Flower Bombs - Guerrilla Gardening

For the last couple of years the kids and I have been doing a bit of guerrilla gardening around our village.  On the first year we planted sunflowers in random places - this wasn't very successful as we had a very dry Spring so most of the sunflowers didn't survive.  Last year we pop seeds around with variable success.  This year I came across the idea of flower bombs via a blog (sorry I can't remember the blog name :-() and had to give it a go :-)

 I had a rummage in the children's art cupboard for any old paper that wasn't very useful ....

I popped it into a blender with some water and blended it up.  My Mum popped over to visit at this point and did look slightly concerned that little Sweetpeas wakings were finally getting to me until I explained what I was doing :-)

We squeezed the wet paper out so it was damp rather than soaking and then mixed the seeds in (a mixture of seeds I collected from our flowers last year).  We then made them into little balls and left them to dry naturally overnight.  They did fall apart slightly so I may try making the compost and clay version next year.

 We then went for a walk round the village .....

and flower bombed random areas :-)  I will be going round with the children and planting cosmos in random places in a month or two, these plants seem perfectly happy if not watered and look so lovely.  I hope the bombs work and we see flowers popping up around the village :-)

We will plant these later in the year.

Also last week we were very excited to receive our caterpillar delivery for the pre-school.  We love watching them grow each year and turning into butterflies.

On the chick front, I am afraid to say that poor Bubbles at the front of the photo passed away :-(  Bubbles hadn't been too well for some time and I am glad he/she went of their own accord rather than Mr Sweetpea having to put him/her out of their misery.  Tiny is doing very well and is still happily chirping away thank goodness.

xxx

We have been busy bees here in the Sweetpea household.  What with bugs (mainly me suffering from those) , birthdays, chics and tendonitis it has meant hardly any time to blog or comment on blogs :-(

I am still suffering from tendonitis but after a 2 hour wait in physio I am finally getting some real help.  I was fed up with being popped on one painkiller after another - I want this fixed not glossed over !  After the lovely Harmony and Rosie sharing the advice she was given with me I went back to the doctors armed with my advice ammo :-)  After a lot of persuading (and even being told 'why do you need physio when you have a copy of your friends excersises'  pah!) I was referred to physio and now have wrist splints and advice on how to go forward.  I really want this fixed as it has been moving up my arms to my shoulders and it is stopping me hand sewing and being on here :-(   Those wrist splints look sexy don't they lol .

Whilst I have been away middle Sweetpea (top piccy) turned 10!  Goodness me, it only seems like yesterday she was a little baba :-(  She wanted a little piggy cake at first but then watched Hairy Bikers and decided she fancied Black Forest Gateau.  I followed their recipe but ended up having to make four layers rather than two which could be cut in half as they didn't rise very well.  Needless to say my hips are now a bit bigger :-) 

She decided to have a sleepover for her party and somehow caught me out by getting me to agree!  They had an easter egg hunt, watched films whilst eating popcorn in bed and had a take out Pizza (a first in the Sweetpea household - goodness they are expensive).  They weren't too bad but did all look like Zombies (as did I) the next day :-)

As the day progressed one of the eggs Mr Sweetpea had popped in the incubator (this man is addicted to having animals in our household!) started to hatch :-)

Tiny the Dutch Bantam  hatched the next day, it took him/her quite some time to get out.  Here he/she is at the front with Bubbles (can you tell the kids named them) his/her sibling.   After popping photos of the hatching in progress on facebook they have quite a lot of fans now and have had visitors popping in to see them :-)

This is how tiny they are, they are standing in front of our Easter tree....

Poor little Bubbles doesn't look too well at the moment, we are not sure how long he/she is going to live for :-(  We are giving them lots of cuddles (especially poor Bubbles) which they love.

There have been some other new additions in our village too, just take a look at these cute lambs.  They are soooo sweet, it always makes want a pet lamb again .....

My Dad used to take on quite a few waifs and strays and Daisy was an orphaned lamb.  Oh how we loved her!  Loving my crazy hair in this photo and my sisters huge cheeky grin :-)  She had to go back to the farm when she was big enough and we used to visit her there.

What else have we been up to, sorry if you are falling asleep at this point :-)

Well we went to a Charity shop and got the most wonderful bargains.  For some time now I have been wanting to make little Sweetpea and middle Sweetpea a cooker out of a bedside cabinet.  I asked on freecycle if anyone had an old cabinet they didn't want and someone kindly told me that she had seen one at our local Open Door charity shop.  We drove there last week and low and behold there was a mini wooden cooker, it cost me a whole £2!  It needed some tlc but that made it even better.

Little sweetpea washed it all ready for me to sand and paint it, I have nearly finished it now so will share the after photos soon :-)

Eldest Sweetpea was very happy too as he found a chemistry set in there, which had never been opened, for £2!   He busied himself later that day creating chemical reactions - hhmm not sure that is a good thing in the dining room but it kept him happy.  I am so glad he found this actually as I am not too impressed with his science lessons at Secondary School, this is just what he needed to spark his imagination and interest in it again :-)

We have also been down our new allotment a lot too.  Late last year I planted a spiral of daffodil bulbs which started to pop up.  I am going to extend it every year as the children already enjoy  going round the spiral :-)

We are also lucky enough to be next to a friends allotment and she created this wonderful willow wigwam a couple of years back.

What with these two items and our little trampoline the kids are kept busy so we can concentrate on planting and weeding :-)

Look she can levitate :-)

I had better be off now as you have probably all dozed off :-)  Take care and sorry again for not being able to comment as much as I used to on your blogs - I will soon be better and hopefully then normal service can resume :-) xxx

Happy Easter

Just popping in for a very short and sweet Happy Easter to you all.  Will try and get here for a proper blog very soon. Hope you have/had a wonderful weekend xxx