The Warmest Day.

All readings are taken from a sheltered location in our

garden and cover a 24 hour period starting at 6pm.

Low Temp: 1.3C

High Temp: 18.4C

Rainfall: 0.0mm

Strongest Gust of wind: 2.4 mph

Weather Today: Bright and sunny, the warmest day so far this year.

Today has been a nice day so I've just about managed to get all the rose prunning finished off, there is just a little bit to do tomorrow all being well. I also got my two big Tomato plants put in the greenhouse border after giving the greenhouse a good clean down the other day. I have four more plants a bit smaller than the ones in the picture and then I have some more smaller still. I've tried to stagger the growth a bit this time because last year I ended up with a great lot all ready at the same time, also I might try and grow a few of the smallest ones outside, it will depend on what sort of summer we have as to whether that one will work out okay.

I took the picture below last Saturday when I was out walking Tommy, it was just to show how wet it was everywhere. The weather as improved no end since then and now things are a little drier than it looks in the picture. In Fact today has been the warmest day of the year so far.

I think I'm going to have to bring out the lawn mower this week as the grass is starting to grow and will do so even more if the warmer weather continues.

Well I'm going to be getting off to my bed in a minute after I've doing some printing work for Vicki. I have to scan the document first and I don't use the scanner very often so I'm never sure if its going to co-operate or not. If it doesn't then the job will have to wait until tomorrow night.

Y'all take care now,

Bob.

Taking Stock.

All readings are taken from a sheltered location in our

garden and cover a 24 hour period starting at 6pm.

Low Temp: 0.8C

High Temp: 10.6C

Rainfall: 1.2mm

Strongest Gust of wind: 1.4 mph

Weather Today: A Brighter day with some showers.

Tonights picture from Malta is of a couple of farmers doing their thing - whatever that was. From what I saw all the farming was done this way, by hand, I don't recall seeing any tractors working the land, in fact you couldn't get a tractor on to most of the fields, each one being not much bigger than an allotment plot. Also take note of the wild flowers, any uncultivated land was usually packed full of flowers.

I found out today from the keeper that the family have returned to London, I was expecting them to be here all week so I don't know if something has gone off to force an early return.

Today I set out to plant up a couple of big Tomato plants but after only getting the canes in, I usually put those in first and plant to them so as not to spear the plant later. Anyway I got no further because after standing and taking stock a while (like the farmers in the picture above) I decided that the greenhouse needed a clean up. I have the plastic bubble wrap up all winter and it seems to turn the glass green so after lunch I set too and washed all the glass in the first part of the house and then I disinfected all the walls and any other bits that looked like good hiding places for nasty critters. So now its all fresh and clean ready for the summer. I have the second part to do sometime but I will wait until I move the plants from there to the conservatory for the summer.

More Trashy Questions.

Its been yet another cold, damp, grey day and like HORIZON I'm fed up of it so I thought I would start this post with a spot of fishing in blue water under blue skies.All readings are taken from a sheltered location in our

garden and cover a 24 hour period starting at 6pm.

Low Temp: 2.0C

High Temp: 7.1C

Rainfall: 0.3mm

Strongest Gust of wind: 1.7 mph

Weather Today: Cold, grey and dull, bring on global warming.

Hello everyone, I sure hope you're better than the weather because here its pretty dull and boring and I would hate to put you in the same class as that.

As the weather has been so horrible I did a bit of sorting out in the greenhouse, I've also planted up a couple of growbags with Strawberry plants to grow on in the greenhouse. I've grown them in 9 inch pots before but I thought I would try growbags this year. By the time I got finished doing other stuff I only had time to plant one up but I will soon do the other one in the morning. As you can perhaps see I've put 10 plants in each bag and sunk a couple of plant pots in the middle as an aid to watering.

When planted up I put them on the shelf in the roof of the greenhouse, apparently this was a common practise in days gone by. I put them up there as they are well out of reach of the young master when he comes round. I don't mind him eating them but he has a habit of picking them and then throwing them away which to me seems a waste. Hopefully the strawberries will all hangdown over the side of the bag.

