Watching Jules Holland
The bubbly
Monday, 31 December 2007
A New years eve stroll around the garden
I was the first one up this morning and remembering my birthday Witch Hazel I was drawn out into the garden to see how it was doing.
It seemed unchanged but on close examination I saw a tiny sign of life, one bud just revealing its yellow centre, a promise of things to come.
Blue kept me company, she is a shy and cautious cat in the house but friendly and curious in the garden.
The clematis armamdii is at a very exciting stage will be lovely in a week or two and
the colour created by the weeping salix was lovely.
The solitary goldfish was enjoying the air although the pond is so congested I just hope he wasn’t gasping for it. He used to have three or four companions but one morning I woke up to see a magnificent heron by the pond and since then I have only seen this one. Hope he isn’t too lonely.
Here is Blue in the apple tree at the back of the garden, the pruning of which is yet another garden job to be done.
The viburnam is one of my favourite winter plants in the garden, its pale almond pink really brightens up the grey days.
As does the beech hedge, although not neat and tidy this year as we missed the moment it is still beautiful.
Another of my favourites is this clematis which looks totally dead but will magically come back to life and produce drooping deep burgundy flowers to glisten from its shady corner.
On the whole the garden seems a bit behind this year, I was expecting bulbs pushing through and the Hellebores at least in bud if not in flower. Am I deluded and thinking of the end of January instead of December or has it perhaps been too warm, does the garden need a good freeze to begin to grow again?
As I go back in Blue settles down in a pot of grasses, which seems to have become garden furniture for cats, to keep an eye on her domain.
It seemed unchanged but on close examination I saw a tiny sign of life, one bud just revealing its yellow centre, a promise of things to come.
Blue kept me company, she is a shy and cautious cat in the house but friendly and curious in the garden.
The clematis armamdii is at a very exciting stage will be lovely in a week or two and
the colour created by the weeping salix was lovely.
The solitary goldfish was enjoying the air although the pond is so congested I just hope he wasn’t gasping for it. He used to have three or four companions but one morning I woke up to see a magnificent heron by the pond and since then I have only seen this one. Hope he isn’t too lonely.
Here is Blue in the apple tree at the back of the garden, the pruning of which is yet another garden job to be done.
The viburnam is one of my favourite winter plants in the garden, its pale almond pink really brightens up the grey days.
As does the beech hedge, although not neat and tidy this year as we missed the moment it is still beautiful.
Another of my favourites is this clematis which looks totally dead but will magically come back to life and produce drooping deep burgundy flowers to glisten from its shady corner.
On the whole the garden seems a bit behind this year, I was expecting bulbs pushing through and the Hellebores at least in bud if not in flower. Am I deluded and thinking of the end of January instead of December or has it perhaps been too warm, does the garden need a good freeze to begin to grow again?
As I go back in Blue settles down in a pot of grasses, which seems to have become garden furniture for cats, to keep an eye on her domain.
Tuesday, 25 December 2007
Happy Christmas
Hope you are all having a great christmas day, glimpses of our christmas can be had here:
Thanks every one for your wonderful presents.
Thanks every one for your wonderful presents.
Monday, 24 December 2007
Twas the night before the night before christmas
Beth has been getting more and more excited about Christmas, and with it more and more noisy, so it was relatively easy decision to allow her to accept a last minute invitation to a birthday sleepover.
So the packing commenced: first the babies had to be dressed, swaddled and tucked into their car seats,
So the packing commenced: first the babies had to be dressed, swaddled and tucked into their car seats,
next the case packed with provisions for said babies, oh and a spare pair of knickers for Beth.
They were delighted to see each other and I tried to capture this,
They were delighted to see each other and I tried to capture this,
Dyslexia
Beth is dyslexic amongst other dys's and became so stressed in school from the demand to perform and be independent before she was ready that for the sake of her mental health we deregistered her and she is now home educated. We have taken it very easily and done no school work at all, just lots of outings, educational tv, cooking, sewing and being read to.
On Saturday she asked to read to me for the first time in months, and read all the way through 'The Tinder box' with very little help. She worked really hard and by the end I was totally exhausted from holding my tongue and letting her work the words out.
just as we started home education in October 2006 another home educator, soon to become a good friend advertised free books from a school that had recently closed down. This book from the Ginn reading scheme was one of the books I picked up then. It is well pitched for Beth as it is a classic fairy tale so the plot is good in spite of the limited and repetitive language. In fact the repetitive language is an integral part of this style of literature.
We were all delighted and luckily I had a potential birthday present hoarded away so could immediately underline how pleased we were. Beth absolutely adores the slings for her babies, but I think she was just as delighted at the progress she had made with no painful enforced practice. She has of course been practicing all the time, but with material she chose, at a time that suited her and for as long or short as she wanted, usually just signs, birthday cards and notices, baby steps of reading.
On Saturday she asked to read to me for the first time in months, and read all the way through 'The Tinder box' with very little help. She worked really hard and by the end I was totally exhausted from holding my tongue and letting her work the words out.
just as we started home education in October 2006 another home educator, soon to become a good friend advertised free books from a school that had recently closed down. This book from the Ginn reading scheme was one of the books I picked up then. It is well pitched for Beth as it is a classic fairy tale so the plot is good in spite of the limited and repetitive language. In fact the repetitive language is an integral part of this style of literature. 
We were all delighted and luckily I had a potential birthday present hoarded away so could immediately underline how pleased we were. Beth absolutely adores the slings for her babies, but I think she was just as delighted at the progress she had made with no painful enforced practice. She has of course been practicing all the time, but with material she chose, at a time that suited her and for as long or short as she wanted, usually just signs, birthday cards and notices, baby steps of reading.And shortly after that Bruce remembered last christmas eve at midnight when Beth had read Jack and the Beanstalk from beginning to end, we couldn't say no inspite of the time.
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