Sunny Day!

In spite of the grey weather the sun is shining in our front room. Prepping up the next 100 sheep cards, mostly sunny just a few rainy day sheep.

These are definately Somerset sheep ready to go in the 303 Gallery. My work is just SO up to date!

Yesterday I planted my first batch of broad beans, onions, antirrhinums (rather over fancy azalea types for cut flowers) and some little blue bedding plants whose seed was so tiny I really thought the packet was empty. All the pots are upstairs at the moment although I think its probably a bit cool for quick germination but there are not many windowsills in this house and all the best ones are already full of plants...ok yes and general junk like jam pots and paint brushes. Decided they did need a bit more warmth, like all of us, so I managed to snuggle them in on my crowded windowsill.Now checking them optimistically every day, way too soon for anything except weeds to be sprouting.

Rhubarb,rhubarb...and beetroot!

We walked up to the sunny allotment and picked parsnips, carrots, swede and a huge beetroot for a weeks worth of roast veg and large soups. I was amazed to see that the rhubarb has put on loads of lovely new growth, and am now realising too late that I should have picked it before tonight's potential frost. Its so mild I have had to put out slug pellets to protect my hellebore plants.

The main enemy of the beetroot seems to be woodlice rather than slugs, but they just seem to nibble out nest holes rather than chomp the whole thing. This beet is at least 5" in diameter but should be fine after a slow roast.

A Big Thank You!

Just as everyone was finishing up Mother Nature said a big thank you for clearing all our grotty human rubbish of her fabulous beach. She produced a wonderful triple rainbow arching right over Chiswell and ending up just in the breaking  waves at the shoreline. Oh to be able to photograph it well enough to really do it justice.

Souvenir cider!

I didn't even know there was cider maker in Weymouth but they donated many bottles of their cider with special souvenir labels saying "Thank you for helping clear the beach - Chesil 2014".

First find your tackle...

 This poor guys winch equipment which he uses for launching his fishing boat down the beach, has been buried many feet deep where the beach has been reshaped in the storms.

Mermaids?

We were working on the back of the beach where things had got flung by the highest waves that actually made it right over the beach. Among the flotsam and jetsam were a number of these really big mermaids purses, about 5cm long. Its quite rare here for these big deep water ones to get ashore. Hope there are plenty left to hatch into baby Skate next summer.

The big beach clean!

Today there was a fabulous community effort to clean the beach. Social media ensured hundreds of people turned up to fill the row of skips donated by Portland Skip Hire, and with bags, gloves, tea, coffee and biscuits all donated by local branches of Tesco and  B&Q among others it was brilliant. Someone even had one of those remote helicopter cameras to film all the volunteers. Most of the rubbish this week seemed to be fishing lines and nets which would be awful if it stayed out in the sea.

I was worried that Mama's Christmas cacti wouldn't like moving but they have been flowering for over a month and are loving the extra light.

A beautiful sunset walk last night highlighted the new profile of the beach after the storm. People have been hard at work all day filling masses of bin bags with all the rubbish that the storm brought in. Now all the plastic has gone there is just masses of wood and the carcasses of a poor cow and two dolphins who got caught in the storm.

No, that's not the prison fencing, its down through the school playground!

Today is so beautifully blue and sunny, can't believe the storms happened. We were in Weymouth this morning walking in Newton's Cove where we watched the Olympics and these bushes of yellow daisies were in full flower and covered with bees!

I was meant to be sewing sheep but spent a lot of the day watching the amazing waves...along with lots of the national press.

My first day of work in the new workshop.