When you've written a blog for a few years or more a pattern tends to emerge and you find yourself writing annually about the same kind of things at the same times of year. It's probably because a year has a rhythm, especially for those of us who live with four distinct seasons. Most of us are creatures of habit and whilst we enjoy change and variation many of the things we do are similar year in year out – or maybe that's just my family! Anyway, the start of this years school summer break has been very much like the one we had last year…
Amy has dyed her hair blue again (with a little help from me) though this year her hair is substantially shorter than it was last year. She decided to say goodbye to long hair a few months back and loves it (I kept her 12 inch pony tail, as I couldn't bear to see it thrown away).
Toby has been enjoying the garden and helping me tend our tiny patch – he's become very good at watering the plants though I do have to remind him to point the hose in the right direction and I have been sprayed a few times when his concentration has wavered.
Sadly there will be very few beans and peas to harvest this year – I've resolved to start them off inside next year and invest in a beer trap or similar non-chemical slug eradicator, pesky things have ruined my bean and pea plants. The squash are doing well again though, as are the courgettes, kale and broccoli.
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The new raspberries that I planted back in winter from bare root canes are yet to ripen but they're coming on and the herbs have gone a bit wild and overgrown with some going to seed. Which is fine by me, as the bees really like the flowering thyme, hyssop, coriander and marjoram.
The hydrangeas are doing well too – I really love those big frothy white balls of flowers.
Well, that's it from us for this week. It's a cool day with heavy rain here today so we're pottering inside and I'm hoping to get some time for knitting (I'm working on a shawl – Pebble Beach by Helen Stewart in beautiful delicate merino from Walk Collection.)
Hopefully summer will return next week!
little cotton rabbits 
I have big slug and snail problems in my garden too, although the raised veg beds have helped with that. Your yarn is just the right colour for a “Pebble Beach”! Enjoy the rest of the summer! xx
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My daughter D is thinking about purple hair for the summer – I like Amy’s (you can donate cut hair to charities for children with cancer, by the way – D was going to do that recently but didn’t have a long enough pony-tail). Your garden looks wonderfully abundant, especially the herbs. Slugs sadly ate my squash plants within a week of planting them. Your shawl will be lovely, such a soothing shade 🙂
Cathy x
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We use Sluggo. You need some slugs for composting, but they are pesky about eating all the new growth. I like her short hair. So easy!
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Your daughter’s hair looks great, the cut and the color. I wish I could get away with blue hair. It’s lovely to see your flowers and fruits and vegetables, they seem to be doing really well. Hope your weather improves soon.
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Amy, that is the cutest cut and the highlighting looks great! We more “mature” ladies envy your love of life, enjoy it to the fullest. You’ll have plenty of time to be adult. There is something special about your age and we get the chance to relive ours a bit through you! Thank you for that! Love to you and your family from a hot muggy Florida right now!
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I LOVE your daughter’s hair cut and especially the colour! She looked just as beautiful when it was long and blue. The colour is quite flattering. Great job.
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Your yarn is stunning …. I feel a purchase moment coming on! I wish my plants looked as healthy as yours. Have a great weekend! xxx
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Been waiting for the result of the bedroom paint & piccy…….please. Lovely garden and I adore the hair cut and the blue……….
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Oh my goodness look how grown up Amy looks now, her hair is gorgeous!
So glad Toby is enjoying a bit of gardening, even if it means you getting a bit damp! 🙂
I’m afraid slugs ans snails have caused quite a bit of damage in my garden too and that’s with the use of nematodes, there is just no way of getting them all unfortunately. They have completely destroyed my zinnias which I’m not very happy about!!!
Beautiful hydrangea and your shawl is gorgeous.
Happy weekend Julie,
V x
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Our Summer holiday has started off in a similar way… my son wants to dye his hair blue!!
Also losing a battle against slugs and snails, hate using pellets… but you appear to be winning, how on earth did you manage to grow kale without them eating it?! My bunnies are envious!
Toby will be out of a job this weekend, no watering necessary : (
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your daughter’s hair looks amazing! love the short cut. And I love how lush your garden looks, although apparently so do the slugs! I’ve heard beer traps work great for slugs, but they have to be in deep enough cups- if the cups of beer are too shallow, then can get back out again.
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I love Amy’s haircut. My 13 year old daughter, Tess, coincidentally has the very same cut and we donated the 14 inches cut off this spring to Pantene’s Beautiful Lengths as well as the 10 we cut off last year. It was hard to say good bye as it had been growing since she was 8 and was past her waist. She is anxiously awaiting her Confirmation in December so once that is over and the pictures taken, she can color her hair–she’s holding out for bright pink.
I didn’t plant a garden this year but we have a very healthy volunteer in the squash family, I think it might be a pumpkin. We have our fingers crossed that the squirrels won’t get at whatever it is but if so, I guess I need to have the “easy come, easy go” kind of attitude.
