The making of a tiny pond

 It's the must have accessory of the year, a tiny pond. Even the BBC  say so. 

Make a tiny pond even if you only have a tiny garden. You can do it in a weekend at minimal cost. I’ve been reliably informed that it takes about a year for frogs to move in, and that adding tadpoles is not a good idea. So now we wait.

Here’s what I bought:

Bucket £1.50 (Screwfix)I bought a black 14L builders bucket. You can get them anywhere, even Amazon.

Solar pump (optional)  £12.99 (Amazon) There are various types with various power at various prices, but this is the one I bought.

Tiny ramp £7.71 (You could make your own, this one was from Amazon)

Pond plants £13 for two – local aquatic specialist.The two I chose were Red Stemmed Parrot Feather, and Barred Horsetail.

Total £35 ish

 You’ll also need – a tool to dig a hole.

 

I dug a hole the size of the bucket. This is surprisingly hard work because you can’t really use a big spade unless you make the hole wider and back-fill it. I wanted to have the pond in the lawn and keep the lawn around it so I just used a trowel to make the hole the right size, depth, and shape. 

I used a hot skewer to remove the bucket handle, buckets vary so you might be lucky and have one where the handle just pops out. I didn’t.

Popped the bucket in the hole.

I washed some gravel (I had some that I use for potting up plants) it was very dusty and took a lot of rinsing! Then added an inch or so as a layer at the bottom of the pond. No idea if this is essential I just felt it would give a natural bottom.

I added an upturned flower pot as a raised area for a plant. You could also use a brick.

I added the ramp which also doubled as a place to fix the pond pump. The pump had a filter made of sponge but the holes in it were huge, so I cut a finer sponge and popped that in as a filter instead. Trial and error with fountain heads led me to go with no sprinkle attachment at all, just a bubbling bit of water. Still moves the water and seems more natural. But it’s just preference.

I added two pond plants one for the base of the pond, a true underwater plant, and one for the top of the flower pot, an edge plant. I chose Red Stemmed Parrot Feather, and Barred Horsetail.  but there are lots to choose from.

I didn’t have rain water to fill the pond, but the watering cans in the garden were standing around for weeks so the water wasn’t fresh from the tap. I filled the pond, adjusted everything a bit, added a rock to weight down the ramp at one end, and switched on the pump and left it to it. The water cleared after a few hours. I have added some bits and bobs around the edge. You can buy fancy rocks if that’s your thing. The plants have shown growth after only a week!

 

Total time – one morning. Total cost - £35 ish. Value to nature - priceless 

 

Inspired by Tiktok 

 

 

@plant_daddyuk Exciting mini wildlife pond update We have new life! #wildlife #wildlifepond #pond #minipond #nature #biodiversity #frog #tadpoles #garden #gardening #gardentok #life #newlife ♬ sonido original - DiegoVegaSoria

Jord Wooden Watch Review

Yes. Really a watch, made of wood. No, neither had I. So you want to hear more about it? Of course you do!

I was contacted by Jord and asked if I'd like to try one of their wooden watches and review it. At first I was worried that as a UK blogger the lovely watch wouldn't be available to me (Jord are based in Missouri in the US) but it turns out that Jord are happy to ship all over the place and the UK is a pretty big customer.

When I ordered the watch via the website I was given the opportunity to have the watch strap sized so that it would fit straight out of the box, at no extra charge. As a woman with very small wrists this was great and I jumped at the change, the measuring was easy and I filled in the details and waited.

The watch arrived very quickly, beautifully boxed and tagged and I found it very easy to set the time and date. And of course it fitted, straight from the box. The watch looks and feels gorgeous. A luxuriously deep coloured wood (I chose cherry from the wide range of shades and wood types on the website) with red coloured dial and clear bright hour and minute markers. The bracelet style strap and the watch (including the back of the watch) are all wood, though the clasp is metal. The clasp style is secure and very simple to operate with one hand.

 

But the main thing about the watch is that it is so beautiful and gets admiring comments everywhere I wear it. Comments often start with "is that watch made of wood?" and then after the surprise everyone wants to touch it, try it on, feel it. And it's so light and comfortable too!

I have worn it to business meetings where it looked very stylish among the shiny flashy 'ordinary' watches (my husband says it looks classier than a Rolex) and I've worn it out walking in the woods where it blends with my brown and green walking gear and looks at home in the woodland environment ("Look, I whisper to the trees, one day you could be a watch and travel the world")

I love this watch, I think it's the sort of watch that most people would add to a gift wish list as it's not a cheap watch. But it is an elegant watch. With styles to suit men and women I think a wooden watch would make an excellent present, an unusual and practical choice.

