Growing Grape Vines

Mr MC&W likes a good climber on the house, to be totally honest I really am not that keen on them. We have ivy at the front which I keep secretly trying to rip bits down from. For ages he has wanted to grow a vine up the side of the house, he has always loved the one that grows on his parent's home. This has taken a lot of persuading and I have finally said yes but with the understanding, they are not allowed to get too big. 

The wall perfect for the vines

We have a perfect section of wall for the vines as it gets a lot of sunshine, we will also train it around the corner to grow up the wall that faces the patio. 

We went to our local garden centre and bought a red and white grape vine, as you can see they are very simple and nothing fancy. I was wondering if we should have looked into this more and brought better grape variety, then I remembered I am not a wine maker. Though I am a good wine drinker.

I planted them and ran some wire for them to start growing against. Mr MC&W drilled holes using a drill with a masonry bit for a raw plug then screwed a screw in, he then fed the wire round them. He did two heights of wire to help support the vines as they grow.

So far they are doing really well and maybe one year we will have a Mud, Cakes and Wine vintage out of it or I expect the birds will have a wonderfully tasty treat.

I will be attempting to prune these in early winter, that would be November time and will post then about how I go about this as a totally beginner with no idea what I am doing.

Meal Plan Friday 21st July 2017

The boys have been off school for a few days already. Luckily Mr MC&W has a week of work coming up. We have decided that we are staying at home and doing random days, we have not planned anything and just do gardening and relaxing at home. 

The meal plan is a little dull as we just do not know what we will be up to.

Friday - Boys will have Fish Fingers and Chips. MC&W and I will have the beetroot and mackerel salad 

Warm mackerel and beetroot salad

Saturday - I have some blue cheese and red onions we need to use up so we are having Blue Cheese Mushroom burgers. The boys are having tortellini.

Portobello and blue cheese melts

Sunday - We will have sausage casserole and the boys will have pasta, tomato sauce and ham

Monday - Simple and quick Omelets with ham and cheese with salad

Tuesday - Tuna Pasta bake as not had this in ages 

Wednesday - Meatballs and Spaghetti - we all love this meal

Thursday - Chicken curry for the boys and for us we will have chicken breast roasted on courgettes and tomatoes served with roasted potatoes and mixed roasted veg

Painting a Garden Shed

About three years ago we had to have a dangerous willow removed from the garden, rather than it falling on our house. Removing the tree opened up a great space for a shed. We brought the shed with some lovely green paint and had grand ambitions of painting it.

In those three years a lot has happened but we never got round to painting the shed. Recently we have made some massive changes to the garden and this was the the perfect time to paint the shed.

This was Mr MC&W project and he used:

• Sage Green Paint -  For Wood and outdoor use
• Cream Paint - For Wood and outdoor use
• Hammerite - For the metal work
• Masking tape
• Paint brushes - Large for the green and the main body of the shed, medium sized one for the cream and smaller ones for the cutting in and hammerite
• Kitchen towel and of course baby wipes

First of all we had to carefully take down the Jasmine and the supporting wires and lay it flat. Next we had a long discussion on what would be cream and what would be green.

Mr MC&W then masked up the areas and began with the green paint. We considered using a roller but found using a brush allowed us to get into the nooks that are part of the wood. We did two coats of green and then re masked up for the cream.

We brought much smaller brushes for the cream paint an the paint was much thinner again two coats were needed.

We took of the masking tape and found the cream paint had leaked through and we had to make good with extra green. Mr MC&W almost though it would have been simpler and quicker to be careful and not bother with the masking tape at all.

We were very happy with our efforts and the the MIL asked if we were doing anything with the hinges? we said no as could not change them. She then told us about hammerite.

This allowed us to paint the sliver hinges black. The paint was not easy to use as it is thick and took work to get it looking OK. We must admit it has made a huge difference.

