Garden time

Just enough sunshine today for a little bit of garden time!

Garden Update

I just finished mowing the lawn, Andre did the edges as I still haven't mastered the weedeater. This weekend I've also spent some time tidying up the veggie patch while Andre tidied the front garden area. We've moved one of the pots with sweat peas to the front too which should be nice and colourful soon.

In the veggie patch we now have lettuce which is getting really big. We need to start eating more salad now. The peas are coming on well and some have reached the second wire it's climbing on. I've planted out the courgettes, or squash. Not sure anymore what it was I planted! There were a few seeds left over from last year and they're looking good so hoping we'll have more luck this year with them being started in the green house. Then there's also radish and I've just planted fennel and rocket this morning too. You can also see the raspberries on the right in the photo above.

The tomatoes, peppers and chillies will stay in the greenhouse where they'll be keep nice and warm. I have two tomato plants outside in pots to see how they get on. Herbs I've planted are parsley, basil and coriander as they're my favorite and the ones I like using fresh.

In seed trays in the greenhouse are also lavender seeds and I still have some cucumber seeds which I really should plant before it gets too late.

So the garden is coming on well and I'm really enjoying spending time working on it now that I can see my efforts starting to pay off.

*As always you can click on the pictures if you want to have a better look.

Jubilee Party

We celebrated this Queens Diamond Jubilee this weekend. She's been reigning over England for 60 years now. That's a long time, as the children at nursery said! We had a party with the children on Friday at nursery and you can see some photos if you go to our Facebook page. The children (and staff) dressed as kings and queens or in the colors of the Union Jack. We painted our own bunting, made crowns and baked red and blue fairy cakes. The older children also made their own pinwheels (puff pastry rolled up with cheese, ham and tomato inside) for the party. The whole nursery then had tea together on the decking outside and the tables were decorated in blue, red and white. We even had face painting too.

The older children wrote letters to the queen and drew pictures of her which we sent off to Buckingham Palace together with some photos of our party. We're now hoping for a reply from the Queen!

We had Monday and Tuesday off to celebrate with the Queen and here in our village we had a picnic on the field (which happens to be right behind our house so we could walk there which was very exciting as we aren't able to walk anywhere for a night out!) Andre and I decided to have a braai (BBQ) at home instead so went over there afterwards with our camping chairs and a couple of ciders. A jazz band was playing and the atmosphere was great. There were lots of people, some dressed up for the festivities, and at 10.15pm a beacon was lit which formed part of over 4200 beacons lit across the UK, the last one lit by the Queen herself.

I was very excited that for the first time I also got to sing the national anthem, God save the Queen, although I didn't know many of the words. I'll have to learn it! Here are some pictures of our evening spent with our fellow villagers!

*Click on the pictures to enlarge.

I dressed up in blue, red and white too!

Doing "The Locomotion"!!

more dancing!

The lighting of the beacon.

Cycling: a video

Here's a little video of a few of our weekend cycles along the canal as well as through Wokefield Common which is the forest area close by our house. We've discovered a pub 6 miles down the one side of the canal and another just under 7 miles along the other way! We generally cycle around 15-20miles which takes us around 2hours going at a leisurely pace. Only a few hills which I always dread on the way back home from the canal but good for getting the heart rate up!

*Best to watch this video in vimeo by clicking on the link. If you're in SA with slower internet you might want to click pause and leave it to load. You can click on the four arrows pointing outwards in the bottom right corner to view fullscreen :-)

Kennet & Avon Canal Bike Rides from Anneliese Mostert on Vimeo.

Last weekend's sunny cycle

It's a very rainy weekend compared to last weekend which was very hot and so sunny. We went cycling along the canal last weekend all the way to The Oracle (which is a shopping centre in Reading). It was a 20mile cycle there and back. We did stop at a pub along the canal on the way back for some lunch and something cold to drink. We were hoping to go for another cycle along the canal, the opposite way to another pub, but with the rain today that won't be happening. Instead I'm sitting in front of the tv watching the happenings of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee on the Thames. Tomorrow we're planning on attending a Jubilee picnic on the field behind our house for our village. 

Life in England

Sometimes it still feels unreal that we're living in England. Then I come home and this reminds me I'm not in South Africa anymore:

These parcels were left in front of our front door all day and still there at the end of the day when I get home.

London day out

On Wednesday Andre and I took a day's leave to go into London to renew his passport. Afterwards we enjoyed a breakfast together, walked around a bit and then went to the aquarium. Make sure your sound is on to watch the video below. (You can also click the link to watch it on vimeo and see it full screen by clicking the arrows in the bottom corner.)



Sea Life London Aquarium from Anneliese Mostert on Vimeo.