and violas from Asda has given them a real boost:

The hooks only worked on one pallet so I will need to find a plan B for the other one:

Garden Party #R2BC

It is Thursday so it's time to share the things that have made you happy this week.  I need cheering up this evening so looking forward to your posts. Thanks for everyone who joined in last week. For anyone new to the linky we have a few relaxed instructions: 

 

What do you have to do? Simple: 

1. Link up a post about something that is making you happy or grateful. It can be a list, photos or any way you fancy 

2. Add the #R2BC badge (at the end of this post) onto your post or blog so that people can easily find the linky and join in too if they want to 

3. Share the love. This is the really important bit. Please don't just link and run, comment on at least a couple of posts and why not share with #R2BC too? 

I'll stop by all linked up posts to comment and I'll share on social media too. 

Meanwhile here are my reasons to be cheerful for this week: 

1) Gardener Round

The relaxed rules meant I could have my gardener round. Bonus is that my gardener is my mum and I only pay her in cups of tea, biscuits and ice cream:

I did do some work myself when she had gone and it looks a lot better:

@lakessinglemum

Front garden rescue ##garden ##gardening ##fyp ##over30 ##over40 ##mumsoftiktok

♬ Wait - Chantel Jeffries

2) A splash of colour

Inspired by the front garden I tackled the back. I even dug out a new to me flower bed on the bit of grass that sloped annoyingly:

@lakessinglemum

Some work on the back garden too ##garden ##gardening ##fyp ##over30 ##over40 ##mumsoftiktok

♬ Tell Me - Marshmello

3) New Fridge Freezer

My pre-loved fridge freezer, that I have had for 5 years, finally stopped being good enough for use for us. So I bit the bullet and bought a new one for the first time in 20 years:

PJs and Synchronised Swimming - Day 23

As you may have noticed I have had a few manic days, so I decided to make sure today was a bit more relaxed! I started by experimenting with the water effect to create a synchronised swimming TikTok. Then I ran a shortened gardenrun in my PJs:

I had kept the run short partly because my son had asked to walk up our nearest hill the Helm:

Whilst up there I actually created a singing TikTok! All of the shenanigans are on my YouTube channel:

Reasons to be Cheerful: End of the school year #R2BC

 
Gosh its the end of the school year already for us! So hopefully 6 weeks of things to keep us cheerful. But meanwhile here are just some of things that have made me cheerful this week:

1) Sedbergh Sports
It was a fabulous evening of traditional sports in aid of Sedbergh primary. My son was 2nd in his fell race and 3rd in the potato race. A smashing time (this was the egg toss):

2) Sorting out


The great purge and tidy before the central heating system is ripped out (this Monday!) has been coming on well. A couple of rooms are completely ready and others will be done by tomorrow. It's been a combination of dismantling furniture and organising things more efficiently that has helped. We now have all our board games away and easily accessible:

3) Family

My mum came over to babysit my son whilst I was out celebrating the end of year with my colleagues. This gave us a chance to get a 3 generation family selfie. Yes he is only 12 and I am 5ft 8.5!

Reasons to be Cheerful: Be More Wit Wit Woo #R2BC

The blogging community is currently reeling from the sudden and unexpected death of one of the most optimistic and vivacious members Kate Sutton. Back in the early days of Twitter when I was a newly single parent she kept me sane with conversations online. She was an inspiration for me to embrace life and not care what anyone else might think! Rest in peace Kate.
Here are my reasons to be cheerful which I am sure she would have appreciated:
1) Insects
Its wonderful to see busy bees and butterflies making the most of the flower bonanza brought on by the unusually warm weather:

I am glad to have done my bit for them with the wild flowers in my front garden:

2) Clearing Out

We did another car boot sale on Sunday and got rid of some more bits and made a few more pounds for the holiday kitty! It was also a good social occasion:

3) A Trip Down Memory Lane

I went through lots of boxes in the garage for the car boot and found loads of treasures. This included the children's christening gifts, some missing Denby and this rather bizarre guinea pig I made in art at high school:

Front Garden update

I thought it was time to do a follow up post to my gardening post from April! Things have definitely come a long way since I dug out the borders for bulbs and seeds:

Here was a my video update from last week when I incorrectly identified cyclamen as geraniums:

Here are some of my favourite wild flowers that grew from seed:

