This week, School is back, Sunflowers and Sweet peas

Firstly I'd like to say a huge thank you to Angie from Angie's garden for her lovely blog about her visit to the nursery a couple of weeks ago, you can read her blog here: A visit to the Quirky Bird

We've had some lovely sunny and warm weather this week, probably because the kids are back at school. I've enjoyed some warmth although it is probably too late for the veggies, they aren't going to do much now sadly. However we do have a sunflower! The shallots are on the very small side and I don't think there will be enough time for the beetroot to progress beyond marble size. Next year I would like to have a corner in the poly tunnel at the nursery to grow some veg, we'll see.

We grew a sunflower

The week started with good news in that eldest son has got a months trial with a local firm with a view to an apprenticeship, I'm really pleased for him and hopefully it will lead to more good things and a job. Well done Ben. Youngest son went back to school on Monday, so it was early morning chaos getting him up and off on the school bus at 7.30am, then eldest son starting his job at 8am, that will be a shock to his system. Middle son goes back to uni next week, so it's all change again.

A lovely vase of sweet peas from the garden, this year I have
grown 'Beaujolais', 'Cathy' and an unknown cream one
I brought back from Coll

Typically our day off on Tuesday was wet, not sunny as the previous couple of days had been or the rest of the week is forecast to be. We went to pick up some plants I'd ordered from a nursery in East Lothian and had planned to take the doglet to the beach for a walk. Instead we headed back to the nursery and dropped the plants off then decided to go to Dawyck for lunch. It's a lovely place to eat and the food is always good. We didn't have a walk around the garden as the rain was heavier but you can read about two previous visits here and here. We came home via Biggar to do a couple of errands and walk Bracken along the old railway line. It was great to get a  walk with Bracken, I do miss my daily walk with him now I am back working.

Sculpture exhibition at Dawyk

Great art at Dawyck

Allium vineale growing on the old railway line

Bracken being cute

Harebells on the railway line

There were plenty of wild flowers along the old railway line

Wednesday was a good day, the sun shone, it was warm and it was my birthday, these days they are happy days full of happiness and good times. After a lovely birthday breakfast I spent the day at the nursery enjoying working in the sun and I cut a new bunch of flowers for my desk as you can see below. I received lovely gifts, cards, good wishes from friends and family and had dinner out with David in the evening, but the best thing was having wonderful people around me, great friends and family. 

Flowers for my desk from the nursery gardens

Apparently there wasn't enough room on one cake for all my candles! Cheeky

I've admired this metal and wood conker for a month or so at the gallery at work,
thanks to David I now have one of my own, my gift from him for my birthday

Two or three months ago my grape vine suddenly died. The branches and shoots wilted and died and there has been no signs of life since. I was really sad as I've had it for 21 years and it was a good size when I got it, it always has grapes and is like an old friend. It was dug out of the ground and potted into a massive bucket when we moved house last year and coped with that no bother at all. I hadn't got around to moving it out of the greenhouse, as the pot and it are quite a size and heavy to move. Imagine my surprise when I was watering the greenhouses tonight and there were 4 good sized shoots on different parts of the plant. It must have suddenly shot away as there was nothing when I was in the greenhouse a few days ago. So there is life in the old vine yet, hooray.

The re sprouting vine

 It's been another busy week, they are going so fast, can't believe the kids are back to school and Jamie goes back to uni next week. The forecast for the rest of the week looks not bad, but I have a lot of potting up to do, new borders to create, I need to come up with a plan for the wild life garden and do some watering. Looking forward to friends visiting the nursery at the weekend and catching up.

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