Bye Bye Bertie

On Saturday, we heartbreakingly had to put our beautiful Boston Terrier to sleep. He had a fit, which caused massive brain damage. We're devastated. He was only about 18 months old.

This is the last video I took of him, a few days before. We loved him and will miss him so much.

A Little Recap

 I've just had the best couple of days. We've been having pretty nice and mild weather lately, so I've been out in the garden for a lot of it with my two furry helpers. Yesterday I did mostly clearing but on Tuesday I was planting up a storm, I planted rhubarb, strawberries, lettuce, wheatgrass, potatoes, sunflowers, rosemary, blackberries, blueberries, and a couple of different types of flowers. I've been thinking about doing a "how to grow" series for those of you that are interested in growing your own fruits and vegetables but don't have any experience in it. I don't claim to be an expert at all, and I'm always learning new things but growing your own food is a lot of fun, and great for the environment. I read this article a couple of days ago and thought it was really interesting, although not particularly suprising! Anything that gets kids outdoors, learning and having fun is a good thing in my book.



When we bought our house, there were a few rotten sheds in the garden that we had to take down, but as we were doing so we found the most beautiful old terracotta pots. Some big ones and some small ones. What a treasure! I absolutely love them and have planted some things in them. (Oh and you can see how desperately my garden needs sorting out in the above photo - look at all the weeds!)

Do you grow anything edible in your garden? Check back on Monday for the first "how to grow" post... lettuce!

PS: You might have noticed, but I've changed my blog name! I felt like I'd outgrown the name "ecoprincess" (I started this blog when I was a lot younger! Haha) and I want to post a bit more varied stuff than just recipes so from now on I shall be... Bake, Sew, Grow!

A big project

Yesterday I was overcome with an urge. An urge to get started on my garden! Our garden needs a lot of work doing to it before it can be as lovely as I imagine it, and yesterday was the day I got to work. I hired a skip and began getting rid of all the old flags and bricks that were cluttering it up. It felt so good to get my teeth into a project, and I've already cleared quite a lot!

I dug up one of the beds which had become overrun by weeds, and imagine my delight when I dug up about a dozen of these little beauties:



Pasnips! Rather suprising too, as I haven't planted any parsnips since we first bought the house - three years ago!

I think my project to turn my garden into something beautiful is going to be hard, but it will be so worth it in the end. Mind you, it probably wouldn't be quite so hard if I didn't try to rescue every last ladybird that I saw!

Looking forward

The weather here for the past couple of days has been so light and mild; it's really making me look forward to Spring. So much so in fact that I dragged Adam to the garden centre today for a look around on the promise that I would buy him a hot chocolate and a cream scone! I'm so excited to get growing again, this year I'm actually most excited to grow flowers, which I've never really done before. I work on a community garden with children aged 8-18, and we grew some flowers on there (basically, we put some seeds in. And the flowers went wild!). It looked so pretty and made me excited to do the same in my garden this year, too.



We've acquired a load of wooden pallets from somewhere which I'm planning to take apart and build some raised beds with, so I'll be sure to post about that. I also want to grow blueberries, herbs, jalapenos, peas, potatoes, sunflowers, squash and salad. Do you enjoy spending time in the garden? Have you ever grown your own food?

Our Newest Family Member...

Meet the latest addition to our family:



Bert!

Bert is a one year old Boston Terrier who we adopted from someone my husband works with. We brought him home for a couple of days to see how he would get along with Izzy. Izzy is still a bit unsure about him - they get along, haven't fought but she is keeping her distance a little - but we absolutely love him. He's so sweet and affectionate and loves to cuddle up to me!

I've been quite busy with photography related stuff lately which is great! Last weekend I shot a civil ceremony, I had a baby shoot and I'm meeting a prospective client today too. It's exciting!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

I've got a naked Christmas tree in the corner of my living room, a steak and mushroom pie innards in the slow cooker, I managed to make it into town for some bits before it started pouring with rain and now I'm cuddled up on the sofa with my puppy. A perfect cozy day!

I can't wait for Adam to get home from work so we can get our tree decorated! This Christmas feels really special to me, not least because we're getting married two days after Christmas day. We're properly settled in our house - last year, we'd only moved in a month before and money was a bit tight after two years of renovations. I feel like I'm in a really happy place this year, and it really does feel wonderful.

I've got quite a few little projects and recipes (including a series of party food ideas!) to post throughout December so please check back often! Hope you have a lovely weekend!

Remembrance Day

Today is Remembrance Day. This year is especially poignant as someone that I used to be friends with was killed in Afghanistan on Wednesday. It's upsetting enough when you hear about the boys who lose their lives fighting for their countries, but when it's someone you know it's heartbreaking. My heart, thoughts and prayers are with his family today.