Teensy weeny plants

When one of these little packets comes through my post box I get very excited. You can't believe just what is contained in this pack. Many growers now offer 'plug plants' by post. 

What I hadn't realised was how teeny they would be!

My first plants were Lavender, a special offer of 24 plugplants. We had to laugh as they were so tiny they looked like little paintbrushes. Now, a couple of months later they' re strong plants, still little but gaining.

This little one below shows how small they are. I think it's great that such teeny plants can be sent safely by post.

 A while ago the Telegraph Gardening Club had a free offer of 24 mixed border perennials. Free! Just pay the postage. Teeny seedlings arrived and were potted out, six foxgloves, six geums, six nepeta and six, um, I've forgotten! So it will be interesting to watch them.

This is how they look now.

Still small but growing well.

The forgotten ones are at the right on the back.

I have them outside during the day and at night they will go in the greenhouse.

Soon they will be ready to plant out.

And thanks to Lynn who inspired me with her photos of Ranunculus, I now have a couple  looking pretty in the flower bed. I might just have to get some more....

It is such a joy having  manageable garden now.

I have lots of plans.

Preparing to sew.

I thought it was about time that I did a bit of sewing.

I have a friend whose 80th birthday is in May. We lived close by in France and used to do our Patchwork together.

Now, like us, she has moved back to England, sadly not close by but living in Cambridgeshire.

These are the colours that she likes, and I'm going to make a Dresden Plate cushion (pillow) for her birthday present.

I will have to get on with it!

Saltram House

This beautiful 18th century house near Plymouth  is where we visited on our way back from Torquay. It was owned for generations by the Parker family, but is now, since 1951,  in the hands of the National Trust.

The house, although Georgian, was built on to what remained of a Tudor mansion.

The walls of many rooms are covered in Chinese wallpaper.

This high bed had a little set of steps on the left, to help one climb in.

(Click to enlarge the photos for more detail)

 This is the Red and Gold room, leading from the Salon into the large hallway.

The walls are covered with beautiful paintings, some by Joshua Reynolds, some by Italian masters.

Just look at the gilding!

Below is the elegant Salon, my favourite room.

The walls were covered with an Aqua blue figured silk brought over from Rheims.

The chandeliers  look superb, and I could imagine them lit and twinkling over the room.

The carpet,which I had thought might be French, was actually Axminster, and would have been rolled up when the family had a Ball, so as to give a wooden floor for dancing.

All the furniture, by Chippendale , is covered in the same blue silk.

Can't you imagine a stately minuet being danced here?

This is the dressing room, with a very lovely dress waiting to be worn. Gloves and a little bag rest on the chair behind.

Saltram House was used in the film of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility. 

It must have been a perfect place.

I'm hoping we will go back again soon.

Graduation weekend.

We have had such a lovely weekend at the grand daughter's Graduation ceremony in Torquay. For those of you not in England, Torquay is a seaside resort in Devon, a very popular place for the Victorians, who took holidays all along this coast. Many of the hotels reflect the glory of those days.

We stayed in the Premier Inn, which is the large white building on the right of the photo, with this view!

What an enviable position.

Here we have the essential getting ready  moment out on the Hotel terrace. Grandpa gives s/father advice on tying his tie, a rather nice silk one borrowed from Grandpa!

Another getting ready moment as the official photographer makes sure that the gown is correctly placed.

Her degree was a first class Honours in Maths.

The dignitaries gathered on the platform as the Ceremony started. We had excellent seats in a front row so were able to see everything, and clap wildly as Grand daughter came on to the stage.

There were over two hundred graduates of all ages.

After the ceremony there was a little gathering for sparkling wine and a chat with the Vice principal.
Later we celebrated with a very nice dinner at one of the big Hotels.
On our return we stopped for a visit at Saltram House, one of the National Trust properties. More on that later.

Camellia

Our lovely Camellia hedge has begun to flower.

We are off away for a few days to our

grand daughter's University graduation.

Back soon.

Book review.

I was honoured when Terri asked if I would be one of the reviewers of her first book. I think I have 'known' Terri almost since she began her 'Hearts in Service' blog in 2008. I have followed her life with family, church and craftwork. I've bought lovely things from her and admired the care she has taken with her work.

      Terri's book is for me, an encouragement . I have had for years, a little devotional book called Daily Light, which is really a collection of verses for each day. It's a lovely book, but I find that Terri takes me one step further in my reading. Her meditations are thoughtful and to the point. She bases much of her writing on her own experiences, which one can relate to. As other reviewers have said, I appreciate the fact that she is honest, describes her joys and sorrows, her failings and her successes.

I read a chapter a day.  One I particularly liked was called 'Body Life' using verses from Hebrews 3, vv12/13, and is on the theme of Encouragement for our friends and neighbours. It very much points the way of support and friendship, and certainly made me think about my own relationship with my near ones.

 I would buy this book for myself or as a gift.

 This is Terri.

She has sent me, below, some more details about herself and her writing.

Thank you, for having me share a bit and also for doing a review of my new book, Words of Encouragement for a Discouraged World.  I appreciate it!   I wanted to share a bit about myself.  I graduated from Nyack College with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and I also attended the Alliance Theological Seminary, working on my Master’s of Divinity.   

My husband, Dan, and I will be married 25 years in June and I have three children, Nathan, Stephen and Emily. My husband is a pastor of a church which is about 70 miles north of New York City and I'm quite busy helping him with that.   I tutor children as needed with reading difficulties, specializing in the Orton-Gillingham Multisensory method and I also have an online Etsy store for my craft business, Terri's Country Crafts.

