Mud Cakes and Wine

I was thrilled when Anja from Mud and Bloom said she liked my blog and would love for us to try one of her boxes out. Mud and Bloom is a monthly subscription box sent through the post which contains a gardening activity and nature craft ideas. My blog in the main is about gardening and with three young boys this seemed a perfect product for us to try out.

Though I love the garden I can not say the boys share the love, the eldest is into scooting around the garden, the youngest is only 2.5 years old so likes picking flowers and the middle boy shows interest but only for a few moments.

This beautiful box arrived and I was surprised at how many ideas were in it. We had seeds to plant and plenty of craft ideas for us to try out. 




We all have enjoyed elements of the box which is amazing, having a box that had something that all of the three boys enjoyed was perfect.

ATM tried out the seedbombs with me and loved planting the seeds in the little pots of compost provided, what I found great about…

As I sit writing this it is like someone has turned the switched for summer off and we have entered autumn. I am so trying to get back into the meal planning routine as doing it so late is making my own life rather stressful.

Friday - Posh Fish Finger Sandwiches for us all.

Saturday - Sticky Chicken Chinese tray bake for us all.

Sticky chinese chicken traybake

Sunday - BBQ

Monday - Bacon Spaghetti for us all.

Super smoky bacon tomato spaghetti

Tuesday - Portobello and blue cheese melts for us the boys will have beef burgers.

Portobello and blue cheese melts

Wednesday - Chicken Tikka skewers for us all.

Chicken tikka skewers

Thursday - Pizza shop brought for us all.

I am so behind on the meal plans as time seems to be going so fast and before I know it the meal plan is late again

Friday - Chicken burgers using birds eye chicken fillets for us all

Saturday - Ham, egg and chips - I have got so fed up with the ham that I brought a small piece of gammon and cooked it in coke and it was amazing 

Sunday - Chicken roasted on peppers, courgette and red onions - will be writing this one up as it was lovely 

Monday - Stuffed courgette from Gino healthy Italian. Carbonara for the boys.

Tuesday - Crispy Greek Style Pie. Pizza style stuffed triangles using the filo for the boys

Crispy greekstyle pie

Wednesday - Chestnut mushroom, fennel pasta - this should have bacon in but we had so much meat on our holiday we decided to have a veggie week. Cheesy pasta for the boys.

Chestnut mushroom fennel bacon fusilli

Thursday - Jackets, Beans and cheese

I love my garden but sometimes I look and sigh, today is one of those days.

We have had a tough time gardening, late frosts followed by constant rain then came the long hot and dry summer, all this combined with three kids including a toddler has led to what follows.

This is the view from the climbers on the far fence at the moment.



We have leaves fallen from the lollipop trees due to the heat and lack of rain, the climbers are very slow in growing and we have quite a few dead branches, however the bindweed is growing very well among the climbers and loving the location.

This is the border just in front of the lollipop trees, we planted what I mistakenly though was winter flowing bedding, in fact, they have been flowering since late spring but are now starting to go over, adding to the beauty of half dead flowers is the grass doing very well at the bottom of the sleeper.



The next area of mess is the new border we created when a new fence was put up. We brought some plants, despite watering…

For the first time I tried Lobelia in one of the hanging baskets, when I first got it I loved the swaths of purple flowers, I went to deadhead and realised it was not that easy and it soon the plant started to look pretty messy.

The hanging basket is in full sun most of the day and the weather has been so hot and dry that it has easily dried out and some of the Lobeilia has died and the rest simply look awful.




I made a call out to twitter who said I needed to chop it back hard and give it a good soak in the cool..

Areas like this that were pretty dead, I cut back hard. To be honest unsure if it would come back again but had to give it a try.




Some other areas I could see new buds forming and did not look so dead so I snipped the dead flowers out.



I did try pulling some of the dead flowers out, as it was very time consuming using the snips and I had to be careful. But pulling them out although quicker often lead to me pulling healthy flowers and buds of the plant.



I love my baskets but I need…

The school holidays are now happening and its going to be interesting to see how the meal plan goes over the next few weeks.

Friday - Steak and chips as a treat as we were meant to be going out but had to cancel. Pizza for the boys and they wanted to try one with ham and pineapple.

Saturday - Birds eye southern fried chicken as a burger for us and for the boys ham, eggs and chips

Sunday - BBQ for us all

Monday - Thursday - Mr MC&W is on holiday but we are staying at home, I did not want to think about food so everyday will be either a ready meal or eating out for lunch or dinner. I felt I needed a break as well from the normal routine.