Your photos are lovely and remind me of the garden my parents had when I was growing up, funny how much I hated picking raspberries then and now I hate paying the grocery store prices for the very little packages they come in.
Enjoy the rest of your summer!!
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Yummy green photos !
Ahhhh those stitches on the needle ….. !
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Hi Julie! I love Amy’s short haircut – very flattering, and she is a beautiful young lady. I even like the blue, and I usually don’t like colored hair (I’m an old fuddy-duddy I suppose!). Your pictures, as usual, are lovely, an as always it makes me happy to see a new post.
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Amy’s hair looks gorgeous! Well done on Toby for being interested in the garden. I cannot wait to have a garden again. Your kale looks wonderful. I hope you get lots of knitting done on your shawl and enjoy the rainy day!
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Amy’s hair looks stunning! Have a lovely summer Julie xx
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Your garden is looking so happy. I love growing vegies – good for the soul. The shawl is beautiful and can’t wait to see the post of it finished. X
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What a stunning hair cut Amy has, and the colour looks fabulous. As does that yarn … how does it knit up Julie, what’s its hand like?
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The blue hair looks well – very subtle. The rabbits have eaten our pea plants as soon as they started to grow. Most other crops are going well. We also planted new raspberry canes but don’t expect to get any fruit this year.
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Awww, your sweet little Amy is growing up before our very eyes — such a cute new hairdo! And your garden looks beautiful. I’m especially admiring your courgettes — I only plant tomatoes and zucchini and they’re both looking awful this year. I hope the sun will be shining on you soon!
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I hope one day to have a lovely vegetable garden – nothing tastes better than homegrown veg!
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Ducks are a non chemical slug eradicator 🙂
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We have snails in our walled, concreted, back yard. I’ve tried growing peas but the snails got ’em. Runner beans have been much more successful. I managed courgettes a couple of times too, before they mildewed. Husband now says he doesn’t like courgettes. Come to think of it, dwarf French beans didn’t do to badly, though I might plant the climbing form another time to give more opportunity for pod produciton.
One thing which does well in the yard is the honeysuckle. That’s rooted through a crack in the concrete into the ground beneath. It grows rampageously, blossoms, fills with small moths and provides cover for legions of snails! I shall have to cut it back. I may find a hitherto unknown civilisation under it!
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slugs and snails all over my garden and nibbling at my strawberries! the fruit seems to be growing regardless though 🙂 glad to hear you are having so many successes in the garden, and it sounds like a lovely first week to start off the summer holidays. HUGE fan of Amy’s hair! jenny xx
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Slugs, snails, mice, and caterpillars… we are happy to have toads and birds to help but we also need a few cruel traps as we want (and deserve!) our share of the crops in the garden after the hard work… I love your daughter’s hair style, I also kept my daughter’s long plait when she decided to cut her hair. I am glad Toby enjoys garden activities, it is certainly good for him. Enjoy your knitting during rainy days! Anne
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Thanks Christine, hope you’re having a good summer too x
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It’s wonderful that hair can be donated to such a great cause and we looked into donating Amy’s ponytail but because her hair was bleached and coloured previously it wasn’t suitable. Hope your daughter enjoys going purple – we used Renbow Crazy Color Semi Permanent Hair Color Cream in Bubblegum Blue (the same as our hairdresser used last year). Originally I was a bit nervous about it washing out in time for the start of school but by the end of last summer it had all washed out and lots of people had given me useful tips for getting rid of the last traces.
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Thanks for the tip Pam, I’ll have a look at sluggo x
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Amy has really loved reading all of the kind comments about her hair, thanks so much Jennifer x
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What a lovely message Sara, thanks so much, Amy was really happy to read it xxx
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Thanks so much Elizabeth. I can tell how much all of the lovely comments mean to her x
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I couldn’t resist the yarn – it is lovely and so many different subtle colour shifts throughout it x
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Thanks Deborah. The bedroom is all finished and I do have pictures to post! x
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Thanks so much Vivienne. She has grown up so quickly – it’s a bit scary! It doesn’t seem that long ago that I was brushing her long hair every morning and plaiting it ready for school (admist much complaining and occasional tears when it was very knotty!). When she was younger she used to hate going to the hairdressers to have it cut – her aim at one point was to be able to sit on her hair but the sudden change to short hair was entirely her own idea and a sign that she’s not a little girl anymore.
If I find a good slug deterrent I’ll let you know. I hope the rest of your lovely garden is in full bloom and doing well xxx
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We did have rather a lot of rain didn’t we, so you were right about Toby not needing to water. Hopefully summer weather will return soon! All of my kale and broccoli are netted mostly against cabbage white butterflies which we get a lot of and whose caterpillars seem to be able to eat an entire cabbage almost overnight, but it also helps keep the larger slugs out. My chickens are grateful as they get a handful of leaves as a treat each afternoon.
