The March of the Slugs

Sometimes when you are trying to make things better you make them worse, at least in the beginning. This is the end of the first week of working on our rooms. I have accomplished; one very bruised toe, a slightly injured back, a cut finger and a splinter, oh yeah, one clean ceiling and the rooms are messier than when I began.

The houses here are much smaller than I'm used to, so trying to integrate my few pieces of furniture, some personal items, clothes and a couple of prints into an established home is not so easy. The look is 'Congested Eclectic', not attractive at all!

Work on the gardens is moving along. I still have lots I want to do, but I so enjoy it, that its not a chore. I've begun clearing out weeds, cutting back the climbing rose, digging up bluebells so that they can be transplanted elsewhere and thinning the begenia. I planted the begenia on the other side of our front steps too, so it's mirrored. Eventually I want to move Martin's fuschia and climbing rose to the back yard/garden. The front garden is a 15' X 10' space, tops, and the fuschia takes up almost half of the space. The rose has nothing for it to climb on so it will look better in the back with a trellis. I added a picture so that you can see how it looks after giving it a good clean out.

They have the biggest slugs here I've ever seen. There are times when you could believe that you are being invaded by them. I am well known here for my slug hunting. I had just put out some bedding plants a few days earlier when I noticed that they were half eaten and there were slug tracks all over the place. So I waited until it was dusk, flashlight in hand, and began looking for the culprits. By the time Martin had checked on me three times, my neighbors Mick and Anne stopped to talk twice about what I was doing and my mother-in-law had time to peeked out the front window a few times, I had killed better than 75 slugs! The next morning the front yard was a mess, it looked like a slug grave yard. A few days before this was talking to Sheila about the slug problem and she told me that one night she couldn't walk on here driveway without stepping on a slug there were so many. Now THAT is a lot of slugs. I bet it looked like 'the march of the slugs' in her front yard. She said that the land where this neighborhood is built used to be farm and grazing land. The slugs have been eating here for generations, they must love when a new gardener moves in.

Time to move things around again

We have three weeks ALONE! It is something very special to have time alone, especially when you are a newlywed.

I am rearranging things again, moving things into a better place, into a temporary place or moving them into the shed. We need more space, being cramped is getting on my nerves. So, today I will pack up more books, temporarily pack up all my little personal things that are sitting on my 'hall table' and move some computer things into the dining room for Martin to work on. We have been planning our remodel for our bedroom/sitting room, our space, for months. Now we are going to start...something. I'm hoping by tomorrow I should be ready to wash down the ceiling.

I watched an old episode of Extreme Make-Over the other day and they were making an airplane room, they have such wild ideas. They put those overhead storage compartments from a plane up on the walls near the ceiling! Those things hold lots of stuff, wouldn't that give me extra space? I like that idea! I told Martin, "I want some of those in here my love". He took a deep breath then we agreed that book shelves on two walls near the ceiling would look much better and he wouldn't hit his head on them either. He even went back to the idea of attaching a set of shelves, ceiling to floor, to the existing wall between the rooms for "things". He is such a good man!

I have the paint colors picked out and for the life of me I can't remember what they are (the planning stage has lasted way too long). I've got them stashed in my cedar chest, time to dig them out. I'll post before and after pictures so that you can see the progress going on. So far I have the wall paper ripped off the walls in our bedroom, so the walls are two ugly shades of green, and the carpet is partly ripped up where we took half the wall down between the rooms way back in December. It looks similar to what it did, for those who visited, in December. It needs lots of help to make it into a place where we can be comfortable without being cramped.

My Chive Plant

Its beautiful outside today. The sun is shining, the sky is a beautiful blue color with lots of white clouds. There are great gusts of wind blowing about. When I was younger I remember reading Winnie the Pooh and how he talked about blustery days. I now know what a blustery day is! The wind is so fierce sometimes on the hill I live on, that it knocks down all my potted plants. It tore up the small metal green house I put up for growing tomatoes this summer. You know the kind, it has movable shelves inside and the whole thing is covered with a zip up clear plastic cover. I've put it away now, it was in three pieces, had a small puncture in the plastic and was scattered in the back yard after 1 hour of being put together.