Reasons to be Cheerful: Blooming Lovely #R2BC

A slightly later than normal Reasons to be Cheerful but at least its on the right day! Plenty of reasons for me to be cheerful and I hope that you have plenty to join in with too. Please link in and share the linky love.
1) Going greener
I am trying to be more eco friendly so I have bought some Soap Nut Shells for the laundry. They definitely take the smell out of our clothes and they seem to be clean. So that's one little bit to reduce my plastic usage and the amount of chemicals I put into the environment:

2) Blooming lovely

My roses are at their peak at the moment and looking stunning:

Having family help to trim the hedge and give the grass a proper cutting has improved the rest of the garden too:

3) Lunch with my girl

Overhauling the front garden

I have to admit that my front garden has been a bit of an embarrassment, although not the worst in the street! The lawn is uneven and claggy, the edges were escaping over the path and it was just not a pleasant view as you arrive the house... I started working on it in March by putting in some cheap plants a buddleia and a rose:

I then dug out a new border along the fence and removed the lawn from where it had escaped across the footpath:

But the snow and then rain got in the way and I got on with jobs inside the house instead... So today I spent the entire morning out the front to make a difference to this:

Reasons to be Cheerful: Running, Tulips, DIY and Winning #R2BC

At least I have remembered what day of the week it is this week so that I am ready for hosting! I am enjoying reading and sharing your posts this month and look forward to it again this week. Meanwhile here are my reasons to be cheerful this week:
1) Up and running
After a visit to the podiatrist I have been told to not give up running! I have new insoles to correct my flat feet and pigeon toes which should hopefully sort out my painful heel. So I was delighted to head over to Lancaster parkrun for a Run Mummy Run meet and our annual tourist trip to Williamson Park:

2) Winning things

I have won 2 Facebook competitions this week. First of all I have won a Haynes manual for the NASA Skylab:

Secondly I have won a burlesque photoshoot - ooh er missus - a chance to get primped, preened and try out a corset! Not sure if the results of that will be appearing on here...

3) Overdue DIY

Reasons to be Cheerful: Nostalgia, Fells and Garden #R2BC

It is the end of August today (where has this month gone?) so I will be handing back over the lovely Michelle for September as the hostess with the mostest. I will still be joining in and visiting you all though to watch out! Here are my reasons to be cheerful this week:
1) Nostalgia
One of the great things about sorting out and completely rearranging a bedroom is that it produces lots of treasures from the past. This week one thing that emerged was my whole school photograph from Beaconsfield High School in the summer of 1987 - the year I took the last ever O level exams. There were 800 of us at the school at the time and they lined us up in form by height and then merged us in our year group as we went onto the school field. I have just photographed my Year 5 section (what year 11 used to be called!). Can you find me?

2) Tail Walking at Parkrun
My son and I volunteered to be Tail Walkers at Fell Foot. This is a fun role at the back of the event keeping the walkers company on the 5 km route. This time we started with a gentleman in his 80s who used to run marathons but is now on doctor's orders to only walk. It was lovely to stroll through the park and meadow chatting to him and encouraging other runners as they passed or lapped us. Plenty of time to take photographs too. Then he stopped at the end of lap 1 to be with his daughter an we had to leg it over a kilometre to catch the young runner who was now the tail:

#WordOfTheWeek Garden

When I looked out of my bedroom this morning my garden looked like this:

Basically for the last few months I have barely had time to mow the lawn let alone weed or trim the hedge (not that I have the right equipment!). Luckily for me some other members of my family are much more green-fingered than me and they are equipped for virtually any garden work. They came round after breakfast and with me achieved:

•  2 weeded borders
• a mown lawn with all grass to the back trimmed
• a hedge tamed to a reasonable size
• old guinea pig run removed
• hardcore from previous tenants removed

It was just as well it was green bin day and they don't collect until lunch time as we filled 2.5 green wheelie bins (thanks to the neighbours!) and still had all of this to take to the tip:

It was lovely to look out of my window after lunch and see the transformed view:

So much more space and somewhere you would actually want to sit out in! Still things to do and next up is to relocate the compost bins right up to the back out of the way... watch this space...