Today I was questioned two more times about emptying the rubbish bins, this is getting too strange now. Young May was one who asked, I can overlook her query but the other one to ask was the former lady to the big house and to me that explains a lots. It would certainly explain why the gentleman to the big house was asking such questions out of the blue, it would also explain how a couple of photo's my our friend in front of the house turned in to photographic tours of the gardens. I'm in two minds as to whether or not to phone the gentleman to the big house and ask him whats going on - but then would I be leaving myself open to accusations of being over sensitive?

Mdina

All readings are taken from a sheltered location in our

garden and cover a 24 hour period starting at 6pm.

Low Temp: -1.2C

High Temp: 6.7C

Rainfall: 0.3mm

Strongest Gust of wind: 3.1 mph

Weather Today: Cold and sunny in the morning becoming overcast in the afternoon.

Hello everyone, how are you today? I didn't get to tell you yet but on Sunday it was my mum's birthday so we all went out for a Sunday lunch at a pub near to where she lives. Most of the family were there and we all had a great time. After the lunch we all went back to my sisters house for a cup of tea and a chat and a piece of birthday cake. Below is a picture I took of my mum whilst we were there.

Tonights pictures of Malta come from Mdina which is a very nice old walled city full of old buildings, passage ways and wonderful views. I haven't include the views tonight as I will put them in a seperate post. Below is a link to a website about Mdina and for those who don't have time to visit the website I've included an extract from it.

http://www.holiday-malta.com/resort/malta/village/mdina/index.html

The old capital of Mdina is a most interesting and typical mediaeval town situated in the centre of the island. The "Silent City", as it is also known, commands a magnificent view of the Island and although it is fully inhabited, silence reigns supreme. It is thought to have been first populated by the Phoenicians around 1000 BC. When Malta came under the Romans, the Governor chose to build his Palace there and it housed the government. The city earned its present day name from the Saracens who came to Malta around 870 AD. They surrounded the city with thicker walls, separating it from its nearest town, Rabat. Today, mercifully it is mainly off limits to cars and there is a calming atmosphere as you walk along its narrow streets and ways, passing by some of the best Norman and Baroque architecture on the island. Several Palaces are situated here, most serving as private homes. The Cathedral is worth visiting and is fronted by a large square, the only open space you'll find within this tiny City.

Mdina from below the walls.

The city gateway.

A courtyard with super model included.

I love the colour of the stone in the setting sun.

Some of the alleys and passage ways.

We went to Mdina twice, once in the evening and then again during the day which is why there are two lots of pics, some with street lights on and some without. During our evening visit John treated us to cocktails in a very exclusive hotel and then during our day time visit we had a very nice lunch there too.

Well I'd better go as it looks like Vicki and John are hot on the trail of another restaurant!

All the best,

Bob.

The Church At Mosta.

All readings are taken from a sheltered location in our

garden and cover a 24 hour period starting at 6pm.

Low Temp: 1.2C

High Temp: 9.6C

Rainfall: 1.8mm

Strongest Gust of wind: 5.4 mph

Weather Today: Cold and windy with snow showers.

Today I'm going to show you some pictures from inside the church at Mosta.

A distance view of Mosta church

The domed roof from inside. During the second world war a bomb came straight through this dome and landed in the church, the bomb failed to explode so the church and everyone in it was spared.

This is the actual bomb that came through the roof.
A couple of views from inside, it was all very colourful with lots of interesting paintings to look at.

There were also quite a few of these statue type things which they carry in a procession around the town during Easter, I think it would be quite a spectacle. They are all scenes depicting the crucifixion of Christ.

We also visited another chuch whilst we were there but I will save those pics for another time.

When I had my tour of the garden with boss last Thursday he made several suggestions as to how to remove the old Evergreen Oak tree stump from the lawn, in my mind none of which were practical or likely to work. I know the gamekeeper some times has a mini digger so I suggested he might come and dig it out the next time he has it so he said to ask him some time. So that was that. Then this morning when I was out with Tommy I saw the keeper with a mini digger so with it being so soon after my suggestion I assumed the boss had said something to him but when I went to see the keeper it turns out the boss never mentioned it in spite of spending an hour talking to him the day before. It was just a coincidence he had the digger when he did. He only had it for the day but was more than happy to come and dig out the sump for me. It just meant I had to put in a couple of hours on my day off. I didn't mind though because at least the stump is out now.

A Maltese Garden.

Hello everyone, I hope you’re all doing fine. Bob has had a day off work today due to it being a holiday.

