Tales from a down-shifted family
- Making the most of modest means
It’s been a few weeks since we first built our pond. It seems to be maturing well and looks nice. There was a bit of an initial algal bloom, but that was expected and didn’t come to much. It’s now full of life and already looks fairly mature. The water is full of larvae of...
Anna came across a photo of the pergola in the garden when it was new the other day and laughed about the fact that it look ‘plonked’ in the middle of the garden. She did have a point I guess, but I did have a plan. As anyone who gardens will know, such things need...
It was something of a mixed bag over the winter for our bees. One colony that was huge in the autumn died off whilst the colony that had taken up residence in the hive near the bedroom window did quite well. This colony had continued to expand throughout the Spring and was now looking quite...
It’s been a bit dreary these last few days, but things are growing well in the garden. Here are a few photos from around the garden at the weekend. The blackcurrants are flowering well and should have lots of fruit later in the year. The comfrey looks good. The bluebells are putting on their usual...
Before planting the pond, there were a few adjustments that needed to be made. The water level was a little lower than I wanted. The liner under the ‘jetty’ seemed to be the low point so the jetty needed raising a little. This was a fairly easy fix, Next stage was to continue with the...
Last weekend’s ‘Project Pond‘ had a bit of a hiatus thanks to a busy week at work, but with another bank holiday weekend to play with it was straight back to it on Friday evening. The liner and pond membrane I ordered had already arrived so it was time to make it look like a...
Project Pond wasn’t my only garden project at the weekend. I also had a somewhat more relaxing project in the form of a bonsai tree. Whilst at Charlies Garden Centre in Aberystwyth I rescued a poorly looking fern and a frost-damaged conifer. They were reduced in price and needed some TLC. The Fern was planted...
I finished a previous post about the garden by saying: All in all, other than sorting out the water feature I think I’m now on top of the chores in the garden and just have to keep it looking tidy. https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2023/04/bank-holiday-planting/ Water Feature Re-Location So, with the garden somewhat under control, it was time to...
With the bank holidays over I headed out for an early morning stroll around the dunes at Ynyslas. It’s good to see that the Ringed Plovers are nesting here again and that the nature reserve wardens have fenced off a few areas in an attempt to give them some peace and quiet. There wasn’t much...
One of my jobs over the bank holiday weekend was to tend to the bonsai trees. I should qualify this by saying that none of them are real bonsai trees. Some might be classed as pre-bonsai, but most are just sticks in pots!! The Larch (bottom middle) is sprouting nicely so I’ve repotted it and...
Fitness / Technology / Triathlon
Fixing the Altimeter on my Garmin Forerunner 910XT
Monday, March 17th, 2014
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