Beach barbecue..................

Happy times at Hill House with Kath, Angie and Cara, including a barbecue on the beach.............it may not be immediately obvious that this is a fried egg served on a beach plate (rock.......) - good to know those ol' campfire skills are still there...................

Kath's Hill House pictures

New fireplace!

Hooray! it is now possible to sit in the living-room with the fire on without breathing apparatus.........we have christened the new fireplace and it meets with feline approval. Meanwhile back at the ranch in the garden, the Son of Edinburgh Cotoneaster is in its new home by the drainpipe................the pernettya and various bits that fell off it are up with the rhodies by the fence, and the new heather bed has been constructed and looks very nice...........bees are loving the phacelia, the cos lettuce are delicious and the antirhinos are working, we have seen no rhinos in the yard and they look very pretty. ............indoor painting now complete and downstairs habitable, upstairs still a work in progress..............

Evening light..............

Organised chaos

The new compost bins are now in place, not without a considerable struggle. They were very shoddily made, one package had instructions but no screws and the other screws but no instructions. However they are more or less put together, and the compost is in them festering away nicely................

Moved the little rhododendron from the back corner to Blueberry Hill by the pond................it looked a bit unhappy and was getting squashed against the fence, so hopefully will appreciate more room and air.................

Meanwhile back at the ranch the painting proceeded.................Carrie doing the porch and shower room...............

Highland Tiger..................

Katisha taking a walk on the hill...............

Fountain in action!

And on it I will pile all the flowers of the mountain..................

Slaving over a hot paintbrush..............

Rhodies in bloom, and fine crop of chives!

It actually works! The hill water now runs through the girder and trickles prettily into the pond then flows out the other side. I've planted some water mint and bloody dock for it to flow through; we have fed the red rhodie and given it some ericaceous compost to help it settle in its new position, plus moss and wild thyme from the hill. A bargain blueberry is also in position, not sure if it will make it because on removing the wrapper it was fairly obvious why it was a bargain, but OTOH we have quite a good record with rescue plants. Ditto the loganberry which in in between the raspberries where the compost bins used to be. Have planted some sedums and other creepers and crawlers in between the stones on the dry side..........lamium, snow-in-summer (its fourth move, from Mum's garden to S Queensferry to Trinity to Onich - not the same bit, obviously........), common thyme and saxifrage. Clump of meadowsweet on the boggy side which looks awful at the moment but hopefully will take OK. Now all we can do is leave it all to settle and see what happens............

By yon pure crystal fountain.................

Made in Scotland from girders...............I didn't really have any intention of building a water feature today, it started with a little light pruning and one thing led to another...........just as well I'm not a surgeon eh. Having moved the red rhodie we were left with an 'ole, and we were also left with the old RIG (rusty iron girder)..............add the 'ole and the RIG to Carrie's fertile mind, and hey presto! our very own burn, complete with cascade feature. Or not hey presto actually, but a great deal of hacking and slogging from me. Yes, at the moment it looks a bit eccentric and does indeed appear to be a muddy puddle, but it is in fact an original Gooch Artwork and will be worth a lot of money one day.........

Bye-bye kale

The kale surely holds the record for Most Conscientious Vegetable and we had yet another stir-fry with the shoots last night, but they are getting just a tiny bit tough so we steeled ourselves to bid it farewell...........not that it's gone very far because it's on the compost heap. In its place are spinach seeds and PSB (Purple Sprouting Broccoli or Pre-School Booster, depending on context.......)
Pleased to see tiny beetroot seedlings appearing and phacelia with carrot next door..........leaf beet, spicy salad mix and cos lettuce also on the way............last year's rocket seeds in between the rows of potatoes...........
Mint, parsley and chives from the garden on tonight's potatoes, so there are things to eat already..................

We're terribly house and garden..................

Fantastic weather continues..............so the indoor workers got the short straw. Blazing sunshine and no wind. Ground absolutely bone dry. So...........time to give the bushes a haircut with the new toy, a little electric trimmer..............it's very sweet but managed to chomp through some quite substantial twigs. No, we are not going to make the potentilla into a topiary roe deer. However some of the rhodies are getting a baldy to encourage new growth. The berberis have also had a trim shampoo and set, and we have structural plans.................but really too hot today for much heavy work, so a little light planting of courgettes, sunflowers, borage, squash and rocket was about all that could be managed..........

New hall lights are up! Carrie and John washing walls and caulking..........the strange hieroglyphic map above is Charles' wiring diagram so not surprisingly the electrics are taking a while to sort out.............fiat lux!

Phoebe's wood anemones

They have settled in beautifully in the little round bed behind the azalea, important to remember where they are because they will disappear until next spring..................

Lots of work done on the most glorious day of the year, it was HOT but no midgies! Indoor works continue while lucky gardeners get to work outside.................

The plastic compost bins are gone, and in their place are the raspberry canes which will hopefully enjoy having their feet plonked into the compost.............salads are starting to appear, also carrots, but the kale still going strong. Potatoes planted, beds weeded, molehills transported for soil improvement. Lobelias and Busy Lizzies into the shady beds along with lily of the valley, dahlias and gladioli. Herb barrow replanted with some herbs from Edinburgh added - two kinds of marjoram, thyme "Highland Cream", variegated sage and pineapple mint. Two containers planted, one with pansies and the other with begonias and nasturtiums. Now all we need is some clement weather and appropriate showers..................

So perish all the Queen's enemies..................

The Extremely Thorny Tree that gave Katisha such a terrible fright is no more............well, not dead but certainly sleeping having had a severe No 1 crop from me and John with the loppers and the saw.............I think it's a berberis rather than Smallpussus quasistrangulatus as we thought, with amazing bright yellow wood and lots and lots of growth rings.............

The season begins..................

and the pyromaniacs have arrived...............

Hill House work week..........Carrie and John beavering away moving stuff around for the decorators and creating a pyro pile...........Catherine weeding the veg beds and preparing for the growing season. Although much to our amazement despite the severe winter the veg are hanging on in there.............we knew kale was tough and the old leaves certainly are but it has produced flower shoots which are just like purple sprouting broccoli and very tasty and tender..............we also tried what Joy Larcom's book suggested after the cabbages were harvested, to cut the stems across so that they would sprout again..........it worked so each one had produced four little cabbagelets, one at each corner. I have moved the leeks into a new empty bed and the thinnings are coming to Edinburgh, or rather the lucky ones are, the rest will be tomorrow's dinner. certainly weren't expecting to be eating anything out of the garden at this stage, so a nice surprise!

Some red lettuce had also made it through the winter, so they are also in a new bed which will be the designated salad bed.............green cos, chervil, spicy salad mix and leaf beet are in too with one of the old windows on top to encourage germination...............