Tonight’s pics from Malta were taken in the gardens to the presidential palace, they were very nice gardens although there was this other place that we went where the gardens were even better – in my opinion. I will show you those another time though.

Look at the roots of this tree.

The pots in these next two pics were planted with red Geraniums. I liked the way they had them arranged.

A group of Cacti

You know, a funny thing happened to us on our first night in Malta. We were met at the airport by our friends who then took us back to their apartment and wined and dined us. We of course had a lot to talk about having not seen each other for well over ten years so by the time we left for the apartment that we were renting for the week it was three o’clock in the morning. On arriving there Tony went first with the key to open the door and put on the lights but when he tried the key it wouldn’t fit the lock so we thought maybe we made a mistake and was trying to get in to the wrong apartment so he went upstairs and tried the door to apartment number two. The key fit and the door opened only to be stopped by the chain on the inside! After a bit of puzzling we came to the conclusion that the owner of the apartments had given John the wrong keys so we all returned to our friends place to spend our first night there. Of course there was no great harm done but we have laughed several times since about how different the situation would have been had the people in apartment number two not thought to put the chain on their door before going to bed LOL! I’m not sure who would have had the biggest shock, us or them.

It’s a shame your friend has a fear of flying Kimmie, its hard to think of how to set a person at ease when they have such a fear. Really though all I can do is say how it was for me and that is that it was more boring than frightening. I liked the taking off and landing bits, I liked looking out the window but there was a lot of cloud so there wasn’t much to see, especially when going as it went dark pretty quick. To be honest I’ve had more frightening car journeys.

Views & Flowers.

Hello everyone, how are you today? The family have moved in to the big house for the week with it being the Easter holidays, thankfully I’ve finished work now until Tuesday morning so with a bit of luck won’t be seeing too much of them. I had to walk around the gardens with the gentleman this afternoon, it went okay, no complaints or anything. I don’t know what it is but for some reason I always feel uneasy after a walk around with them, I think it’s a deep rooted mistrust of them, I see a double meaning to the most mundane of questions like for instance he asked me today if I put the trash bins out for collection on collection day, I don’t know why he asked me this because he’s seen me putting them out and bringing them back again so now I’m wondering why he asked me. So that’s why I always feel uneasy about seeing them, he obviously had a reason to ask me but I will never know why. Anyway I do put them out and if someone has been telling him different they are lying.

I managed to get a lot more rose pruning done today even though its not been rose pruning weather, I don’t have a great deal more to do now thank goodness.

Hi Kimmie, Yes I loved Malta very much and yes I like flying too, I was not afraid of it anyway even though I had not flown before, it was very exciting. I think next time I will take a book with me or something because I got a bit bored of just sitting there doing nothing, I wanted to go and fly the plane or serve some drinks or something LOL! It was very inviting and also quite warm but not unpleasant at around 23C during the day and 15C at night, and for sure I will be going again and I would also like to go visit other places now too.

Hi Jim, Thanks for the award, I will go and take a look at it either tonight or tomorrow, its very kind of you to pass it on to me. The Popeye movie was made around 1980 I think. Sorry I should have explained about an allotment shed. For those that don’t know here in the UK you can apply to rent a small piece of ground from the council or other private body for the purpose of gardening. There are usually many allotments all in one area and it gets to be a bit like a gardening club and is actually an enjoyable way of making lots of gardening friends. Anyway on these allotments there is usually at least one shed per plot of land, and some sheds tend to be better than others. When I had my allotment the shed on it when I took to it was very shaky and looked a bit like the one in the Popeye Village.

Well I think I’ve talked enough so here are tonight’s Malta pics. As promised last night they were taken on a little walk me and Vicki took along a cliff top with Tony. Apart from the sun and wonderful views there were many beautiful plants growing wild.

This is a small Chapel by the parking area.

Some of the views.


Some of the plants.
They were actually pulling some of these up to throw away.

Tomorrow I will show you a garden that we visited so take care and I will see you tomorrow.

Bob.

Popeye Village.

Good evening to you all, I hope you had or are having a great day. Sorry for not giving you any weather updates lately but I haven't really gotten back in to the swing of things just yet.

