Changes ahead

March and April have come and gone since I last wrote anything here. A blur of wind, rain and chills.
But forget all that, we are off to sunnier climes very soon.
One of these beautiful old houses looking out over the sea at Antibes on the French Riviera is going to be our home for a week, along with our extended family, including the youngest member who is already getting into the part with his sun hat and cool shades. It's been less than a year since we were there last year but I can't wait. Love it.

And then when we come home we have a lot of interesting work challenges ahead as major changes are going to made to our little cottage in the form of some serious building work - the kind where some people would consider moving out for a few months while the builders move in. Except we won't just be living amongst it, we'll be trying to work in the midst of it too.
More about that later.

Not too long to go until Gardening Scotland rolls round again too. That's our first big event of the year - it seems such a long time since Christmas.

A Busy Few Weeks - in pictures...

Doesn't time fly? It's been over a month since I've been here on the blog to chat. As usual there's just not

enough hours in the day ( or night). But I'm now getting to grips with this iPhone and posting pics from it, so without too many words here is the reason for my absence, in pictures....

 Firstly Gardening Scotland, or the north of the border's answer to the Chelsea Flower Show. We had our usual stand in the Crafts Marquee and sweltered in temperatures of 25 degrees on the Friday, but shivered in three layers of woolies by the Sunday! I do like that show - we've taken part every year since it first started around 11 years ago, and a lot of our customers are regulars who come back every year. A special hello to the lady from Linlithgow I met on Sunday, by the way, who told me she reads the blog. I sometimes forget that people do actually read what I write, and it comes as a surprise when a complete stranger asks how I'm enjoying my new windows (previous post)!

 Lots of inspiration, of course. I loved this colour scheme of pink and lavender in Dougal Philip's (New Hopetoun Garden Centre) display garden. It was my favourite I think, and what's more they stock our cards so they obviously have good taste!

 More of the same display garden.

 And again.

 And here I'll slip in a few pictures of our garden here at Blacketyside.

 It's coming along quite nicely, especially after yesterday's relentless rain.

 My favourite flower is the hardy geranium and I've got more than forty different types in the garden. Some are a true blue like the one above. Others are shades of pink, lilac and white.

 But this year I fancied a change from geraniums. I always treat myself to a plant or two at Gardening Scotland - well, you can't not! So I chose two geums, the goldy orange above, and a red one. I like the orange providing a contrast to the blue geranium.

 So we got finished and packed up and home at 8pm on Sunday night. Tired, but happy that the show had gone well. We left the unpacking of the van until Monday morning and put our feet up to watch a film. So Monday should have been a day off. I say should, but....
Our next job was to unpack, sort everything out then zip over to Edinburgh airport to catch a flight down to Stansted. Laura (daughter) and her husband Greg live near there, but have just bought a house nearer to Cambridge and Tuesday was moving day, and we were going to be the helpers! Bob and Greg did the real heavy stuff filling two van loads, while Laura and I packed two car loads and cleaned the house they were leaving. Laura, being four and a bit months pregnant (YES I'M GOING TO BE A GRANNY!!) was not allowed to lift anything heavy, hence the reason we were there.
Anyway the pic above is their new living room - not a great deal to look at yet - but what's amazing is they have an open fire and the house is less than ten years old! I've never heard of new houses being built with open fires for logs or coal. What a bonus.

 We all worked like Trojans and they were preparing their first meal in their new kitchen within 24 hours of getting the keys.

This was the real selling point - the fourth bedroom. Built above the garage it's massive, with three windows and loads of space for a multi purpose room - office, studio, games room, gym whatever. I'm quite envious.
We had a lovely few days with them, even if Bob's old bones and back were feeling it a bit.
Now we're home and stuck into the orders that were waiting for us.
And in a couple of weeks we'll be packing the van to go to the Highland Show.
It's getting to that time of year again.
Bye for now.

Gardening Scotland

The first Craft Fair of the year is upon us. We were over in Edinburgh today setting up the stand - a love/hate job, meaning I love a well organised build up where everything goes swimmingly and the stand comes together well. And at the same time I hate the stress of multi tasking and remembering all the little things which, if forgotten can totally ruin the whole show. Like the time I forgot all the hooks to hang pictures and broke all my nails trying to bend paper clips into hook shapes. Or the time I forgot the cloths to cover the tables, or when I forgot the paint to personalise the cards and Bob had to be summoned from home fifty miles away.
There are many more disaster stories over the 21 years of Craft Fairs - daughter locking the keys in the car, breaking down on the way home and worse still on the way there..... I could go on. These are the stuff of my recurring nightmares.
Still, the weather forecast is good for the weekend, the stand is well stocked and it's one of my favourite venues mainly because I could (and invariably do) spend a fortune at all the different plant stalls. Last year it was the Meconopsis. I wonder what will tempt me this year?
Anyway, it's getting late and there are still one or two little tasks to do before bed - price tags to make etc.
Bob will be on duty behind the stand tomorrow and I'll be at home making more stock for Saturday, when it's my turn, and then we will both be there on Sunday which is when I get the chance to look round the show and spend the profits.
And if you are at the Art on the River market in Perth on Saturday, you will also see us there, or Bob anyway. Because we don't do things by halves, not us. Why stop at one major event on a weekend when you can make life even more stressed out by doing two?
Our trusty friend and work horse, the printer has decided to have an inkjet printhead cartridge nervous breakdown - no stamina that one - and chooses the worst times to print white lines through everything. I can guarantee it will suddenly recover and work perfectly as soon as the rush is over.
If you're visiting Gardening Scotland, don't forget to check out the Craft Marquee. There is some wonderful work on display.
I'll try to get some photos done on Saturday.

What Colour!

Amazing aren't they? These are our first attempts at growing meconopsis ( Himalayan poppies) - notoriously difficult to grow but we know the secret. It's this....
1.Buy a plant at the Gardening Scotland Gardening Show.
2.Stick it in the ground.
3. Forget all about it.
4. Find it a year later, budded and growing well.
5. Say " What's this plant? I don't remember planting it."
6. Two days later the buds open and this glorious blue poppy appears.
There are quite a few more buds waiting to open too.
Anyway, that was last year's Gardening Scotland show. This year's will be upon us soon - next week in fact. This will be the 11th year we have had a stand in the Craft Marquee, I think, and as usual we're at the coo's tail when it comes to preparation. It's the first main event of our craft fair season and it always sneaks up on us. So much to do, so little time.
If any of you are going to the show, please come in to the marquee and say hello.
It's being held at the Royal Highland Showground at Ingliston (near Edinburgh Airport) from Friday - Sunday of next week. Here is the link.