Garden Fairies…

We have spent a few weekend helping out Uncle Tony in his garden with new planting and general maintenance and tidy up. We also spent Mother’s Day helping tidy up of Barbara’s garden which always seems to grow plants more vigorously than anybody else’s. 

Spring Sunshine…

April was a good month for weather and we took advantage of the sunshine be organising a couple of gatherings out on our patio with friends and family. 

Tying the knot…

The wedding of Nick and Sinead in Zante, Greece was a big affair and many of the Poynter clan descended on the island for the celebrations. I unfortunately could not take the time but it looked like everyone enjoyed themselves apart from the unseasonable cold weather that blew through. 

Veggie Garden…

We have made some changes to the planting in the veggie garden by reducing some of the beds (moving the raspberries to a larger plot), improving the composting area, and limiting what we grow. This is because we end up doing more other outdoors activities during summer (holidays and generally out and about) and so cannot devote time to maintaining the crops. A whole bed is given over to potatoes and another to courgettes/pumpkins/squash and cucumbers and the remaining one to onions, beans and various leafy crops. We have a few pots but we won’t plant these until later on in the year when we can manage them better. Hopefully it will be a more successful strategy. 

Zen Garden…

We have redesigned our front garden as we found that over several years the country cottage style we had previously created tended to get out of control with some plants dominating others and where most of the colour and interest was during the spring and early summer that ended up with it looking untidy later in the year. So now we removed a lot of the permanent planting and replaced it with stones and rocks and added plant pots that we can move and change depending on the season. We replaced the rustic fence for a more modern black one that contrasts and accentuates the planting and added a water but, homemade bench, a stone pagoda, and a bonsai tree that sits on a tree-stump stand hand carved by our friend Paul.

Local Charm…

As we were passing through we stopped at Newdigate for lunch at a pub and across the road was the charming church of St Peter with its wooden tower housing the bells well worth a visit if you are in the area.

New Game Smell…

I recently received another new Kickstarter game through the post, this time it was Family Plot by White Cherry Games which is a little like (un)happy families, where you collect your perfectly disturbing family whilst trying to prevent others from doing so. I have not yet got it to the table, but it looks like a bit of a laugh.

Cowpie Country Show...

Paul & Lorraine, Deb, Dave and the boys and Lynda & Mark joined Sue, Deb and I as we visited the Cowpie Country Show. There were a couple large fields surrounded by rural trades, food and drink stalls, craft tents, food halls, livestock on display and many forms of entertainment including a falconer on horseback and a car and bike stunt team. The weather was good and the company enjoyable and it was a very pleasant day

Eye, eye…

I had an operation on my right eyelid to remove a persistent cyst (chalazion) that had started as a stye in December and never went away. I am not a fan of hospitals at all, but at least our country hospital in Dorking has a nicer atmosphere. The whole procedure was quick and (relatively) painless (the most painful part being the anaesthetic injection), but I don’t think I breathed throughout it as I tried not to look at the knife stabbing at my eye. I had an impressive bruise afterwards and a patch for a few hours and garnered a great deal of sympathy from Sue who spoilt her ‘brave little soldier’ for the next few days. 

Fine Dining…

Went out for an evening meal with Jamie and Gia to the Emlyn restaurant at Box Hill after we had seen good reviews and had won awards in the Surrey Magazine. Initially we had hoped to have their taster menu but they had taken that off the menu. They food was good, tasty and well presented, however the experience was let down by poor services (lack of attention, ill-informed, and slow) and the restaurant lacked atmosphere with a couple of larger parties loudly enjoying themselves with a little lack of care for others. It kind of took the shine of the evening.