Tonight I am going to show you some more pics I took on our holiday to Malta, they are of Popeye Village. Apparently they made a movie a few years back about Popeye The Sailor Man, I can't say that I can recall it but anyway it was filmed in Malta and when they were finished they left the set for the film where it was and it's become a tourist attraction. Unfortunately the day we were there it was closed but I managed to get some pics of it for you from the opposite cliff top.

How would you like to live in a house like this?
I once had an allotment shed that looked something like the shed in the next pic.
The next two are close-ups of a couple of things I spied.

Following the trip to Popeye Village we went on a cliff top ramble, I will show you the pics from that tomorrow.

Bob.

Bob Is Back.

Hello everyone, how are you? As you will see we are back safe and well from our trip to Malta. We had a really great time and can’t wait to go again. As you will know if you read my blog before I went that I was unsure what to expect as I purposely did no research so as not to arrive with any preconceived ideas about the place. Its easy to read about a place and either be pleasantly surprised or disappointed by the reality so I just wanted to go and make my own mind up about the place. It was all so different to what I’m used too so much so that when I first saw the place I wondered what I’d let myself in for but after a couple of days I really relaxed and began to enjoy myself and by the end I was really sad to be leaving. The weather was brill, just blue skies all day and everyday, the Maltese people were really friendly and did whatever they could to make us feel welcome. I took loads of pics of plants, gardens, buildings, views and a few other things besides so I will show you some of them over the coming posts. Tonight I will just show you a few pics of us and our friends.

This first picture is of Vicki and our friend John who was an absolute star without whom we would only have seen a fraction of the things we did. He showed us just about every Nook and cranny there is on the island of Malta even though at times he was suffering, so if you read this John, thanks once again for making our holiday so enjoyable.

Here is another picture of John, although I think really its supposed to be of the building and courtyard.

This one is of me Vicki and our other friend Tony, this was taken at the airport as we were saying goodbye. Unfortunately Tony had to work so wasn't able to come with us everyday but even so he still managed to devote several days to us all of which were fun packed and interesting.

This picture is of me and Vicki, I'm sorry I can't tell you where its taken as I didn't know were I was half the time, I think it was taken on the second day of our visit, we were just having a walk along the water front after a lovely meal, it was nice just to sit in the sun at the water front restaurants drinking wine and watching the world go by.

Well I will leave it there for today, I will post some more of our pics tomorrow.

Bob.

I'll be off to Malta now.

Hello everyone, We are going to be getting on our way in a short while so there won't be anymore posts for a week and a bit. If you want you can check out my calendar feature in my sidebar as I will try and update it with news if possible. I hope you all have a good time whilst I'm away and I will look forward to seeing what you've been up too when I get back.

Bob.

Don't Stand There Lookin' Vacant.

Here is a little something I did for you this morning, sorry the picture isn't very clear but the camera man is rubbish.

Its 4 Polyanthus and a dozen Pansies, the Polyanthus are ones that I saved from last year and I've made a note to make more of an effort to save them this year as there is no reason not too except for limited time to re-plant them in to a summer bed. Anyway the above is part of the 'Plant up the round bed by Lily pond' job which isn't quite finished yet. I will point out that the above is not the round bed by the lily pond, it just happened to be there looking vacant so it got planted.

Look What Bob Found

Take a look at what Bob found in the garden today. It may be nothing special for some of you to see such things in the garden but for us here in the UK its not a common bird. I think it must have escaped from somewhere. Anyway I caught it and put it under the wire cage as I didn't want the dogs to get it. The gamekeeper has birds so I called him to see if he wanted it and he said he would come for it in the morning as he was away until later. So I left it in the greenhouse where it was warm.

If you look you will notice in my sidebar, just below my profile picture I've added a link to my calendar so anyone who wants can keep track of what I've been up too, or what jobs I'm doing. Let me know what y'all think so as I know whether to keep it up or not.

Well tomorrow is my last day at work, I can't say that I'm really excited about my holiday, I suppose because I don't know what to expect, you can't get excited if you don't know what to get excited about can you. I'm not really nervous or anything, just don't have any feelings about it at all.

Well I'm going to be getting off to my bed now.

Bob.

Mother's Day Work.

I'm afraid I can't stay and chat tonight as its getting late, been spending too much time in the secret garden! Anyway I just wanted to show you these, they are a few of the things Vicki did for people for mothers day which was this Sunday just past. I think they look really nice, the flower shop must have been a real picture if it was full of this sort of thing.

Bob.