Check  out all of the Jord Wooden Watch styles here

Disclosure - I was sent the Ely Watch in Cherry for the purposes of the review. The opinions are my own.

Poem - written after passing a dead fox in the rain

Reynard in Rain

Fur; dirty, limp, in flying spray

sad and quiet, laying flayed

each passing car is washing fur

the only sound the rasping purr

of an engine.

Blood; long dried and stilled

in a body cool and killed

fleet of foot but none can outrun death

and now just skin, fur, bone, no breath

is left behind.

Copyright: / 123RF Stock Photo

Beautiful Balloon Release...

Listening to Radio 4 about seabirds and plastic reminded me of this so I'm updating and re-posting.

Balloons are lovely aren't they. All shiny and floaty. Either being played with by children at a party or floating off into the wild blue after a wedding. Balloons are used for competitions too, whose will travel the farthest? And for sending prayers, or for memorials.  

Like everyone else I think the sight of hundreds of balloons soaring up into a blue sky is a beautiful thing, trailing tags with notes of love to heaven, what a gorgeous idea...

but balloons come down, and when they do they kill things, lots of things.

They fall into rivers, get snarled in trees, drift to the sea, and wildlife gets caught up or eats the burst 'skins' of the balloons (particularly turtles that naturally eat jellyfish drifting in the sea)

Click here to see the (distressing) photo gallery of balloon damage.

You wouldn't organise a mass litter. Please don't organise a balloon release.(Ditto 'sky lanterns')  Maybe you need more convincing, if so here are some links. I'd appreciate it if you spread the word.

 

Marine Conservation Society

Balloons Blow

But just telling people not to do something can be quite unhelpful, so I searched around for some celebration ideas. Here are some other things you could do that would not harm our planet.

I especially like this idea 

"Floating flowers- For a lot of people, the gently upward drifting of balloons gives them a sense of letting go, and at the same time thinking the balloon will eventually reach their loved one. Because remembering a loved one by potentially killing another life isn’t exactly the best feeling, there are many alternatives. Floating flowers or flower petals down a calm stream can give you the same sense of letting go. You will be able to be in nature and feel the energy of your loved one and all the life that surrounds you! Be sure to use non-poisonous flowers and not to let go an excessive amount."

We only have one chance, let's not screw it up - I want a beautiful planet for future generations. I hope you do too.

All Pictures Above Copyright (c) 123RF Stock Photos

Small Changes in my shopping basket - organic additions

When Waitrose asked me to try some small changes to make a bigger impact, by adding some organic things to my shopping list, I was happy to help. I have bought organic meat in the past as I don't like the idea of the routine use of antibiotics etc in my food. And of course organic vs chemicals doesn't just affect the consumer, if affects nature too, the entire food chain. I like to buy organic fruit or veg when I can but it's easy to forget that other things have chemicals pumped into them too to increase the yield (and in the west, more often, the profit margin) so I was interested to look at all the other things in the Waitrose store that fell into the 'organic basket'.

I already mentioned that I bought a really nice organic wine, helped in my choice by the extremely pleasant and knowledgeable wine staff. But I also bought organic fruit juice (delicious!) organic coffee (fair trade too and I have bought this before so I know it's good) and organic tea bags (Clipper - unbleached bags, I am impressed with the strength and quality and may permanently switch from my usual Assam).

I bought organic sugar (how can I forget that's a plant too!) Organic milk (I really think I should try and only get organic milk - it makes sense if I like organic meat!) ditto eggs.

I added organic tinned sweet corn, herbs (no one wants to eat leaves that are sprayed with chemicals), and organic tomato passata , and organic pasta - I plan to make a pasta bake from those ingredients, with some cheese on top.

I had some jam and some really tangy and tasty organic orange marmalade too, it seems that I don't think about processed foods or fruit and veg used in recipes so much, so I shall be thinking organic where I can in future. I may not be able to afford to buy totally organic but small changes...

What could you swap for organic in your shopping basket?

Stuck for ideas? Check out Waitrose's excellent organic inspired recipe selection here 

An interesting read on the current news about insecticides can be found here

Disclaimer - I was sent some vouchers towards the cost of my organic purchases but all thoughts are my own

Things to do - fun free family frolics!

Autumn is suddenly here. Today it's raining as well as chilly. Proper ' stay at home and watch a black and white movie with a hot toddy' weather.

And that's great, for an adult, for a Sunday, for one day. But those with children (and I count myself among you still, despite dd being nearly 14) know that after a few days ... Hours ... minutes, kids will chill our very marrow with the cry of "I'm bored!" And the equally horrifying "what can I DO?" 

And the usual thrusting of a child into the back garden to play with football, trampoline or skipping rope is thwarted by rain, and trips to the playground curtailed because "no one will be there to play with" and "the slide will be wet" so we the parent are reduced to playing Lego in the lounge, painting in the pantry, cooking in the kitchen or beading in the bedroom.