Reasons to be Cheerful: 122 reasons! #R2BC

Thanks to everyone who joined in last week, hopefully more people will link in this week as I am sure the sunshine will make us all happier! Don't worry I haven't really got 122 reasons this week phew but the reason for the title will eventually become clear... Here are my reasons to be cheerful this week:
1) Hobbit in Williamson Park
A group of 10 of us from the extended family went to Williamson Park in Lancaster to watch the Dukes' Lancaster production of the Hobbit. An amazing production (more to follow in a later blog post!) but the most exciting part was my daughter successfully volunteering to take care of the key to Erebor whilst the play moved through the park:

2) Home organisation

Its lots of little steps in my challenge to get the house better organised before I go back to work in September. I picked up this Ikea shower caddy with my lottery winnings (a whole £5!) and its making our bathroom a lot tidier:

3) Time together

The advantage of working in school is that I get most of the holidays off with my children. We have also had time with extended family who are up visiting. Certainly a reason for us all to smile:

Reasons to be Cheerful: Sunshine and Showers #R2BC

I am really pleased that the original founder of Reasons to be Cheerful is back to co-host with me again. Welcome back Michelle! Here my reasons for this week:
1) Little victories
My children both had friends over this weekend to camp out in the garden to test out the tent before our first camping trip later this month. Afterwards for the first time since I bought the tent 2 years ago I got ALL yes ALL of it back in the bag from which it came. It was a good feeling!

2) The route less travelled

In memory of a friend's daughter who tragically died as a baby I am attempting to walk a mile every day this month. My friend is raising money for the Lullaby Trust in her daughter's name. We are trying to mix up where we walk and at the weekend took the other side of the river route home after a trip to the cinema. Its great to have time to chat and contemplate as well as discover new things such as the T'crack in Kirkland.

3) Running away

Reasons to be Cheerful: Proud Mum #R2BC

Still having laptop issues but I can still just about blog! Last week of me hosting and then I am handing over to the lady that started it all for May. So glad Michelle is back in the Reasons to be Cheerful family. Here are my other reasons this week:
1) Proud Mum

My daughter had her first secondary school parents' evening this week. Not sure who was more nervous her or me! Turns out the majority of her teachers think she is a great asset to their lessons and miss her input when she is not there. I knew she was doing well academically but its great to hear such lovely things said about her. 

2) Operation Garden

I've already blogged about the things we have been doing in the garden. On Timehop a picture popped up showing the state of the garden on the day I got the keys. It made me smile to see how far we have come:

3) Six Years on Blipfoto

I celebrated my 6th anniversary on the daily photo site Blipfoto this week. I have taken 2,192 daily photos since I started and I have no plans to stop just yet:

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Improving the Garden - latest updates

With the horrible weather in the late summer and autumn all the work on improving our garden ground to a halt…. Over the last few weeks my mum has been around doing some much needed gardening and other little projects have started to make a difference too.

The only original flower bed plus the extra section that was dug out last year are starting to look like a proper bit of garden again:

She had discovered a hidden patio under the weeds and now the slabs have been removed it has had some spare plants put in from her garden:

So with my mum working so hard we had to carry on with some of the projects we had started last year. My daughter had upcycled some garden chairs we were given just using some tester pots of wood paint:

As there was a little bit over she had decided to start painting the shed door but had run out of paint..

Reasons to be Cheerful: Seeing the light #R2BC

The lovely Jo at Ojo's World is handing back to me for October so I am going to have to be more on the ball! Please go over and see the super reasons she has to be cheerful. Meanwhile here are mine:

1) Bye bye hedge

My mum made major inroads on the overgrown privet that was blocking light and making it hard to be neighbourly. We helped her out by shifting the cuttings but ran out of room to finish the job (2 green bins filled and a heap at the end of the garden!)! It has already made our downstairs loo lighter and enabled conversations with the neighbours:

 2) Drive in movie

As a thank you for marshalling at Torchlight we were given a free ticket to the drive in movie at Grizedale Forest for the AND Festival. A surreal experience but a lot of fun for the 3 generations that squeezed into my car. We watched Moonrise Kingdom which is a bittersweet comedy with an impressive cast list:

3) Parkrun Milestone

My son received his official Parkrun 10 t-shirt this week. He is rightly proud of his now 12 runs and is hoping to improve his PB yet again:

4) Macmillan Coffee Morning

Today we have hosted a coffee morning in aid of Macmillan Cancer. Lovely to have a range of friends over and to raise just over £20 with coffee, cake and books! This is the cake my daughter made:

Join in and share your happy posts!