What's been happening in the world of Quirkyness this past week? The weather has been unseasonably warm for this corner of Scotland. I've even switched the heating back off, which is great for money saving and the greenhouse heater hasn't been on at all yet, even better. The downside is the rain, to be fair we did need it but maybe not all at once?
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| Liquidamber styracifolia, another of my favourite trees |
In the nursery I have been concentrating on getting the stock take done then I can start writing a catalogue and do the update for the RHS Plant Finder. Once I have the heater on in the office for a wee while it's cosy and with my music, I can pass a few pleasant hours doing plant descriptions and putting the stock take on the data base. All the Whitmuir businesses had another productive meeting on Wednesday to plan events and organise some more jobs that need done around the place. I then had a visit from John from
Plantforms to have a chat about maintaining and improving the wild flower bankings. Lots of useful information from him and good to catch up too.
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| We spent a cosy evening in the kitchen developing some gift ideas to sell in the nursery |
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| The nearest we'll get to Christmas trees |
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| Lots of lovely ribbon |
We spent an evening in the kitchen last week developing the ideas we've had for gifts to sell in the nursery for Christmas. We don't want to go down the wreath, tree or Christmas tat route (apologies to any one who does like Christmas stuff) but want to join in in some way which is both quirky and fits in with the nursery. So we have Christmas trees for life, encouraging people (especially children) to plant a tree and grow along side it. From a sustainable angle and a cute wee tree wrapped up as a gift it will be interesting to see how they sell. We've also got potted Narcissus in decorated pots which make a great wee pocket money gift. Along side the gifts and items in our wee nursery shop and gft vouchers there is plenty choice for Christmas gifts as you can see on our website page here
Nursery Shop
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| Sales table at the Scottish bat handler conference in Perth |
The wet weather continued into the weekend and on Saturday I accompanied David to the Scottish Bat Handlers Conference in Perth. He had arranged a sales table for the nursery, so I got to be in the warm all day chatting to interesting people between workshops. I also worked on the nursery catalogue until the laptop battery ran out and then read my book. It was an early start but we sold lots of bulbs, plants and string which was great. We treated ourselves to takeaway on the way home at night.
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| Our traditional string we have for sale in the nursery |
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| Part of the sales table at the bat conference |
In other news the garden at home is buried in leaves and will stay that way until there is a dry spell. I gave the greenhouses a quick tidy on Monday, at least it's dry in there. I caught up on all sorts of odd jobs around the house, not my ideal way of spending a day off, but it was good to get caught up on stuff. I started steeping the fruit for the Christmas cake (how can we be at that time of year already?) I stripped all the poppy seed heads I've been drying of their seeds, there plenty to share around next year. We popped over to the nursery to check there was no damage from the strong winds and heavy rain of the past 24 hours. Happily there was no damage apart from a leak in the office roof, which is not so good. Especially as it all landed on my desk, books, paperwork and box of seeds waiting to be sown. I even made some bread, an apricot and sunflower seed loaf, to use up some apricots and other ingredients. It actually turned out really well and we had some for breakfast the next day
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| Dried fruit in brandy fo rthe Christmas cake |
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| Fresh out the oven |
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| Even if I say so myself it was very nice, a good breakfast |
On Tuesday it was another day of heavy rain and gales. After a much needed long lie and sleep I cleaned the house, although the hoover has decided to die so no hoovering. Mid afternoon saw David and I head off into Edinburgh. On the way we went into the nursery to get the mail and check for weather damage, all was well. We then dropped the hoover off at the local hoover hospital, diagnosis expected by end of the week. Then we drove into town for our wee night out, a visit to the Botanic Lights at Edinburgh Botanic gardens and dinner after. The rain was heavy all the way in, making the journey in the rush hour even more tedious. But we made it in plenty time and hey the rain stopped and the rest of the evening was dry and very pleasant. But I shall leave that visit for a blog post of its very own. I hope you are having a great week too.
I like the idea of a tree that grows with your child. We have had lots of rain here. My garden is a disgrace, but I'm too fair weathered to do anything about it!
ReplyDeleteLeanne xx
Hi Leanne, its something I did with my boys when they were young in the last garden, and they measured themselves against the trees every year. It's blowing a hoolie out there, brrrrrr. Have a good weekend x
DeleteYour stall looks most attractive and tempting Rona.
ReplyDeleteThanks Anna, we'll be doing the same in the shop at Whitmuir where the Nursery from the end of November up to Christmas, taking the nursery indoors as it were, people aren't inclined to come up in this weather, I don't blame them, it's been so wet and windy.
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