A couple of weeks ago I went with my husband and my niece to The Royal Cornwall Show, it was a lot of fun. While I was there I picked up a few plants, two of them were chives. Today I gave one of my chives away. It had a pretty lavender bloom sitting up tall with lots of healthy green spikes growing around it. I gave it to my friend Sheila. Sheila is a fellow gardener and has answered many of my questions about growing things here in England. She's just gotten out of the hospital after having major surgery. I like Sheila, she is one of the nicest people I know here, outside of my husband, and the first friend I've made since I moved. Its difficult to live in a place and not have friends. I left all my family and friends back home and boy do I miss them! My chive went to a good home.

Sheila

Its Raining Again

It rained yesterday and the day before and most probably the day before that too. I got a glimpse of the sun 30 minutes ago, for about 5 minutes, it gave me hope. The wind is blowing, I can hear it whistling through the partially opened window. You would think it was December back home, instead its July 4th in England.

Happy Independence Day! Its raining on the 4th. We'll have an indoor picnic this evening. I'm cooking hamburgers, potato salad and fresh corn on the cob for dinner in celebraton of the day. Maybe I'll cook that almond pound cake that Judy sent me from the states some time back, it looks good. I'm an American living in England and I've been here for almost a year. And what a year its been! Its so different from home, even the rain is somehow different. In New Orleans it rains like the sky has broken wide open. It can pelt down one minute and then the sun is shining bright the next. Sometimes you can't drive because its coming down so hard with the wind blowing it into your windshield. People seem to stay put because they know that given a little time and patience, the rain will end and the sun will come out again. Here it rains for days, sometimes weeks. There's a constant gray sky that gives little hope for sunshine. The rain here can be so light a rain you barely feel it on your skin and other times it large cold drops. The light rain is the one that stays for days and weeks on end. People don't even pause it rains so much here. After days of rain like this I'll wish for a New Orleans rain so the clouds will empty and the sun can shine again.

Driving is different too. The roads are narrow and there are hills and curves that I'm not used to, being a flatlander. To be honest, the biggest problem I have is driving on the opposite side of the road, on the opposite side of the car, shifting using the opposite hand, having to remember when and if to stop at a Zebra, Pelican, Puffin and Toucan, and who goes next at a roundabout. Have I mentioned the flyovers yet? Thank God the pedals are the same!

My niece, Michelle, just went home a week ago, she spent 25 days with me. Her trip was her high school graduation present from her parents. It was her first experience to fly and her first experience being out of the states. I showed her the beach in Looe, the cliffs and caves in Tintagel, the caverns of Kent, The Pannier Market in Tavistock and the old church in Tamerton Foliot with the bells I love to hear everyday. We went to Morwellham Quay, Powderham Castle, the Barbican and the Hoe, the Eden Project, Buckland Abbey (Sir Francis Drake), and Buckfast Abbey. We walked to the top of Brent Tor where we explored the old church and grave sites, Scorhill Tor where we found the stone circle and the cliffs of Tintangel with the legends of King Arthur. We walked on the moors and played in the water at river Shaugh. We also shopped on the high street, and in the new mall, Tesco and Somerfields. She ate fish and chips, Steak and Kidney pie, sausage rolls, pasties, an English 'all day breakfast', digestives. caramel shortbread and drank an English ale. At the end of it all we spent two wet days in London exploring or sitting up top of a double decker open topped bus. I'm still exhausted from it all, but we had loads of fun and took hundreds of pictures.

I miss you Michelle!


Michelle and me at the gates of Buckingham Palace

Us standing in front of the Thames

Michelle and Martin at Gatwick

Michelle and me at Gatwick, nice and dry!