You, like me, probably love to be with your kids, love to be with HAPPY kids, so I asked twitter for some ideas to add to the anti-whine arsenal and here they are.

Camping in the New Forest.

I went camping with my brother and his daughters last week. We both leave our spouses at home as they don't see the same delight in tents as we do. We stayed at Hurst View in Lymington in the New Forest, we had perfect weather and the campsite was lovely. Big, and quite comercial but very friendly and lovely walks to the coast, nearby pubs, lots for the kids to do.

The well maintained showers and toilets were always clean. The fields were large but not regimented. Open fires were allowed and loud music was banned after 10pm (and patrols did come and tell people if they over stepped the mark)

The kids enjoyed crabbing the most!

All in all we had a great time.

RHS Flower Show - Hampton Court

Two men strolling along the side of the Thames

"are you going to the flower show?"

"Hampton Court?"

"No I always walk this way"

Ancient jokes aside, DD and I attended Hampton Court Flower show on Sunday and it was glorious. It was of course, hot, as we are in the middle of a heatwave summer. But we enjoyed the day none the less, it was lovely to see our old friend BEE CLEVER the Ecover Bee sculpture, and I was surprised to see how much Ecover was involved in the show! They had sent me 2 free tickets to attend but they sponsored the entire 'Inspire Zone' with innovative garden ideas to save water, the planet and our insect life.
 

Their concept garden was nice, the plants in it were the stars though, gorgeous blues and pinks encouraging bees and butterflies to hang around. The judges agreed as the garden won gold! There were also plenty of planters (large wooden troughs) sponsored by Ecover and designed by various well known gardeners.

We didn't see half of what was on offer at this great show. Never having been before we were content to meander (sweatily) through the gardens, into the floral display tent and browse the numerous shops. After purchasing a parasol DD found time for a quick paddle, earning her compliments from a lady passing by, on her colourfulness and beauty! We spent some time watching a fashion show, not usually my thing but it was cool in the tent, one model had a moustache and several were topless, so we forced ourselves. There was also a chihuahua (called Sweetpea) in a dress.

 

We went into a bee tent too! Met some bees and their keepers and had an excellent and informative chat on bee keeping, helping bees and volunteering with local bee groups.

By 4pm we were hot and tired enough to go home, so it was farewell to the lovely gardens, our friend the bee and the grandeur or Hampton Court, a leisurely boat ride to the station and off home.

All 111 photos I took can be seen HERE on my flickr account

Thanks to Ecover for the tickets.

BEE Inspired

I need to blog about my new bee obsession! But right now I'm busy checking my tent for leaks. I simply can't wait to see what the world of festival goers at Glastonbury think about Ecover and Bees!! I hope I can  get them to be as excited about recycling and plastics as I am!

So here is a rather fabulous infographic from Ecover about bees, bottles, cleaning and nature to keep you going! Enjoy.

ECOVER's aim is to create powerful, fully sustainable and biodegradable ingredients that will eliminate the need for petro-chemicals. Visit The-Splash for more information and to read and support our pledge.

Listen and look, my spring time walk.

listen to ‘Spring woodland boo’ on Audioboo

Being a party pooper, balloons

I sometimes see things about organising a 'balloon release' and my heart sinks. Like everyone else I think the sight of hundreds of balloons soaring up into a blue sky is a beautiful thing, trailing tags with notes of love to heaven, what a gorgeous idea...but balloons come down, and when they do they kill things, lots of things.

They fall into rivers, get snarled in trees, drift to the sea, and wildlife get's caught up or eats the burst skins of the balloons (particualrly turtles that naturally eat jellyfish drifting in the sea)

You wouldn't organise a mass litter. Please don't organise a balloon release.(Ditto 'sky lanterns')  Maybe you need more convincing, if so here are some links. I'd appreciate it if you spread the word.

 

Marine Conservation Society

Balloons Blow

And if I've convinced you to change your mind. Here are some other things you could do that would not harm our planet.

I especially like this idea 

"Floating flowers- For a lot of people, the gently upward drifting of balloons gives them a sense of letting go, and at the same time thinking the balloon will eventually reach their loved one. Because remembering a loved one by potentially killing another life isn’t exactly the best feeling, there are many alternatives. Floating flowers or flower petals down a calm stream can give you the same sense of letting go. You will be able to be in nature and feel the energy of your loved one and all the life that surrounds you! Be sure to use non-poisonous flowers and not to let go an excessive amount."

We only have one chance, let's not screw it up - I want a beautiful planet for future generations. I hope you do too.

All Pictures Copyright (c) 123RF Stock Photos