Happy Mother's Day




Hope all the Mom's out there have a great weekend.







My Mother and Father and the brood on our move to Sunny Spain

The Lovely MeMa with our son's Nathan and Ian - Then and Now

D.I.L. - Jill holding Taeya
D.I.L. Grace holding Brooklyn

 





Fresh From The Greenhouse

Oh yes.... the rain has returned and this old gardener has no interest in being cold and wet. So here is whats blooming in the greenhouse ha! Yesterday while the nice weather was still with us I did manage to get all the bubble insulation removed from the greenhouse and stored in the garage attic for next winter. Time to get the shade cloth on, I hope.

Orchid #46
Odontocidium 'Wildcat" a very richly colored flower

Orchid #52
This is one of the many Phalaenopsis that came to me by way of someones neglect, just proves the point that with a little love and tenderness anything can thrive.

Good News At The Manor

With all the terrible things going on in the world I thought I would post some good news. There is a pair of proud parents here at Menagerie Manor.



Baby Budgies
There are actually three and you can just see the head of the third which is unfeathered and quite a bit smaller then the two feathered siblings.

The proud father
 Mum is pure white and very shy so no photo



"Historical Endeavour" Update

I shall update this post occasionally as I promised Matron of "Down on the Allotment" blog. If any of you are interested in growing vegetables Matron is quite the vegetable guru so check it out.

April 30th 2011
Very vigorous starts

April 19, 2011
The arrival of "Mrs. Fortune's climbing beans from "Matron of Down on The Allotment".

A Good Weekend

When we have beautiful weather as we did this last weekend thoughts of moving to Hawaii subside.  Friday we had the "Little Terrorists" spend the night,  first taking them both to McDonald's for an unhealthy dinner and letting them both exhaust themselves playing on the slide and climbing structure until they said they were tired and wanted to go.  I don't know who was more tired, them or my parents who met us there. But it was time to go, and it was off to Menagerie Manor were we let them stay up probably far to late watching a Disney movie.  MeMa and Poppi are such terrible grandparents ;o)  They both slept in, see there was a plan there after all. At around 09:30 we loaded a wagon in the back of Vivian and set out to see the Fifth Annual 82nd Avenue of The Roses Parade, which is a small community Parade sponsored by the Rose Society and the Chinese community.

Chinese Dragon

Rose Society Members March

My heart goes pitter patter when the pipers play.

Local School bands only.

I might take up golf if I could have a cart like this.

The Little Terrorists opted for the healthier snacks packed by MeMa even though they made quite the haul scampering after the candy tossed by the parade participants.

After the parade we made a short stop home before dropping the Little Terrorists off at their homes,  all sugared up for their parents to deal with.....ha ha ha!
Sunday with a promise of glorious weather MeMa and Poppi had no plans other than home time.  Coffee in hand we began our day.........




MeMa and Max shared the morning paper.

On sunny days I don't last long indoors, so it was off to the greenhouse were I transplanted sixty two Bell Peppers into four inch pots.

I sat out thirty five Roma tomato's in order to begin hardening them off for planting.

After some tidying up in the greenhouse I planted my red and Spanish onions,  I mowed, aerated and fertilised the lawn.  Then swept out the chicken house and planted half of my dahlias before running out of the iron posts that I use to mark the tubers so I will stop and purchase more of those before finishing the planting.
All in all it was a very good weekend,  hope you all had the same.