New blog for writing

For all those of you following me (the hordes!), I've created a new blog focussing on the trials and tribulations I encounter as I attempt to convert my fanfic into a fantasy fiction novel.

You can find it at Helen's Scribblings.

My muse is back

I've rediscovered reading. I've been reading the Dark-Hunter novels by Sherrilyn Kenyon (I'd read a few and enjoyed them, but I've now got the entire series as e-books), which are good. They get better as the series goes along.

I've now moved on to other fantasy books. I can recommend the Edge series, by Ilona Andrews. I was hooked, and the bonus is that there are only four books (saying that, I'd like there to be a few more, and I think there will be at some point).

Anyway, the result of all this renewed reading has led to my muse re-emerging from wherever she's been for the last ten years! Some of you may remember that I wrote a Harry Potter fanfic called "Wood & Wild" many years ago (there are actually scenes from the sequels that I've written that haven't been "published"). A few of my friends had suggested at the time that I rewrite it as a fiction novel, but I thought it'd be too much like hard work.

Now, I've been rethinking it. Some bits of the fanfic are really nothing to do with Harry Potter, and I've got so many of my own characters that would only need tweaking to make them truly my own. So I'm actually seriously thinking about writing a novel.

However, this does mean that I'm now reading about string theory and fracture mechanics. I'm the type of person who needs to know how my world works, so quite a bit of research in my future. As I'm a physicist, I need to approach things from a physics point of view.

But I'm excited. I'm looking forward to it.

I promised photos in my last post, and here they are.

First of all, my slug-ravaged foxgloves:




And now, my before and after shots of an aquilegia (I discovered that I'd missed one earlier on):




Before















After










You can just see my strawberry plants in the background, with a few berries turning red. I had the first couple today and they were delicious.

Garden pests

Slugs are the bane of my life. Or rather, the bane of my garden.

My poor pansies have lost the fight against the slugs (and possibly the weather), although the pansies that I have got in troughs at the front of the house are doing very well.

My foxgloves were left alone for a while, but now have been decimated by slugs. AS a result, I've put slug pellets out again, and now thanks to the dead slugs, there are lots of flies in the garden. *sigh*

My aquilegia (columbine) which was doing so well in the spring are having been looking sunburnt and rather sad lately, so today I cut back all the yellow and brownish leaves and have discovered that there are lots and lots of greenfly and/or aphids on them, which could have something to do with them looking a wee bit forlorn. I did spy one tiny yellow ladybird too, but the infestation is so bad I'm going to have to treat the plants with insecticide spray.

The front lawn desperately needs a mow, but today is one of those days where it is blinding sunshine one minute and then dark grey clouds the next. Five minutes ago it was glorious sunshine and blue skies and I thought that I'd mow the lawn after lunch. Now the wind has picked up and there are ominous grey clouds overhead.

The grass seeds that I sowed a couple of weeks ago in the stupid border at the front of the house are doing very well (as are the weeds!). Once I do manage to mow it, I'll be able to get a better look at how things are going and I'll probably actually do some weeding to make things neater.

Photos may be forthcoming (I didn't do before and after ones of the aquilegia, unfortunately).

Spring is nearly here

So, obviously winter has stopped me posting on this blog, which is essentially my gardening blog.

Eventually, I did bring in some plants. My fuchsia didn't appreciate the colder weather, so they came inside, I chopped them back and they are budding. Although now they're not looking so healthy. I'm not entirely sure what to do with them, since it's still too cold at night to leave them out. I did put them out yesterday as the sun was shining, but today's been much cooler and grey, so they've remained inside.

Yesterday was also a day for some gardening. The front lawn has been spreading into the borders, so I took preventative steps. First I mowed and strimmed (the first of the year). Then I got a fork and turned over all the soil in the border, to hopefully kill some of the grass.

After that I got out weed repellent covering and put it down in the border at the front of the house (I ran out of staples, so I couldn't do the other half of the border) and then put bark down on top of that. It is going to make mowing perhaps slightly more difficult, but it will mean that I won't have to be constantly weeding. On top of the bark I intend putting some troughs filled with colourful flowers up against the front of the house.

I also bought some plants. I planted two troughs and then almost ran out of soil so I stopped.

What I bought:

- A trayful of pansies - they performed so well for me last summer that I thought they'd do well at the front of the house (In the photo they are at the back on the left, by the fire extinguisher)
- Two trays of geranium seedlings - again, last summer the geraniums were brilliant, so I bought some more. I also got some trailing geraniums to go on the posts in the back garden (The little plants in the yellow trays.)
- Three foxgloves - I love foxgloves, and as I haven't got any snapdragons this year (yet) I thought I should buy something that the bees will like. They are quite small at the moment, so I guess I'll have to wait until next year for them to flower. (They are the large leafed plants to the right of the pansies - between the large pots of fuchsia.) However, as I'll be planting them in large pots, they can come with me when we move!
- A collection of shrubs - there is a heather in it, along with some little bushy trees. I intend putting them all in the top, barked corner. (Just beneath the pansies and above the yellow trays, next to the radiator.)
- A tray of aquilegia, which I've never had before, but they looked like they'll be colourful. (At the bottom right, to the right of the yellow tray.)

Right now, all these are inside, most of which are in the kitchen. I guess I was a little over enthusiastic with buying plants so early. Saying that, I planted out things in the beginning of April last year, and I know that the little seedlings had been sitting there for a while before I planted them. Hopefully in a few weeks I can leave everything out.

Elsewhere in the house are the troughs of pansies that were in the front of the house, and also a trough of strawberry plants that have lasted the winter.

Autumn is coming

Well, no photo to go with this entry at the moment (it's late in the day and rather gloomy outside, so any photo I take will look awful) but I will try to add one later.

It's been rather wet and very windy here recently, and I'm now contemplating what to do about my garden plants for the winter. They'll probably all have to come inside, considering how much snow we had last year. One geranium pot has already tried to commit suicide several times over the past week - leaping of the steps at least three times. Eventually I put it up against the fence, and it seems to be doing better now.

Speaking of geraniums, they are all still flowering, so it's not yet time to bring them in. The same goes for the snapdragons. My heather is doing very well. I had one up in the top corner, where it loved being, beginning to flower early. So I've moved all my other heathers to the same area and it wasn't long before they too started to flower.

It doesn't feel like summer should be over, but I guess it's nearing its end.

Pictures from the garden

So, my plants are starting to come out, and I kept wanting to take some photos, but whenever I looked outside, it was cloudy. Anyway, today, there was some drizzle in the morning, but I was outside and wandering about so I decided to take some photos of flowers anyway.

I used my parents' camera, which has a much more powerful zoom on it than mine, and so managed to capture some very nice macro shots of the raindrops.

Here is the set of photos I took today.

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In other news, I managed to get a new battery for my parents' car. Now I'm just waiting for the man about the house to get home to help me get the old battery out. Fingers crossed it all goes to plan and works!