Meanwhile Back at the Ranch

Meanwhile back at the ranch.... both greenhouses are full of plants mostly grown from seed and some plug plants I have nurtured to a sensible size. I have lots of flowers both perennial and bedding and some veg - sadly my tomatoes didn't do well so I had to resort to buying a few plants but everything else has really blossomed - I'm just waiting another week before I start planting out. I'm really hoping to have a lot more colour in the garden this year - there are a lot of established plants all over the garden - its been well thought out but its mainly green and a bit conifery for our taste - so we are still taking out leylandii - and I will add some more architectural plants in - Flax - Banana and I have grown Cardoons from seed - I saw them a couple of years ago while we were on holiday and I just love the size and magnificence of them so I hope mine turn out like that!!!

On the nice day this week we went for a fab walk through Binchester Woods. Full of bluebells and wild garlic... glorious colours and smells. Its not a very big area but was packed with bird song and wild flowers. We took a couple of bags to litter pick (you know - its not our waste but it is out planet kind of thing) and were completely amazed and pleased to find NONE!!!! We didn't see any one else out either and it was a little bit a peace and tranquility right on our doorstep. The trees are really starting to be in leaf now and the lush colour that spring brings is just radiant in the sunlight. Picnic next time....

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RubyStarrs in Paris...

Finally we have made it to Paris. It was a bit of a long travel day - we decided to come by train so we could experience the full glory of British Rail or whatever it's called now which actually delivered perfectly on time... and then the Eurostar which was incredibly disappointing! All that beautiful St. Pancreas Station and the Eurostar is sited in the dungeon... overcrowded, dark, lousy facilitated space... and then the train was an hour late it felt like a long time before we got any fresh air - but eventually we wound up in gay Paree... We navigated the metro and found our airbnb gaff. A mere 70 steps to the fourth floor on a rather lovely winding wooden staircase to a very nice roof top flat which is comfortable and gives a view across a lovely Courtyard with some obviously much posher flats. It's located really centrally about two minutes away from the Opera Garnier so a very good location for getting everywhere...

Funchal

So after three days at sea we finally hit Funchal in Madeira. An escape from the ship, and I have to say it was very pleasant indeed. First of all the weather is really splendid. Especially when you know that everybody else in the UK is suffering grim storms and vile winds.. Over here it is between 22 and 25 degrees is really quite warm. Funchal is a pretty city. It's built on a hill it with lots of lovely white houses with stunning red roofs. In order to get the best of it we walked along the sea front until we got to the cable car and we took it up the hill. It was a really good ride much longer than we imagined and it's quite weird because it goes right through the town - completely over everybody's house... So not only do you get a lovely vista of the bay but you can view the beautiful rooftops and get to look in everybody's gardens and to look at their picnic sets.. clean washing nice plants... scratty backyards.... We got off th

Another Day in Norway where our Trusty Traveller finds Tromsø, Trolls and Totally misses Aurora....

Tromsø - the most northern city on the planet... Its quite a pretty little town with lots of wood fronted shops, but of course like everywhere like this, it is just one big tourist hive and every shop is selling 'indigenous' gifts- didthe Sami make aurora themed mugs and fridge magnets? Nearest I'll get a polar bear (i hope) Although I have to say I did like the big stuffed polar bear and black bear and I am presuming that these are either not real (unlikely) or culled as they sometimes have to be. But most of the stuff is just northern lights tat or Troll tat. Peer Gynt.. famous worldover To be fair the best bit of Tromsø for me was the Troll Museum! We went to the art gallery which was quite interesting (see instagram account) but not astounding, but I always like to look at the local art. We had a mooch around town in the snow and then we went to find the Trolls. This museum was absolutely crazy daft... it was totally dedi

Planet Ruby Starrs

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