Pruning, selling Xmas Trees and reindeers

December and Christmas just around the corner - I haven't been outside too much lately - the rain and the wind are part of the reason but I've been busy trying to grow my various businesses. I still have to make an income and it's proving much harder than I expected.

Never mind, it will happen, I just have to have faith, which I do, in spades.

So, the only job I have completed successfully over the past couple of weeks has been to prune one of the fig trees, the one near the house. I know the more you prune the stronger the growth and these figs are aggressive in their habits but the one nearer the house is so dense now that it shades everything else, including my beautiful bay standard - so I cut it back to almost a third! Felt drastic but the tree will appreciate it - and so will everything underneath. I also pruned a hibiscus, white, in the front garden. It's a beautiful shrub and a prolific flower producing kind white petals, white stamen, so cool - at its height every branch has blossom, breathtaking.

Years ago I bought three cordylines in East Street market for £1.00, yes £1 for the three!!! I put two in the ground close together and one in a pot by the front door. The two I planted are now 10' tall and triffid like, they flower every year now. Luckily they have grown past the windows, for a few years it was a bit dark and dingy in the lounge!  I haven't the heart to cut them down and they make the best landmark for anyone visiting the house.

I trimmed down the grape vine that grows from next door, right over my back door and kitchen window, it will produce grapes every year, maybe next year they will be edible and not the sour offerings we have now. I pray every year that next door won't dig it out, I love it.

I've been selling all things Christmas at South Lambeth Road Library, the Tate. We are trying to get a new community street market up and running to help support the library and bring a bit more vibrancy to the surrounding area. The people who live up there are happy to hear there may be a bit of shopping available next year. If anyone is interested in having a stall or hearing more about it I can send on the details. No doubt as I am more and more drawn into 'helping; I'll post the information here. We are working on a launch day for early next year, possibly February.

Xmas trees are hard work!!!! Hope I sell them on Saturday - visit if you can - it's in Wilcox Close, right alongside the Tate Library.

Last Saturday I went to Covent Garden to buy stock and five little reindeers caught my eye, they were planted with apple sized berries, normally I avoid the twee but they looked in need of a friend. A lovely young woman bought them and wanted more........I'll see if I can get them next week.

Not my reindeer, this beautiful heart shaped climber is actually passion flower, a house near me made it happen, I like seeing it, especially in the summer.

The fig tree on the left, the grapevine in the foreground, before I pruned it. The garden looks very autumn.

Lost and found

autumn and now cold

crab apple

So, today I got outside but the weather has now turned and my hands were freezing! A wonderful shade of mottled red, orange and purple.

They soon warmed up after I planted a few bulbs, I just have a feeling the squirrels will find them before the day is out.

I put out some fat balls for the birds only a couple of days ago, one set of three has already been devoured by those squirrels......so greedy.

This morning I tackled the cupboard under the stairs - its one of those jobs that takes an hour but fester for a year, or in my case, longer. So I threw out stuff that had absolutely no use to me at all, it didn't have any use ten years ago but I would hang on to it. One bag had two old mobile phones that were in pieces and an old walkman, about a hundred mobile phone instruction books - what on earth????

I did come across my first pair of Birkenstocks, sitting unloved and forlorn on top of a paint tray, nursing ten years of dust. They scrubbed up rather well, despite the little hole over my little toe. I loved these birkies, friend of mine in Amsterdam bought them for me when the children were young and I spent so many wonderful holidays with her and her children, either there or here.

I have returned to Friday yoga at Yoga Point, Terry Morin gives a beautiful class, the class is for older bodies and really feels beneficial. I still attend the Ferndale Leisure Centre class on Wednesday and appreciate that both are helping me with my old bones - sometimes I feel so stiff.

Looking forward to giving two facial rejuvenation treatments next week - I am determined to gain confidence and keep pushing on until I make a business for myself, this and the plants are what I love, what makes me happy and I know that if I put in the effort and the positive vibration I will eventually earn a living out of them both. I read this the other day on a yoga instagram that I subscribe to, I believe it.

'the things that excite you are not random. They are connected to your purpose. Follow them.'

Nature, you can't stop it

So, I was walking back from the local shop and spotted this courageous lobelia growing between the kerb and the road, in-between two parked cars!
Creation is a splendid thing, how it gets the nutrients it needs is beyond me but it grows and gives pleasure and I give thanks.

How my garden looks today