Lesson we learnt

• Use a brush not a roller
• The paint up close is very hard to make look good but from a distance it looks great
• Check the weather for a weekend of dry weather the paint takes about two hours to dry
• Keep children in when its drying - they are drawn to wet paint
• Hammerite is not easy to apply its thick and takes time
• Do the joins carefully as the paint can easily leak through

Enjoy Colour and the end result 

The Tale of Mummyhood

Meal Plan Friday 14th July 2017

This week has flown by in a haze of end of school organisation. From teacher gifts to end of term class assembly.

I somehow managed to get the meal plan written up in a morning when I collapsed with a cuppa. The boys break up from school on Tuesday next week then we start the joys that is trying to keep them entertained for 6 weeks.

Friday - Pizza and Salad for Mr MC&W and I. The boys have school lunch on a Friday so they have a more relaxed picnic style dinner.

Saturday - Mr MC&W legendary Spag Bol

Sunday - We are having the MIL over and not sure what we will have. If the weather is nice a BBQ if not a roast

Monday - Lunch out for Mr MC&W and myself, as he will be changing assignments soon and we will not be able to have treats like this going forward. The boys will have a summer salad mix of mozarella, tomatoes and garlic bread.

Tuesday - Linguine with Tuna Sauce

Linguine with tuna sauce


Wednesday - Curry for the boys and it is our wedding anniversary so its take away for us

Thursday - Summer corgette risotto for us all

Summer courgette risotto

Meal Plan Friday 7th July 2017

I have been much better on the organisational front this week and we have some much more interesting meals.

Friday - BBQ to finish off the salad and bits we had on Wednesday

Saturday - Boys are having Pizza. Mr MC&W and I are having this warm new potato salad we have had it before. I make a few tweaks including roasting the new potatoes

Warm new potato salad with bacon and blue cheese

Sunday - The boys loved the smell and look of the BBQ and the weather is due to be good so we promised them we would all have one for lunch

Monday - Found this really fresh pasta dish and the boys will have carbonara

Pasta with mozzarella mint and fresh tomato sauce

Tuesday - Red onion and goats cheese tart the boys will have puff pinwheels

Caramelised red onion prosciutto and mushroom tart

Pizza puff pinwheels

Wednesday - Chicken Thai Noodles

Thai chicken noodles

Thursday - Mexican Bean Chilli

Mexican bean Chilli

Planting Wall Baskets 2017

I finally found the time to plant up the last two wall baskets. We have two more but they are covered in ivy and that is a whole new post.

I had to choose a little quicker than I would have liked, we went to the garden centre as the family of 5 and the eldest two were trying to wreck the water features, despite every threat know to myself and Mr MC&W being thrown at them. 

The Petunia was on buy one get one free and they only had pink ones left so I chose two colours to try and clash them in the same planter.

One was called Neon Pink and the other was Pink and it is not quite the effect I wanted but think it looks good and when they take off will be very colourful.

The next one was a bit different and it is pink again, I left it a little late so the choice was a little limited, to add to this I had to choose fast. I had to read a few labels as I had to find plants that could cope with some shade. This was a big lesson learnt from last year.

As you can see this had a few weeds growing out of it and really needed to be sorted out.

I found these beautiful Lobularia Raspberry Stream which I put at the back of the basket they are very delicate and very pretty, then I found these soft pink Sutera Bacopa which was called Great Pink Beauty. These should trial over the edge of the basket. It is such a pretty delicate combination, I actually really love it. The best part was a hoverfly landed on the Bacopa as I was planting it.

The Tale of Mummyhood

Meal Plan Friday 30th June 2017

The plan has been rather thrown together this week. I am not sure where the time went and it was not fun late on Sunday night trying to think of meals for the following week. I really must do better this week.

Friday - Mr MC&W was back from Barcelona so we had a ready meal curry. Boys had picnic dinner as they had their main meal at school.

Saturday - Homemade Pizza for the boys. We had Fish and Chips.

Sunday - Slow cooked lamb shanks with roast potatoes and lots of veggies including orange roasted carrots

Monday - Fish, oven roasted vegetables and rice with a homemade tomato sauce.

Tuesday - Meatballs and Spaghetti

Wednesday - Boys will have tortellini. Mr MC&W and I will have a BBQ

Thursday - Jacket Potatoes with beans and cheese for everyone except Mr MC&W who will have tuna