Five years ago I started writing a weekly devotional to the women in our church.  In my own private Bible reading and study, I would wrestle with different issues I was facing in my own life.  As I wrote, I found it easier to share these things rather than just pick some abstract topic.  And as I wrote to the women in church and shared it on my blog, I found that many women were helped by these devotionals.  So I began to felt led to compile them into a book.  And that is how this book of 52 weekly devotionals came about!

My desire is for women to know that they are not alone in their struggles.  I also love being able to share from God's word in a way that understandable, yet doesn't detract from what the scriptures are actually teaching.  I try to be transparent in my writing and love to envision sitting down and having a cup of tea with a friend as I write.  I hope that women will grow in their walk with the Lord through this little book.   The book is listed on Amazon or you can also find more information through my website, terrigroh.com.  

An outing...in the rain.

Today, in soaking rain, we visited Port Eliot.

This visit was arranged especially by the Cornwall Blind Association with the sponsorship of the Earl and Countess of St Germans, whose family have owned this house for generations.

The day was to be a 'sensory experience' for partially sighted people, who were permitted to feel , touch and handle certain items in the house.

The house was built in the twelfth century as a Priory.

It has its own church in the grounds, which we didn't see today.

The family live here . We didn't actually meet them, but when we went into the morning room there was a fire blazing, surrounded by comfortable seating. Flowers were on the tables, dog leads on the stools, and I guess any moment one of the family might have wandered in.

The round room was my least favourite. Originally designed by John Soane, it had a slightly domed ceiling to allow the best acoustics when music was played. There was an exquisite chandelier, but also a large motor bike by the window, and the walls were covered in murals by Robert Lenckiewicz.

These I found very disturbing and really felt I needed to get out.

For some reason it wasn't a house that we enjoyed. I think the weather didn't help.

Sadly most of the group were too infirm to visit the tea rooms which oddly are up a flight of steep stone steps. So we all went to the pub to see if they could give us tea, only to find they had run out of cups and saucers. And also food.

Maybe it was a good idea, just on the wrong day!

Cold callers,

Much has been written about the wretched cold callers recently.

Even though we have signed up to Telephone Preference services we still get the calls....trying to sell us new windows, conservatories, insurance and so on.
I have Caller ID and also an answering machine.

It is very annoying to be greeted with 'Hi there, just a quick call', when you know it isn't any such thing.

One girl was selling sunrooms and when I said I really didn't want one, got quite irate and snapped 'Why not? Is it for  financial reasons?' 

There has been a series of letters in the Daily Telegraph in the last coupe of weeks, with all sorts of advice on dealing with them.

Say nothing.

Blow a whistle.

Offer to report them.

Sing.

Reply in a foreign language (I'm going to try that)

But my favourite was to ask them 'if they know Jesus?'

A reply letter the next day said 'I tried that and they said yes they did and would love to talk about our Christian life'........

Well.

Looking back.

Lorrie remarked on the new header photo, saying that the tree looked like clouds.

It was one of our favourite little fruit trees that we planted in our French garden. It's a Crab apple, but not an edible one. It has very decorative small red fruit. But it is the blossom which makes it so lovely.

Below is another pretty tree, a Pink May. The flowers were such a beautiful colour.

This is a Flowering Cherry, which in years to come will be a very large tree.

I noticed that I took two of these photos in this week two years ago.

I haven't seen any flowering trees here this year. It is just too cold.

I like to think that we left behind some trees which will grow, providing pleasure for others for many years.

Changes in the garden.

This is as the garden was when we bought the house last year. It was sweet, but overgrown, and most of the bushes were in poor condition. 

In addition, it was a real safety problem for my husband.

Shrubs, wooden dividers, steps, low archways....all of them inviting and provoking  falls.

So, recently, we contacted a local Landscape service. What a joy they were, caring and thoughtful about all the possible problems of designing a garden for a partially sighted person.

This may look a little drastic to some of you. 

Apart from the greenhouse and the shed, everything was cleared and levelled.

 

Over the course of a week the men paved the rear part of the garden. They created a raised bed for vegetables.

They paved around and partly inside the greenhouse.

They brought in topsoil for my new flower beds, and for other beds.

They edged the beds with granite setts.

A little path was created with a gentle slope from the terrace end.

Every now and then one of them would come and ask my husband's opinion about a slope or a turn..

When they had finished they went round clearing up everything, all the rubbish was taken away, the lawn was brushed (Really!)

Right now it looks a little bare, but we have already begun planting traditional things like tall lupins, hellebores and foxgloves. When the weather is a bit warmer , I plan to have Delphiniums and Aquilegia. You can tell I am a cottage garden person!

I am so grateful to these landscapers. They did a fine job.

For us it isn't just a new garden, it is a new lease of life.

My husband wants to keep gardening for as long as he is able.

I'll keep you posted with further changes.

Medley

Back again, after quite a busy week...for us, that is.

Easter was lovely.

We went to our little Old Kea church by the water for the 8.30 am service, and were glad we did as wwe heard later that the main church had standing room only.

We were taken out for lunch by family.

Then I was taken with my grandaughter to the amazing 

Dancing on Ice. Very spectacular, but I think I love ballet more without ice!

As soon as the weekend was past, my s/daughter and husband arrived from cold Stockport for a couple of days, which was so nice as we haven't seen them for ages.
 She has recently been diagnosed as having a Coeliac problem so I had spent some time making these delicious Gluten free Orange shortbreads, and Tina's apple cake.

It is the first time I've used gluten-free anything, and it isn't very different.

Since life has quietened I have been to the dentist, having lost a tooth,

planted a few bits in my new garden (more later),

Walked along the river bank in the sun (and wind)

and spent too much time on Ebay buying things for my daughter!

I hope you have all had a lovely Easter. I did appreciate so many kind messages on my Short break post.