Holiday.......without a Cat! and other things.

Came back a few weeks ago from our hols in Lanzarote, lovely blue skies and a mini heatwave gave us temperatures of over 30 degrees, (been shivering since I came home)...... and no cats in sight. If you have read any other posts on this blog you will see that we usually find a cat that befriends us. This is a mystery to us as we are not cat people and my other half doesn't even like them but they seem to attach themselves to him. Probably because he is a push over and feeds them, so they visit him every day.

Nevertheless, no cats just a lovely relaxing holiday for 10 days.

Steve had to stop and admire this car. The owner obliged by lifting the engine cover and made them drool.



We arrived home to cold wet weather and a few days later we even had snow mixed with the rain. British summer you can't beat it.

I have managed to get my tomato plants in the greenhouse (plastic not glass). and Bert went in for the inspection. Caught him once or twice sneaking in and sniffing about, he's partial to strawberries so will have to watch him with those.

Everything is a lot bigger now so the hanging baskets with the strawberries and tomato's have now gone outside. Popped some Iceberg lettuce in pots yesterday so we will see how they go.

A pot of Geraniums on the patio will add a splash of colour.

A nice hanging basket full of strawberry plants, now hanging well out of the way of Bert, although he is good at climbing on the chair that is underneath so will have to watch him when and if they get fruit.

I had an redundant metal trough sitting at the top of the garden filled with weeds so I turfed them all out and filled it with Sedum, Sempervivum Hybrid Mixed they have a lovely tinge to the end of their leaves and grow little off shots that I hope will trail down over the top and eventually hide the plastic liner. I popped a Hosta in there too but if it gets too big it may have to come out but for the moment it's fine, Saxifraga Monarch which grows pink and white flowers on the end of a tall stalk and a Sedum spathulifolium. I hope they will all cluster together and form a carpet of colour, just thought it would be unusual and fun.

A handy tip for green pepper plants, Spray the plant with Epsom salts (1 teaspoon dissolved in a spray bottle of warm water (about 4 cups). That gives the pepper plant a boost of magnesium that is required at flowering time to produce fruit. Spray them again 10 days later and then again in a few weeks time.

Bert obligingly stood and let me use my new camera for a couple of photographs, he looks a bit solemn on this one. He's probably wishing I would go away!!

Enjoy the summer!