Thank you... and a vintage garden tutorial! Not something you come across every day!!!!

Goodness thank you so much for all the entrants to the giveaway - I am genuinely surprised and thank you for kind comments.  I will let it run until next week and then do the Grand Draw! 

 So behind with blog visiting and predict that work will be the priority until August then a little breather.  I got the job that I had an interview for the other week and I was pleased with that as they were interviewing 210 people for a number of posts....a sign of the times.  I have a patchwork of different jobs that only I can keep tally of and understand the differences between....I get a bit mixed up sometimes.

On to matters of a gardening nature today - I take more photographs of the garden than anything else I think and could happily open up a gardening blog!  It is a teeny garden but there is a lot packed into it (there's a surprise...).

 So sometimes you wake up and think: "What I really need today is an nice old cold frame".  It is  funny how our minds work isn't it.  

If today is your day of cold frame needage this is how to make one (sort of - lacking some details that I was not privy to):

 First find an old window frame - I found ours behind a bush in the garden......truth be known we had placed it there our very selves several years previous.....I initially picked it up from a skip whilst walking the children home from school several years before that! Phew!!!  I remember very clearly it being tricky as I had to hold school bags and the children's hands but NOTHING would make me leave this window behind.

Sometimes it takes us a while to get round to making things

 After that bit of effort window foraging take a break and have a cup of cha....because you're worth it

Then gird your loins and sand the aforementioned window frame down (if your other half is not watching avoid this step....sadly other half was watching so I was FORCED to sand....I don't like sanding).

I did not take sanding photographs.

Eye up potential spot for mini cold frame...see....that space J_U_S_T there.  If short on space (cough, cough) just budge a few things up....and then budge up a bit more....keep budging until budging process is complete and no pins can be placed between any items.  Stand back .... take a good look at the space and consider if more budging could be done....one more budge should do it I think...

"To think that only the other week she was spouting on about how she was a 'lah di dah minimalist'...now she is  'Chief Budger Upper' "

 Wait patiently whilst other half goes to the cellar and spends a BIT OF TIME making the cold frame frame (out of a bewildering array of wood off cuts - bits of skirting board, old shed components and skip forages).  Other half complains a little bit about the amount of stuff in the house but you should see his wood collection!!!  Mind you next to water wastage wood wastage is on my list of things that I cannot bear.  You too?  Well, come on round and we can trawl through skips pulling out bits of PERFECT wood - why do people throw it away!  I once offered my services to the council: give me a van for a day and I will garner enough  'thrown away stuff'  to furnish a flat....no takers sadly.

Venture into cellar - pretend not to huff at the delay -  busy yourself  finding half empty tin of paint ready to paint the thing (if other half is not watching avoid the undercoat - sadly other half WAS watching so forced to paint undercoat - I do not like undercoat)

I have no undercoat or painting photographs...because they were NOT worth it..

Search around for a suitable handle for lifting lid to cold frame (note how very carefully I have painted the frame....it takes years to perfect this particular technique...)

Then you do your 'ta dah' moment...

Remember to take quite a few photographs of the same thing as you are so chuffed

Please do a bit of arty arranging....

And a bit more...

"For a teeny garden you seem to have a lot of watering cans........"

Ahem!!!!

These are rescue plants.  Do you do that: rescue plants that are being sold off in B&Q for pennies because they are on the brink of extinction?  Dom bought these pots of scabious home triumphantly - 20p and all they needed was a bit of dead heading and WATER (have B&Q not learnt that yet). I know that some people rescue donkeys and if I had acreage I would be rescuing donkeys too - in the interim scabious will have to suffice

Since making this other half has made some adjustments to design - reduced the drainage 'slope' bit in front, drilled water drainage slots and changed the handle.  I might paint a different colour too....apart from that it is good to go for next year (a bit late for this years seedlings).

Oh dear - watering can'itis...

I have heard that some people have large, expensive, gas fired barbecues....for years we have used this old stove with a bit of chicken wire on top....

I love my Eno....

Seeing the photograph below I think that I will get out a razor blade and scrap some of the excess paint off...maybe other half was right.....

What a great word 'budge' is!

Tra la la
Fiddle de dee
'Budge' is the word of the day
For you and me!

PS: Cycling to work yesterday on my old bike (hard going even on the flat but the bike looks lovely so that's what counts) - I was cycling away from the sea front but traffic was pouring in.  BBC Antiques Roadshow was in town yesterday - finished work and pedalled like the clappers to the venue to check out the queues.  A few thousand had turned up...so I popped home and waited for the children to finish school.  As the venue only takes five minutes for us to walk to we could trot round at our leisure and by then there was practically no queue at all, waited about 20 minutes I think.  Fiona Bruce is unexpectedly tall but apart from that no other great surprises.  We had people that the children recognised from the telly saying that my little item that I took along was very nice (worth about £200 so not retiring just  yet....) and then several others came over chatting about various things.  A bit of fun for the end of the day.  Not forgetting the significance of yesterdays date (which is why the BBC had chosen our locale)  and I would usually visit the Local D-Day museum