Photo from a trip to the beach

Kitesurfing a photo by Spacmonster on Flickr.

Kitesurfing looks like fun, this guy was flying up and down in the shallows jumping waves and generally having a good time.

I was dry and relatively warm (was v windy) on the shore though.

Snow in Guernsey

Snow in Guernsey
Originally uploaded by Spacmonster

I actually picked some tomatoes at the weekend. Which is odd given that the garden looked like this.

Still, a bit of ice is supposed to be good for purple sprouting broccoli, which is what we've got in at the moment...

Poh-tay-toes

Poh-tay-toes
Originally uploaded by Spacmonster

We've been eating salad, spinach and cabbage for a while. But the first potatoes were ready this week. And they are delicious.

Next - courgettes!

Cutesy Serenity Genius

Love this. Absolutely top brilliant awesome.

Belongs to Joe Spiotto.

Growing stuff and things

So the raised beds are in, various planters are made and filled with soil and other nice things, and we are now growing a whole bunch of stuff and things in our garden.

A rough list:

• Potatoes
• Tomatoes
• Green beans
• Augbergines
• Courgettes
• Rosemary
• Thyme
• Basil
• Coriander
• Lettuce
• Spinach
• Strawberries
• Chillies
• Rocket
• Chives
  

We're making it up as we go along a little bit, but it is still nice to have stuff in there.

Ran out of room in the raised beds so had to make some planters out of things.

Oh - and we re-painted a wall so everything looks nice...

Next, adding a new barbecue!

Raised beds, stage two

Fill em up
Originally uploaded by Spacmonster

Here they are then, ready to be filled up. We successfully sunk them below the level of the gravel and started the process of filling them with a mix of compost and tompsoil.

The method?

Mark out the holes and dig them (a foot deep for our fence posts).

Attempt to put frame into holes. Realise holes are in wrong place. Make them even bigger.

Fit frame into holes. Realise that frame still doesn't quite fit. Scrape the holes around the posts bigger until they almost fit.

Give up and whack the whole thing with the heavy end of a pick axe until it is level!

Fill with soil.

Rub back!

More Star Wars goodness

I may be turning 30 this year (shhhhh.)

But lego still features pretty heavily in my wishlists.

And now this:Must. Have.

Star Wars Figures

Got, got, got... need.

Ah happy days. Remember when 77 varieties of action figure was a lot.

Click for bigger.

Nowadays I expect a pokemon collection (or bakugan or whatever) doesn't really get going until you have 77 toys.

Anyway, Princess Leia dressed as a bounty hunter, I still regret burying you in the sand at Albecq. One day I'll find you again...

Piccie nabbed from the Super Fun Blog.

Making some raised beds at Le Braconnier Cottage

Almost there
Originally uploaded by Spacmonster

Major project time, we're making some raised beds in the garden to grow some veg..

The basic idea is to use the bit at the end of the garden, which gets a fair bit of light in the afternoon. Also means that we can put off digging up the patio for a while!

Our design was fool proof - gravel boards and fence posts screwed together into two boxes (joined together in the middle).

All we have to do now is dig the post holes and find some compost and top soil and we are away!

Big question is what to grow first - after our efforts last year in the greenhouse we have a surplus of borlotti beans, so I think we are going to concentrate on green beans, herbs and salad for the time being.

More pictures of this epic construction project...

Prints for the Lounge

House decoration is very nearly done. So much so that rather than thinking about tearing down wallpaper and filling holes or making things out of wood and other things, we're now thinking about putting up pictures.

So I made some art for the lounge, we have a green theme going on, so some trees were in order.

This one is from closer to home - the Bluebell Woods:


And this one is from a bit further afield - the Monongahela National Forest in West Virginia.

Up Red Creek in the Dolly Sods Wilderness, to be precise.

Did these in photoshop based on some of my photos, just ran them through the 'by numbers' filter a few times until they looked cool.

You can see the rest of our decoration efforts on Flickr...