Give me the end of the year an' its fun, When most of the plannin' an' toilin' is done............

Bring all the wanderers home to the nest,

Let me sit down with the ones I love best

Hear the old voices still ringin with song,

See the old faces unblemished by wrong,

See the old table with all it's chairs

An I'll put soul in my Thanksgiving prayers

- Edgar A Guest

Monday and a day in the nursery making the most of more dry weather and some blue sky! I got a roaring fire going in the brazier to burn all the hedge trimmings and other rubbish. While it was burning I turned the rest of the first compost heap over and made some repairs to the compost bins. The sales tables got swept, scubbed and cleaned ready for filling next year. A satisfying day getting lots of winter done. 

Tuesday was a great days work sorting out all the bags of seeds I've collected in the past few months from the nursery gardens. Each batch is sorted out from its seed pods and stems and then put in envelopes until I am ready to sow them in spring. It ended up being just over 60 different varieties this year! We will also have a few varieties of seed available to buy from the nursery in spring. Gathered from the nursery and gardens, these seeds are organic, come from lovely healthy plants and are plants that were much commented on and liked in the gardens this year. These will include:

Angelica archangelica - a fabulous architectural herb

Papaver somnifera - annual poppy in mauve, double pink, double black and single black, total surprise what mix you will get

Primula veris - cowslips, an old favourite on the wildflower banks

Fennel - another lovely architectural herb and good to eat too!

I also got lots more rubbish burnt, progress is good.

from this

to this

We've been sorting out the cable drum tables in the sales area. The oldest ones we have had since we opened in 2015 and are getting a bit worse for wear. Some have gone to the bonfire and we managed to get a huge new one (at the back in the photo). Looking forward to filling this lot up in spring.

A new huge cable drum will make a new combination
 of tables at the entrance tot he sales are next year

 Adding some willow branches to the Christmas decorations in the kitchen

We have earthstars in the garden. These are collared earthstars, Geastrum triplex, they occur in gardens, woodland and parks. Not edible but great to look at. I only noticed them as I was waiting for Bracken to finish his morning piddle 😄

Wednesday was a relaxing day spending a couple of hours over coffee with a dear friend, who I haven't seen since January then and hour or so of pampering at the hairdresser. Thursday was a busy but relaxing day to myself. A wee bit of Christmas shopping Peebles, so nice to be so near all those lovely shops and the river for walks too. Home to walk Bracken along the wee river outside the cottage. A scented afternoon making my annual citrus and spice decoration and then sorting out and packeting up seeds from the nursery gardens for selling next year. Oh and I just had to bring that wee chap home and pop him on the mantle lol.

Today we got Christmas week off to a festive start with afternoon tea at

Caddon View & Cafe Sitooterie

. The food and service were excellent as always and we very much enjoyed our wee treat and chance to sit and chat That is soup in the wee tea cup by the way, cute!

Parsnip and apple soup in a teacup!

Another new and easy to make Christmas decoration I made today. All you need is a length of easily bent wire, some star anise, some ribbon and a glue gun. You can make the wire rings as big or wee as you like and vary how many times you wind it into a circle. Tie on a ribbon so you know where the top is and glue the star anise on and that is it

Today I did loads of baking in readiness for our covid compliant, socially distance outdoor get togethers with all our kids over 2 days for Christmas. By tea time it became quite apparent this was not going to be I have no words left to say how this makes us all feel

Making mincemeat pies

A satisfying afternoon's work cutting all the grass (yes do as I say not as I do in the garden ) and then uncovering the paths to the shed so I don't slip and do myself an injury every time I go out there also got the paths in the front garden weeded and edged Looks much better

A good days work done

Time to relax and make what we can of this different Christmas and the end of a very different year.

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