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Thanks so much Julie, she’s had a real confidence boost from all of the lovely comments. I’m going to give beer traps a go as I’ve heard they work well too and it seems not such a bad way for them to meet their end!
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Well done to Tess for donating her beautiful hair to such a wonderful cause. It’s lovely that as our girls grow they make these independent choices about their appearance, finding a little more about who they are as they grow into the women they will become.
Hope you have a great summer too and that the squirrels stay away and you get a pumpkin or too in the autumn x
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Thanks Els, I love those stitches too – the subtle colours in this yarn are beautiful.
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Thanks so much Susan. I wasn’t sure about Amy dying her hair blue but it does suit her and she really loves it so feels confident when she goes out. It’s also a good compromise as I’m not yet ready to agree to the septum piercing that she longs for!
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It is lovely to be able to involve Toby in garden watering. For a 13 year old boy his interests are extremely limited (really just bubbles, bouncing, duplo lego and videos). I’m on a mission to try and expand on what he spends his time doing in the hope that we’ll tap into something that becomes a hobby for him.
Hope you have access to a garden in the not too distant future. I used to grow tons of things in pots when we had a small flat but there is a limit to how much you can fit in!
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Thanks Gina, you too xxx
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Growing veggies is very rewarding isn’t it? I’ve never had the same delight from flower growing as I do from growing a big, fat, glossy courgette – tastier too! x
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Thanks Annie – Amy’s getting so much pleasure from all of the compliments.
The yarn is lovely. I’ve not used it before but will do again. It’s a single ply and knits into a delicate fabric with a soft halo. It does shed a little fuzz on knitting and I’m not yet sure how much it will pill but based on what I’ve knitted so far I think it will be fine. The colours in it are wonderful – subtle shifts from brown to grey with little flecks of mustard for a stitch or two. Hopefully it will make a nice shawl after blocking (though at the moment in it’s crumpled state it has the uninspiring look of an oily rag!)
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It surprised me to find so many emerging raspberries on our new canes as like you Gillian I wasn’t expecting a crop from the first year. It won’t be a big harvest but I’m very happy to have an unexpected handful of delicious berries – hopefully your new plants will surprise you too x
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Sorry to hear your zucchini and tomatoes are not doing well Anna. They’re often both top performers in the garden, though I’ve found that tomatoes and me are incompatible (at least from a growing point of view – I love to eat them though).
Thanks so much for your compliment of Amy’s hair, it does make her look older which she likes for the most part although it got her into trouble on the train when the ticket inspector didn’t believe she was 15 and made her pay the extra for an adult fare!
Still waiting for the sunshine here – hopefully it’s shining there with you xxx
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You’re right Bekah and fresh picked produce is packed with vitamins which tend to degrade a short time after picking so I hope that it’s not too long before you have a little patch to call your own x
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They are, aren’t they 🙂
I’m still plotting how we could fit a small flock of Indian Runners into a corner of our garden. Maybe one day we’ll have this most excellent way of being rid of slugs x
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You are lucky to have honeysuckle growing abundantly – it smells so wonderful, especially on warm summer evenings. It does have a tendency to take over though when it’s happy and I hope any civilisations you find when you cut it back are friendly 🙂
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Hope you manage to get to most of your strawberries before the slugs and snails nibble them. Thanks for the lovely comment about Amy’s hair x
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It always seems that the slugs, snails, mice and caterpillars outnumber the frogs, toads, birds, hedgehogs and other creatures that feast on them so yes a few traps are sometimes in order – I think I’ll give beer traps a go for the slug problem.
Knitting certainly helps make a rainy day a nicer one but I’m missing the sunshine now so hopefully we’ll see a little more of that before the end of summer! Hope you’re having a good summer Anne x
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I’m giggling at the image of Toby watering the flowers, and you, and everything else around him as we have had the same thing here this year with Levi “helping” me in the gardens.
I too have a slug problem in my veggie and flower patches. It’s called, Me! It’s hot and humid and I feel quite sluggish and have to make myself ooze out to the gardens each day to water and maintain. Darn slugs!!!
Your Amy is growing up!! I think her hair is darling but then again, this comes from the above mentioned slug who herself cut her hair quite short, again!
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Hello, just found your lovely blog. Your daughter’s hair is gorgeous! I’m just wondering…we lived in England for a year and my daughter, who was 13-14 at the time, had short hair and really, really struggled with the bullying because of it. It seemed not another female soul her age in England had short hair! All what we called the Essex Bun! (we lived in both Essex and on the Hertfordshire/Cambridgeshire border, so granted we may not have had the most diverse demographic to deal with! How does Amy get along?
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