I am torn between showing these pictures of this fabulous play house (see photo below) to my 6 year old and suggesting that this is what her playhouse may eventually look like if her dad ever gets around to fitting doors and window and her mother ever gets around to painting it.  Yet am sure if I do, I will be nagged by said daughter for ever and ever!

I couldn’t find a more recent photo of their playhouse, It now has a porch with a seat and a felt roof but it is still awaiting doors and windows.  However,  don’t rest your eyes on this partially completed one – check out this one at Birdie blue, I am green with envy let along my 6 year old!

Isn’t it gorgeous?

I have to admit I didn’t lift a paintbrush or touch wallpaper over the last week, the weather here was so unseasonally good that I spent time in the garden instead, trying to rid the herbeceous borders of dandelions and buttercups!  This photo was deliberately taken from a distance!

It was almost strange to still see so many daffodils when the weather was so warm. Here’s a pic of the daffodils, on the grassy bank behind the house, that have flowered from the 2 huge sacks of daffodil bulbs I planted – it looks a bit sparse doesn’t it?

This is where I intend to plant some bulbs this autumn – I think I’ll be needing about 6 large bags!!

We also picked rhubarb and made two tarts.

Now, I wish I could say that it turned out like the gorgeous looking pie in this photo by Greengate

but by the time the children had taken turns kneading the pastry and rolling it out a zillion times, it resembled a hard biscuit surface rather than a flaky pastry, but with the addition of some cream, it still tasted scrummy.

As you can see, we try everything we have in our online shop and you can buy the mini flour dredger (I use mine for icing sugar), the pretty Greengate oilcloth, the red dot pie dish and the Joseph Joseph Nest from us

Have a lovely week, I don’t think the sunshine is going to last that much longer as showers are coming so there should be some painting done for next week!

Well, I have seen so many ‘snow’ photos around that I just had to join in – rather late considering we’ve had snow since Saturday but if you can’t beat them, join them! Snow may be inconvenient but there are many beautiful photos out there. I’m doing an 8 week beginners photography course at the moment (missed last night’s class though due to the snow) so hopefully mine will improve!

Here’s a few of mine:

Our garden at Garrendenny

Our tractor which is almost as old as I am!

The infamous Garrendenny Lane!

I intended to have the tree in the right in the foreground in focus but didn’t think the tree in the background would be so out of focus!

It has been a beautiful afternoon and I’m inside watching the rugby for half an hour after having spent the afternoon in the garden, scrubbing the outside of the pots with tulips and daffodils in them before I put them at the front door and planting some seeds with the children.

I recently won some seeds from the Secret Garden who now have an online shop with everything for gardeners from seeds to bulbs to gardening vouchers and gifts to tools.  The Secret Garden are located in North Cork and I will definitely be visiting the next time I am holidaying in that part of the world because apart from a lovely garden centre, Sarah and Brian seem to be lovely friendly people and they have a gorgeous cafe with lots of goodies like cream teas – yum.

Back to my seeds, I won ones that I probably wouldn’t have dared to purchase, thinking them too difficult to get success with them – I got salad leaves, (ok, I could probably manage that) leeks and broccoli so I will keep you posted on the results – hopefully I will end up with leeks that look like these.

I have also just purchased some dahlias from the Secret Garden.  I am expecting that many of our dahlias will have died over that harsh winter although I did find one tuber the other day when I was digging that actually looked okay. Dahlias are great, they start flowering in July and if deheaded, can last till late October. They make great cut flowers for the house too. 

 I ordered 3 Black Narcissus Dahlias, I love its dark wine colour and the shape of the petals, and 2 Dahlia Sunshine as we have one long herbaceous border that has gorgeous reds, oranges and yellows in the late summer and I call it my ‘hot bed’.  I got one Dahlia Blue boy as our central bed has a lovely blue delphinium as well as lots of creamy white flowers so that should be nice.

Finally, I ordered 2 Dahlia Priceless Pinks for another bed which has lots of whites, purples and pinks in it.  I will be putting them into pots initially so the only thing I have to be careful about is to note somehow which colour dahlias were put into which pots so I remember which one goes in which flower bed!

Time for February’s Special offer.  February crept up so quickly on us, I forgot all about it.

As it is now officially spring and the snowdrops are peeping through, keen gardeners are going to get started in their polytunnels and clearing flower beds and this would be a lovely gift for a gardener who likes to record what is happening in the garden as it is a gardening diary from France with lovely cream  paper.  Normally €44, it is €34.95 so do click here if you are looking for a perfect gift for the gardener in your life, plus it is a bit different to the gardening tools!