ErUpNorth

I don't usually clear my garden until April and sometimes May, I like to leave plants to protect young shoots and provide homes for bugs. But some of my beds are needing a refresh and I wanted to repin a piece of mesh to the fence so that I can tie in clematis (if it comes back) and another rambling plant I have forgotten the name of, so I've been out pulling and pruning today. I've also emptied one compost bin into the larger green one and was quite surprised how well it is actually breaking down, hopefully I'll not need to buy so much potting compost next year.  Goodness only knows what state the brown bin will be in though as I've managed to fill it and we have no more collections until March. I'm also still waiting for shrubs from J. Parkers (http://www.jparkers.co.uk), strawberry plants from Ken Muir Fruit (http://www.kenmuir.co.uk) and veg from Vegetable Plants Direct (http://www.vegetableplantsdirect.co.uk), I'm not very patient and find waiting frust...

Birmingham Symphony Hall On  Friday night I travelled down to my mums with my son, partner and mother in law so that all five of us could squeeze into our Ford Fiesta and travel to Birmingham on Saturday morning. We left at 10 and the roads were clear all the way through, Alan misread the sat nav although me and John heard her right but too late to change lanes. It was just four miles up the road and back down again so no big deal, but roadworks did make navigation to the car park a little more challenging. I'd paid for VIP parking so a place was reserved for us and made life so much easier. When we arrived in the International Conference Centre (ICC) where the Symphony Hall is located John and I went off to get our tickets leaving the other three waiting by the robing area.  When we got back I went to get my robe not realising it was a one-way system through to the photographer, it wasn't really an issue as it was only me booked in for the photo, I just couldn't...

The challenge of cat proofing my garden goes on. The chicken wire is temporary until my plants arrive, that is unless I plant through it? I told the cat I couldn't be responsible for it falling in the water barrel but I have at least made an attempt to stop it sitting there.

This cheeky minx is making a mess of my  beds. I'm waiting for several deliveries, shrubs, vegetables, herbs and strawberries so I'm open to all suggestions of how to keep him/her (I feel him) off the nice clean soil.

and spent over three hours working on the raised bins and being brave with spiders. I have a beehive compost bin I don't use but the spiders do and I needed to move it to re-site the brown bin. I also got the raised beds started ready for the plant arrival, am giving square foot gardening ago.

I got them built and then realised filling them would be an issue due to the siting of our garden. If I'd investigated before having then built by Charleton Fencing I wouldn't have gone ahead. Thankfully I found AA Gardening and Landscape Services, they lined them and filled them for me. Just waiting for plants now.

I did it , I have been granted an Upper Second-class Honours. Never did I expect to even gain a degree when I started my Open University journey in 2007. I cannot remember now how I came to be continuing my education with the OU other than I always say mathematics came to me. I started with a 10 credit openings course and said if I got through it I would consider working towards a Certificate in Mathematics, which I did. I am not good at mathematics or any learning really, I think I have a poor working memory. I understand what people are telling me or what I am reading, but what I cannot do is park that information to recall it and use it. At school my maths teacher would sit with me and go over an example and I would be happy I understood it, he'd say "Now you do the rest", but before he got to the front of the classroom I would have forgotten how I was supposed to do the calculations. So these last 7 years beginning with an Openings then moving onto a Certificate the...