Our garden collections
We are visiting DIY shops weekly to do some home improvement and will always visit the garden centre and buy something for the garden.

This is our collections :-
Goji Berry (it was only a bare roots with no leaf when we bought it, now it's has grown.
I always want a cherry tree and have bought the first one that fit into our garden (It's a miniature patio version which means it will only grow up to 2m in height), however later did I realise that it's sour cherry (for cooking). Hopefully, if I leave the cherry abit longer (when it fruits), it will be less sour and can be eaten straight from the tree.
Lemon tree, again it's a minature patio type, so it's small.
My climbling roses to grow on the fences and use as security measure.
Potatoes bag. Can you see the 2 small little plants growing from the bag. Apparently the potatoes are ready for collection when the plant flowers. Not sure when the little plants will grow and flower.
Broad beans plant, growing well but no beans yet.
Strawberry plants. These are not those we grew from seed, as they either died are way to small to bear any fruits this summer. Therefore we bought small strawberry plant pots from garden centre and plant them onto this strawberry pot. Really hope there's some fruits for us this year!
Spring onions, they are small, isn't it.
My carrots!! Hope the pot are big and deep enough for them to grow.
Rockets for salads.
The one that we are most proud of - Lettuce. We bought the 99 pences pot set from Homebase for growing lettuce and repot them into these 2 larger pot. These are great for the guinea pigs and they love it!
Our other plants (e.g. peppers, sunflowers, chili padi) in the greenhouse)

Hope these plants will cut down on our grocery shopping expenses each week.

Crispin


Name : Crispin
Breed : Black labrador
Weight : Approx 20kg (is underweight!)
Other animals : Got along with Cookie and Cream. Crispin will walk to their cage occasionally and look at them for a while and then walk away. Cookie and Cream behave as normal (not hiding when they see Crispin).

At the moment we are very likely to keep Crispin. Sam is taking him out for a walk every morning at about 6.45am for half an hour and I take him out for another half an hour when I'm back home from work. Good exercise for us. Crispin sleep in the living room (same room as Cookie as Cream) and loves to sleep on Sam's armchair when we are not around (as we do not allow him on the armchair when we are in). I think sometimes, he want us to go out without him so that he can sleep on the armchair!

So far, Crispin has been very well behave - no barking, chewing of stuff, jumping on us, etc. However, when he's out walking, he does pull on the lead and not always response to us, thus we definitely need to train him on these.

Snowed in

I love snow but not when I'm being snowed in!! My manager mentioned that she going off earlier (About 3pm) as she didn't want to be snowed in. I checked the Met Office website and there's no mention of snow in Essex (only mention of icy road), as such I continue working. At about 4pm, it starts to snow + sleet. I didn't think too much about it as there's no warning on Met Office website plus I was late coming into work this morning, thus stayed on. Left the workplace at 5.15pm and the snow was much heavier and there's a huge long queue getting out of the multi-storey carpark!

Walked to the car, listen to traffic news and also noticed that the cars in the carpark are moving very, very....... snail speed. Decided to walk around in the shops for a while for the traffic to calm down abit.

6++pm, decided to walk to the bus station to take public transport as there wasn't movement in the carpark. However, was informed by the staff at the bus station that not sure when the bus is coming. Lots of people waiting around too. Plan for public transport abandon.

7pm, decided to sit in Water Margin restaurant (overlooking the carpark) to have dinner and to monitor situation. Worst case situation = buy blanket at Asda (24 hours) and sleep in car.

8.30pm, cars are moving again. Decided to pay for the dinner and set off for home.

9.30pm, out of carpark but the roads are very icy and very slow getting out of town. On some of the icy road and upslope, the traction control button kept flashing (not good!!). Took the main motorway (M11) and travel at recommended speed (about 40mph).

10.15pm, finally home!!!

Next time, any slight snow, I'm the first to head home!!

Our house
Got the keys to our house on 10/11/2009, all becomes so real when I was driving to the estate agent to pick up the keys at about 2pm. It's officially winter but I didn't know how to switch on the gas/ radiator and electricity/ light. As we bought 2 reclining armchairs the weekend before and they were due for delivery at 4pm in the new house, I waited in the cold new house with my jacket on all the time (Sam was in meeting, thus unable to help me!!).

We decided to stay in the new place without bed, furniture, etc as Sam's monthly train ticket runs out the following day and my work place is nearer from the new house. We brought duvets, clothing from the old place, so managed to sleep with bare minimum stuff (no TV) for about a week until the movers arrive to pick up our things from old place on 19/11/09.

Had been busy shopping for furniture for the new place. We decided on the Ikea furniture (wardrobes, TV unit, bed frame) and had fixed up the furniture ourselves (That's an achievement!!). So far, we had been buying stuff for the new place (change locks, kitchen bin, etc, still more to buy!!), gone back to old place to tidy up, return the keys for old place on 11/12/09. All so busy, thus the lack of update.

Still to sort out the lowering of kerb for parking,